More Family Times in July 2015

July has truly been a great month, so I need to put a few more great events that have happened this month:

Trip to Portland

We were so excited when Alison told us that Tyson had a soccer tournament in Portland and they were flying there for the tournament which would last the weekend.  She asked if we could meet them there.  Of course!  It was only three hours away, so off we went!  We drove an older route which took us through much beautiful scenery.  Natalie, Ethan and Ella, also, went and Kent met us a day later.

I believe this is Mount St. Helens that you can see in the background.

We stayed pretty close to the river the entire time.  I loved taking pictures, but they are while we were traveling and through the window, so a little blurry.

Going across the Astoria Bridge, which divides Washington and Oregon.

After picking up Alison, Tyson, and Preston at the Portland Airport, we traveled to our hotel.  It was a great place to stay for the next 3 1/2 days and had a wonderful breakfast, as well as snacks in the evening.

Of course, it had a great indoor pool for the kids.

One night, George and I took Ethan and Preston to a Family Fun Place.  We all had a great time!

 The race track was great fun for Ethan, but they said Preston was a little too young to go on it without someone 18 yrs. or older, and he didn't want to ride with anyone else. 

 Ethan on the fitness obstacle course.

They both had fun on the miniature golf course!

Great fun for the boys, as well as Grandpa and me!

Attending Tyson's Soccer Games

 

But the main reason we all were there was to watch Tyson at his tournament.  We watched all four of his games and cheered our hardest for Tyson and his team!

 Avid soccer fans, Ethan and Preston.

Although he played on several different fields in the Portland area, we were amazed that they were all on artificial turf.  (It certainly helped with Tyson's allergies!  For a kid that has so many allergies, grass is one of the worst for him, and yet his favorite sports are played on grass usually--soccer and lacrosse.)

 Tyson is #30 and is seriously one of the best defensive players I've ever seen at this age.  He has a powerful kick!

And his head bunt is fantastic, too!

I love how aggressive he's become!

And he runs like the wind!

Yes, he and his team, played so well.  They qualified for the semi-finals, but unfortunately the game ended in a tie, so it had to be decided by penalty kicks in a shootout.  Tyson's team had one less on the kicks, so the other team won.

After the game, he gave his mom a high five for a job well done!

 

Thanks, Tyson, for allowing us to attend your games and have such a wonderful weekend together!  And congrats to your entire team for playing so hard and giving it their all!

We took a few pictures after we spent the weekend in Portland.  Ethan, Tyson, and Preston

Tyson with his mom.

Proud Grandma and Grandpa with Tyson.

Other Fun Activities During the Week

There were a couple of places we wanted to stop at before going home.  One of the places was called, "VooDoo Doughnut."  We had tasted them before, and they are like none-other.  But we had no idea what we were getting ourselves in for as far what we had to go through to get them!

Yes, it was like going to Disney World with partition ropes going back and forth, first on one side and then the other.

The entire wait to get inside???  55 minutes, to be exact!

Another new little tradition people are starting--sticking a penny on their gum on the wall.  Guess it keeps them from thinking how long they have been standing!

 

 Finally inside, there was still a wait.  But the kids were very patient--they love donuts!

 Then we finally got to the showcase where you can pick all the kinds you can ever think of!  Some have cereal on them, others have hot peppers inside, you name it!

 

Yes, it was quite the place!

 But those smiles tell it all--we had some pretty pleased kids!

Ethan couldn't wait to dive into his Texas-sized doughnut!

He decided it was big enough to share with Tyson!  Hah!

 One other place we had to stop and try was the "Salt & Straw."  It had a very unique salt and caramel ice cream that we wanted to try.

 It was a little salty for my taste and very expensive.  Tyson tried another kind that I'm sure was much better.

 Grandpa liked it all and ended up eating anything anyone couldn't finish!  Hah!  Hey, who's driving the car with both hands busy on these shakes?

On the way home, we really wanted to stop at Multnomah Falls, but everyone must have had the same idea because there was a chain across the exit saying the parking lot was full.  Hopefully we can see it next time we go to Portland!  This is as close as we could get from the road, but with not place to park, we couldn't even walk over to it!

We stopped at an overlook a little ways afterwards, and I snapped a picture of Tyson, the soccer player.

George and I at the overlook.

 It was a beautiful day for the drive home.  Here we are with three of the grand kids--Tyson, Preston, and Ethan.

 Alison with her two youngest boys:  Tyson and Preston.

We, also, passed a big electrical dam.  There was always plenty of sites to see on the drive home which ended up taking an hour longer than when we drove to Portland.

The next day, we all piled in the car to go pick up Cameron and Anne's son, Jaxon, who flew into Pasco Airport to spend a few days in our area.

We were all so excited to see Jaxon come.  It was great having him here, too!

 Natalie was the camp director for all the kids and had so many great ideas for them all to enjoy.  One of the first was going to the bounce place in Tri-Cities.  I think they loved the dodge ball the best!

Amidst all the fun activities, Dr. Copeland was so kind to have his hygienists clean, while he worked on all the nephews' teeth that came.  Here Tyson gets a cleaning . . .

Ella has already decided she wants to be a hygienist, so the hygienist working on Preston has shown Ella how to apply the fluoride, which she does for Preston.

She did a great job and has a very satisfied patient!

 But the funnest part to me as a mom was to watch my son, Kent, working on my daughter, Alison, and helping her with her myriad teeth problems.

 They had a few laughs at first . . .

but then it became all business!  The best part for Alison besides getting fantastic new teeth was being asked by so many of the assistants if she or Dr. Copeland was the older of the two!  Alison loved it!   

Another day, we went to Bill's Berry Farm where we picked blueberries, raspberries, and peaches!  This brought back so many memories of my mother getting us girls up very early and saying, "Get your duds on.  We're going to pick berries."  I can't say we loved getting up that early, but we piled out of bed and met our grandmother, aunts, and cousins, for a fantastic day picking chokecherries, huckleberries, or any other kind of berry or fruit that was on at the time.  Being with cousins always made it funner! 

Maybe our mother was smart in not having our brothers go.  I don't think the grandsons that went with us that day enjoyed it as much as Ella did!

 This picture says it all!
  Maybe boy cousins together picking berries wasn't the greatest of ideas!  Hah!

The cousins got to watch two of Ethan's AAU basketball games where he played fantastically.  And they, also, got to participate with him at his conditioning class in Yakima.  The tradition is to stop at Dairy Queen on the way home.

I don't have pictures of all the activities they did, but they included golfing, fishing, shopping, etc.  It was non-stop fun, for sure!

All in all, it was a great week with the Wildes and Jaxon here.  So glad they all came to visit.  Hopefully we'll have more family members visit us in the future.  They are always welcome!