Thanksgiving in Vegas

We went down to Las Vegas to spend Thanksgiving with Tyler's family.  It was a lot of fun and the weather was amazing.

We played outside a lot, went to Moana, hiked up in Red Rock and ate lots of good food.

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.

30th Birthday Trip

I have always wanted to go to the Pacific Northwest, Oregon in particular.  So for my 30th Birthday we spent a weekend in Portland and it was amazing.   

Top 3 reasons why we LOVED Portland:

1 - The food.  Usually when I go on a trip I have to stay somewhere with a kitchen because of being Celiac I don't have many eating out options.  We didn't use our kitchen once.  Seriously.  Almost every place we went had a gluten free option and I didn't get sick once from cross contamination.  In addition to all the awesome GF options, the food in general is AMAZING.  I wish I would have taken pictures of all the great food we ate.  When we first got in we went to the downtown Farmer's Market.  

  

This is a picture of Payton after trying a shot of oyster in spicy hot sauce.  This was the first and last taste she had but she is really good at trying different foods.   

2 - The people.  They are seriously so nice.  Before coming here I read a lot of blogs and even though everyone mentioned how nice the people are in their blogs you don't really believe it until you experience it. 

3 - The green.  It is so green there.  The pictures don't do it justice.  We went to these amazing Japanese gardens that are 5 minutes from downtown.  It's crazy how close this beauty is to the city. 

We also went to the famous Multnomah Falls.  Wow.  That is all I can say.  But unfortunately our phones died by the time we got to the very top.

Portland Temple

Almost every blog I read said to go to an ice cream place called Salt & Straw.  We drove by the first two days we were there and the line was wrapped around the street.  We came back on the last day and got lucky with no line.  I think it was because it was a monday morning.  It was AMAZING.  Like seriously amazing.  They had some really cool flavors.  And we tried just about every flavor. Some of my favorite were: Pear & Blue Cheese, Honey Lavender, Strawberry Balsamic with Black Pepper.  They sound weird but were so good. 

Portland we loved you and we will definitely be back.  A lot.

Clearwater, Florida

We went to Florida a few weeks ago and had an amazing time.  We stayed in Clearwater which is 30 minutes from Tampa on the west side.  The beaches here are so warm and the people are so friendly.  We loved it.  Our week here went by way too fast.

Our flight there was a red-eye.  Payton slept the from 10pm on which was awesome.  

Cooper did not. But at least he wasn't screaming so no complaining here.  He slept a few hours in Ty's arms.  Great husband award or what?

Tyler's brother's family live out in Florida so they stayed with us part of the week.  It was so fun to have all the cousins together.  That doesn't happen very often.

Kristin and I had matching strollers and carseat covers and we didn't even mean to.  Great minds think alike.

These cuties loved getting buried

and then burying Uncle Brandon

They have a trolley that you can ride all down the beachfront.  The kids loved it....well except Cooper

He was happy by the end though

The plane ride home was during the day and was much better...

Such a fun trip.  I miss it already.