Our Trip to Portland

I tried to limit the number of pics to upload from our recent trip to Portland, but there are soooo many cute ones! So see below for a picture blog of our entire trip. We had such a good time.

Em and Monkey on the airplane ride out to Portland

Using her Leapster and being a very good girl!

Playing with her mini baby doll on the plane

 We made it to Portland. Emily did fantastic on the plane rides. Our ride from Madison to Minneapolis was uneventful but then we ended up sitting on the runway for 2 hours on the way from Minneapolis to Portland. She was just about to turn into the "devil child" as we jokingly call her when we finally took off. Thankfully she fell asleep as soon as we were in the air.

Kalli got to finally understand how much Emily loves coloring - she did it every single day out there.

Emily found a new buddy. She absolutely loved Reese. She followed him everywhere and they played together all week. Oh and you can all see Dakota's head in the pic. He was a good fill-in dog for when I was missing Otis :)

Kalli took us to the Children's Museum 1 day and here is Em in the "vet's office". She is giving her Seal a bath.

Here she is at the "grocery store" checking out with her items and Aunt Kalli is helping her scan and bag them.

Here she is playing with clay at the museum

 It was really neat to see how Emily built a different relationship with each of the Brahmstadt boys. For some reason I don't have a single pic of Emily and Tyler :( I will have to get one when he is here this summer.

I love this pic of Em and AJ playing the keyboard and Emily is looking up to Nathan. Soooo cute!!!

More coloring with Auntie Kalli. Mark made me laugh when he said they are use to drawing dinosaurs, robots and dragons. Now they get to draw rainbows, flowers, and pretty things :)

We met up with Kurt, Gretchan and Rory at the pool. Here is Me, Emily, Mark, Kalli and Kurt in the pool.

On the way back to Kurt & Gret's, Kory decided to ride on the back of Kurt's bike. I didn't get a very good picture but it was a riot to see!!!

Here is Em and Reese reading books from the library at Rory's house.

Em listening to Uncle Kurt play the guitar. She loves music.

Aunt Kalli got Emily some legos for her birthday/xmas present and AJ and Reese happily helped her put them together. They were just so darn good with Miss Em.

We got to see AJ, Tyler and Reese all play basketball while we were there. It was fun to see Mark coach all the boy's games. What lucky kids they are to have such an awesome daddy!!

On one of the afternoons in Portland we left Em at home with the older boys and went to a winery and brewery for a quick tour. On the way we got to see Mt. Hood. It is georgous!!! So beautiful to drive around there. You can also see Mt. St. Helens from where they live.

On Saturday night the boys watched the little kids and the 6 adults went out. We had so much fun! I didn't take many pics but here is one of Kurt and Mark very excited about the sausage Mark ordered. LOL!

 On Sunday we all went to the coast and had the best day ever! It was soooo much fun!

Emily so excited to see the ocean for the first time!

Here she is....proud as a peach :)

The boys all helping Em find seashells

Family pic

It was such a beautiful day. Got up to about 60 degrees. Just perfect!!!

Em and Reese played in the sand for hours.

Just thought this one was cute!

Me and my sassy girl.

Emme and her Daddy

The 3 musketeers

Nearly impossible to get the 3 of them to hold still long enough for a photo!!!

My sweet baby girl. I absolutely adore this photo!!!!!!!!!!!

Digging and climbing and playing!

Love this pic of AJ, Reese, Em and Mark all walking together on the beach

Here's Mark and AJ thinking they are all cool standing on the rocks as the water gently fills around them.....

Ok...now they're watching in the distance and getting a little more nervous.....

OH CRAP! Now it's not such a good idea! LOL! The tide came in quick!

One last day in Portland we took Miss Em to the mall. She was posing in front of Kalli's house.

For some reason these 2 goof balls kept putting mustaches on. Too funny.

After the boys got home from school, on our last day, we went to the arcade. AJ had been saving up his tokens for something special and guess what??? He put all his tokens into a prize for Emily. How sweet is that?????? She was sooo happy. Here she is with AJ and the toy he got for her.

Had to get a new pic to update Em's frame with her godfather, Nathan. What a special guy he is! Em loved playing with him. Nate and his girlfriend, Kathryn took Em to the mall to pick out a special xmas/bday present. She got TWO princess dolls from the Disney store and was so excited. He also babysat her 1 night and took her to McDonald's for a treat.

Last night in Portland...we are NOT ready to go home :(
Here's a pic of Mark, Em and Kalli. Thank you guys SOOOO much for having us. We had a blast and can't wait to come back next year! LOL!