Oregon Trip Part One - Portland

My birthday this year came with one of the biggest surprises I've ever received. Normally Luke and I don't spend a whole lot on gifts, just a little special something for one another on special days. But Luke had apparently been keeping a secret for quite some time because on my birthday I opened an envelope with 5 plane tickets to Oregon! He had worked out the schedule with Grandma and Grandpa and Aunt Patty that we could spend a few days in Portland, then head to the Beach House for a few days, and then spend another few days in Portland. Eleanor and I hadn't been to see Grandma and Grandpa in a year and a half, for the big girls it had been two and a half, and for Luke, it had been longer. All this to say, a trip to my childhood home was such a special gift.

We took over 500 pictures that week. I weeded it down to 100, and it's going to take three blog posts!

Here we are flying from Charleston to Charlotte. Yes, flying out of Charleston was significantly cheaper, even though it would have been faster to just meet up with the flight in Charlotte! The girls really did quite well on all the flights, though!

In Charlotte, we were met with a cart and a driver to pick us up and take us to another terminal. That was super nice!

We finally arrived in Portland, got our rental car, and headed to Grandma and Grandpa's house! It was pretty late, so we didn't take pictures that night, but took a few first thing the next morning. Grandma snuggled with Eleanor and then made us waffles!

And Grandpa continued the cribbage tradition with the next generation!

We played outside that afternoon and took Pepper on a walk. A little Oregon drizzle couldn't keep us inside!

The girls loved playing on the family heirloom tractor!

And no trip to Grandma and Grandpa's is complete without a visit to Costco for good deals and samples!

The next day we loaded up and headed to spend a couple days at the Burgin Family Beach House in Ocean Park, Washington. But not before a few more snuggles with Great-Grandma and Great-Grandpa!

To be continued...