April 12, 2011

4 adults + 1 teen + 4 kids + 4 days: Things to Do in Portland

Last week was spring break for Skagit County schools in Washington state and we invited Susanna and her entourage to come hang out with us in Portland. Susanna arrived Wednesday night with Aidan, his cousin Vanessa, and friend Isaiah in tow. We were joined Thursday night by Susanna's sister-in-law Adrianne, her daughter Alexis and niece Savannah. Are you counting? That's right - 7 people. In our glorified 1-bedroom/1 bathroom house! It was our challenge to make sure that all 9 of us had someplace to sleep and something to do for the next four days. For those of you wondering what to do with four adults, one 19-year-old and four kids ages 2 - 12 for four days, read on.


Susanna kicked off the entertaining on Thursday by taking Isaiah, Vanessa and Aidan to the Children's Museum. I'm not entirely sure what they all did there, but Susanna brought me back a small clay bird to paint and decorate, which is pretty darn cute.



Mike continued the good times by taking the same three kids to see the Winterhawks play at the Rose Garden on Thursday night. Susanna and I relished the adult time by going out to dinner and crocheting a little.
 
 
 

On Friday, everybody (sans Mike & I) went to the Clackamas Aquatic Center to play in the Big Surf, which was then followed up by dinner at Old Town Pizza on MLK Blvd. We chose this restaurant for three reasons: 1) they serve pizza, which pleased everybody's palate, 2) it has very nice atmosphere and good beer, 3) it was the only place I could think of that would seat all of us.

On Saturday, while half of us headed to the Crafty Underdog craft show and Powell's Books, Mike took the same three kids to see some gorge waterfalls along Highway 30.

 

(try to ignore the large sodas in their hands - it was vacation)


  

He also took them to the Bonneville Lock & Dam and the Bonneville Fish Hatchery to see Herman the Sturgeon.


 



 And finally, we finished up the vacation with a quick lesson in needle-felting for Vanessa and Isaiah.
Vanessa made a yellow duck and Isaiah made a ladybug. They were both excited to learn, and while a few comments were made about how long it was taking to finish, they both stuck with their projects all the way to the end. Vanessa even came back to add a few more details.




Mike and I both had a great time, though we were thoroughly exhausted when everybody left on Sunday. We would definitely have them all back again, though hopefully next time we'll have that second bedroom finished!

No comments:

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...