Valentine's Day Trip!

Over Valentine's Day weekend we went on a family overnight trip to Portland, Oregon. Our first stop, and one of the best stops of our lives was the Lewis and Clark Museum, SO COOL!!!
We saw Big Foot ruins there too!!

 There were so many fantastic exhibits, and so many interesting things to learn and see, like Wooly Mammoth remains.

 And Winston in a covered wagon that may or may not have said "please keep off the exhibit." I didn't read it cause  I didn't want to know because he just looks so cute in a handcart.

 Robert and I made all sorts of Oregon Trail jokes about our Pa's oxen dying and Ma coming down with dysentery.

Then we waited thirty minutes in the rain to try a famous Voodoo Donut. It was a kooky place inside,  they pretty much tasted like a grocery store donut covered in cereal. They were shaped as your choice of voodoo dolls with pretzel needles and jelly blood, or men's genitals. We told our kids those ones were pogo sticks, and just stuck to buying the boring old circular donuts.

 After that we toured a submarine.

 Stanton was loving life, and we all agreed it would be cool to eat a sub in a sub.

Then we spent hours inside the Museum of Science and Industry. They had everything, including a giant ear! Noelle said she was the wax.

The next day we toured the Tilamook Cheese Factory, which I have always wanted to do! We learned so many cheese facts, and our family came up with a lot of cheese jokes and puns. It was EVERYTHING I'd hoped it would be!

 I didn't even have to ask Robert to pose in the cow cutout. He just read my mind and led me on over, one of the many reasons why I love him!

 Stanton actually doesn't like cheese (blasphemy) but he did like driving the cheese bus!

There was so much cheese (and cheese curds) to sample. Winston didn't even have time for toothpicks. ( I made sure to serve him his samples after he caressed all of the cheese in this tray.)

 After that we went out to the Coast and hiked around some huge, old trees...

 Perfect for climbing!

 Then we went to the beach to check out the lighthouse.

 It was so pretty out there by the ocean.

We ended our trip with a visit to the Portland Temple Visitor's Center. It was the perfect ending to a great trip, one of my favorites! It was so perfect just being together, uninterrupted. The kids all said the best part was the car ride. They like just talking, which melts my heart. I love my little family so much!

Senior Prom!

 One of the things we love doing is visiting with the sweet grandmas and grandpas at the nursing homes, so for our Valentine's "Big Hearts, Little Hands" club activity this year we threw a "Senior Prom" for all of the seniors living there. It was so sweet to see the elderly people and the kids dancing together, playing Memory with each other, taking photo booth pictures together and just have fun interacting! The kids served h'or derves and desserts and we partied the late afternoon away. 

There's nothing sweeter than watching these kids serving and loving and putting smiles on the faces of these people. It was noisy and chaotic and happy and all around a perfect time. Although, I must admit, I was hoping for some senior prom romance between a couple of the residents. I just pictured one of the gentleman asking one of the ladies to dance to a Frank Sinatra song, sparks flying and us having to tear them out of each others' arms, with both of them exclaiming that they hadn't had this much fun since before the Great Depression. 

No such luck, but Frank was talking an awful lot to Delores in the hallway after the party, the whole time we were cleaning up. Who knows how long they lingered and what kind of spark ignited after we left! It was Valentine's Day Eve after all!