Portland

So, I seem to only have time to cover one city a day while Clive takes his afternoon nap. Eventually, I will document our trip!

Our whole trip was centered around visiting my parents on their mission in Portland. We left Seattle and drove the short drive to Portland Saturday morning. We got to my parents' place just before afternoon session of General Conference. We had a nice and relaxing Saturday and Sunday.

Saturday evening we drove to the small town of Vernonia where my parents do missionary work when they aren't in the mission office. It was a beautiful town and we got to meet the newest converts!

On Sunday, in between sessions, my brother James (who was also visiting my parents from Maryland with his family) blessed his baby girl, Torrah Marie.

The next day our little family went into Portland (my parents actually live in Hillsboro just outside of Portland) to go see the Portland tabernacle (it's referred to as a tabernacle by some and just a cool, old building by others). This was Richard's one request for the trip. For those of you who don't know, Richard loves tabernacles. He actually has written a lot about them on Wikipedia. So, my parents got us the keys so we could see the inside as well as the outside. Richard was in heaven! Look for yourself, it is a beautiful building:

The next day was Oregon Coast day. It was beautiful, but, unfortunately, it was freezing, so the first part of the day was spent like this:
Then, it got a little warmer, so we (ok, I, everyone else got out at the other stops) decided to face the cold and enjoy the beach.

My parents specifically wanted to stop at this little railroad station for Nelson. He loved it, of course. Clive and Addi (my niece) did, too!

Our last stop was the Tillamook cheese factory. The "tour" was a little disappointing, but the ice cream at the end wasn't. Here's Clive and Addi looking down at the huge blocks of cheese!
This stop also seemed too short, but I am so thankful that we got to go see my parents! They left on their mission when Clive was six weeks old, so it's been way too long since we've seen them. It was fabulous to spend time with them and my brother & his family!