Weekend before we leave

We left Washington Friday night after Dwayne got home from work. After the decision was made to head down to my mom's before we had to leave on Monday I was anxious and ready to go. I did my best to have the house clean and things ready to be packed but the kids were a little demanding of my time and attention because they were so bored. I kept popping in various movies into the laptop but they were anxious because the house was empty and they didn't have their things. Despite the distractions I managed to get the place cleaned up. Our things weren't exactly packed well though. Somehow, Dwayne and I squeezed everything into every little nook and cranny in the van. If we had gotten in an accident it would have been really bad with stuff everywhere. Luckily, God was with us and the trip down to Oregon was uneventful.

Saturday was pretty decent weather for an Oregon winter so we decided to visit the Portland Children's museum. In all the years we had lived there we never visited. We all thought the kids were at the perfect age to enjoy it finally and so we loaded up and went. Because of the boys' enjoyment of trains we decided to take the Max up to the zoo and avoid all the parking hassels. They thought that was great fun and fascinated the whole time. Especially going through the "big tunnel." Of course, walking by the train at the Forestry center required a stop so the kids and Aiden especially could get on it.

Inside the Children's museum was a stage where children could put on performances and pretend they are in a play. Sam found a couple of drums, parked himself front and center and played and sang away for a good 10 minutes. He would have kept on too if I hadn't forced him to move on to something else.

We then checked out a large train set that had the boys fascinated. Luckily, nearby was a pretend bus that kept Evie busy while she drove Daddy to school. The kids spent the most time though in a large dig pit. It consisted of chopped up sponge plastic pieces. Kind of like the bottoms of shoes. They dug and dug and dug while all the parents just sat around relaxing, just relieved the kids were busy and we didn't have to eyeball them so hard or chase after them. Every parent in the area had the "phew" look on their faces.

Sunday we went to visit Dwayne's grandma and saw Dianne again one last time. We then completely emptied the van and repacked everything the way it should have been done in the first place. We were still extremely full but at least not bursting at the seams as much as before. By the time this was all done I was getting anxious to get on the road. Especially knowing that Mom and Melody get up so early for work. I didn't want to prolong the goodbyes and make them late and deal with cranky kids who got woken up to early. So we decided to leave about 5pm Sunday night. My idea was to get a hotel in Troutdale so we could avoid the Portland Monday morning work traffic. We made such good time though that we went all the way to Hood River and stayed at the Columbia Gorge Hotel. I had heard a lot of good things about it and I'm very happy to say I was able to stay a night there. To be continued........