Jam Packed Fun

This last weekend, Stacie and Amber, 2 of Dallin's therapists from California came to visit.  These ladies worked closely with Dallin for pretty much the whole duration of our time there.  They know first hand how far he as come and deserve much of the credit for his success.   They were in our home so much, that they really became part of our family.  Everyone was so excited for them to come, and we sure did keep them busy in that whole day and half that we had with them. 

After they arrived on Friday night, we headed to Sherwood and stopped to eat at this Mexican restaurant that was so delish.  I was stuffed!  Dallin was quiet and well behaved for his friends.  He sat right by Amber and visited with her and Stacie the whole time. 

It was fun catching up.

Then we headed across the street to Safari Sam's.  They have a HUGE playland jungle gym that is big enough for everyone to enjoy.  And we sure did. 

Carter would get pretty nervous when he could see through to the ground, but he braved through it.

 Carter and Lily loved this tunnel and spent half the time crawling back and forth in it.

 

There is one obstacle course that is really hard.  You have to climb straight up if you ever want to get out.  Mr. Dallin couldn't get enough of if and personally took each and every one of us down to Tanner through it.  He encouraged us along the way.  Man it made me feel old.

 I was worn out after this.

Lily had a blast.  I have heard her laugh a lot, but she was making histerically happy sounds the whole time as she crawled through many places.  I loved that this place was so great for every single age, including us big kids.  I didn't get a clear picture of Dallin.  That is because he was so darn fast in there!  No one could keep up with that guy.  Many of us tried and even some other kids tried.  He was definitely the life of the party in there.  When we left, he said he wanted to come back for a whole day some time. 

After the workout, we decided to try their mini golf.  It is all painted in neon colors with black lights, so it is all psychedelic looking.  It was fun trying to photograph the lighting, although it was a challenge.

Tanner had more fun running around the place and exploring, than playing golf.

 Carter had more fun finding lost balls, than playing.

Around this time, I had lost Tanner for the 10th time that night.  I went looking for him only to find the guy at the concessions helping him put a straw in a cup of water.  Can you imagine such a bold little 4 year old ordering a glass of water by himself?

After using up every ounce of our energy, we went home and watched fell asleep to a movie.    We woke up the next morning, ate a huge breakfast, packed a lunch and took off for another day of fun.  First stop was Multnomah Falls.  These ladies had never been to Oregon, so I had to proudly show them our beautiful landmark. 

I wanted to hike some, but wasn't really planning to go to the top. Peter had different plans for us.  He encouraged us on to the point that we thought we might as well finish the whole mile of switchbacks.  We stopped for the kids enough that it wasn't too bad.  But what was really stressing me out was walking along cliff edges with 5 little kids.  Yikes!  Not fun for the Mama bear.

 It was so beautiful though.

 And we finally made it to to the top of the 620 foot fall.  Gorgeous.

 This is the 3rd tallest year round waterfall in the country.

 Just as we got back down to the bottom, it started pouring so we quickly ate with only the tailgate as cover.  This is true Oregon style.

 As is this wasn't enough to wear us out, our next stop was OMSI.  First we saw an Omnimax movie about the ocean.  Our older three kids really liked it, but Carter and Lily could not figure out reality.  Whenever a shark ate a fish, Carter started crying.  Well not not a real cry, but more of a freaked out disappointed cry that was hard not to laugh at.  Lily made me hold her facing me and held on to me for dear life for the first 10 minutes and then relaxed.   We played around in the exhibits for a while and then headed across the water into Portland. 

We HAD to stop at the Queen Bee store so the ladies could look at purses. Stacie found the cutest purse ever with little birds on it.

Then we decided to try the famousVoodoo Doughnuts.  Mmmm...Good things do come in pink boxes!  It is in a scary place in town, and it was pouring as we tried to find a place to park.  Finally a parking lot guy took pity on us with all our little kids and waved the fee for us so we could go get the deliciousness.  We found a line going half way down the block!  So we stood in the pouring rain for about 40 minutes with 5 grouchy littles and really earned our pastries.   We got an assortment with 18 doughnuts, took it home and proceeded to stuff ourselves with samplings of different kinds (and pizza too).  My favorite was the maple bacon, and the Oreo chocolate maple peanut butter one.  The Captain Crunch was was surprisingly good too.

Exhausted again, we watched (I fell asleep again)Toy Story 2 with the kids and went to bed.  So in less than 2 days, we took full advantage of our precious time with these wonderful women.  I love how they adore him and all of our kids.  Aside from Peter and I, these ladies know Dallin more than anyone in the world and know just how special he is.  It was such and honor to have them visit.