Portland

On Thursday we flew from Phoenix to Portland. This meant that the boys had to say goodbye. Bryson didn’t really understand it, but Gabe gave him a big hug and said “Bye Bryson! I miss you all day long!”

Good news, he did not smother Bryson while hugging him...

The flight to Portland was long. I mean, not really, but Gabe was tired and pretty cranky. Objectively, he still wasn’t that bad, but he’s usually really good on planes, so the fact that he wasn’t a perfect angel made for a long flight. Also, he didn’t sleep at all. 

Once we got to Portland, we still had to drive to Laurie’s house which was an hour away and we had rush hour traffic. And he still refused to sleep. By the time we got to Laurie and Nathan’s house he was a tired and cranky mess. I got a little dinner down and then put him straight to bed.

On Friday we had a quiet morning with Laurie and then Gabe and I drove out to Liz’s house, where I finally got to meet her daughter. Sarah had also flown in, so the five of us all went out to lunch. Then we went back to Liz’s and I put Gabe down for a nap. As soon as I did that, Mindy came over with her two girls and I got to meet her youngest. (Seriously, I haven’t been to Portland in two years and four babies have been born since then. It’s been way too long since I’ve been down here!) It’s a good thing that Gabe is a daycare kid because he slept through all of the chaos and the kid desperately needed a nap...

Gabe woke up about the time that Mindy needed to take her kids home for the evening, so they hardly got to play at all. Oh well...

After dinner, Gabe and I headed up to Yen’s house, where we stayed for the next two nights.

Funny story... She’d asked me what kind of sleeping arrangements Gabe would need and I told her either the floor or a pack and play as he would roll out of a bed. So, she made him a nice bed on the floor, complete with a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles sleeping bag right next to my bed. Perfect. However, my son is tiny. When I crawled into bed he was sound asleep but had rolled under the bed. I pulled him out and out him back on the sleeping bag and went to bed. A few hours I woke up to a crackling noise. It sounded like someone was trying to get a cough drop. I ignored it, thinking maybe it was Yen or Andrew, although I was confused as it sounded like it was coming from the foot of my bed. Then I heard the sound of little feet, so I said “what are you doing?” A little voice said “looking for my bed.” He had rolled under the bed and then couldn’t find his bed again.

The next morning I got to meet Yen’s youngest. Now the only baby I haven’t met is Marissa’s youngest, but she wasn’t able to drive over this weekend. Also, hers is the only other boy in the entire group. Other than him, it is all girls. This weekend was five girls and Gabe. I think he’ll like those odds in 15 years, but right now it’s a little overwhelming. Plus, he could not comprehend the fact that Yen’s oldest does not have a toy garbage truck. Who doesn’t have a garbage truck??? (Gabe, the answer is girls. Most girls don’t have a toy garbage truck.)

Other than the garbage truck incident, Gabe and Yen’s oldest got along great. The last time I saw her, she was a very shy child, refusing to even look at us. We definitely did not get a word out of her. Now two years later, she was a different kid. In fact, she even came with Gabe and I to Liz’s house so that her parents could focus on getting the baby ready. We did have a slight incident in the car when we went over an overpass and one kid was convinced that we were high in the air and the other was convinced we were still on the ground, but other than that, all was well. Oh, and she did ask Gabe what his Daddy’s name was. He responded with “Daddy [last name]. Patrick. And Mommy is Sweetheart.”

We all met up at Liz’s house for brunch, which included eight adults (five girls our floor freshman year of college and three husbands) and six kids ranging in age from 4 months to 4 years. It was pretty chaotic, but it was a lot of fun. It was good to all catch up, even though it was lame that Pat couldn’t be there too.

I don’t have many pictures since I try not to post pictures of other people’s kids...

Sunday morning we drove back down to Laurie’s house to spend the day with her. Yen and her family went to church, so Gabe got to play outside with all of her kids’ toys, which he thought was wonderful. He even insisted on writing his name in sidewalk chalk.

From there, we got some breakfast...

...and then did what Gabe considered to be the most exciting thing of the entire trip. We bought him a big boy carseat.

Two months shy of three and he has finally outgrown his infant car seat... My tiny little child...

From there we went to Laurie and Nathan’s house and took a nap. Then Nathan tried to show Gabe his motorcycle, but Gabe was not having it. He would look at it and open the saddlebags, but he definitely did not want to sit on it or put the helmet on or anything. We even reminded him that Blippi rides a motorcycle, but it didn’t help...

This picture cracks me up. Nathan’s a big guy and Gabe is such a tiny kid, that the contrast is hilarious! Plus, they both just stood there and laughed at each other for a very long time...

And then Monday morning we flew home. Or, we were supposed to fly home. That’s a whole different post...