Here is a travel log of our action packed week, accompanied with a frenzy of fun photos (I thought we took a lot of pictures at Disneyland, but we took WAY more in Portland!).
Guess I'll go eat worms...
It rained on us most days in Oregon. And lots of rain means lots of worms. Daddy offered to pay Macie and Reid 1 dollar if they would eat a worm. But they are smart, and realized that 1 dollar would be selling themselves pretty short. For 10 dollars, well, maybe...
Here Reid is in "Pop's Garage", helping his Grandpa Reid to fix the van. We drove that van here and there and everywhere during our week long stay. Thanks to the boys for keeping it in tip top condition!
The Garden of Eden
We didn't really go to the Garden of Eden, in case you were wondering. That would've been pretty sweet. Instead we went to the Rhododendron Garden, which was pretty cool too. In fact, we had a blast there -- and the kids ranked it their second favorite destination of our trip. We were a little early for a lot of the blooms, but it is never too early in the season to chase the geese and the ducks...
Davis was being impossible for our photographer (Pops), and the only way I could get him to smile was to give him a little pinch on his bottom! Say cheese!
Here ducky ducky ducky. Come close so that we can chase you...
I love my pair of Dannys!
Daddy demonstrated how to hit the ducks and geese with pinecones. After Danny J saw the power of the pinecone, he was an instant convert. The rest of the afternoon he was either throwing a pinecone at the birds or searching for a new pinecone to throw to them.
Look what you taught me, Dad! It is fun to get the birds!
Danny J wasn't the only one converted to pinecone throwing. Davis, of course, had to join in. And he has pretty good aim, too. If birds say prayers, I betcha that the birds at the Rhododendrom garden were begging God to send the Gunnells back to Utah. Unfortunately for them, we stayed and used up every pinecone we could get our hands on.
If you can't hit them, chase them!
Look at these two lovely ladies! These are some of my favorite photos from the day.
When we first arrived, the GPS somehow gave us the wrong directions, and we ended up at Reed College, across the street. Even though they spell their college name wrong, we thought it would be fun to take a picture of the two Reids near their very own college.
Tulip Paradise
Once again, we headed to the gardens -- this time, to the tulip gardens. It had been pouring rain and the cold wind was blowing fiercely, but Danny was convinced that the storm would pass quickly. So we headed to the festival, and he was right! After waiting 5 minutes in the parking lot, sure enough we enjoyed blue skies and sun.
The ducky races are always a treat. Reid (not pictured) is an especially big fan of the duck races because his ducks always seem to win!
Danny loved hitting the tulips, because the raindrops would bounce back and spray him!
Davis is the tulip festival ninja! Our day at the flowers wouldn't have been complete without this mini warrior striking ninja poses and protecting us from whatever dangers may have been lurking in the tulips!
Look at these goofy kids. So much for a great photo shoot. All I can say is, it looks like they are taking after their father's side of the family... :) hehe.
Hoops
The basketball hoop in the driveway was a dream come true for Reid, Davis and Danny. Every time the rain stopped, even if only for a few minutes, Reid was ready to throw on his shoes to "go shoot some hoops!" And Danny J loved Pops' help in dunking a few baskets himself. His frequent requests for "Coug" (meaning, "Please sing the BYU Cougar Fight Song for me now") meant that the whole neighborhood now has heard "Rise and shout, the cougars are out" many many many times.
Jimmer Fredette, nothin but net. That's what we like to say when Reid is shooting...Put Me in the Zoo
Tuesday we headed to the Portland zoo for a day with the wild animals. Our family was just about as wild as any of the animals we saw there! Here's the family making friends with the sea lions.
This leopard was one of the prettiest cats I've ever seen. When our day was through we took a vote and decided that these were the coolest animals in the whole zoo.
Lorakeet love... what a neat experience it was to hang out in the lorakeet enclosure and lure the birds in with little nectar cups. Davis spent the most time with birds on his arm, but Macie, Daddy, Danny J, and Pops all took their turns as well. Poor dad and Pops got an unpleasant bonus- bird bites! One lorakeet actually drew blood on Pops!
No "lion"... we had a great day at the zoo!
Ode to the Trees
Saturday morning was spent selling spiral trees around the neighborhood, and here are the proud tree peddlers. Thursday was spent at Jim's place (the tree extortonist), labeling some of these beauties for shipment to Utah. What we hoped would be a quick trip to the tree farm ended up being 5 hours in the car for our kids. Total bummer. But the kids were troopers and even let us go out on a date later that night.
Here's Davis, asleep on the drive back to Wilsonville. It was that bad. :)
The Kiddie Museum
My kids normally like brushing their teeth, but they especially loved brushing this big fella.
Macie and Reid spent some time practicing in construction. I'm hoping that they get good enough I can put them to work building us a new garage someday...
Danny helped the kids build this rameumptom out of giant lincoln logs.
Be very very scared... Macie had the face paints and Daddy ended up with eyeshadow. Which was promptly washed off. Thank goodness!
We loved our trip to visit Grammie, Pops, and Lisa and we look forward to visiting them again! Thanks for showing us a fabulous time!
