THIS POST IS WAY OVERDUE - FROM 2011 - BUT AT LEAST THERE ARE LOTS OF PICTURES.
May 1 was Adam's birthday. He is two years away from turning 40, which always seemed so old. But I would never call Adam old. He is more energetic than I am and always up for fun. Which is why I gave him a membership to the "Date of the Month Club". I totally stole this idea from an old friend in Idaho Falls. I made up a list of "out-and-about" dates and "stay-at-home" dates and he got to choose one from each list for each month. I hope it turns out to be a lot of fun. I sure had fun coming up with the date ideas. We also went out for Chinese for his birthday. Yummy! I'll let you know how the dates go.
For Easter (yeah, I know that was in April) we went to Boise. Adam's parents had to leave last minute due to a family illness back east, so we had the house to ourselves. As soon as we got there we had a babysitter set up so that I could take Adam SHOPPING!! This was part of his birthday. We went to Jos A Bank and picked out three suits (he hasn't bought a new suit since his mission). Then we went to Macy's, where after about an hour, he picked out two new pairs of dress shoes. You should have seen me doing the happy dance. He has not bought a new pair of dress shoes since we have been married and has been wearing these HUGE CLUNKY brown shoes for the past five years. Yes, even with suits! I hated those shoes (as did everyone else). We ceremoniously threw them away in the mall trash can. I wanted to burn them, but I think the mall cops would have frowned on that.
We spent some good time with Adam's siblings. Here we are decorating easter eggs. Phin took his egg dying very seriously as you can tell.
On the way home we stopped in Baker City. They had this great restaurant with a train that went around and around the restaurant while you ate. The boys were enthralled.
Here it is going right by our table.
Then we went to the Oregon Trail Interpretive Center. It was really cool. They had a life size diorama of people on the Oregon Trail. Man, it looked miserable. They said that every day someone (or multiple someones) died in each wagon train. They also talked about how the oxen became dear pets and companions to the families. They worked harder than anyone, pulling the wagons along the trail. I didn't realize this, but apparently, the Oregon Trail was littered with old stoves, crates, family heirlooms, etc. People had overpacked and eventually had to throw stuff out. The boys loved the children's room where they had a life size wagon with big foam shapes labeled with "Flour 80 lbs." or "Cooking Oil 50 lbs.", and you could pack the wagon, seeing if you could get everything in within your weight limit of 1200 pounds. The boys insisted that the 15 pounds of toys was an absolute necessity and had to be on the wagon.
Spencer got tired of loading the wagon, so he "unloaded" my purse.
Then we walked on a remnant of the real Oregon trail. The boys and I thought it was pretty cool. Adam wasn't so impressed.
This is his not so impressed face.
Colin had surgery on May 6. Everything went fine and he was a trooper, not even crying when the doctors took him away to the operating room. They said he just laid on the table and looked somberly at all of the doctors until they put the little mask on him to put him to sleep. He came home with a three inch inscision on the underside of his belly. They gave me some codine for him, but he seemed to do fine with just Tylenol. One thing we noticed is that he was a very content baby for the next couple of days. Maybe it was the anesthesia still wearing off, but he was just mellow as could be the whole weekend.
Here he is with George who got sick that weekend. Strep throat -- and when he gets it, he's got it for like 6 weeks, I swear!
Luckily, Adam was able to keep the other kids happy with puzzles and games. Here Phin shows off his 100 piece Marvel comics puzzle that he did the majority of by himself.
We were also able to buzz by the Safety Fair at the local hospital, and lucky for us we did. Colin won the grand prize -- a new bike. George of course benefited from this. Here he is showing of his new bike. Pretty sweet ride!
The other boys wanted to show off their rides as well. If you notice a funny expression on Spencer's face in any picture it's because he is either saying "Cheese" or "Let me see the picture!"
Then came our trip to Portland. We stopped at Maltnomah Falls about 40 minutes outside of the city. It was awesome. And yes, we hiked all the way to the top.
In Portland we stayed at the Marriott Residence Inn and it was awesome. We had a two bedroom suite. The boys all stayed in one bedroom, downstairs, and Adam and Colin and I stayed in the room upstairs. Two separate bathrooms, two separate TVs. It was great. The first night we tried to have all three sleep in the queen bed together. At around 2 am Spencer is upside down almost falling off the bed and George is complaining, "They're squishing me!" We smarted up right quick and had Spencer sleep in the pack-n-play after that.
Adam had a prep class Friday thru Sunday and then the Industrial Hygienist conference Monday thru Thursday. So, it was either brave the city with four boys by myself or sit in the hotel room and watch Cartoon Network all day. The boys would have been delighted with the second choice, but I made them leave the room and get out to see the sights.
The Zoo
Only lost Phineas for about three minutes. They loved the big sand box near the sea lion tank. We saw most of the animals, but missed the big cats and the "Northwest Forest" portion of the zoo. By three o'clock we were all beat.
Near the zoo is a big playground. Let's just say it looked a lot closer on the map. We rode the train everywhere and I thought it would be easy as pie to make it from the MET station to the playground. Um, no, it's 3.5 miles over a hill to the playground. We did a little hiking, thinking "one of these paths has got to go to the playground", but ended up taking the bus. Thank goodness for nice bus drivers and other passengers who help the lady with a kid strapped to her back and a double stroller full of crap and three other kids onto the bus.
Portland Museum of Art
On Sunday we went to church where I saw an old friend from college. He's now a big wig pediatric cardiologist who is starting a fellowship in pediatric anesthesia in Boston next month. He says when he is done he will work with pediatric critical care cardiac patients. "All my patients will be knocked out with tubes and wires." "That would be really hard," I told him. "But you won't have to deal with any crying."
