Harrison's Vacation Day 3

TUESDAY

On Tuesday of my sisters visit we decided to go and stalk the famous family from the television show, “Little People, Big World.” Their farm is located in Hillsboro. I do not have satellite TV like my sister does but I have seen the show a couple of times whilst I have visited her. So I really do not have anymore info on the show or family then that. However if you are interested here is a link to there site. http://mattroloff.com

We were sad to say that their farm, however, was not open. I guess they are only open during pumpkin season. So we got a couple of distant pictures of the farm. Will and I think we will try and go back during the open season. Just to make Bre and my Mom who is also a big fan of the show jealous. (Evil laugh here)

Road Side America

Whilst my sister was here she found a website that had very random things to see in the US and here was one of them just in Aloha. Ed Harvey is a big man with a rabbit's head. It guards the entrance to Harvey Marine, outside of Portland. For more information on Ed Harvey the very giant man with a rabbit's head here is a link. The story is actually quite funny. I would say worth the time to read. http://www.roadsideamerica.com/story/2191

Burger King

After our fantastic journey to the Roloff farm and to see Ed. We were all quite hungry so we stopped at the nearest Burger King we could find, which luckily was just down the street from Ed. I snapped these very funny pictures of Ethan. He seemed to be very wound up this particular day. Which made for some really funny/cute pictures.

Portland Japanese Garden

After lunch we headed to the Portland Japanese Garden. So here are some pictures of that excursion.

Portland Classical Chinese Garden

Once we were done with that garden we decided to head over to the Chinese Garden. My camera battery died so I have only a few pictures of this garden. Which I have to say is my favorite of the two. Oh well that's life.Joshua was so tired after the Japanese Garden that he fell asleep in the car on the way to the Chinese Garden. That is a push-pop in his mouth. The kids were driving us crazy so we bribed them with candy. Hey it worked the ones that were not tired enough to sleep were to busy sucking on the sucker to make much noise.

Stay tuned for the continuation of the Harrison's trip.

Only one more days worth of pictures left!!

Harrison's Vacation Continued

Monday August 18

On Monday we headed down to the visitor center located in the Pioneer Courthouse square. We went to pick up the Portland Attraction pass. If you have never heard of this pass it helps you see Portland's top 10 attractions for a fraction of the combined regular price.

Aren't the kids cute with there headphones on. My sister has one of those nice installed DVD players and instead of having to listen to their movie we hooked them all up with these cool cordless headphones. It was so nice and quite!

Bre and I at the famous "Commuter with umbrella" statue.

So BreAnna collects pins and when we were in the visitor center she saw a pin that looked like a up side down chandelier. We asked the guy that was helping us what it was and it was this. A Benson Fountain.

OMSI

The first thing we decided to do with or Portland Attraction pass is go to the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry or easier said OMSI.

The current exhibit was of Dinosaurs. The boys got scared. They had large dinosaurs that moved and roared. However, here is a cute picture of Joshua in a digging zone.

Ethan loves the ball area if he ever runs off this is always were he ends up.

Cute little Bryton in the birds nest.

Joshua, Ethan and Peyton actually in the same area. Let alone in the same picture what a miracle.



This table entertained them for quite some time. The middle spun around and then kids would get balls and wheels to spin on it. Here is Joshua showing me his finger. It got smashed by a ball that launched off table. Don't worry I don't think it hurt that bad.

5.. 4.. 3.. 2.. 1.. LIFT OFF! Roger niner-niner we have lift off.

Trailer Hitch

Will and I have been hunting down a good cheap hitch for our vehicle. We were on some what of a time crunch to get it because we knew that my sister has a ton of tools and could bring them up so we could install the hitch ourselves. You wouldn't believe the price the truck shops were expecting you to pay. A little side note: I worked one summer at a Truck accessory shop when I graduated high school. Installing hitches was the majority of my job, so installing hitches is not new to me we just did not have the tools. Anyhoo here are some pictures.

