Portland Day Three

So for my third day in Portland, the plan was to go to the International Rose Garden and the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry. Since I was using public transportation to get around Portland, I would usually look up what bus or train to take in order to get where I was going. That day, I didn't look up exactly where I was going. I knew that it was in the Washington Park area but I wasn't sure how far away it was going to be. Anyways, I took a train to Washington Park and then I started to walk around trying to find the Rose Garden. Well, I ended up having to walk 1.5 miles in order to get to the Rose Garden. ha-ha  I had to walk beside a road but I usually walked on the road since my stroller is not all-terrain. Luckily, there were not many cars passing by.

Road to the Rose Garden

Timmy was pretty good on the walk to the Garden. It was a bit cold on the walk over but it was a very beautiful area to walk through.

Timmy and I took a break to take a picture. I had to keep my hood on because it was cold and windy. Timmy doesn't really like hats or hoods on his head so he took his hood off. Silly baby :)

The picture below is just another view of the scenery around the road.

Before I got to the Rose Garden, I did not think about the roses still being in bloom or not since it was the beginning of October. Luckily, the roses were all in bloom and the Gardens were beautiful! The International Rose Garden also happened to be free. It was a win-win situation.

Timmy really enjoyed getting out of the stroller after our long walk and running around like a silly-head.

Looking at all of these roses definitely made me want to plant roses. Maybe some day I will. Until that time, I will just have to live vicariously through my sister-in-law Erika.

  I really had a lot of fun looking at all the roses and taking pictures of them. Their were so many different kinds of roses to see so that it why I have like a gazillion photos of roses.

 After we went to the International Rose Garden, we went to a great playground that was only a little bit away from the Garden. Timmy had a lot of fun playing there and there were lots of other kids there.

 After we left the playground, I had to go back to the hotel in order to meet up with my husband. He was going to be done with his conference for the day around lunchtime and we had plans to go to another museum. I tried to look for a bus/train in order to get back to the hotel but I didn't feel like waiting for a bus. I thought that maybe I could walk and catch a bus faster. Instead, I ended up walking for like 45 minutes and I am guessing that I walked at least 2 miles or more. Once I got back into the city, I met up with my husband to eat lunch at Subway. We then caught a bus to go to the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry. We walked along the river to get to the Museum.

 The Museum was kinda cool. It had a great area for younger kids. It had a bunch of different things for Timmy to do. We even got Timmy to wear a chipmunk costume.

They also had a water play area for Timmy. He wore a vest to keep his clothes dry but he still got his clothes wet. Even though he did get wet, he still had a lot of fun playing in the water.

 Their was also a grocery area with tons of play food. There was a baby area, a sand pit, an art area, and a slide to play on. Timmy definitely enjoyed the kids area and we liked it too.

After we were done playing in the kids area, we went through the rest of the museum. Throughout the museum, they had a bunch of areas where brain teasers were set up. The brain teasers were really interesting and I thought they were a lot of fun to do. One area of the museum was an exhibit about race. I was not a big fan of it. Another area was called Grossology and it was all about gross stuff happening in your body. I thought it was okay but I could see how other people wouldn't like it.

 Timmy eventually feel asleep at the museum after we got done playing in the kids area.

I would mostly say that we liked the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry because they had a lot of brain teasers, hands- on stuff, and a great kid areas. But, I was not a fan of their exhibits.

After the museum, we grabbed a quick dinner and spent the rest of the night at the hotel.

Portland Day Two

 For Day Two, my plan was to visit the Portland Children's Museum. It seemed like a cool place to visit. I had also never taken my son to a children's museum so I thought it would be fun to see what that was all about. Like yesterday, I had to take a train to get there since it was in the same area as the Zoo.

It was a little windy and cold when we went over there. I had to take my stroller to get to the museum. Once I got into the museum, I was able to park my stroller in a room there so that Timmy could wander about.

Once we got there, I saw that they were having  Story Time in a few minutes. We quickly made our way back to the tree house area where the story was going to be read. The museum worker read quite a few stories about fall and such. The books were all very interesting and it was pretty good.

