ohh oregon! part 1

hood river, oregon.....what an unbelievable trip. our big, family vacation was everything we were looking for. fresh, cool mountain air, beautiful scenery, family togetherness, hiking and sightseeing. count in lots of good eating (and winery-hopping and brewery visits for everyone else) and some downtime to read too and man was it a VACATION. hehehe. here are the first part of my favorite pics. of course all 300 some pics didn't make the cut but i'm hoping to put the others into a book/album. thank you pam and walter for hosting us and being such great tour guides.

nothing like starting bright and early....our flight was 6:30 in the morning....sammy was overly excited and kept saying on the airplane..."pilot says seatbelts on". she was happy both long plane rides. fell asleep in her mimi's arms and played dolls and coloring and of course watched Dora!

our first destination...EAT LUNCH! and to think this was our view from. lunch at the bottom of this beautiful waterfall....

sammy so happy to see her grammy and wa wa at lunch that first day



mountain views everywhere....it was breathtaking...

our first hike of the trip....almost five miles and lets just say we were not used to the Up and Down of the mountain trail

reminded me of twilight....well didn't help i was reading breaking dawn in between hikes...

dad being adventurous....made it all the way across. whew!

baby girl fell asleep the whole hike up....



one afternoon we had lunch at this lodge up in the mountains. it was crazy to see snow there.







downtown hood river had a cute little street of shops and boutiques, breweries and wine tasting bars. this ice cream shop i fell in love with at first glance. always bustling with young families and lots of local kids.





tyler and dad braved the cold waters and white-water rafted.....

on saturday we drove in to portland to check out the city and this saturday street market had more people watching then we had time for. hehehe. it was much colder than planned so i of course HAD to buy something....a scarf to warm me up! hehehe ps. dad trying out the weird fruit/veggie cup

sammy wore every layer she had randomly in her diaper bag. mismatched leggins and undershirts to keep warm. she was mesmorised by the balloon man who was happy to make her whatever she wanted! it always amazes me when she gets to pick and has her own ideas.

the best part of the day....we mapped out this famous pizza vendor. sort of a random little collection of food trailors on a street corner. it was WELl worth it and all the random things we ate....fresh french fries and spicy chipolte dip(i could have eaten it with a spoon, hehe), some random baked dessert thing i forget the weird name, fresh fruit smoothie, a chocolate crepe made right in front of you....yum!