Oregon Birth-Month

Calista's birthday was honestly more like a birth-month. It started when we arrived at my parents' place in Portland. My mom asked if Calista wanted her birthday present now, or later. 

Of course Calista picked now. Inside the bag, she discovered a brand new quilt, made by Grammie!

As you can see, Calista loves it. Somewhere in the quilting is stitched a little ducky. 

Calista took a while, and a hint from myself, 

but she eventually found it.

Calista also got to join the women for a pedicure before our beach trip, and she loved it. 

She was a little bummed that she went before her actual birthday, though: at 11, she could have had the full pedicure, rather than just the kids' one. 

While visiting with Loradona, Calista got to celebrate her birthday more. 

Loradona took Calista and I to have tea at the Painted Lady Tea House. They have a little closet of dresses you can try on and fancy hats everywhere. 

Calista had a blast dressing up, and Loradona and I donned fancy hats for the occasion.

And goofy faces.

We all felt rather fancy, 

and made sure to drink our tea with our pinkies out.

Plus, the food was fabulous.

On the day of her actual birthday, she got to open more presents

And promptly started reading some of them.

As one does with new books.

For lunch, we went to Red Robin, per the birthday girl's request. While she was in the bathroom, the server asked if they should sing to her. Both Mom and I said yes.

Calista smiled, embarrassed, but enjoyed the sundae they brought!

We then went bowling. Calista hasn't, in her memory, done 10 pin bowling. 

There was a bit of an adjustment to the larger ball and different skills required, but once she got the hang out it, Calista didn't do too bad! She even got a couple of spares! After a game and a half, she got tired so Grammie took over her spot.

Grammie didn't do too bad, either! I was the overall winner, with a few strikes and spares. Bumpers are good for us all. Hahaha.

And, after dinner of butter chicken and naan, it was time for cake.

Since it was so hot, we suggested to Calista a cake that didn't require baking, and she was happy to oblige.

Happy birthday, dear Calista!

Dig in!

Family Photos 2022

While we were at the beach in Oregon, we got family photos taken.

Even if it wasn't quite the whole May family. 

Still, we had to document what we had.

2022 Grand Adventure, Part 6: Portland Bookends!

Before and after the beach, we were in Portland, at my parents.

The drive from Kalispell was a the longest amount we have driven in a single day. 

But, with a couple of breaks, we all survived it.

2022 Grand Adventure, Part 5: The BEACH!

Caravanning with Loradona, we left Roseburg and headed to the best place: the Oregon coast!

Since we were coming from her place, we got to see things a little further south on the coast than we usually do.

Our first big stop on our way to the beach house was at Shore Acres.

2022 Grand Adventure, Part 4: Loradona time!

Silver Falls was just a quick stop on the way to see Loradona, in her own home! We'd never seen her place in Roseburg, so it was particularly fun to get the chance to spend some time with her.

Our first adventure was to Crater Lake National Park. My original plan was to do the full rim road, stopping at tons of turnouts and view points along the way. However, just like in Glacier, spring snows meant that the rim road wasn't fully open yet. That's okay. I can be flexible. At least we still got to go!

It was such a beautiful day, 

we couldn't believe how warm and sunny. 

You could see all the way around the rim!

2022 Grand Adventure, Part 3: Chasing Waterfalls!

After our day in Glacier, we headed to Portland to see my family. However, that is going to be in a different, future post. This one is about another little day trip we did: Silver Falls State Park.
I was originally hoping to do a 5 mile hike that led us to 7 of the 10 waterfalls. However, after the kids got grumpy at Glacier, we weren't sure it'd be the best idea. Kyler realized we could cut 2 miles out of our hike and only one waterfall, so we went with his plan. 

2022 Grand Adventure, Part 2: Glacier!

Leaving Raymond, we took the scenic route to get to Oregon: through Glacier National Park. We planned this trip months ago, planning to drive Going-To-The-Sun Road. As we got closer, it became doubtful if the road would be open. The day arrived, and indeed, the road was not fully open. We decided to do as much as we could anyway.

We started with a quick trip into the visitor's center. 

Outside the center, we found our first Oregon license plate of the trip! I got rather excited. 

Also exciting: seeing all the beautiful mountains.

Calista said it looked and felt like being in Alberta and at Waterton. 

2022 Grand Adventure, Part 1: Raymond!

The day after school got out, we packed up the car, said goodbye to the cat, and headed down south to Raymond. We had to be there in time for Canada Day, obviously!

The kiddos were not impressed with the long drive, 

or when I told them that we'd have longer days in the car in the near future.