 After story time was over, we made our way over to the 'Dig Pit'. In the 'Dig Pit', they had some tire scraps that the kids could dig into. They also had some trucks in there to play with.

Timmy liked playing with some big and small shovels. He also played with some buckets there. 

 Another area that Timmy enjoyed playing at was the grocery area. They had some shopping carts to take your stuff around in. They had also tons of play food, plates, cups, utensils, etc. There was even an area where you could check out with your play food. Timmy enjoyed picking up all the kitchen stuff and just running around with them. He also enjoyed pushing the shopping cart.

They also had another area which was the construction zone. They had cute little work vests to work. Timmy liked to pick up some wood sticks there.

Timmy was able to put on a tool belt there.

Timmy also got to try on a construction hat which was very cute.

 After the construction zone area, we went to an area where there was a train table along with a bus and ambulance. The train table was very interesting. None of the train tracks were stuck down so kids were able to move the tracks anywhere. Moving the tracks could be great for older kids but I generally like for the tracks to be stuck down.

Timmy played with the trains for a little bit.

 After the train tracks, Timmy played in a bus. He enjoyed pretending to drive the bus.

The children's museum was pretty interesting. It had plenty of areas beside the ones that I took pictures in. It also had a water area which was closed for the time. There was a baby area, a animal vet area, a clay area, a theater area, and plenty of other stuff. I thought the museum would be better for older kids. Timmy enjoyed playing with things but I definitely didn't enjoy having to pay for him. Ha!

Unfortunately, the museum's cafe area was undergoing renovations so there wasn't anywhere to eat there. The only other place close by to eat at was the Zoo. Timmy and I had lunch again at the zoo. We then made our way back to the Hotel. Timmy took an afternoon nap. He slept longer than the day before but he definitely cried in the middle of his nap. I decided to let him cry for a little bit because he needed the sleep.

After his nap, we walked to a nearby mall in order to get frozen yogurt. Vermont only has one frozen yogurt store here that I know of and it is no good. I definitely enjoyed the frozen yogurt in Portland. After we went there, we walked over to Powell's Books. The bookstore was very large and pretty cool. I picked up some books for Timmy there.

After Powell's Books, Timmy and I made our way back to the hotel in order to meet up with Tom for a little bit. Tom had to go to a meeting that night so I ordered room service for myself. Timmy went to bed pretty early and then I went to bed later on after him.

Portland Day One

Before we went to Portland, I kinda had a general idea of what our week would look like and places that I wanted to go see. I tried to plan at least one place to see per day but then I had to improvise when I needed more things to do.

For Monday, my plan was to sleep in as long as possible because we had been traveling the day before. Timothy had other plans. He was up bright and early around 7:30 am. I got up and we went to eat breakfast at the hotel. The food was pretty good and it was complimentary. After we ate breakfast, I tried to find the nearest train stop to get to the Portland Zoo. We ended up taking the scenic route because I got a little lost.

Our hotel was in downtown Portland. It was also very close to the Willamette River.

After we took the scenic route, we finally made it to the train station. We had to take a 20 minute ride in order to get to the zoo. Timmy loved looking out the windows at everything that was going on.

Yes, You are correct. We are wearing matching shirts :)

The train took us to this place called Washington Park. It was really cool. Once we got out of downtown Portland, we went through a tunnel to get to our stop and then we had to take an elevator up to the top. In the Washington park area, there is the zoo, a children's museum, a forestry museum, and some other things. It was really pretty and scenic there. The zoo was also a really great zoo.

 Timmy really enjoyed seeing all the animals but he also enjoyed pushing his stroller throughout the zoo.

He liked climbing through tunnels.

He also liked getting up close and personal with the fishes.

Another favorite activity of his was to play with leaves, rocks, and such.

Along with all of those fun activities, there was also some more observing of animals.