"Nope," he said, "if they can cry they are too healthy to be in my unit, so I get to kick them out."
Now I have a pediatrician on call that I can ask all my paranoid mom questions. Fantastic!
After church we went to the Portland Art Museum where they have family tours on Sunday afternoons. Which was great except for the fact that the tour guide did not seem to notice that I had four children, two of which were in a huge double stroller. So when she said - "We are going to take a little walk" and George stayed with the group and I took the elevator with the other boys - we got separated and I had a breakdown. George was fine and security was great putting out a sort of APB on the lost six year old. I kept telling them that he was with the family tour group, but no one seemed to know where that was. Luckily, one of the other parents noticed that we had been lost and came back to find me. Yes, I will be writing a letter. The staff was great, but HELLO, if it's a family tour and there's even one stroller, you need to take the elevator!
The Children's Museum
There is an old train that sits near the Children's Museum called Peggy. She actually was used to haul thousand of pounds of logs out of the forests of Oregon in her day. Phin and Spencer were thrilled because they LOVE trains. Spencer kept wanting to go see Peggy after that. The Children's Museum itself was tons of fun and even after four hours the boys were NOT ready to leave. It was closing and I literally had to drag Phin and Spencer out and strap them into the stroller so they couldn't bolt back inside and stowaway somewhere.
OMSI (twice)
Mostly I love it because it was free due to our membership at our local science museum. But the boys adored the science playground. It's designed for kids from birth to age 6, so it was a perfect fit for our family. We also ventured into the life sciences part of the museum where they had a bunch of displays on nanotechnology and human development in the womb. Spencer sat for about 20 minutes watching the same video about nanotechnology about 7 times, in Spanish. Phin was intrigued by the book that showed illustrations of a C-section and was forever asking me if that was how Colin was born. I tried to explain that not all babies are cut out, that most mommies push the baby out. He just didn't get it. George loved the design center downstairs and the dancing lights made everyone happy and exhausted for the end of the day.
IKEA and The Container Store
When Adam would get done with his conferencing we would take the time to go and do things we wanted to do. We visited IKEA twice. L-O-V-E, love this store. They need one in Boise. Then Adam was kind enough to humor me and go to the Container Store, but after IKEA, everything just seemed so overpriced. I think he only really agreed because there was an Apple store in the same mall and we got to go check out a new computer.
Jamison Square
On Wednesday we went to OMSI in the morning and then took advantage of the warm weather and went to Jamison Square where they have this huge fountain that the kids could play in. We first had lunch at Cha Cha Cha (delicious) and then ice cream from Cool Moon Ice Cream (Salty Caramel - yummy). The boys had a blast playing in the water. At one point I saw Phin pouring water down the back of some lady who was bending over to help her kid. How embarrassing! She insisted that it was fine, but that water bottle took a quick trip to the garbage can so as not to cause any more mischief.
The Beach
My camera died on Thursday so I don't have any pictures of the beach. We first stopped by the Tillamook Cheese Factory and bought some squeaky cheese, took the self guided tour, and helped ourselves to the free samples. Then we stopped at Barview Jetty (recommended by someone I met at OMSI). I haven't been to the beach in years and the boys have never been, so the unpredictableness (is that a word?) of the ocean caught us all by surprise. Within ten minutes both Spencer and Phin had been knocked down by the waves coming in, getting completely soaked. Luckily, I had brought extra clothes. "This was a bad choice, Mom," George insisted. "The beach is not fun and I want to go home." I told him just to wait and see when we found a "beach" that was a beach. The jetty beach was about 50 yards from bank to waters edge, not a lot of play room. So we drove up the coast to Rockaway Beach and it was perfect. No wind, lots of room to run and play and search for seashells and cool rocks, tons of wet and dry sand, and no need to go anywhere near the water. And if we ever did get anywhere near the water, Spencer would grab my had and say, "Run, Mom. The big water is going to get you!" I just sat in the sand with Colin asleep on my chest and enjoyed the warm sun, slight breeze and the roar of the waves. It was the best day yet!
Japanese Gardens
On Friday we were able to go out as a family. Adam wanted to see Washington Park, so we drove over that way after checking out of our hotel. I bid a sad goodbye to the breakfast bar where someone else had made my delicious waffles and egg and sausage biscuits every morning. Sniff, sniff.
In the park we walked around the Rose Test Gardens. Not much to see since the roses were not in bloom, but still very impressive. Then we went to the Japanese garden. It was awesome and so peaceful. Did I mention my camera battery had died. Dang it!
Before leaving we ate at Mother's Bistro and it was so good. Everything homemade and reasonably priced. Great comfort food.
Some other highlights from Portland:
- I must have heard "Four boys! Man, you have your hands full," at least seven times a day. Yeah, now can you open the door for me?
- The train and streetcar were awesome. We only drove to OMSI, but everywhere else was totally accessible by mass transit.
- The Saturday Market would have been fun if (1) I had a little girl to shop for (2) I didn't have four boys with me who do not enjoy shopping (3) it hadn't been the "Doggie Dash" - everything smelled like dog poo.
- I was amazed that I was able to go to a sit down restaurant with all four boys and eat without anyone spilling any water, or crying or falling off their chair or generally having any sort of breakdown. I even nursed Colin while the rest of us ate. It was absolutely amazing!
- When Phineas said, totally unprompted and totally sincere, "Mom, thanks for bringing us to the zoo."
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