Yaya & Mom’s Holiday in PDX

Wow – it has taken me a while to get these pics dowloaded!  Mainly because I was sick of the site we were using…but download on a Sunday morning is the best bet! 

Enjoy the pictures!

We picked Mom and Yaya up at PDX Christmas Eve.  I was a little afraid that she wouldn’t remember us or not be excited to see us but boy was I wrong.  When they turned the corner and could see us waiting at the end Mom told Yaya there we were and she just got the biggest smile on her face, looked up and started running for us.  It made me cry of course…it was just about the best feeling in the world.

PDX Airport…picking up our Christmas packages…

After we picked them up we headed for some Mexican food…where we honked each other’s noses…

Gave each other kisses….

And taught Yaya how to play paper football…

The next one’s are from our week outtings.  This first set is from the Portland Children’s Museum.

The Big Dig – Kid style…they had a whole room with shredded tire stuff (dirt) and lots of fun scoops and buckets…totally cool.

Yaya in the driver’s seat on the Tri-Met bus (Portlands local way of travelling)…

We headed down south to the Oregon Aquarium…Too much fun…

She got suck a kick out of the seals.  At first she was really hesitant to walk up next to the glass but we just let her do her own thing and once she got used to being right next to them swimming by her she had a blast.  I can still hear her laughing every time the seals would whip by her…

Here is Mr. Otter and Yaya…

 

Salmon…and Yaya… 

Some kind of bird, Yaya and yours truly…

Watching that bird dive for food…

Yaya became a Portlander in no time…don’t leave home with out the umbrella…

The tunnel of fish…

Once morning we decided to head out to Hillsboro Airport so Dodo could show Yaya the helicopters.  She has had a facination with helicopters for quite a while and we were all looking forward to seeing her reaction when she was up close with one.  The one thing we definitely learned have a small child around is that you don’t push them to like something or get excited about it.  She was pretty timid at first – there were a couple helicopters landing and I just think she couldn’t believe that they were that close – she’s just used to seeing them flying around in the sky – not land right in front of her.  She finally got used to the surroundings and had a blast after that!

Yaya checking out the air vents in the helicopter…

Waving hi before lift-off…

Just big enough…

We’re really flying now…

We also headed out to the beach and our favorite spot in Pacific City…She really loved it here.  We walked along the beach picking up every single rock we could…climbed the big sand dune…and went whale watching…

The dune is in the background there and it is much steeper than this picture shows…It was funny trying to walk up with her…she wasn’t too sure of the sand and insisted I carry her…got a work out is all I can say.  After we reached that top she cries out “I did it”…sure kid, you did it all right…

Watching for whales and making silly faces…

The surf was really up and by the time we got back down from the dune it was low tide so we got to go exploring on the rocks and found all kinds of fun stuff…

When we not out exploring all of Oregon we were cooking in the kitchen.  This is my helper that started washing the veggies for me then insisted on scrubbing the sink – very, very well…

Tuckered out…

Piggy back time…

Lounging in her nightgown that her great-grandmother made.  She loved that chair we got her for Christmas.  Just her size…

And here is our other little baby…

We headed out to Silver Falls State Park and did a bit of tree-hugging.  She couldn’t go home with out a hug from a tree…

This is from the top of the falls…it was much colder than we thought it was going to be…so it was a very short trip…

The sun does come out in Oregon…

I’ll post some more pictures of Christmas but I hope you have enjoyed these.  It was a great week.

It has been a while…

and I am sure all of you are looking for pictures from our fabulous Christmas and visit with Mom and Lydia…well, wait a little longer. 

 I am just now getting to download everything to shutterfly so Momma Yaya can see the pics and pass them onto Grammy Yaya…and there are only 265 pictures…so I can’t download there and download to buzznet to pull them onto here because my computer is awesome but not that awesome….so you will have to wait.

In other news – job is going well.  Getting busier.  Home life is great.  I got a new All Clad grill pan for Christmas from my Dad and I love it. Well, actually I got a non-stick pan that I wanted but then decided that I wanted the grill pan more so I exchanged it – so thanks Dad….I cooked with it tonight and made a FABULOUS dinner.  I don’t think that pan will ever see the darkness of the cupboards.  I highly recommend it.  The funny thing about it is that Dodo wanted one of those George Forman Grill things…I think they are disgusting.  Momma Dodo thinks I am strange and loves hers….to each there own Momma Dodo….I still love you even if you use the George Forman Grill….So, I digress as usual…This grill pan is so much better than what George Forman could ever offer me.  It grills like it should.  I don’t have to press slabs of meat in between two hot metal bars and I don’t have to watch the fat rolling off of whatever I am cooking.  It is just better. Because I say.

The way I feel about the George Forman Grill is very similar to the way I feel about toasters…again Momma Dodo – I love ours (mainly because I don’t have to hear Dodo cursing my name in the morning because we don’t have a toaster and because it came from you)…I just don’t care for toasters…HOWEVER, put a Dualit toaster in front of me and I will spend all day toasting your buns and telling you how fantastic this toaster is (and your buns if I feel the need).  It is so fantastic because it doesn’t “pop” up your toast when it is done.  This is so fantastic for a couple of reasons – you don’t have cold toast because the Dualit  keeps it nice and warm in the toaster and I just like the fact that I can get a bit sidetracked and come back to warm toast and I don’t have to watch and wait for it to pop.  Watching and waiting is not my strong suit.  Plus the “pop” in a toaster always ends up breaking so why not GIVE ME CONTROL over when my toast comes out of the toaster…

Now, if I only ate toast.

On to other things….

Portland has no street lights.  Well, they do at intersections but that is about it.  They REALLY like to conserve energy.  I guess it has it’s positives like the fact that we can walk outside in the city and see a ton of stars…couldn’t do that in KC.  Although I would like to be able to see the entrances to parking lots and be able to see my car in a parking lot without having to whip out a mag flashlight. 

And speaking of parking lots…they typically have one entrance here and if two parking lots are right next to each other – you can’t get to one without having to go around the block and go into the ONE ENTRANCE to the other one…it gets a bit irritating…especially because once I do find the entrance to the parking lot it is usually after about 10 minutes (or more) of being lost in the dark trying to find the establishment and then find the ONE ENTRANCE they have to the parking lot.  I need a Garmin.  Do they show parking lot entrances???

Maggie B is doing very well right now.  She is getting back to real dog food and loving the new “All Natural, Organic, You are really an Oregonian Dog” food that we got her.  She is farting a lot and looking at her butt confused…it is pretty funny.  It’s what nature intended.

Funny conversation with Dodo last night…We were out driving around the darkened streets running errands and trying to find the ONE ENTRANCE to parking lots and this is how it goes…

Dodo:  You know, if people listened in on our conversations and bantering back and forth they would probably think we were stoned.

Me: (laugh)Hey, your probably right – I never thought about it that way…but dude, totally.

we then pull up to taco hell to pay for our food and I look at the “pay this amount” thingy they have and…

Me: (leaning forward in my seat) The 9 is backwards.

Dodo: (leaning forward in his seat) Your right, wow, hey that is totally weird.

Me: (still staring at the backwards 9) That is totally weird.

Dodo: Ya man.

A couple minutes pass….

Me: Oh, I see…It’s an 8 with part of it missing….

Dodo: Hey, your right.  That’s funny.

Yes, darling.  I would definitely say that people would think that we were stoned.

Smoke it if you got it…

A little bit of Christmas

After we got Maggie B back on Monday things went a little smoother for us.  It has been a real roller coaster around here for the last couple of weeks. 

Vacation was a blast once my Mom and Yaya arrived and when we got Maggie B back on Monday.  We did so much stuff with Mom and Yaya – the Aquarium, The Children’s Museum, the coast, Silver Falls State Park…we watch Scooby Doo, Cinderella, Little Mermaid, Bedknobs and Broomsticks, Disney’s Robin Hood, The Rescuers, and any other Disney movie we could get our hands on.  Yaya LOVES Scooby Doo.  It is so funny – she could watch this DVD over and over and over…

I just wanted to give everyone a quick update on what was going on….we were completely a wreck the beginning of the week but everything turned out well.  Now we are just sad to see Mom and Yaya go and are trying to get some normalcy.

 I will post pics later.