Oregon - The Long Drive There

Our long-awaited Trip to Oregon was finally here! I say finally because we have literally been counting down the days since January. We were so excited! We left Saturday, July 15 and arrived the next day. We were ready to have the best time!

We finally got our Van back from the shop Thursday afternoon. Greg did a quick drive to Ogden and back, then drove the van to and from work on Friday, then stopped back by the mechanic shop to see if everything was good to go. He got the thumbs up after the mechanic determined the part was doing its job. We prayed that our luck would hold on the long drive to Oregon. Regardless, we were happy to have our car back. 

Last-minute grocery shopping. I spy Quincey somewhere in the cart! 

The morning of our departure. She was ready!

Locked and loaded!

Packing for Oregon almost ended our marriage .... almost. Somehow we were able to get everything packed and leave me a spot in the back so I could feed Quincey during the loooooonnnnnnggggg drive to Oregon. It worked out quite well, all things considering.

These little girlies were the best travelers! 

We barely made it into Idaho before Greg and I couldn't stand the thumping sound any longer. We pulled off into a gas station and climbed under the car to see what was making all of the noise. We determined it was the skid plate. After a quick call to my Dad, who told us to tear it off, we did so and were soon back on the road, noise-free. So many people stopped to see if we needed help, after seeing both Greg and I under the front of the car doing our darndest to remove the screws as fast as we could - that pavement was hot! We had the tools we needed, but were still grateful for the generosity of complete strangers. It was a good reminder to me that there are still plenty of kind people in the world - all you have to do is find them.

We made it to Grandma Great's in Boise long enough for Uncle Dave to snuggle Quincey and let the girls get their wiggles out in the awesome pool. I failed to get pictures of the older girls, but got plenty of Quincey :).

Finally meeting Uncle Dave!

More snuggles from Grandma Great.

Greg swam with the girls while I went to gas up and grab a Hot & Sweaty Pizza/Breadsticks/Crazy Bread from Little Caesars. Claire and Greg downed the pizza in record time while Sof almost single-handedly finished off the breadsticks. They swam good and were hungry!

After drying off, we loaded back into the car to drive 4.5 more hours to drive thru Pendleton, OR another 45 minutes to stay in our awesome hotel. 

Oregon sure is beautiful, buggy windshield and all.

Fun on the Sinclair Dinosaur.

The girls love to help clean the windows whenever we get gas. I'm not sure if they end up making the windows cleaner or not, but it sure is cute to watch.

We learned 4 years ago that Pendleton is a complete dive, and hotels were cheaper further west, so we kept on keeping on and reached our hotel around 9:00 pm. The girls were beyond excited to stay in a hotel! And this one was basically brand new, so there were no complaints from anyone.

Quiney was a trooper and was beyond ready for bed.

I find it necessary to document that Claire and Sofia shared a bed. Sofi sleeps like me and likes to be in the middle, which means poor Claire fell out of the bed. It sounded like a legit bag of rocks when she hit the ground. And she was still so out of it that she didn't remember it the next morning, which Greg and I considered to be a good thing. Poor Claire.

Following the Columbia River to Oregon!

We woke up the next morning, and after having a delicious breakfast, got back on the road. True to tradition, we stopped at the Sturgeon Farm, mostly because it's cool, but the scenery was breathtaking. Oregon really is a beautiful place!

The little stinker didn't want to smile.

The fattest trout we've ever seen.

All I wanted was a cute picture with my girlies. I was doing my darndest to vice-grip Claire in one place with my legs and of course Greg caught me mid-blink. Oh well, at least Sof and Quincey look cute.

Let it be known that the tree's in Oregon are HUGE!

After the Sturgeon farm we had about 2 hours to Portland, which we used the time to listen to our ward's Sacrament meeting via Zoom. It was kind of awesome. Greg had researched places to eat in Portland, so our plan was to stop there for lunch. There was a cute little pie place located in the heart of Portland, where we each got a pie. Claire was past the point of no return, and really wanted Pizza, so we got her a slice. It was delicious and bigger than her head.

Afterwards, we drove 15 minutes out of the way to go walk around the Portland Temple. It was beautiful!

The temple was beautiful! In the middle of the tree's and so peaceful - we had the grounds to ourselves. It was crazy how they built it so close to the parking lot, you can literally reach out and touch the temple. 

Afterwards Greg and I went to a burger joint he wanted to try. It was yummy, but not somewhere we would eat again. 

Portland is an interesting place. There were shantytown's just about everywhere, and while we ate at some yummy places and saw some beautiful scenery, I don't think we'll stop to do any of those things again. Portland was kind of a dump.

Cute Sofia made an interesting observation: she was so confused why people treated Sunday like any other day. She didn't understand why they continued to go out to eat and not go to church. Greg and I did our best to explain to her that not everyone goes to church, and that we each had our agency and ideas as to how to spend Sunday's. We then asked her which she preferred, how we spend Sunday or how others did. Without skipping a beat, she responded that she likes spending Sunday's at church and with family. This response made Greg and I so happy. Our efforts were paying off.

After Greg and I finished eating, we climbed back in the car and drove 2 more hours to the coast. Greg drove basically all day Sunday and was beside himself when he got stuck behind a super slow truck pulling a trailer coming through the canyon before Tillamook. I was in the back sleeping with Quincey, and the girls were watching a show, so poor Greg had no one to commisserate with. So let it be known, that he was so ready to be done driving and so ready to see the Ocean, but was being stopped by a slow trailer. You can imagine his torture and my hysterical laugh when he told me after-the-fact. 

Quincey and I both slept so good! A 2 hour nap does a soul good :). We woke up waiting in line to check into our campground. 

What an exciting thing to finally arrive!