Portland / Washington

Zach, Presley and I had the opportunity to go up to visit family in the Portland area. OH.MY.GOSH! We love it there. Zach is determined we are moving there. I dont think I would mind it so much either. I took too many pictures which is totally unlike me because I seriously always forget to take pictures. So there are a lot of collages.

Presley LOVED being around her cousins. She and I flew up last Tuesday. We had been fighting Hand, Foot and Mouth disease the week we were SUPPOSE to go up so we rescheduled our flight and I missed out on the Girls Renezvous my Sister in laws and Mother in law had planned. Im still trying not to cry about it. But so is the life of a mother. When you have something special planned your child has something different planned.


Liza and Scott live out in the country. They had so much space and even horses in their backyard. Presley loves "neighs". She absolutely loved going outside everyday and feeding them. She absolutely loved being able to go outside. Come on AZ! ITS OCTOBER! Time to cool down.


The whole purpose of the trip was to see our nephew Denmark get baptized into our church. I met Denmark when he was 4 and he sang to me at my wedding luncheon. Now he is all grown up!

Zach served his mission up in Washington, Spanish speaking and with it only being 5 hours away from Portland we had to make the trip up. Scott and Liza were kind enough to watch Presley for a few days while Zach and I galavanted around Cashmere, Wenatchee and Leavenworth Washington. Since we only really had 1 full day, which was Sunday we didnt get to hit up all the people he wanted to. But I did get to meet a few families that held special places in Zachs heart and who thought he was the greatest too. Leavenworth is really Small Town Germany. Everything is decorated and over the top. Even the McDonalds and Wells Fargo signs were all Germaned out. Since my family is originally from Germany I was totally in awe the whole time. We even found a place called Gustav's and we had to take a picture of it for my Great Grandfather Gustave( came over on the boat), Grandpa R. Gustave, my father K. Gustave and my younger brother K. Gustave.



Zach loves tunnels like the below. As we drove over to Seattle the clouds were incredible.


On the way back to Portland we decided to spend some time in Seattle. Zach really wanted to go up the Space Needle so we did and then cruised down Pike Place and The Pier. Seattle really is beautiful and full of crazies! We ate Chowder( Salmon and Clam) at a quaint little restaurant and enjoyed the alone time.





Our last day in Portland we went a wildlife refuge. We walked around for a little while basking in the nature around us. Our nephew Vance was really into collecting Catepillars and Grasshoppers. The funniest part was when Andrew had found a catepillar for Vance and then Zach caught a Gardner Snake at the exact same time. Vance was a little more into the snake and Andrew totally felt rejected. Vance excitedly screamed, "Hurry! Everyone help me get all these catepillars out of here so I can have this snake."

We REALLY had a great time! I cant wait to go back.