Our wonderful week-long vacation...prepare yourselves, this is quite a post!

Saturday, April 24, 2010
Two days ago, Deven and I returned from our week long trip to Washington and Oregon. I was pretty nervous prior to leaving because the longest trip Porter has been on was a 4 hour drive to Utah. This trip would be almost 8 times as long! Whew! I got SO lucky though because he only woke up TWICE in 16 HOURS! WOW BABY! The drive there was great, I slept about 6 full hours of the trip while Deven drove all but the last 4 hours of the trip. We ended up leaving at 8pm because we figured we could get more driving time in while Porter took his 7 hour “nap” for the night Turns out, we planned it out PERFECTLY! Two of the most memorable things about the drive to Washington would have to be:

1. Almost had a close encounter with an adult female deer in the middle of the road, and
2. Discovered a small little “town” called Tokio in Washington! Crazy huh?
Apparently no one else has heard of it which really wasn’t much of a shocker. But to remember our stop there, we bought a little Ty monkey for Porter and named him Tokio. Haha fun huh?


We arrived at my parent’s home around noon on Thursday and after getting settled in just relaxed a bit and took advantage of our break from school, work, and Rexburg by taking a long nap. Throughout the 4 days that we stayed at my parents, Deven slept LOTS! He was getting over a really bad sore throat, which, sadly he got from me. Poor guy, he was miserable the whole time. My mom threw me a wonderful baby shower the day after we arrived and I got lots of cute things for Porter, but the best part was having the opportunity to catch up with old friends.

Porter’s Photo Shoot with Stacy Jacobsen

We also snuck in a fun photo shoot with Stacy Jacobsen (stacyjacobsenphotography.com) for Porter while we were in town. We just LOVE Stacy and her phenomenal work! She is such a talented photographer and really captures the beauty and spirit in everything. Ha, he was so funny during the first shots because he kept looking in the OPPOSITE direction Stacy had wanted him to, come to find out (20 minutes later) that he was checking out the black and white contrast of another background she had set up on the wall. So sweet! He was pretty happy throughout most of the shoot which made things so much easier for all of us.

Giggles and Grins with Grandma Terry

My mom was really looking forward to seeing Porter again, she tells me often to take MORE and MORE pictures and to text them to her when we are home in Rexburg. I finally got a week of her satisfied and able to take shots of her own. haha! I love her, she’s a wonderful grandma and Porter has so much fun with her. She actually just bought him a jump-a-roo which he LOVES! It’s quite a treat to see him play in it. At this point, he isn’t quite tall enough to jump because he can’t reach the ground so we are putting a pillow underneath him to give him a little boost.

Visit with G.G. Caswell!

Monday night we stayed with my Grandma and Grandpa Caswell at their beautiful Inn in Long Beach. They prepared a yummy “Taco Buffet” dinner for us just after we arrived and we had a great time visiting. We woke up in the morning to my absolute FAVORITE breakfast, Blueberry and Buckwheat pancakes with eggs, bacon, and O.J.! YUMM!! What a fun stay…we love our visits at the B’nB!

Oregon with Derik, Kelly, Isaac and their new arrival little Jonah!

We had the wonderful opportunity of spending a few days with Derik and Kelly and their two sweet little boys. Isaac has grown SO much! He’s just FILLED with energy and is talking away! He just loves his rice cakes and spending time with his mom and dad. It’s fun to just sit back and observe his interactions with everyone…especially his new little brother Jonah. Our 2nd day at their home we all went out to lunch at the mall and had a really nice walk…as oblivious as I am, I kept running Kelly into the dirt just next to the sidewalk. How sweet am I, right?! I felt SO bad! I guess I had done it 3 times before Deven finally pointed it out to me. Haaha, I’m such a klutz sometimes. Our last night there, Kelly, Isaac and I took a trip to DQ for some Blizzards because they had a special going. SOOO YUMMY! I’ve FINALLY fulfilled my craving of the past 3 years! It’s been WAY too long!

CRAIG and Bri

Our last stop before heading home was Eugene, Oregon to meet up with our good friends, Craig and Bri. They are currently expecting a little boy, Packer, in June! Can’t wait! Bri has the sweetest baby bump! I kept rubbing her tummy. Weird right? I got that ALL the time when I was pregnant so I kind of justified the awkwardness. Lol! We all went to the food court to have lunch together, then walked around the mall for a few hours as we caught up. Porter was pretty grumpy throughout most of our little get-together. Not so fun, but it worked out. Oh, and they got a sweet little Dog from Build-A-Bear for Porter. They didn’t have any Moose stuffed animals which we were originally looking for, so we named the dog Moose. It all worked out.

Drive Home

Our drive home was great! We took a different route this time which took us through most of Oregon it seemed like, 6 hours of it at least. We passed by 2 national parks and drove through Bend, Oregon which I guess is in the dead center of the state. For the first part of the drive, we were driving alongside this BEAUTIFUL river! SOO pretty! The trees lined the freeway and really added to the beauty of the drive. Hit a snow storm about 3 hours from home which was pretty scary but once we arrived home (at 4 a.m.), it was the greatest feeling…finally able to unpack and settle down again. Overall, we had an AMAZING vacation! We loved getting the chance to visit so many family members and friends. Thanks to all of those who made our trip so enjoyable!