Crawford Cameo: A Trip to Oregon

John and I drove the boys up to Oregon for a whirlwind of a trip! We had lots of major events all jam-packed into an extended weekend. The first night we were there, we had a little barbeque at a Park. The boys loved playing on the swings.

We loved relaxing.

My sister even brought a little firepit for s'mores!

Lincoln had some major investigating to do with new cousin Seth.

The following day we went to the Portland Zoo and Washington Park (which is a massive rose garden). There we got to ride an amazing train ride from the Zoo to Washington Park. I don't remember what we paid, but it was definitely worth it!

Look, Lincoln is getting some top teeth finally!

Doesn't it look like a sweet ride?

This rose garden was amazing! It just kept going and going with hundreds, maybe even thousands of different rose varieties. It made me want to plant a hundred roses in my yard.

I fell in love with so many different varieties. I loved that they had a plaque below each one, identifying it.

Once back at the Zoo, we were just as impressed. This zoo was HUGE! I liked that it had everything organized by region, so as you walked around you would visit the southwest or the northwest. Look at this beautiful tree! It's called a Baobab Tree. I loved the look of it.

Ethan found a sweet set of bongo drums. He could have stayed here the rest of the afternoon.

They had this land rover set up as part of the exhibit so the kids could pretend they were on an African Safari, pretty inventive, right? The front half was in with the wild dogs, but the seats were on the other side of the glass.

These two passed out right at the same time. My mom said she loved that Justin and I each had bright green strollers, it made us really easy to find in the crowd.

They had so many different kinds of Monkeys/Orangutans/Gorillas/Apes.

I just liked this carved wall.

All throughout they had fun things for the kids to explore.

They even had a cool river exhibit with the kinds of fish you would find in different rivers in each region.

John likes to get Ethan excited about Turtles. I think he's trying to persuade Ethan to ask me for one.

Even the farm area was super cool. What kids doesn't want to drive a tractor?

Or a wooden horse? We were so impressed by this zoo!

After the zoo, we met up with my sister's family for her little boy's birthday party. Ethan is posing with the man of the hour.

It was at this cool splash pad with water that shoots straight up from the ground. It reminded me of Disneyland.

Lincoln loved climbing all over these cement steps. I did not.

All the kids gathered around for some snacks, cupcakes, and presents.

The adults got a chance to take a break too.

And Ethan did his share of baby inspecting.

Lounging Lincoln.

Here are my twins.

At first, I don't think the boys knew what to think of the splash pad, but then they totally got into it.

The next day, we all went to Seth's Baby Blessing. See? We were super busy. Well, we just had to show up for things, my poor sister had to plan everything!

Mark's parents even got to come out from England for all the festivities.

Later that evening, we had my niece's baptism. It was fantastic. All except for the fact that my sister asked me to lead the music to a song I had never heard and didn't have any music to follow. That was awesome.

Seth is worn out from all this partying.

Maddie and I had a great heart to heart.

Here's the whole crew!

Later that night, we got to celebrate the 4th of July!

Ethan and Lincoln both enjoyed the sparklers.

I got to play around with all the different settings on my camera.

We had quite a show.

Maybe a little bit too big of a show!

So we moved to a different location and definitely broke some rules.

It was worth it. Well, I can say that now, we were all kind of freaking out the whole time.

I love the 4th!

The next day we were going to leave, but didn't get a chance to use up all our fireworks. So we headed over to the Parsons' to hang out one last time before heading home.