Oregon

 

 The Howard family made the trek out to Oregon to Visit Marci and her family.  We kept it a secret and didn't tell the kids until we showed up at the airport very early in the morning. 

Nothing hypnotizes kids quite like a tv show consisting of people in shiny suits trying to fit through human shaped cutouts in moving foam walls while avoiding being pushed into a pool of water.

 

After landing we spent the day in Portland before heading to our hotel in Eugene.  More accurately, we spent the day in Powell's Books, a really awesome bookstore.  The next day Marci and Brandon took us out to the coast. 

Ethan and Joanna made the trek to the top of the Yaquina Head lighthouse.

Matt was on the lookout for new birds to see and mark off in his book.

The girls were very excited to see green grass and made good use of it.

Down below the lighthouse was a sheltered little cove where seals were sunbathing.

The kids did some beach combing and wave chasing.

We had dinner in Newport and saw some sea lions on the docks.   Ethan heard them barking "ohr, ohr" and came up with the joke "how does a sea lion make decisions?  He asks, should I spend my money "ohr" save it.  Clever kid.

A little farther down the coast we walked around some tide pools as the sun was setting.

 

 

more sleepy seals

 The next day we did Eugene. 

After a morning at an awesome park we headed to Voodoo Doughnuts.
Ethan got one covered in marshmallow with bubble gum, Ginny went with sprinkles, and Joanna got one the size of her head. 

Slowly but surely she nibbled away at it.

Realizing she wasn't going to stop herself we convinced her to save some for later.

We walked around the University of Oregon campus, visited parks and the library, and swam in the pool a lot.  We went to church with Marci and Brandon in the spanish speaking branch and had awesome burritos at their friends' resteraunt where there was also a lot of spanish spoken.  Add that to the fact the Brandon only speaks to Rocky in Spanish and Ethan came away from the trip thinking everyone in Oregon only speaks spanish

 It was an amazing five days.