Happy 5th Birthday To Me!

This past weekend, my Nana, Papa, Grandma & Grandpa came in to celebrate my 5th birthday!  It was a fantastic long weekend filled with adventures around Portland.  We showed our visitors some of what Portland has to offer.  The weekend was capped off with my birthday party - an afternoon dedicated just to me (although I invited Amelia as well).

This year, I told Mom and Dad that I wanted a Train Birthday party.  They thought I would want a bowling birthday party - but I had not had a train one yet. 

• My First Birthday party was a caterpillar party, but I do not remember it.
• My Second birthday party was a Dig Truck themed event at the soft play room in Virginia
• For my Third birthday, we had a bring-your-own-bike & eat peanut butter party at Birthday Party Park (aka Under the Bridge Park, aka Jones Point Park)
• For my Fourth Birthday, we had a huge Under the Sea party with sea animals in the courtyard of our old Virginia house

As you can see, No Train Birthday yet.  So this year, we had a train birthday - because I love, love, love trains!

To get to my train party, Nana, Grandpa, Memoo and I rode the MAX (Portland's version of Metro).  Luckily, they just opened the new Orange line last week and it runs right to my party (yeah)!

The party was a lot of fun - we had it at the Oregon Rail Heritage Center.  The party was in a train shed, where they house and work on locomotives.  It was cool. Mom made a cupcake train and my friends and I got to paint wooden engines, box cars, passenger cars and cabooses. 

Afterwards, a bunch of us when on a train ride - we rode in the caboose.  While the train did not go far (just to the amusement park and back), it was a lot of fun.  I do love trains after all (not that you can tell from this picture).  When it is not taking me for a ride, this train parks in a mini-depot 5 blocks from my house.  I love to drive by and see the train parked.  I love it even more when I can run down to the tracks and what the train drive by (slowly) on its way to the depot.

To cap off my birthday, Mom asked what kind of special treat I wanted.  I wanted a donut, just like we had for Amelia's birthday.  So, off to Voodoo donuts - Memoo and I split an M&M donut.  It was delicious!

 

You can check out all of the pictures from my birthday party here!  Additionally, for those wondering "where are pictures from Amelia's 3rd birthday party?"  I don't know either.  Apparently, Dad forgot to take any or collect any.  No worries, she got some cool gifts though.

 

Peace Out,
Phin @ 5

First Oregon Camping Trip - First Camping Trip with Friends - First Whale Sighting - First Really Really Long Blog Title

A few weeks back, Dad decided that we were "sufficiently settled and need to go camping before it go to cold."  Knowing that I love the beach, he booked us a campsite at a small state park on Oregon's Pacific coast.  Avid blog readers know that I love camping and I love the beach.  But, I especially love to go camping on/near the beach. 

It has been a few years since our last beach camping trip and I was excited for another try.  The last adventure ended with a broken and flooded tent (60+ mph winds and a torrential rainstorm at night that nearly blew our tent away), and complete loss of my bladder control (I was only 2 at the time and salty waves + air makes me pee everywhere).  This time we were better equipped: we camped among the trees and brought a lot of extra clothes.

Back in DC, it took 2.5 hours (with no traffic; but there was ALWAYS traffic) to drive to the beach.  Another reason I love Oregon - with terrible traffic, it only took us 2.5 hours to reach the State's Central coast!  On the way down the coast to our campground, we stopped for taffy, looked out towards the ocean and spotted a whale spout (shooting water out of its blow hole).  Dad was so excited!

Anyway, we made it to camp just in time to set up, eat dinner and ride to the beach to see the sunset.  I have not seen a sunset in a long time - I'm usually sleeping - and I cannot say that it was very interesting.  The sun gets brighter and then fell behind the clouds.  I wished it goodnight and then we biked back to the campground.  I was glad the sun set, because I like seeing stars.

The next morning, we woke up and went to Yaquina Head Outstanding Natural Area & Lighthouse.  What a crazy name, but for those wondering, it really was outstanding and it protruded into the water.  I really wanted to take the lighthouse tour - so Dad and I went.  It was the tallest lighthouse in Oregon, 114 steps.  It was also the longest lighthouse tour in Oregon, an hour. And the most anti-climatic ending lighthouse tour in Oregon, you can only peek your head up to the top.  So, after enduring an hour long tour and 114 steps up, I could not see the final view (too short) at the top.  This might be my last lighthouse tour for a while.

 In the photos above, you can see me running back down the stairs - get me out of this boring tour.  Meanwhile, Memoo and Mom hung out nearby.  After the lighthouse - we went to the tidal pools nearby saw starfish.

 Next it, was time to hit the beach by the campground.  I found all sorts of cool things on the beach.  I found Kelp.  I found Jellyfish.  I found that the kelp can be used to attack the jellyfish.  I love the beach. 

 It was a great camping trip.  Our neighbors (the ones with the chickens and goats) came to join us Saturday afternoon, evening and Sunday morning.  I had never been camping with friends, it was fun.  I especially loved showing them how to roast a marshmallow and make s'mores. 

You can check out all of our beach camping trip photos here.

Peace Out,
Phin

Flowers Galore

Last weekend, in addition to our goat ride, we went to a Dahlia Festival.  Who knew the countries largest Dahlia farm is located about 30 minutes from our house.  What's a Dahlia - it is a crazy, but beautiful (and not fragrant) flower.  It had been a while since we saw giant fields of flowers; so we were super excited for this adventure.  The garden at the festival was in full bloom and we found a few we loved - especially one called Pooh (Mom said it was named after a bear called Winnie; but I think it was named for a different reason, hehe) - that we may try to plant this winter/spring.  What was so different about Dahlias was their diversity - some were huge (bigger than my face) while others were tiny.  Some were pointy, like balls of fire, while others were round and smooth.  They are crazy flowers.

Anyway, you can view the whole album here and enjoy a few of my favorites below.

What was extra cool about the Dahlia festival, was the neighboring farm had a train you could ride on!  Can't wait to go back.

Peace Out PDX,
Phin

Goat kart racing

In our 1.5 months in Portland, we have really adopted to the local culture.  We shop at farmers markets, buy  lots of local cherries, act overly friendly to everyone and have adopted greener modes of transportation.  You can see our newest method of travel, using our neighbors goat (Spike) in this video: 

http://1drv.ms/1EuscTb

Last Day On the Trail - a Hike in Rainier

As you may know, we arrived in Portland Monday night (07/06/15).  After 82 days of travelling and driving over 7,000 miles (not to mention Dad flying 4,000 miles), our trip on the Oregon Trail has concluded.  While our Big Adventure continues, it shift from sightseeing to getting settled in our new environment.

Pictures from our journey are forthcoming, but in the meantime, I wanted to share this video from our last morning on the road.  Our final stop was Mt Rainier National Park and our final hike in the park was in search of Snow Lake - a backcountry lake accessible by a trail with a lot of stairs.  Unfortunately, while the hike was recommended for families, no one thought that 200+ dirt/mountain stairs each way is way too much for little legs (I had to walk - Amelia rode in the backpack).  We never made it to our final destination, but we did make it to a much closer lake (still a 1.5 mile hike + the .75 miles extra we did trying to make it to Snow Lake).  Yeah, Alpine Lake Swimming!  On the way, Amelia and Dad shot the following video of the hike - I thought it was cute and wanted to share.  Click here to view the video.  The white blob you see in the background at 1:07 & 2:01 is Mt Rainier - it dominated the skyline and we were on a hike going away from it. 

Peace out & See you in Oregon,
Phin