Spontaneous Portland Trip

So my husband has a job where he can work from home.  He just started this remote job about 8 months ago and recently I have been thinking of how to take advantage of this perk.  Since he can work remotely I thought it might be fun to look into house sitting.  They actually have legit websites where you can sign up to be a house/pet sitter for someone and stay for free in their home.  I have always wanted to have the opportunity to travel more and really enjoy the city from a local perspective instead of a tourist.  

So I signed up for one of these websites and started applying to tons of places.  I didn't really think we would get much opportunity because I have two kids, and one of them is 18 months old and kinda crazy.  Not very many people feel comfortable letting strangers come and stay in their home, let alone ones with kids.  But it actually worked out and our first adventure was back to Portland.  I was super excited, but I had to really talk Tyler into it.  He would prefer someplace warm and sunny.  

So Ty worked from the house during the day while I adventured with the kiddos and then we got to do some fun family adventures on the weekend and in the evenings.  We went out to eat (a ton), took a day trip to Cannon Beach (my favorite), explored the woods, went to the zoo and awesome kids museum there, and explored the crazy weird city of Portland.  It was a fun trip.

They were obsessed with the cats.  There were three cats and one dog and when we were at the house the kids were always with the cats.

The Portland Zoo is a legit zoo.  It feels like you are walking through a rainforest and seeing animals in their natural habitat.  

It was a little rainy and a lot gloomy when we first got to Cannon Beach, but by the time we got to those rocks the sun came out and it was amazing!

Cannon Beach was the cutest little beach town.  I wish we could have spent more time there.

This picture is horrible quality, but we got to watch 2 fire trucks put out a real fire (pretty small) in an apartment building across from the best ice cream shop in Portland called Salt & Straw.  We had just gotten our ice cream and walked outside to eat it and got a front row seat to the fire trucks pulling up and hooking up the hoses.  The kids were in awe.  It was pretty fun to watch them experience this.

My Favorite Season

I love the fall here in Utah.  Growing up in Vegas really deprived me of this amazing season.  We try to always go up to Silver Lake in September when the colors are so vibrant.

Making Rice Krispy Pumpkins...

Cornbelly fun with Grandpa

Pumpkin Picking

Our festive painted pumpkins

Radmall cousins

My little superheroes

Top 5 - November

Payton Millie - 4 Years 5 Months

1 - Tyler and I tried the Jimmy Kimmel challenge on Payton this year for Halloween and told her that we ate all of her candy.  She was sad for about 5 seconds and then turned to me and said "It's okay mommy I got to eat lots of candy already from my Preschool Halloween party."  Seriously!  She is such a sweetheart.

2 - Payton loves to collect things.  Rocks, torn up pieces of paper, sticks she finds out on walks, even dead bugs.  She doesn't take very good care of her toys, but for some reason these collections will always be kept safe.

3 - She came home from preschool one day telling me that she wants to have daddy help her go and hunt a turkey so we can kill it and eat it for Thanksgiving.  What?!?  

4 - We went to the farm and I forgot to bring a quarter to get food to feed the goats.  Payton is a problem solver.  She really wanted to feed the goats so she went over to the food machine and started picking up all of the corn that had fallen on the ground.  She did this for about 15 minutes.

5 - She is such a good helper around the house.  The other night she volunteered to wash the dishes (and there were a lot).  She worked hard until they were all done.  I am so lucky to have her as my oldest.

Cooper Seth - 19 Months

1 - This boy loves to play hard.  I love that whenever he falls down and scrapes his knee he stands right back up and gets back to playing like it never even happened.  He is a tough kid.

2 - This boy is obsessed with cows.  Whenever we go to the farm the cows are the first things that he visits.  I have to tear him away from the fence to go visit the other animals.  

3 - He just started learning how to pose and smile for the camera and he loves to say "cheese" and make the cheesiest face ever.

4 - This boy hangs out with older kids all the time and keeps up with them really well.  He always wants to do whatever the big kids are doing.  

5 - He is just barely starting to call me "mama" and it melts my heart every time.  He was pretty slowly to start using a lot of words, but he finally has turned a corner and he is becoming quite the talker.