I was trying to prove that I had wired and helped with the installation of the hitch because my hands were dirty but you really can't tell so you will just have to take my word for it. The boys kicked me out of the way when I lost their confidence because I had never used a fishing wire. This particular hitch was a no drill hitch and I swear with all the hitches I installed that summer I never did a no drill hitch. The reason I think is because in some ways it was easier to do the drill ones. This one you had to hook a thin wire around a bolt and a square washer and literally fish it down the frame a good foot and a half. So they we were looking at the instructions, (yeah I know the guys were actually looking at the instructions) and we were trying to figure out how on earth they expected us to get this one particular bolt and washer down the frame. Finally we were like well there must be a way to do it or else they wouldn't expect you to. So I asked like ten times if they were ready for me to try and put the washer down there (this was all before Justin figured out and found the fishing wire) and they were like yeah go for it. So of course it got stuck only a couple inches down the frame. My sister had to come out and use her long skinny fingers to get it back. That's when Justin found the fishing wire and took over. After that it was smooth sailing. Thanks Justin for getting our hitch installed!

Check back for the continuation of the Harrison's Vacation

Harrison's Vacation

My sister (BreAnna) and her family came this last week to visit. They wanted to see Portland one last time before we depart home to Utah in a couple of months. We had a fabulous week full of fun. My sister is a what I like to call a "Go go go person" which can be tiring but I do love her. She likes to see and do all that is conceivably possible so I have a ton of pictures to show for it all. So I have decided to break them up into a couple of blogs.

This is Peyton she is my sisters oldest daughter. She just turned 3 in may. Ethan and Peyton had such a blast together.

This is Bryton, she is the youngest. She just turned 1 this last March. She was so messy after the car trip up here we put all the kids in the bath. Her daddy gave her some red licorice do I need to say more.

Peyton and Ethan so excited to see each other.

There's my Joshua and his huge smile.

Latourell Falls

To keep up with tradition we took them all to see some water falls.

Here is my sister with her family. The only one I have not introduced so far is Justin her husband. So there he is.

Being adventurous we all headed down to wade in the water a little.

As some of you know this is our last couple of months here in Portland so I have been trying to have no regrets. I am trying to see and do everything that I possibly can before we leave. So I actually went close to the falls. I know that may not seem like a big deal but it was for me. This waterfall actually has been my least favorite of them all. I always just stayed on the path which is a good 50 yards away never bothering to take the effort to go any closer. But I had this urge to go closer, then thinking to myself this is probably the last chance you will ever have. I took the little steep, slippery rocky path down to the waterfall. I then walked up to the lapping water pool as you can see in this photo of Will and Ethan. I was then stunned and awe inspired in that moment to be so close to something so powerful. The water that was coming down was so powerful it felt as though it was pulsating through me. I was so amazed at this creation that my Heavenly Father had made. What an amazing experience. I am so glad I went with that impulse.

Bridal Veil Falls

Just my handsome boys

We had a wonderful Sunday together visiting and touring the falls. I also got the opportunity to drag my sister to church. I am so glad she came it was fun to show her off and introduce her to all of my friends. Thanks for coming Bre! Stay tuned for the rest of the saga.

Famous, well sorta

I submitted a picture of our Girls night out group from our Breaking Dawn midnight release party and it got posted on Stephenie Meyer's blog! So Yeah here is the link. Just scoll down a little and you can't miss us. Go Team Edward Mom's!

http://www.stepheniemeyer.com/bd_parties.html

Camping & Beach

Fort Stevens State Park

We're not big campers. We want to be. We think we'd make pretty good campers, but we just haven't had the experience under our belts. When Challene said she wanted to go camping before we left Oregon I though she'd back out due to lack of toiletting facilities. I was wrong. She found a lovely campsite near the beach with toilets and showers. So, we got some friends involved and went. Only problem was the near 200 other campers there. We were packed like sardines.

Forecast for Friday said cloudy with a 20% chance of rain, high of 68. For a moment when we planned and booked the campsite we forgot that when living in Oregon 20% chance means 100% chance of rain. While driving to Seaside, OR we got a text from Becki Brallier saying it was starting to rain. Slightly discouraged, but more into our 2-way radio trivia game between us and the Marshall's, we continued to the sight. By-the-way, for those of you unaware, the only other mammel known to contract leprosy is: the Armadillo. That one stumped the Marshall's for quite some time.

Usually people camp to get away from it all, but everyone and their dog was there! I was really surprised at how small each site was. We set up camp quickly in anticipation for the rain (it had stopped momentarily). The Brallier's had built a fire and cooked some dutch oven chicken which was FABULOUS!!! We ate some dinner then roasted marshmallow.

