Going South

We headed south for our third annual trip to Portland today. When we made our first big trip down there we didn't intend to make a yearly thing but the kids love it. The first year, we headed to Portland to join CVA for their annual end of the year field trip. Last year, CVA was going up north and the trip itinerary didn't excite us so we opted to repeat our Portland field trip on our own. This year, circumstances have us needing to get the kids out of the house for a few days while Scott lays down wood laminate flooring, so we opted to head south to Portland yet again. Can you tell the kids like Portland?
Our trip down was very long, much longer than normal. First, we took the back roads to Yelm to stop in at our new favorite butcher. We wanted to bless my family with some supplies. Then we continued along some beautiful back roads back to I5. Sam and I decided that a few miles south of Rainier or Tenino would be a perfect place to live. When I told him all that land is someone's backyard, he was ready to ditch the city instantly.

Our plan was to head south towards Vancouver and stop in at Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge. We've been studying birds, and I thought the chance to see hawks, eagles, ducks, geese, and many other birds and animals in the wild would be fun. However, the weather had other plans. This was the sight out my windshield:

At a few points, it was raining so hard I could barely see where I was driving. I absolutely hate driving in hard rain. We decided to skip Ridgefield.

We ended up stopping at a rest stop to stretch our legs under cover. Then we continued until Madelynn decided to start letting her distaste for the car known. We kept her busy for a little bit but it became apparent that she wasn't going to make it the rest of the way so we stopped at a Walmart. I needed to buy Sam and Mika some jeans anyway. Then it was back in the car against Madelynn's wishes; I had meat defrosting in the car, after all. We headed straight to my dad's house where the kids were surprised with their own afghans made by my grandmother. We visited for a while and then headed out to eat and check into the hotel.

This view greeted us in our room. The kids all headed straight out onto the balcony. It's much nicer than the photo shows. There's a rapidly flowing river right outside, complete with a walking path along it.

The kids checked out the TV. They love TV at hotels because we don't have cable and found our new favorite show, Mythbusters, on. So they watched it while I unpacked our things. After we were done, we headed downstairs for the evening reception because Josh, who didn't eat his dinner, was hungry. The kids all had Shirley temples and snacks. Afterwards, we headed back upstairs to change into our swimsuits and went swimming. The kids had a ball in the pool. It was tiny but we had it all to ourselves. Josh's new life jacket worked perfectly, leaving me available to focus on Maddie. She loved the water too. Then we headed upstairs for lights out so we can have fun tomorrow.