All in all, we really enjoyed the trip to the zoo. It was Timmy's first time at the zoo so it was a lot of fun to take him there. After we were done looking at all the animals, we ate lunch at the zoo and then left. We made our way back to our hotel. Timmy took a very short nap which was tough on me because I would have loved to have slept for longer. My body was definitely aching since I got no sleep on the flight over to Portland.

After Timmy was done with his nap, we went back out again to take in all the sights. Chinatown was only a few blocks away so we walked over there. We just walked through the area and looked around. We then stumbled upon the 'Lan Su Chinese Gardens'. I decided we should go in. A tour was just starting when we went in so we listened to the tour for a little bit. After a while, I decided that a tour was just not very suitable for Timmy so we just explored on our own.

The gardens had some really neat buildings and water areas.

They also had a really cool walkway which was made up of carefully placed rocks.

 They had certain areas which were just filled with all kinds of interesting plants, bushes, small trees, bamboo, etc.

 In different buildings, they had certain displays. In one of the buildings, they had some really cool artwork. They also had another building that showed some great pottery. One of the other buildings held a tea room.

 In this building, they had a little set-up for you to try to write Chinese Calligraphy.

Below is a picture of what some of the buildings there looked like.

 Overall, I enjoyed going to the Chinese Gardens. It was so interesting to have the gardens set in the middle of downtown Portland. It was so interesting being inside the gardens and then coming outside of them to see all the tall buildings around.

After we left the gardens, we walked by the river for a little bit. In the area that we walked around, their were quite a few homeless/sketchy people around. The only non-sketchy people around the area were people who were biking/running/walking along the path by the river.

 We finally made it back to the hotel in order to meet up with Tom. Timmy played for a little while in our hotel room but then we was ready to go to bed. Tom picked up some dinner for us and then we just watched a little TV together. I also left to go swimming in the pool and hang out in the hot tub by myself. After a while, I was ready to go to bed too.

flying to portland

Before I get into our whole Portland trip, I would like to mention that it snowed today. It was just a light snow but it just made me realize that winter is coming! I am not really looking forward to winter. Haha.

Anyways, my husband went to a work conference in Portland, Oregon this year so my son and I tagged along. We had lots of fun but it was kind of tiring too.

For our trip, we flew out on a Sunday night. Instead of flying out of our local airport, we decided to fly out of the Boston Airport because tickets were cheaper and we could get a non-stop flight. Since we were flying out of Boston, we had to drive 3.5 hours to get there. We thought about going to church that day since our flight wasn't until late at night but we just decided to skip church and hit the road. On the way to Boston, we had to stop twice to change diapers for the wee one. Thankfully, we didn't really hit any traffic but we did have to go through a toll road. Darn Toll Road. Ha! Anyways, we finally made it to the airport. We parked our car and got all checked in.

We then let Timmy play in the play area.

After a couple hours of playing, it was finally time to take off. Our flight went fairly well. We were all able to sit together. The babe slept some although it was fitful sleep. He would sleep on us for a little bit but then sometimes he would move and start crying. Poor thing. It is so much easier to sleep in your bed than on a plane. Sigh.

Anyways, we finally made it to Portland. Grabbed a Taxi. The Driver drove pretty fast. Checked into our Hotel and then went to sleep.

cross stitch

Sorry that I haven't written in my blog in a little while. I was in Portland, Oregon last week and I did not take my computer with me. I definitely am trying to write more in here so I plan on blogging about my Portland trip sometime soon.

Anyways, I wanted to write a post about my latest crafty adventure. So, I don't know exactly why I started getting into crafting. Maybe it was pinterest or my sister-in-laws or just whatever. Whatever the reason, I have definitely become more interested in creating things and learning how to do creative things.

Last year, I was shopping at a local craft store and I came upon a little christmas cross stitch. I went ahead and bought it because I thought it would be fun to do and it only cost a couple of dollars. I looked at it a few times throughout this past year but I wasn't sure exactly where to begin. Just recently, I got together with some friends to have a crafting night. I decided to bring along my cross stitch. I worked on it a little bit there and finished the rest at home. At times, I looked on YouTube to explain more about how a certain stitch was done.

