There and Back Again

Our trip itself (to Oregon and back) was pretty uneventful, which we were grateful for, especially considering it was December, and we were driving over mountain passes with two little kids. 

One of the stops we made - which I oddly didn't get any pictures of, oh well - was to the Frank Slide Interpretive Centre. It was awe inspiring, sobering, and amusing all at once, plus it was a great chance to let chitlins out of the car and run around. While we were driving away, though, Kyler and I both said we'll never look at that mountain the same again...

In both directions, we chose to stay in Sandpoint, ID. It worked well, I think. Children slept well...

Which means we slept well.
We obviously also had naps in the car on the road trip.

One of them, Calista told us she was tired and wanted to sleep in the bed in the hotel. We said, sure, we'll be there in about 40 minutes... and then next thing we noticed she was asleep.

Well, she did warn us.

While in Oregon, we did lots of fun things, which is why there are going to be fifty bizillion blog posts about them. But there are a few things that I'm not writing specific posts about but I still want to mention.
One of those things is our trip to the Portland temple, were Kyler and I got married. He and I actually took two trips, but we only took pictures of the time we brought the kids.

We have a picture of Kyler and I on our wedding day that is similar to this.

Aunt Loradona and Craig (with Kyler and Calista in the background).

Kyler and Calista properly.
It was so nice to take Calista to the place we got married and to teach her about the importance of the temple.

One of my favorite things about this trip was just seeing my family interact. Loradona had never even met Craig, and Calista loves Grammie and Grandpa!
Grammie and Calista went on a date to get their nails done.

Calista loved it and was really good as they put purple sparkly polish on - even if she did bite it all off of her fingernails pretty quickly.
Grandpa got in on the action, too.

Craig actually let him cuddle.

Probably because Grandpa also read his favorite book to him.
And Calista loved spending time with him

Especially outside! (Oh, how I wish we had a backyard!)

And of course, Aunt Loradona was fun to have around.

After all, she was willing to blow bubbles...

...and be a jungle gym!
Of course, they got to hang out a few days with their other grandparents on the way back, too.

Also a success.

My mom got out this little chair that used to belong to her when she was a little girl. Craig (and Calista) loved it.

Can you tell?

Any time it was available, he was sitting in it. And looking so grown up!

Craig didn't sleep that well on our trip, at least not when and where we wanted him to.

He slept way too often in our arms, and other places we didn't want him to. Like at dinner.

Seriously, we could NOT get him to wake up for anything for about 40 minutes. Then he was awake two hours past his bedtime that night and on and off all night... of course...

Calista loved the park as well as the backyard, and went there at least a half dozen times on our trip. One day Kyler took her, while they were gone it started pouring rain. The jacket Calista had taken wasn't waterproof, so she was getting wet on the walk home. Kyler did the fatherly thing,

and put her on his shoulders with his waterproof jacket over her. Awww.

She was still soaking wet, but not as bad as it could've been, and pretty cheering about wearing daddy's coat.

My family got to experience first hand the little climber that Craig is. One day, he climbed up the front of the couch, turned, and slide down over the armrest at the side, crawled back to the front, climbed up it, turned, slid down... repeat about 20 times.
He also loved to climb up on the chairs in the dining room.

Sometimes this was just to see things, but other times there was a very clear motivation,

like the yogurt his sister had left behind. (Who leaves behind Tillamook yogurt? Silly girl!)

Since it was a different environment, there were plenty of new and different things to enjoy.

Like wooden blocks that make a good phone substitute (although the phone substitute idea is nothing new),

Magazines to "read" like a big girl,

Dishwashers to help load and unload,

Soap that makes way more bubbles than the stuff we have at home!,

And stacks of chairs to climb up and be as tall as mommy.

Calista and Craig were around everyone long enough that soon they just acted like they always do,

which is mostly cute,

sometimes funny,

and occasionally grumpy.