Moore Family Memories: Portland

We went on a road trip to Portland, Coleman was going to take the fire test there, so we made a quick family vaca out of the deal... We spent the week before the trip camping with my whole family in Hagerman Idaho. Which was fun, but I do not know if i have a single picture of the camp-out... will have to get some from Sarah... like always...

That Saturday after the campout we drove all the way to Portland, and pretty much straight to the hotel. We went swimming that night, and spent the next few days researching cool things to do...

There were SO many bridges.. it was awesome. Good thing for a GPS, or we would have been severely lost a LOT of the time.

Portland, Oregon. It really is beautiful there.

This was Sunday July 31, we went to the Portland Zoo...

It was so lush and green, and beautiful. I enjoyed it so much. The smell was fantastic... I always wish there was a way to share smells... :) Certain smells at least.

The pathway twisted back and forth down the mountain, with different areas of animals to see... this waterfall went down several of them, so we could see it here, and then again later when the path twisted around. It was really quite beautiful, and the zoo is highly recommended if you are ever in the area...

Pola

r bear swimming... kind of hard to see :)

Black bears... they kept wrestling around, it was interesting to watch them play. So cute!

This was an area just outside the petting zoo. And the following pictures are from the petting zoo:

"I want to ride in the boat!" - Cash

There was a dinosaur section of the zoo that we didn't visit, much to Cash's dismay. It was fine though, because we have a season pass to the dinosaur park in Ogden... plus momma wasn't about to shell out another $20 just to walk the dino path. Lame. Just sayin'

Giraffe, and my baby girl on her daddy's shoulders

We spent the rest of the day at the Saturday Market, and downtown Portland.

Pres liked the fountain, (and I could eat this face!) Cash fell/got pushed down and cried and cried. So we didn't stay here for too long. We did find a frozen chocolate covered banana right then, and quickly bought a second it was so good...

This was in the area where they do the "Saturday Market" lots of cool little booths and stuff under a bridge in downtown Portland. SO many weirdos, and "free spirits" yet so many interesting things to see and do. It was a great way to experience Portland with the short amount of time we had...

Waiting for "The Max"-- the train that goes around the city. The kids LOVED riding it, I felt like I was going to get mugged... I am sure at night it is much scarier, but during the day it was okay. Other families around helped as well.

On Monday Coleman went to take his test, so we dropped him off and went to the Children's Museum.

Cash found this:

and was done looking around. He LOVES train tables so much. After I weasled him away from here, we found some super cool stuff like:

a humongous light-bright, and the tree trunk thing Cash is walking into was dark on the inside, and there was a flashlight you could use to "draw" on the walls. They really liked this area, a lot. (P.S. there was a place to paint your face, so that is why they have stuff on their faces...)

I was kind of surprised by how into the babies they both were, but especially Cash. He wanted to make sure they were all dressed, and were resting soundly in there beds.

The really liked the gator... they throughly brushed his teeth, then their own. Perfect.

I felt like such a weird-o, because EVERY other mom I saw was at least 40, and only had 1 kid. I was so different having 2 kids, and being so young. They kept looking at me so weird... If only they knew were I come from :)

This room was AWESOME! the kids LOVED digging in the rubber mulch. (Yes that is what it is) and they had a weight scale, trucks, shovels, etc. that added so much to the experience. This was by far one of their favorite places to spend some time.

The fake Grocery store:

eewwww Pres, put down the fake food. Who knows how many other kids have done this very thing....

Every kids museum has one, I think, and every kid LOVES to pretend to be a clerk. Cash and Pres took turns with checking out, and putting the food away.

Cash loved to make us sandwiches in the deli section. He was cute, and got right into his role.

The water area is where we spent the most time in the whole place.

This water table thing is SO cool:

You could move the yellow and blue rectangular things to make the water flow where and how you wanted it to. It is moving in the direction of Pres to Cash. Then they had rubber duckies and various toys you could float down the table... this was very fun for the kids.

Smocks to keep their cloths dry. Ha. They were wet when we put them on :)

The duckies could float from pool to pool, and you could shut the gates between pools, and help build up the water, etc.

There was a house you could help construct:

You could help to plumb it with pipes, you could "sheetrock" etc. The kids liked this a lot as well. I LOVED these flowers, and want to do this somewhere in my own house! I think this is too cute! You could "pick" them, then put them back. They also had a flower window box with holes drilled into it for flowers to be "planted"...

Here you could rock climb... sort of... :)

This is the pet hospital, which cash really liked. I think he would love to be a vet someday :)

This night we ate a restaurant called "Toro Bravo" it was pretty good, a little overrated, and overpriced. But the food was different, and good. I liked it.

Not sure if this pic was right before or right after Presley totally ate it off the chair, and SCREAMED and SCREAMED! Everyone in this (not very family friendly) establishment looked at me like they were completely put out. This was another one of the many reason I decided we probably shouldn't live in Portland, I like kids, especially my own. I like places that are welcoming to children, and Portland really is not. At least not like whereI am from.

We also stopped at a weird little doughnuts shop downtown, We kept seeing these pink boxes everywhere... :