Here is my finished project:

All in all, I really enjoyed doing a cross stitch and I have already bought another one to do. I can't wait to get started on it.

pumpkin decorating

I'm back. Surprised to see me writing a post so soon? haha. I might just actually remember that I have a blog and write in it for a change ;  We shall see....

Like I said in my last post, I definitely did not want to carve a pumpkin this year. Last year, I got a special pumpkin carving kit and I even printed out a template for cutting out a certain design on my pumpkin. But, the pumpkin turned out pretty bad and I just gave up halfway through carving it. This year, I was perusing pintrest and saw some pumpkins that were painted. I decided that painting was definitely the way to go! I couldn't find the picture that I saw but it was of a white pumpkin with some design on it. I just knew that I wanted to have a white pumpkin.

I just happened to have some white spray paint on hand that I had just recently bought for another project. I took the pumpkin outside and just painted away. I ended up spraying the stem white too because I didn't tape it off so I just painted that black later on. The last thing I did to the pumpkin was attach a bat sticker that I bought at Michael's recently.

Without further adieu, here is my pumpkin....

I absolutely love my pumpkin and I am definitely planning on painting a pumpkin again next year. The neighbor kids are definitely loving my pumpkin too. As soon as I put my pumpkin outside in front on my door, one of the neighbor kids told me that it looked really cool.

After the wee one woke up from his nap, I got him to take some pictures with the pumpkin too.

In case you were wondering, I got his skeleton pajamas at Walmart. They even glow in the dark which is great for looking in on him at night in his crib. I can always find where he is without turning on the lights. haha. I doubt he will actually wear these pajamas on Halloween to go trick-or-treating because it will probably be too cold for that. We already have another costume in mind that someone gave to us. Score!

Here is another picture of the cutie

Next thing I know, the photo session is over as far as the model goes. Models these days...no manners. HA!

Good times!   Anyways, I plan on writing another blog post soon but I will just have to figure out exactly what I want to blog about ;

pumpkin time :)

Hi.

I have a blog. I have really neglected it. Can't you tell? The last time I wrote in it was 4.5 months ago. Oops. Anyways, my sister-in-law erika frequently likes to remind me that I should write in my blog. So this post is for you erika. Happy now? haha.

Now that the niceties are out of the way, I can get to the whole reason why I even decided to write a blog post anyways.

In case you didn't  know, it is September and next month will be October. October means Halloween, pumpkins, and all kinds of fall goodness. Even though it is only September, I have already gotten our pumpkin for Halloween. The reason I got it so soon is because I really wanted one and also because I wanted to take pictures at the pumpkin patch before it got too cold. That's right folks! I live in Vermont where it gets cold and it is getting colder as each day goes by.

Last year for Halloween, I bought a pumpkin at a local apple orchard who also happened to sell pumpkins. I tried to carve it but it did not turn out well. Instead, I just took pictures of Timothy with the pumpkin.

 This year for Halloween, I decided to not even attempt to carve a pumpkin but instead do something a little different. First, we had to go and get a pumpkin at the local pumpkin patch. I had never been to this pumpkin patch but I decided it would be fun to try it out. As it turns out, this was the first weekend that they were offering hay rides to the pumpkin patch. We definitely were not the only people there. Smart people think alike. Ha! I would love to show you pictures of us on the hay ride but those pictures turned out not to be so flattering of me so we will just skip ahead to the photos at the pumpkin patch part.

Timmy was very intrigued by all the pumpkins and enjoyed walking around. I also tried to get in some family pictures. That basically means that I brought our nicer camera and our tripod to the pumpkin patch. Ha! Here is a picture with the lil bambino and dada.

After the picture with dada, we then had to get a picture with the wee babe and me :)

Lastly, we got some family pictures too.

I think that this will be the end of this post. Next time, I plan on sharing pictures and talking about the actual decorating of the pumpkin.