Portland {OR} Day 1

It was so great to be in Portland again. I mean, look at this cute city. Love.
We spent our first morning in Portland sightseeing (while the kids napped in the car)

So I may just have a little obsession with photographing bridges...I love them. They fascinate me. You are lucky that I am only sharing 1 pic, as I have a whole lot more ;)

Mt. Hood
I was pretty excited to see Mt. Hood on this trip. It was so cloudy/overcast/rainy last year when we were here that I never got to see it. Amazing.

When the kiddos woke up, they were excited to go to OMSI (Oregon Museum of Science and Industry)

but first, we needed to have some lunch. We knew we wanted to go to a Brewery, as Oregon has some of the best, so we typed what we thought was the address to our destination, but had 1 number wrong and ended up at this cute house....how cute is the turquoise front door?

and these garage doors? So cute. It was kind of cool that we got a little lost because we got to see a pretty cool neighborhood. Portland is definitely a hard city to navigate, even with GPS.

We finally made it to our destination Widmer Brewery

We didn't waste any time ordering our drinks. A hand crafted root beer for Madilyn and a few different beers for Paul and I to try before making our decision.

YUM..trying some awesome beers.

Cowen colored while we had our beers :)

then we had the absolute best beer cheese soup that I had ever tasted. I seriously had to hold myself back from picking up the bowl and licking it clean :) It was amazing.

Paul and I shared a yummy turkey avocado sandwich with a salad and Madilyn and Cowen shared a grilled cheese and fries.

and Cowen tried his first pickle... and I think he liked it. I tried to get a picture of his cute "sour" face, but the timing was just off. This is as close I could get :)
Cowen also met a little girlfriend that you can see in the background of this picture. He spent a most of the time we were there turning around and trying to get her attention. A little ladies man.

After our lunch, we finally made it to OMSI. The kids absolutely loved it. Especially the sand and water areas for little kiddos. They scooped sand, and played with dinosaurs in the sand pit.

and then suited up to play in the water. They both had to be dragged away from this area!
It was just too much fun playing in the water.

Cowen reminded me of a penguin as he was walking/waddling around in his smock. It was adorable. I was so worried that he would slip in the wet floor, but he managed to make it without any major accidents.

OMSI is so perfect for kids. There are so many hands on exhibits and things to do. We colored with stamps, played in the sand, played in the water, turned propellers, played in balls, sent balls through mazes, shooted balls into the air, had a puppet show (thanks Paul :) I am pretty sure that more than just our kiddos enjoyed the show..haha, built towns out of blocks, grocery shopped, built damns and made streams, saw dinosaur bones, explored Einsteins life, and more.

I love this pic of Madilyn "slipping" Cowen a magnifying glass to play with. He was thrilled and didn't want to give it back!
We got to hit a few more exhibits before the kids were too pooped to go any further. We didn't even get to see 1/2 of the museum, but there is always next time right?

Before the kids hit their limit, we got to see an exhibit on Einstein's life and achievements. It was fascinating and I was wishing that I had more time to explore it and read/see everything. It was great because Cowen was wearing his Paul Frank monkey Einstein shirt that his Auntie Alana got him for his bday. So cute.

Stay tuned for more Portland and then Seaside/Cannon Beach Oregon vacation pics and tales to come.