We took the evening flight after work on a Wednesday night, and since we were on Southwest we chose our seats. Jose opted to sit with both girls in between them, while I got to sit alone across the aisle. Who am I to complain about that? It was a very peaceful flight to say the least ;). For me anyway...
We made it to Scappoose around 11:00pm that night after we landed. It is about 30 minutes away from Portland. That Thursday morning we slept in and then went shopping and to Round Table Pizza for lunch. This is my all time favorite pizza chain in the world, and they only have them on the west coast. So every time I go to a state that has it, I have to eat there!
That night we had dinner at Brett and Hillary's house, who are some friends of ours that live in Hillsboro. We cruised with them last October, so the kids are already familiar with each other. We went to a park in their subdivision and just relaxed.
On Friday morning, we picked up a rental minivan from Enterprise and drove to downtown Portland to pick up Larry, Jose's stepdad, from school. We were on the road around 1:00pm and started the 4 hour drive south to Coos Bay, which is where the rest of Jose's family is.
We stopped at a rest area in Elkton, and it was one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen! The water was pretty shallow there, and there were a ton of people swimming and fishing nearby.
Another rest stop on the way is at an Elk Reserve, and this was the first time we have seen them to close to the fence. The girls loved seeing them and Jasmine still calls them Orks.
Once we got to Coos Bay, we stopped by The Mill Casino, which is the hotel we would be staying at for the next two nights. We usually stay with Jose's dad when we are in town visiting, but Jose's sister, her boyfriend, and 3 kids were all in town that same weekend and were staying there.
After we checked in, we drove to Jose's Uncle Tim's house, and we all had pizza and hung out with the family. There were a good 30 people there, including Jose's dad and stepmom. This was the first time they met Jordan. We took some great pictures of all of us together.
We were lucky to have already seen Jose's sister, Kahla, her boyfriend, Corey, and their kids Kileah, Keivon, and Caden when we were in Los Angeles earlier this year for our cruise. So it was a nice treat for the kids to all get to spend some time together again with their cousins.
Another reason we chose this week to go was because the Coos County Fair was going on. This was a favorite childhood memory for Jose, and he really wanted the girls to experience it.
That morning, I woke up and saw that Jordan had taken over the queen sized bed that her and Jasmine were sharing. She loves to sprawl out!
We drove over to Uncle Tim's house where Debbie and Larry were staying, and picked them up in the van. We all headed over to Myrtle Point to watch the parade. Jose's Uncle Jim, Uncle Tim, his wife Tess, and Jose's cousin Kevin all met us there and we watched the parade together.
The funniest part to me was that we showed up with about 5 minutes to spare and there were plenty of seats left for viewing. Then the local grocery store was even closed because all of the employees wanted to watch the parade. As you can tell, this is a very small town.
During the parade, they passed out Popsicles to the crowd. Only in Oregon! It was the middle of summer, but we all had on jackets and the Popsicles were not melting! It was in the low 60s that morning. That was such a treat to us since we had been in triple digits in Colorado for most of the summer!
After the parade, we went to the fair. We saw some of the pageant girls there and Jasmine thought they were princesses since they all had tiaras on. One of them was such a sweetheart and let Jasmine put on her tiara and sash while they posed for a picture.
The fair had several exhibits up of fruits and vegetables, quilts, photography, and animals. We stopped in the photography section and let the girls pose for this fun picture.
Afterwards we went to see the animals. There was an auction going on and they were spraying the horse's tails with glitter and hairspray to make it stand out. We got to pet several animals, which the girls absolutely loved.
There was a baby animal tent, and Jasmine was able to hold a baby duck, chick, rabbit, and kitten. We were very bummed that Jordan fell asleep just as we got into the tent, so she missed all of that.
Jasmine and I also got to pet a baby horse, and he was adorable! I was very surprised that Jasmine wasn't afraid of the animals.
On the way out, we stopped by a fishing game so the girls would have a chance to win a prize. We picked this one because it said that kids were guaranteed a win. They were magnetic poles and fishes, and you just had to get one on the line. Jasmine won a stuffed banana and Jordan picked a blue monkey.
We went back to the hotel and ended up booking a room for Jose's mom and stepdad that night so the kids could spend the night with them. We all took the kids swimming first, and luckily it was an indoor pool since it was pretty chilly outside.
We then left the kids with Debbie and went to the casino. We ended up staying there for almost 4 hours because we were just doing so well. Jose's Uncle Jim was there with us, as well as Larry. I finally left around 1:45am, but the three of them were still playing :).
It was also very weird to be in a casino where people are allowed to smoke. I guess I take for granted the fact that you can't smoke indoors in Colorado, including in casinos. I had to move machines several times because I didn't like sitting next to someone who was smoking.
The next morning we left to have breakfast with Jose's dad and stepmom, Lori. We went to a local diner, and the food there is so delicious!
After breakfast we drove back to the hotel and took a few pictures with Debbie and Larry on the pier on the backside of the hotel.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment