Portland

Tiff and I bought airline tickets to go up for Caleb's farewell before the date got changed and dad was going up to see Jacob be ordained to the priesthood.  Dad bought his tickets later, but ended up on the same row as us both ways.  It was fun to get away with my dad and my sister!

We flew in late Friday night. Tiff and I stayed up way too late visiting with Gary and Julie, but it was so much fun.  I love just talking and laughing together.  On Saturday we went downtown.  It was Jacob's birthday and he was such a good sport about spending the day doing things he wouldn't have picked.  I love having this time to just be an aunt and not worry about being a mom.

We walked around the Willamette river.

I love all of the bridges downtown.  We walked across the steel bridge and then we had to rush back because it was raising up to let a boat pass.

After we walked around the water a little bit we walked over to some food trucks for lunch.  They had a lot of good options.  We ate our lunch on the way back to the river.

I have been wanting to take the boat ride in the Willamette river for a while so everyone was nice enough to do that on Saturday. 

Here is the view from the balcony where we were sitting.  Beautiful! 

The weather was perfect on the way out.  The sun was shining and we sat on the front of the ship and enjoyed the sunlight and the view.

There was a wind that made it cold on the way back, but the way out was perfect.  I loved spending the day with these people!

I love spending time with Lindy.  She is amazing.  I have never seen a teenager so willing and helpful at home.  She is always cooking or cleaning or helping in some other way.  She is never asked, she just does it.  She is so fun to talk to and has such a good head on her shoulders. 

It was a lunch cruise, but we didn't purchase lunch. I got so thirsty that I finally asked the bartender for a drink of water.  We all got a kick out of the fancy glass.  Jonah was so jealous that I got to be with Jacob.  Jonah loves Jacob!  I loved getting to know all of the kids better.  Jacob is hilarious! He tells it like it is and says the funniest things.  One night he was waiting for us to play hide-and-seek with them and all of us adults were standing around talking.  I was talking about someone who had breast cancer and Jacob piped in and said, "Can we stop talking about breasts and play hide-and-seek."  HA!  We had fun playing hide-and-seek with the kids and I got to play air hockey with them and sit around and visit with Ashley and Lindy.  It was so fun.  I love being an aunt, but it sure got more tricky when I had my own kids. 

After the boat ride we went into Washington and hiked Beacon Rock. It was a short, but steep hike.  It has 51 switchbacks and goes up to 848 feet in less than a mile.  Hiking isn't my favorite thing, but it was fun to walk and talk.  It started out really cold with a cold wind so I had my jeans on, but not very long into the hike I got very hot and stopped to take off my jeans because I had capris underneath.  Hiking in jeans is no fun. 

I was slower than the rest of them, but I made it to the top. Gary, Julie, Lindy and Ashley hiked up with me.  They were nice to wait for me when I got a little behind. 

The views were beautiful. 

We saw the train passing by on our way down.  Julie and I visited on the way down and stopped to enjoy the view a few times.  It really was beautiful. 

On Sunday we played in the morning before church at 1 PM.  They had an amazing Sacrament meeting.  One of the missionaries spoke and she gave a great talk on the Atonement and how two boys in her High School (where she had just moved) took her under their wing and introduced her to her Savior, I loved how she said that.  A man from their ward also spoke about the Atonement of Jesus Christ and did an amazing job of explaining it.  He related it to when him and his wife got married.  His wife was divorced and he was widowed and they were both nurses.  He said she was really good with money and he was not.  He said when they got married he was instantly financially secure.  He related that to the Atonement of Jesus Christ.  We come to Him with all of our imperfections and because He is perfect He can make us worthy, just like he became financially secure because of his wife, we can become eternally secure because of Christ.  I loved the way he explained it. 

We got to see Jacob ordained to a deacon. I loved being in there for that.  It was fun to be there for his birthday.

On Monday we went shopping and then me, Lindy, Julie and Tiff went to lunch and out to frozen yogurt.  It was a great way to end the trip.  I loved having so much time to visit this trip.  After that Julie drove us to the airport.  It has been great spending so much time with Gary and Julie and their family these last few weeks.  I'm going to miss them!