Road Trip Part 1: Oregon

Jonah Update: He is doing just fine (and adorable, in case you were wondering).  He did turn blue today during a bad cry (darn runaway-musical-push-toy!), but bounced back and never lost consciousness.  Thank you for your kind words and prayers.

And now for some witty vay-cay-shun banter:

In the analogues of history, whenever a family returned from a long vacation, nearby friends and relatives would give them days, even weeks, to settle back in to their normal routine before dropping by to visit.  It wasn't so the family could rest or unpack.  Oh, no.  It was for one simple reason. 

To avoid the slide show.

That's right.  The dreaded slide show, chock full'o boring landscape pictures, snaps of strangers, and the occasional gappy-toothed, smiling brat.  Well, friends, because this (ah-hem) bloggety-thingy serves as more than just a doorstop in the ciber-world, but is also my best attempt at recording my personal history for my own family, alas,

I must subject you to...

Our Family Vacation.

First off, I insist on showing off a tiny bit.  I am not much of an organized person, but I knew that the only way that spending 16 days in a mini-van with 5 children would not lead to a new definition for roadkill was if everyone had something to do with their hands besides playing slug-bug.  I made activity centers and neck pillows for each child.  The packs included a week's supply of gum, ear plugs, road maps of each state, silly putty, a US map (for licence plates, of course), and anything a person could possibly write with or on.  But the real genius was a complete accident:  dry erase markers.

The boys rejected the dry erase boards for the thrill of drawing on the windows.  They made race cars and skateboarders that competed with nearby autos, pedestrians that were usually the losers when taking on the oncoming traffic, and my favorite; Pac Man.

But I have gotten ahead of myself.  So, let's start with Oregon.  We gave it a whole day on our way to Washington, which was spent at the very cool A.C. Gilbert Discovery Village in Salem with an amazing bubble room where you could make bubbles as big as you are.  Three-story-high play structures and dress up rooms kept us busy all day.

Dr. Cutie Pie will see you now

Then off to Portland. 

Say, who is that adorable couple?

We stopped in Portland to see the beautiful Portland Temple.  The temple itself was closed for refurbishing, and the men that dangled from repelling equipment on the outside of the building never knew it, but Ethan had drawn trampolines to catch them in case their cables broke.

 

Stay tuned for more of the FAMILY VACATION SLIDE SHOW

 as we visit the lovely state of Washington!