Portland

Mum and dad arrived last night and to help them with the jet lag we had planned a full day down in Portland! I wasn't too sure that dad really wanted to go, but we dragged him along anyway. We started off down at Multnomah Falls. We just made it as far as the first bridge this time. I think that one hike to the top was enough for the year and I'm not sure that dad's hip would have made it either.

The Falls

Spense and Thomas weren't in this picture since Thomas had a huge melt down when he got out of the car because it was a little colder than expected and he was wearing shorts. Luckily, he finally decided to join us.

Olivia insisted on having a picture by herself

Zach scared me the whole walk up because he wanted

to walk close to the edge on a very slippery path

Mum and dad at the Falls

After our short stop we drove into Portland and visited Elephant's Deli. For some people food couldn't come soon enough (yes that was you mum. She always seems to be hungry when she is here!) We had a nice lunch together.

We then drove up to see the rose garden in Washington Park. I was a little nervous about how nice the roses would still look good, but since some of my roses have started to re-bloom (and these roses are actually taken care of by people who know what they're doing) I figured that we would probably be OK. Luckily, they didn't disappoint.

Olivia enjoyed going around and smelling all the roses. These are 'beautiful' she would say. She did become a little hesitant about smelling though, when Grandpa pushed Grandma into a rose bush as she did the same thing, and so she would turn her back to smell anything if Grandpa was close by. That naughty Grandpa!

Grandma, Thomas and Olivia

(The picture is a little washed out, but I like it)

Some of the beautiful roses we got to enjoy

A nice man took this picture of all of us amongst the roses

Grandma and Grandpa with Olivia under the rose arch

Grandma joined in all the smelling that was going on

Portland - the City of Roses

Grandma and Olivia loved smelling the roses together

Thomas playing in the water feature

Zach ran into a couple of puddles and then wanted to take his shoes off. I dried up his feet, but he refused to put his sandals back on. I figured that I was never going to win that fight and so let him walk bare footed. Maybe if he got a rose thorn stuck in there he would learn right?! I am sure that people thought that I was one of the worst mothers I had ever seen, but what can you do?

Before we headed out we dropped by Cupcake Jones to pick up some cupcakes.

Zach thought that they were very yummy

We did head up to 23rd Ave before we left to look in a few stores, but by that time everyone was pretty much. I found a duvet cover in Restoration Hardware that I really liked and since I have been looking for a new one forever now Spense said that I just needed to buy it. That was before we saw that it was $250. I will just keep looking! Grandpa and Thomas were happy when they finally got to just climb into the back row and go to sleep. They had been talking about doing that all day long.