FINALLY—the end

Friday was a fun day for us.  We had a relaxed morning—ate some of grandpa’s famous blender wheat pancakes, and got everything ready to head to the park.  Right before we got to the park we found out the my sister had somehow gotten a concussion and she couldn’t remember how.  Thankfully her boyfriend was there to help her out and she was just fine.  That girl is an accident waiting to happen!

We made it to the park around lunchtime and dug in to the good food my Mom provided.  Nothing makes cooler food taste better than eating it at the park!  Dad  had to go pick up Morgan and trade cars with my sister so he was gone for a lot of the time we were at the park.  Here are a few highlights.Exploring togetherEm and Morgan (my cousin’s daughter)

My Mom—she’s the best.The cool zipline at the park.

Jason loved it.Em and Morgan again.  Somehow with all the time these two spent together while we were in Washington we didn’t get very many pictures.This is a picture of my Dad and his new toy.  He has so much fun driving this thing.  If I hadn’t been in the driver’s seat myself I would have gotten a better picture of them as they drove by.  (My Mom took this one—no worries no pictures while driving)We found this bag of multicolored baby potatoes at the store and they were really cool! 

Our delicious dinner spread: roasted potatoes and asparagus with burgers and dogs.  Liam enjoying some lemonade

Trying to show that the INside of those potatoes were colorful too.Look at the purple ones! (I LOVE purple!) Apparently I’m easily amused and impressed—wish I could find these here.  They were mighty tasty. 

Since I hadn’t been able to see my sister Kathi all day because she was recovering from her concussion I drove over to her house and picked her up so we could go get some ice cream and talk—just us.  Somehow the whole time we were there we always had kids with us.  It was so wonderful to just catch up with her and talk until all hours of the night.  It really made me wish my sisters lived closer to me though.  :(

 

Saturday we had to get up bright and early to head home.  The drive home was much less frustrating for all parties involved.  Thanks in large part to my sister letting us borrow her van for the trip.  She’s  the best!  At one point one of the kids had to “go”, but my Dad kept missing the exits for the rest stops so we took this random exit because it said there was gas so I figured there should be a restroom too.  As we were driving I said to my Dad, “I feel like we are driving towards radiator springs like in the movie Cars.”  Little did I know how accurate that was until we got there.  They even had ‘Mater’s “cousin” for Liam to check out.  I actually couldn’t figure out where the gas station was, but we were getting desperate so we stopped at some kind of car fixing place.  The owner told us all about the town of Huntington, Oregon and how most everyone left after the freeway was built to pass right by it.  Then he told us how they were trying to make it more of a destination by rebuilding an old paddlewheel boat and stuff.  There was even a strange old man just sitting at a table talking while we were there too.  It was definitely an experience.   So, if you ever need a quaint off the beaten path place for a pit stop you might try Huntington, Oregon. 

Too soon we were home and busy getting ready for our next adventures that I will be blogging about soon.