My Joshy getting the marshmallow off of his jacket!

Ethan loved the marshmallows. You can see Chloe and Sam in the background.

The boys were fairly good with the fire. Joshy wanted to help a lot.

So as the evening wore on, the rain increased. In fact, I'd say they were related linearly. 8:30 rolls around and we figure we could put the kids down and then enjoy some adult time with games and smores (we deliberately saved the smores ingredients for adult time. Partly due to the mess, partly due to self indulgence.). So we began our routine.

10:30 rolls around and the kids are crying, screaming, stomping, flailing, etc. The rain was coming down pretty hard. Despite the fact that the Bralliers and Marshall's kids went down rather well, ours wouldn't relent. Given the kids, the rain, and mud everywhere we decided to call it a night. Once the kids went to sleep, we slept very soundly.

That is, until Mr. Squirrel decided to wake up at 6:00 a.m. I've heard some loud squirrels in my day, but this one takes the cake. He even drove Challene to say that if she had a BB gun she would have gotten up and shot the thing! This is surprising for two reasons: 1- Challene is not a huge gun fan, of any size or flavor. 2- Challene doesn't rise before 7:00 for ANYTHING!!!

We enjoyed a scrumptious breakfast and decided to break camp. The Brallier's were quite frustrated with how things had turned and decided they wanted to leave. Despite our pleadings they went home to their warm, sand-free house.

The morning actually cleared up some and so we decided to go to the beach! I love the beach!

So does Josh.
This beach was famous for a shipwreck that is actually still on the beach. It was pretty dang cool.

You should probably note the blue skies. I don't know any of the history of the wreck, but I'm sure a google search of Fort Steven's and shipwreck will tell you all you need to know.

For me, the real excitement of the beach was the stunt kites. John had brought two of his kites and broke them out. There was some wind at Fort Steven's so he gave me a quick tutorial. This is John being dragged down the beach by his quadline stunt kite. (Note the darkening clouds) You can see his trail as he gets pulled along by the kite. Now, I mentioned that there was some wind here. Nothing to big, just some wind off the ocean, still it dragged him 300 yards or so. He was doing flips, and twists and such with his kite. So next it was my turn. It was much more complicated than I expected. Quadline means four lines - front/back and left/right. You have to be conscious of each direction and counter or manipulate the wind as you can to do all the cool tricks. Needless to say, I was hooked. My performance at Fort Steven's, however, was less than stellar.

The clouds rolled in and it started pouring! We ran for the cars (after we got everything packed up) and hunkered down. We all decided to get some brunch and then meet the Woolsey's at Gearhart beach.

Gearhart Beach

I love Gearhart. You can drive right onto the beach! The wind here was intense! So, John busted out his dual line delta stunt kite. This one I handled rather well. I was doing figure-8s, flips, and twists until I took a nose dive and shattered a graphite rod! Doh! A well, $5 and a drunken hippie later it was good as new.

Jared Woolsey with Winston (the dog), Liza Woolsey, Me, and Ethan

Lindsey. Note the precariously parked car in the background.
John broke out the Quadline again. We had a need to conquire this inteminable wind. This is me trying to get the kite off the ground. I did much better this go around. I got dragged for about 50 yards and even did a face plant when a particularly large gust of wind came to try to humble me. Well worth it. It was a 2 meter kite, so no cool jumps or anything, but still fun.

Remember that precarious car? Well, it was the Marshall's. They got stuck in the sand. I was centimeters away from pushing them with my car when this quirky guy in a Toyota FJ came up and offered to pull them out. The sheriff came too.

10 minutes and some minor body damage later, they were out!

This is a direct result of the intense wind at Gearhart. That smile on my face is from remembering how much fun it was to kite... plus Challene poking fun at my hair.
So, on the way home we had to gas up. Look how big this truck is! The gas tank access is as high as this guy's head! Crazy tall.

All in all we had a fun weekend. Yes, the rain and mud were a little annoying, but we made do and had fun anyway. Thanks to the Marshalls, Bralliers and Woolseys for joining us! Mostly, thanks to Challene who kept a cool, good attitude throughout everything. If it wasn't for her the weekend would have been miserable for me. As it is, though, we've got good memories (and blog) to last a lifetime!