Trip to Portland

We went to Portland this past weekend for the long weekend (Bill and I had MLK Holiday off from work) to visit Bill's sisters Holly and Heidi and their families. I got tickets a few months ago on Southwest for $121 per round trip - I love Southwest!

We arrived on Friday night after an uneventful flight. Both kids stayed awake for the whole flight, but behaved very well. But by the time we got our car rental, installed the seats and drove the short 15-20 minute ride from the Portland airport to the Holiday Inn Suites in Vancouver Washington, it was around 9:45 PM Pacific. As we got to our hotel room, Mason said "I want to go home". Ha! We said "this is home for a few days." Both kids were exhausted passed their bed times and so were we, we all went straight to bed.

The kids woke up around their usual times, giving us no break from the previous long night. We got ready and killed some time at the hotel before calling Heidi. For those who don't know, Heidi and Holly (twin sisters) live in houses back to back from each other with a gate on the fence in their backyards for easy access. We call it "The Rhodes Bolte Ranch".

We called Heidi and she told us to head over. She was going to jump in the shower and leave the door unlocked for us. Greg was going to the store to pick up breakfast items. I had printed out directions from the hotel to the Ranch, but once we arrived, I noticed we were at Holly's house. We suspected they were all still asleep, so we decided to drive to the next street to reach Heidi's house. We didn't have her address handy, but we had been to Heidi's a few times and it has been a few years since our last visit. We parked, unloaded the kids and saw that the light was on. I reached the front door first, with Audrey in my arms, admiring the new draperies on the front window. The door was unlocked as Heidi said and music was playing inside. As I opened the door and glanced around the living room admiring more new furniture and decor, I realized to my horror that we were at the wrong house!! I gasped and closed the door before I saw anyone or anyone could see me. I turned around and started to walk down to street as if the police was called on me, and as I passed Bill I said "This is the wrong house!". Bill was calm and collected as he called Greg and asked for their house number. He was still laughing and talking on the phone and Mason playing on wrong house's driveway as I was probably 3 houses down the street, yelling at him to get out of there. It turns out we were 2 houses off. It turns out these neighbors were also early risers and don't lock their doors.

After recovering from the shock of walking into a stranger's house, we had a great visit. Mason just couldn't have enough of his cousins: Haylie (12), Candler (10), Ben (15), Nikki (17) and Tommy (14). He played with Haylie most of all. Haylie asked him "Who is your favorite cousin", and without hesitation Mason pointed and said "Ben". Haylie repeated the question, assuming he obviously didn't understand it the first time around. He still said Ben. Haylie kept asking "Who is your favorite cousin" for the next day hoping to hear the answer she wanted, I am not sure if she did. Mason loved all his cousins and playing with them. Each night he would be so upset about leaving, and on the final day he wouldn't even say proper goodbyes.

Audrey had a great time in each of her uncles and aunts arms. She did take a few small knocks on the head as she is trying to get more mobile. She has finally figured out how to crawl forward, although she much rather just go from crawling to sitting or standing.

We went to church and the OMSI on Sunday, and there we met our friend Christi (who used to live in Denver) and her husband Alan. Bill fixed about 4-5 computer issues at the Ranch. I enjoyed a few trips to the store with John, Greg and Holly. We had some burgers at the Burgerville and had some homemade beignets for us on Monday morning (delicious!) - don't tell our trainer. It rain every day and it was gray the whole time (the Sun made a brief appearance on Monday before we left). It was a fantastic visit and we are thinking about making it an yearly trip to Portland around MLK weekend. Next time, I won't bother to take my sunglasses.

Pictures of the cousins professionally taken by Greg to come shortly. For now, here are some we took: