The Zoo

Wrapping up our weekend in Portland, we spent the remainder of the afternoon at the zoo. Yay! My favorite part!

Here's a look at some of the animals.

Tyler was getting a kick out of watching the ducks swim.

Something about seeing their feet under the water.

Then he took a turn driving a tractor in the farm animal section.

Over at the bear exhibit, he didn't quite measure up to the grizzly bear. I think he fits in a little better with the sun bears.

The sun was going down and the zoo was about to close. What a long day. Just one more exhibit to go.

And with that, our weekend was done. See you next time Portland.

Children's Museum

On Monday, we spent the morning at the Children's Museum. They have all kinds of different themed rooms to keep kids busy for hours.

Tyler's favorite part is the water works.

And even though smocks are provided, staying dry is next to impossible.

I don't think Tyler noticed that his shoes were getting soaking wet.

This water table had different repositionable slats that you could use to form a path for the rubber duckies to float down.

In the grocery store, Tyler filled up his cart....

...and then went to check out.

Next we went to the clay room. Turns out that building things out of clay isn't as easy as it looks.

But Rick and Tyler managed to turn the rolling pin into an American Flag. Looks good enough for a lunar landing, doesn't it?

With Tyler's love of trains, there's no way we could skip the Vroom Room.

In the hallway next to the theater, we found a lighted table with Lego type building blocks.

This is Tyler's creation. It's a train/ambulance. Or was it a train/fire truck?

In another room, he kept busy playing with gears on a magnetic wall.

And before we knew it, it was time to go. We could have easily stayed longer, but the Zoo was calling our name.

4th of July

We spent the entire day at the OMSI - Oregon Museum of Science and Industry. Yep, we were there until closing.

It turned out to be the perfect day to go too, because it wasn't overly crowded and it was $2 days. Can you believe it? We all got in with $2 admission fees, saving us $27 right from the get-go. So we went crazy and bought tickets to the IMAX and planetarium shows.

In between shows, we scoped out all the exhibits.

In the life hall we learned all about nanotechnology.

In the watershed lab, Tyler tried his hand at making his own river.

Warming up before going to watch the Hubble show in the IMAX theater.

Then it was back to the bottle rocket launcher.

It's one of the best parts.

Well, besides the inventor's ball room.

On the way out, we headed out the back door and stumbled upon the perfect place to watch the fireworks. The backside of the OMSI is right across the river from downtown Portland and the Blues Festival....right where the fireworks were going to happen.

But first we had to prepare. Run back to the hotel and put on some pants and sweaters. It was cold in Portland! Sadly for me, that's when my luck ran out. I don't know if it was something in the water or what, but I was horribly sick to my stomach the whole time we were there. I called it a night back at the hotel and sent the boys to watch the fireworks without me.

I cannot believe I missed the fireworks. Thank goodness for Keith Lockhart and the Boston Pops on CBS.

Scenic Detour

You want in on a little secret? We spent the weekend in Portland. It wasn't enough time though....there was just too much to do.

Oh, how many times have we crossed this bridge in the last 4 years. It's starting to feel like an old friend.

And you sure can't complain about the view.

About 30 minutes outside of Portland, we stopped at Multnomah Falls. We've driven by a few times before, but never had the time to stop or else we just plain missed the exit. But not this time.

I'm so glad we finally had the chance to stop. It's gorgeous!

After being stuck in the car for 3 hours, hiking up to the top of a waterfall was the perfect plan.

Here we are at the bottom.

It was a quick walk to the footbridge, but then the serious work kicked in. Once you cross the bridge, you have to hike 1.2 miles, while climbing a steep 600 ft to the top of the falls. In a word. Phew!

At the top you can see "Little Multnomah", which is not visible from the ground level.

And a bird's eye view of the falls. Wow! That's a long way down.

Back at the bottom, we did what everyone does when they finish.....had some ice cream.

Swimming Lessons

One of the great things about the Summer session at Tyler's school is that they offer swim lessons. We signed him up for July and August, so that means he'll be in the pool 5 days a week for the next two months. That sure beats going to the public pool, which is way the heck across town.

As I understand it, it goes like this....he has a 20 minute swim lesson each morning. They rotate the kids in the pool throughout the morning in small groups and he's in one of the early morning groups. That's when they practice going under water, kicking, floating on their back.....things like that. Then in the afternoon, they rotate the kids again for a 20 minute free swim.

Today was his first day, so I tried to get there a little early this afternoon and catch him in the pool. I barely made it, because just as I arrived I heard the swim coach tell the kids it was time to get out. But I was still able to snap a few photos.

For the free swim he's wearing one of those suits with the foam inside that helps you float.

I was trying to be fast and sneaky with the pictures, but then he saw me and the jig was up.

No smiles here. He claimed it was too cold to smile. I guess I can believe that. It wasn't even 70 degrees out today. Hopefully it warms up soon.