Oregon Trip!

TUESDAY: We flew out of Salt Lake on the 8:20 direct flight to Portland. Of course we stayed up too late the night before packing and getting ready and then we had an early morning, but it worked out great since Carter slept pretty much the whole way to Oregon.
Jen lucky picked us up since Mark thought we were coming in at 9:30 pm instead of am. It all worked out though and it felt wonderful to be back in Oregon. The last time we were here was right before we got engaged! It is such a beautiful and green place, and it wasn't raining yet so it was perfect.
Once we got to Mark & Jen's beautiful home, we had some lunch that Josie & Carter thoroughly enjoyed. Belle was cute because she had to have 4 different dipping sauces on her plate for the chicken nuggets. The rest of the day we pretty much just hung out and played with the kids. Jen did take Christina on the Twilight tour since Bella's house and a few other scenes were filmed right there in St. Helens.
Mark & Jen have a BEAUTIFUL home. We have seen pictures, but we had not seen the house yet since the shop was pretty much all that was completed 4 years ago. They did almost all of the work inside and out themselves so it's pretty impressive.


Carter thoroughly enjoyed playing outside. Mark is trying to clear some space in the back, so it was perfect play place for a little boy. :-) They have an outside cat that loved to follow him around. They also had a 4-wheeler that Mike enjoyed just as much as Carter. They took it out anytime it wasn't raining.

Later that night we enjoyed yet another yummy meal and then it was bath time for the girls and Carter! It was quite the full tub, but they were all so adorable!

Calvin thought it was pretty fun to come and tease the wet kids, but it thought he could miss the camera...he's too slow! ;-) Calvin and Carter actually ended up both wearing dinosaur pjs so we tried to get a good shot of them together, but Carter was distracted by all the new surroundings.

It was so fun to see Carter playing with all his cousins. He warmed up pretty quick to the kids at least, and they were all so good to take care of him and play with him. Josie didn't really like to share any toys with him, but Carter also learned quick not to make too big of a deal out of it since Josie could eat him alive. ;-) There were 3 toys that Carter LOVED. There was a dancing Halloween tree that he couldn't get enough of, a toy vacuum, and the kid rocking chair.

We all thoroughly enjoyed the many toys that the Habel home had to offer, and Carter thought air hockey was hilarious!

WEDNESDAY

We were able to go and spend sometime in Portland on 23rd street. We went to this fantastic Chinese place called The Red Onion. We couldn't believe how delicious everything tasted. Carter was good to just dive right in. They had this dish (on the left) that was called Flaming Volcano, and even though the picture doesn't capture it when they brought out the dish there was a flame coming through the top of it. We also got dinner sizes of Pad Thai and a Green Curry, but we didn't end up needing any doggy bags. :-)

After stuffing ourselves way past full we continued up 23rd street and enjoyed all the quaint shops. We were surprised to find a boutique called 3 Monkeys, which is so ironic since we're planning to be a monkey family for Halloween in two weeks.

After a beautiful walk we headed back to the Suburban, loaded up the kids, and went back to St. Helens just in time for the other kids to get back from school. Mike filmed the kids telling stories and dancing, and they thought that was a riot! Unfortunately a funny story by Caleb is too long to post on the blog, but we do have a Calvin specialty dance for you to enjoy. Oh how these videos may be considered for blackmail when they're older. ;-)

THURSDAY

This was our spend time with Ginger day and go to the coast. It was a long drive through some rainstorms, but well worth the trip. Carter did pretty good, especially if he had something electronic to play with. We think that he remembered Ginger from our previous trip to Nebraska a few months back because he warmed up pretty quick to her.

CAMP 18

After oohing and awing over Ginger's great townhouse, we hopped in the borrowed Suburban and headed for a fantastic eater on our way to the coast. Camp 18 has a wonderful atmosphere inside and out with old vehicles and logging equipment and amazing comfort food.



Camp 18 is probably most famous for their HUMONGOUS cinnamon rolls. Mark usually would just get a cinnamon roll and a plate of bacon for his meal. On top of the cinnamon roll we ordered some biscuits and gravy and a gigantic meaty omelet.
All of the food was divine, and Carter definitely loved it too. Especially the apple butter packets.

Outside they had a ton of old logging equipment and huge logs since this use to be a main logging field. They had a memorial building for all the loggers who died on the job.



Carter has discovered that he LOVES mints. Whenever we have something in his mouth he pulls on us until he can see it and then he'll take it for himself. It might be disgusting to some, but to his parents it's absolutely adorable.

Around the back, there is a stream surrounded in green. Christina even spotted a elephant on the other side (2nd pic down on left). Carter of course loved the water and throwing rocks into the stream. He was very disappointed that we left, but we just reassured him that we were going to play in a lot of water soon.

