Whew, we're exhausted!

We're back and I am tired!!! Luckily we are all alive and the children are in one piece....after yesterday's plane ride they are lucky to be alive!! We left Portland yesterday and happily left behind temperatures in the 90's and 100's! Luckily it wasn't that hot on the coast and we only spent a couple days in the heat! Although, when we did get off the plane and walked outside the humidity hit like a brick wall...didn't have that in Oregon. I took out my camera to take a pic of the boys crammed in the stroller and the lens fogged up!!

Anyhow just our luck, we had bumps in our return trip-2 delayed flights, lots of gate changes, two absolutely rotten children. (I do still love them-but it is a good thing we have a month before we have to get on a plane again-I may have recovered by then.) We finally arrived at BWI at 2:00 am!! Luckily our baggage came quick and we got to our car pretty fast. Unlucky for us, Spencer screamed the whole way home. He kept yelling "want to go home" and "blankie...I want my blankie." It was with the dirty clothes since he threw up all over it. I was just sooo happy he didn't do that on the plane-both the yelling and barfing:) It was going on 3:30am by the time we finally had the kids in bed and laid our heads on the pillows. We had watched lots of lightning on the plane, but luckily the downpour started after we got everything in the house!

Darin just told me that in the 10 days we had our little car...I would have called it compact but the rental company called it "intermediate"....we racked up 1400 miles!! WOW!! We don't have any plans for a road trip in the near future-needless to say:) We also realized-well I think Darin agrees-that 10 days is a little long for little ones and staying somewhere different every night is very hard on the kids. We did stay in one hotel 3 nights for our family reunion, but a different one each night after that. We would walk right in and the kids had images of trampolines instead of beds!! The first night in Portland we even had noise complaints and the front desk called us to keep it down.

We crammed a lot in on our trip and I fell in love with the state of Oregon. It is sooo beautiful. I had heard that before, but you don't see it until you are there. Anyhow, here is a quick rundown:

Bonneville Dam and fish hatchery-outside of Portland
Multnomah Falls (waterfall)
Portland Temple-simply gorgeous!
Astoria
Tillamook Cheese Factory
lots of beaches
Newport Aquarium
tidepools
lots of lighthouses
lots of scenic views
California Redwood trees
Oregon Caves
A couple zoos-one was a drive thru safari
Crater Lake

We were happy to be home. Darin tried to get back on schedule and woke up at 9:00 this morning, but the kids and I slept until 11:30. We are hoping that it will only take a couple days to get back on schedule. We have swim lessons in the morning...wish me luck!!