The Castle

While visiting with Grandpa Hill, we were able to see the castle that Bob and Bonnie are building. It was really neat to see inside the castle. The boys and I were also able to sleep in the castle. Although the castle was designed and built to be a reception hall /party venue it does have a one bedroom "bridal" suite. The boys loved sleeping in the castle. And it's not something everyone can boast they've done.

This is the main room in the castle. There already has been three weddings here, it's really pretty and a photo doesn't do the grandeur of it justice.



This is the view from the balance above the front door.



Here are the boys just before they went into the castle...

Great Grandpa Hill

Our first real stop on our way east, was to see Grandpa Hill. Grandpa turned 99 this year. Grandpa has two great grandkids that turn 9 this year also. Next year when he turns 100 and the great grandkids 10, I think Nana will want to do some sort of special party... but who can blame her it's not every day that you turn 10 and your great grandpa turns 100. Kyle is one of those 9 and 99 grandkids and he thought that was really cool.

Multnomah Falls

The boys went to Multnamah Falls with their aunts and Nana. They said they have fun. The boys walked to the top of the falls with their Aunt GeorgAnnette.

O.M.S.I.

Nanna has a pass for O.M.S.I. so we went there. The boys went three or four time this summer with Nana. So when I was back in town before we left to go to PA, we went one last time. They have an old (I think WWII era) sub there that you can go on and see several parts of, and it's actually in the water in the Willamette River. The boys really enjoyed it.
Full steam ahead! AEY! AEY! CAP'IN!

A sup propeller (I think)...

Torpedo's AWAY!

Down Periscope.

A little more...

Hey who turned on the red light?

I don't know who that is that is cowering in front of the sub. But that's the outside of the sub that you can see from the dock.

JR Rose Festival Parade

I love going to parades. I would have loved to see the Grand Floral Parade, but I didn't think the boys would like to sit for 5 hours on the sidewalk before the parade showed up. So I took the boys to the Jr Rose Festival parade, which doesn't have quite the crowd. I first had to convince Ryan that a parade would be fun to see. I meet my friend Amy Nelson and her 5 kids at there. Amy's son, Peter, was in the parade with the band from his school. The boys did have fun at the parade though.

This is a train that was at the end of one of the bands that come by.. All the boys liked seeing the train.


Cheese anyone?

USS McClusky

We made it to Portland, OR. The Rose Festal is in town. Yeah! I love the Rose Festival!


I took the boys to see the navy ships that made it into town. The river was running high so not all the ships were able to come into Portland (couldn't fit under the bridges). They were still giving free tours of the ships only after you signed in with photo ID and names of all the children. After waiting in line, you had to go though security. We were able to take a tour of the USS McClusky. The boys loved being on the ship.




Here is the boys and our tour guide.

Temple Square

The boys and I started our road trip with a stop to see my sister, Jessica, and her family in Salt Lake City. This was the first stop on our road trip from Chandler, Arizona to State College, Pennsylvania with a "brief" detour to Portland, OR. We toured Temple Square, the conference center and the Beehive House. Tylor was the only one that remembered the area at all, but he was 8 years old when we left and Kyle was 3 and Ryan was 18 months so yeah neither one of them remember UT at all. I don't remember the last time we took the kids to Temple Square before we left Provo. The boys were surprised to see how big the conference center was. Since Ryan doesn't like hights, he was not excited to go on the roof of the building. I told him, he could stay next to me. But then we got up there and you cannot really tell you're on the roof so he didn't mind it as much as he though he was going to...