We took a picture of these ladies because they were our photographers for our pictures. They were absolutely adorable and come to find out they were deaf as well. Plus, there was a whole herd of them dressed very similar in pink, red, and purple with bright smiles so how could they not make us happy. :-)

THE COAST

We finally arrived at the coast in Cannon Beach, and of course our little man feel asleep. So luckily Ginger has a good friend that has a cabin practically across the street from the beach that we were able to find a stroller. Carter was so out of it that he didn't even stir. It was a short walk and a quite a few stairs down, but we finally made it to Haystack Rock. It was amazing!!

We lucked out with perfect cloudy, yet not cold weather, as well as a low tide. It gave us the opportunity to see the thousands of sea anemones and barnacles. They were every where and hard not to step on. The rocks sounded like they were hissing when you got close to them because the barnacles were closing up since they could sense us. It was wild!

Mike was definitely more brave than Christina about touching these slimy, wet, sea critters.

Daddy time
Carter finally woke up after about 15 minutes of exploring on the coast. It took him awhile to warm up to the drastic change of what he's use to, but by the end he was loving every sandy, wet moment of it. The water was ICY cold, but you really do get kind of use to it after awhile.
Once Mike started digging holes in the sand, Carter was intrigued but not ready to feel the wet sand in his toes.

But after a little while longer he was loving it!

Not to bad for a first time, huh? ;-)
Have you ever touched a starfish? They are as hard as a rock!
Family time. The beach was absolutely wonderful! We had so much fun and we'll cherish the memories forever. Thanks to Ginger for being a fantastic photographer and videographer for us.





After we wore ourselves out at the beach we headed back to the friends house and tried to de-sand ourselves. Then we headed to the town and tried to get some candy called sea foam, but we were too late! We walked up to the candy store right around 5:00 and they switched the sign to close without looking at us. We were so sad that we missed out on trying some, but maybe Ginger will send some to us if we're lucky. :-)

FRIDAY
This day was going to Costco with 3 kids for the Fall Festival in the pouring rain. Jen is the activities chair person for her ward and their Fall Festival was the day that we were leaving, so she was super nice to say yes for us to come even though she had her hands full. Mike was an awesome uncle and dad and took the 2 little ones to play, while Jen and Christina each took a flat cart and loaded 24 pies, 4 bags of salad, 4 bottles of ranch, 3 bags of cheese, cool whip and a whole lot more to feed the 250 to 300 people. We got some intrigued looks as to where all the yummy food was going to, and one lady even invited herself! She said that it would be fun since she is "church shopping" right now. Jen told her when and where so we'll see!

After we dropped off the as much food as would fit at the church we went back into the rain to go enjoy our last evening with the family. We really loved spending time with everyone, and it is such a beautiful area. Mark even let us shoot his new assault rifle. It had a big bang!

Carter really thought that dinner was delicious! He enjoyed helping with the dishes!

SATURDAY
On our way to the airport we actually were first upon a single car accident of a high school girl. She was bleeding from her head as she waved us down. We pulled over and immediately called 911. Mike and Jen were wonderful as they helped care for her and calm her down. Jen just happened to have a bright white towel in her car that we used to wrap her head in. We stayed with her until the paramedics came, and Mike even offered to give her a Priesthood blessing. She accepted and it was simple yet powerful prayer that we think left a mark on her and her dad who had come upon the scene. We were grateful that we were there to help, but in doing so we were late for our flight. Jen of course had a busy day ahead of her so she dropped us off and we headed to the light rail to go shopping. We thought we got off on the right stop to go to Ikea, but we realized that we were off by about a mile, and it was POURING rain!! We ran into Target already soaking through and decided to buy an umbrella at the outrageous cost of $15. We had to have some type of coverage though, especially with Carter, although he could care less. So after we bought it we headed back out into the rain and trudge our way to Ikea with a carry on bag, diaper bag, and a 22 pound boy with no stroller. Crazy, we know now, but we had a few hours to kill so we thought an adventure would be more fun. Christina of course was "smart" and put her coat into the check on luggage since when we got to the airport the sun was shinning bright for the first time all week. Plus she was wearing flip flops since she was just going to be traveling today. :-) Anyway, needless to say Christina was soaking wet and cold by the time we stepped into Ikea. There was not a dry spot on her body, even with the umbrella.

Anyway, after we ate some lunch and explored there for awhile before we headed back on the correct light rail, and watched some videos while Carter was being HILARIOUS! We went to remote part of the airport and Carter was just entertaining himself, when he discovered that he could scoot along the floor.

He also discovered how awesome the walk way is. He wore himself out pretty good because he slept most of the way back to Utah. Even though it was later than we wanted to get back home, we're glad we were there to help the girl in the accident. Thanks Mark, Jen, Ginger, and the kids for a fantastic vacation!! We love you tons!