Thanksgiving 2010

For Thanksgiving this year, we invited my parents and Rob here to spend the weekend.  They arrived on Thursday, just in time for dinner, which was wonderful and we had a great day together.  The next day, we got up bright and early and headed for the train station in Pasco to ride the train to Portland.  We have gone to Portland on the train several times now, but never with Grandma and Grandpa House and Uncle Rob.  The kids love to ride the train; the seats are big, they can get up and walk around as much as they want and they get to go to the dining car and play games and get snacks.  While most of us were riding the train, Jim and Calvin rented an 11 passenger van to drive to Portland so we would have someone to pick us up from the train station and have a car to get around for the weekend.  Plus, Calvin would have been a nightmare on the train.

We got to Portland about 12:30 pm where Jim picked us up and we went to get some lunch.  After lunch, we headed over to OMSI for a few hours.  We had a great time looking at and experiencing all the exhibits.   My parents have never really spent much time in Portland, so this is a place that they had never been to before.  It was a nice way to spend the afternoon.

From there, we went to the hotel to check in, get settled and decide where we wanted to go to dinner.  We went to a place Jim and I used to go when we lived in Portland called Sweet Tomatoes.  It was very yummy!!!  They even brought around freshly baked chocolate chip cookies while we were eating which the kids thought was the best thing in the world.  And, of course, it is their favorite place to eat in Portland now.  After dinner we went back to the hotel and the kids went swimming with Grandma and Rob.

The next morning, we checked out of the hotel and went over to Washington Square Mall for a couple of hours.  Dad needed to get a little bit of time in at Sears while he was there--especially since it is a much bigger Sears than the one in Idaho Falls.  We had a good time just shopping in the mall.  From there, we went to the Portland Temple to walk around a little bit and enjoy it's beauty and peace.  I still love how you are driving up the road that leads to the temple surrounded by trees, then, all of the sudden, there is the temple.  It is so beautiful!

To end our trip to Portland, we went to IKEA on the way out of town.  I love IKEA!   I always end up finding more things than I should to buy there, but I did pretty good this time and only bought a few things.  I actually think my mom bought more than I did this time.  After IKEA, we all piled into the van and headed home.

It was a fun couple of days and a nice break from everyday life.  We had such a great time with Mom, Dad and Rob and I think we will do it again sometime and maybe throw in a couple days at the coast while we're at it.

 On the train...Haden clearly did not want me to take his picture...I totally did anyway! ;-)

 Rob, however, had no problem with me taking his picture...he was a very willing participant.

 Cooper loved this station at OMSI...he could have stayed here all day.

 Calvin spent quite a bit of time stacking these blocks.

 This was Calvin's favorite place in OMSI...the ball room.

Dude, I cannot believe you actually fit in that space capsule!

Lexie with Grandpa and Grandma House. My dad always has to find some kind of sugary treat wherever he goes.  This time, Godiva chocolate.

My six beautiful kids outside the Portland Temple.  This is where it all started 16 years ago!

Cooper's 5th Birthday

Cooper turned 5 on October 3, 2010.  He went to preschool for the first time this year and enjoyed being able to wear the birthday crown during his class and the whole rest of the day.  In fact, I tried to get him to throw it away, but he still wants to keep it.  Very cute!  Cooper is growing up fast and is such a smart and sweet boy.  He knows how to read really well, although I'm not sure how that happened and can't take any credit.  He just started to read the words from the book I was reading one day and we were all amazed.  We had a pretty low key birthday party, but it was fun and he loved being the center of attention and getting to open all his presents. I'm so grateful to have this wonderful boy in our family.  Love you so much Cooper!

Cooper's preschool birthday crown...he wore this crown for quite a few days after his birthday!

We had our party on the deck because the weather was actually really nice.

A Star Wars cake, of course...not quite what I had in mind, but I was late in planning and this is what they had available.

I think he likes it!

Star Wars legos...not a better present than that.

My trip to Philly and New York

In August, I was fortunate enough to be able to make a trip to see Natalie and her family in Philadelphia...ALL BY MYSELF!!!!!  Jim had the week off and was able to stay home with the kids so I could go.  We had a great time together and I hope we will be able to do more sister trips in the future.

I arrived on Monday evening and we headed to Natalie's gym to go to a BodyStep class.  Seems like a really weird thing to do upon just arriving, unless you know me and my obsession with BodyStep and then, it seems perfectly normal. ;-)  Great start to our trip.  We then headed to Natalie's apartment where Taylor had dinner all ready for us when we got there.

On Tuesday, we spent the day in Philadelphia just seeing the sights.  Taylor, Hannah and Maddie came with us until after lunch and then Taylor took them home so Natalie and I could make it to all our attractions a little faster.  After seeing the sights of downtown Philly, including, of course, the Rocky steps, Natalie had an activity at the church for the primary.  We got home from that at about 9:00 pm and then proceeded to plan the next day of activities in New York City.

ROCKY!  And, yes, we did run up the steps just like Rocky!

Elfereth Alley...the shortest inhabited street.

Independence Hall and The Liberty Bell

The Love statue downtown Philly

Me and Benjamin Franklin on the campus of the University of Pennsylvania

The Love statue on the campus of University of Pennsylvania

On Wednesday, we left Philly at 4:30 am to head to New York.  We planned on driving to Staten Island and take the ferry over to Manhattan, but somewhere along the way, our directions led us astray...not me...the directions. ;-)  So, we just drove into Manhattan and parked for the day.  It actually worked out better because we didn't have to worry about getting to the ferry in time to make the last one of the day after our show was over.  New York is awesome!  I loved every bit of our day there.  There was so much to do and we managed to do a lot of it in just one day.  We even got to see Mary Poppins at the end of our day and there is just nothing like Times Square at Midnight.  I wish we could have stayed another day, but now it gives me the opportunity to visit again and take Jim with me.  I think we made it back to Philly at about 2 am.  We were pretty tired, but it was worth it.

The Manhattan Temple

View of Central Park from the Belvedere Castle 

Cheesecake from Carnegie Deli

 Natalie and I waiting for Mary Poppins to begin

After two days of pure running, we decided to just relax on Thursday.  In the after noon, though, Hannah wanted to show me the zoo and all her favorite animals, so we went there for a couple of hours.  The zoo in Philadelphia is really nice.  My favorite part was feeding the Lorikeets...they just sat on our arms and drank their milk out of a little cup we held up to them.  I think Natalie had three of them on her arm at once.  Very fun.

The Lorikeets

Hannah was pretty excited about feeding the Lorikeets.

These are the two cutest monkeys I have ever seen!

Friday, Natalie and I went to the BodyPump/Step combo class that she goes to every week at the YMCA.  Loved it!  It was 1 1/2 hours of exercise at it's best.  As you can see, I'm a bit of an exercise nut and pump and step are definitely my favorite classes.  In fact, and don't tell my husband this, I booked a later flight so that I could go to this class because Natalie raves about it.  We went downtown around lunch time that day so that I could try the famous Philly cheese steaks at Pat's and Geno's.  These two places are right across the street from each other and have been featured on various food shows, so, in honor of Jim, I had to try both and see which one I liked the best.  From there, it was almost time for me to head to the airport, but Natalie had to have me try one more Philadelphia treat...water ice or Italian ice.  It was sort of like a slurpee, but thicker and not as good.  I would take a slurpee over a water ice any day, but I just had to try it once.

This was a wonderful trip and I'm so glad I was able to spend this time with Natalie, Taylor, Hannah and Maddie.