Portland, Day 2...

When we travel, Garrett loves to find good places to eat. He actually will do research and watch the Food Network. Coincidentally, they always showcase the city we're heading to.  

We woke up early and headed to breakfast with Uncle Brandon and the Reyes family. 

Got the "mancakes" that he wanted

 

Goofballs!

So the reason we took a quick trip to Portland was for a good college friend's wedding. 

 

 

It was at a location called Bridal Lake; beautiful day!

 

Love this picture of these two!

 

Remembered to take a family picture!

 

Lots of open space to run around!

 More of the goofballs

 

Congrats Derek and Laura. College roomies- just missing Darin! :(

 

Oregon sunset... not bad! :)

Thank you Uncle Cisco and Aunty Kaui for taking Cade on the canoe with you guys!

Sparkler send off!

Weekend trip to Portland...

Since we're on a week break from school, time to update the blog! 

We took a short trip to Portand for a wedding in August. I know... I'm behind in posts!

Surprise travel bags for their trip so THEY can carry their own toys!

 

On our flight from Maui to Oahu, Kenny sat next to a pilot (and talked his poor ear off!). Low and behold he was gonna be flying our plane to Portland! He invited us to go see the cockpit when we boarded our plane. The kids were thrilled!

 

Kenny and Daddy sleeping... Cade stayed up the entire flight! I'm so proud at how well they travel!

 

The next day we headed to old stomping grounds to visit and meet up with my former student who is going to be a Senior. It was fun to see how much the campus has changed. The kids liked chasing after the squirrels.

 

Our old apartment

 

We wanted to take the kids to a peach farm. We found one near the TLC family that grows pumpkins.

 

Yummy peaches! 

 

These were Veteran peaches. SOOOO DELICIOUS! We usually like white peaches, but these were juicy light yellow ones that had amazing flavor. We had to limit how much the kids picked because we knew we couldn't eat them all!

 

We promised the kids we would ride the public transportation, called the MAX. It's a light rail train that travels into the city. 

 

Thank goodness for THE BEST tour guide: Aunty Lori! Kenny is her "mini me"- they're two peas in a pod!

 

Our friends from intermediate school own a food truck in Portland. We were amazed at how many different food trucks were on one vacant city block. 

 

Kenny opted for grilled cheese!

 

We hopped back on the MAX and tried to go to Voo doo donut. The line was WAY TOO long, so we'll have to go back on our next trip. :(

 

This was the first trip that we didn't bring a stroller! The kids were tired by this point in the day, so we opted to rent a double stroller. Boy was it a good decision...

 

especially since Aunty Lori needed to use it too! 

 

This little penguin kept following Cade's finger. I'll have to try post the video because it was so neat! 

 

Kenny posing with the sea otter.

 

Goof balls with Aunty Lori

 

Dinner with the Reyes family! 

Vegas mini honeymoon...

The main reason we went to Vegas was for our friends' wedding. We were lucky that our moms offered to watch the kids so we could go alone. Sort of our mini honeymoon we never had!

 

Here's a funny story... we stayed at the MGM Grand, where the wedding was gonna be. The night before the wedding, we stayed out late, but not too late. Of course, having no kids, and black out curtains in the hotel, we got to sleep in! Thursday morning, we got ready and rushed downstairs to the wedding... 30 min early! Ok... so we thought we knew where the wedding chapel was. If you've never been to MGM, it's HUGE! I left it up to Garrett to know where he was going (DUH, my mistake!). Of course... we headed in the complete opposite direction. I kept asking people and they kept pointing different ways. As we are running through the casino... my sandal breaks! Good thing I could run up to the room! Needless to say, we found the chapel as Nicole was walking down. So, everyone got to see us donkeys walk in late. BOO!

 

Congrats Brad and Nicole!

 

After the wedding we went SHOPPING! Garrett was a trooper while we shop, shop, shopped!

 

Dinner at In-N-out was his reward for shopping. He had a 3x3 (3 patties), while I protein style (no bun). Animal style and regular fries on the side. YUM!

 

He claims next time he's gonna do the 4x4 (4 patties)

 

Thanks to social media, we realized our friend from Pacific was in town! Whoo hoo! We met him at M&M, then walked to Paris with him. Doesn't look far... but in heels it was! Plus it was HOT: still in the 80's at night! PHEW!

 

Friday was another day of shopping. I worked out great: Nicole and I went to the outlets, while Brad and Garrett went to Bass Pro. Win-win!

That night we met up with our friend Marianne for Jabbawockeez!

 

 

I promised G we would do the roller coaster. We did it several years ago, and haven't had a chance to go back.

 

 

 I survived!

We checked out the new Hershey's store.

 

Garrett's dinner

 

Personalized chocolate bar

We gambled downtown Friday night and got home as the sun was rising! EEECCCKK!!! Haven't done that in years!

Saturday we met up with Brad and Nicole and took them to Bachi burger- a place we saw on the Food Network. 

 

Yummy fries

 

Garrett's burger. 

My stomach wasn't too happy with me, so I didn't get to indulge in their famous burgers. :(

 

Bellagio 

We braved the sweltering heat and walked across to Caesar's Palace... 

 

and saw this football legend! G was pretty excited. I can only imagine how he'd act if it was his favorite: Marshall Faulk. Watch out!

Sadly, we didn't win our millions... so back to work. :(