Oregon Bound

Back in June when Manda and Jon were vistiting we made plans with them to visit in September when their baby boy was born. Jon's dad, David had also reserved some permits to hike Mount St. Helens on September 11.

 

Our plan was to drive up with the boys early Sunday, Sept 9. Then Jon, David and Jesse would head out to the Mountain on Monday night and campout on the base  then wake up early and do the hike on Tuesday.

 

As the trip drew closer and Jesse was applying at South Salt Lake Fire Department he found out that the hiring test was on Monday September 10 at 2pm. So our original plans weren't going to work out so good.

 

With my mom's Jet Blue benefits we were hoping that we could fly out after Jesse's test. But it turned out that the flights wouldn't get him to Portland until way late at night. So Jesse decided it would be best to buy a one way ticket on Southwest from SLC to Portland Monday night.

 

That left me with both of the boys and there was no way I was going to drive 14 hours by myself with them. I figured it would be better to fly there. So after talking to my mom, we decided it would be best to take the SLC to Long Beach flight Saturday night, get a hotel, then take the morning flight to Portland, then rent a car and drive to Eugene. PHEW!

 

My mom was really sweet and came with me to Long Beach. It was SO helpful to have her with me. With two boys, two car seats, a huge suitcase and Cy's booster highchair it was so great to have the extra help. Especially through the airport security.

 

We were shuttled to our hotel where we were checked in to a room. Unfortunately it was on the TOP floor and there was NO elevator. Normally I wouldn't care about that, but when I have as much stuff as I had along with the boys...ugh. Again, Thank Heavens I had my mom there to help me out.

 

We went and grabbed some dinner and then went to bed.

 

We made it to the airport the next morning bright and early. The boys were so sleepy. It kills me having to wake them up. Ryker looked outside and flipped out that it was still dark outside.

Mom helped me get our stuff through security and then the boys and I took the Portland flight at 7:30am. Then mom took the SLC flight an hour later.

Luckily the boys and I got the whole row to ourselves. I was feeling grateful for that because I knew Cy would be a handful and I didn't want to bother someone else. It's a funny thing to watch other people with kids. Some are really sweet and just beam at my cute boys. Others are totally annoyed and are bothered by every noise they make (and I have to admit those kind of people really bother me). So I never know what to expect.

During our flight Cy sat down on the floor and was totally content for a good amount of time.

 Oh man. Do I love these boys!

 Making funny faces...

 ...more funny faces.

 Once we arrived in Portland we made our way (slowly) to get all our luggage and the rental car. I got so many stares and comments from people. I was pushing a stroller with Cy in it while dragging the suitcase with both the car seats hooked to it behind me.

I was very grateful to get that car. I didn't want to have to carry that stuff around any longer.

Once we got in the car I got the DVD player set up for Ryker and Cy fell asleep almost instantly. He slept most the way. It made for an easy relaxing drive.

 After a two hour drive we arrived at the Eugene airport around 12:30pm where I returned the rental car. Manda (and little Gus) were there to pick us up. Cute Cy was SO happy to see Gus.... And I was SO happy that we FINALLY made it.

 That night we walked up to the Duke's to see the chickens and the goats.

 The boys were totally thrilled with the goats. Lisa (Jon's mom) actually milked one of the goats while we were there. Ryker watched so closely. He was very intrigued by the whole process.

We chatted with David and Lisa for a minute and then came back to Manda's to get the boys in bed. It had been a very long day.