Portland Pals

One of my best friends from high school lives in Portland, so since we were all the way out in Seattle, what's another three hour drive, right? I hadn't met Jessica's kids ever, so it was fun to see them together. Annalise is almost 3, so just younger than Austin and Karina is about 2 months older than Erik.

Here's the babies the first few minutes after we arrived.

 Sharing the pan...

 I didn't get any other pictures of those cuties myself, but I'm excited for the pictures Jessica took of them that she's editing. She owns Dreamy Belle Photography and took some awesome photos. You may have seen the ones she took of Victoria in her baptism dress at the Portland LDS Temple, on facebook.

While she was working her photography wonders with Victoria, I was enjoying getting shots of the other cuties.

 I love the look on Annalise's face here. You wouldn't have known they are 2 1/2 years apart from they way they took to each other!

 Karissa had to do some poses of her own while Victoria did hers.

Did you know President Monson was there?!

Besides taking pictures, we went to eat with another friend from high school, Shelene, who was in town with her family. We went to the park, played in the yard, and picked raspberries!

It was a great reunion for us and the kids enjoyed it as well.

Our trip back was quite the experience. We slept at Bryan and Gina's house, 20 minutes from the Seattle airport. Since we were on the late schedule, we let the kids sleep in just a little, putting us only 20 minutes behind our almost 3 hour window of time. We had to return a rental car, but that wasn't that big of a deal. The big deal was the fact a cruise had just come in and hundreds of people came the same time we did. Our kiosk to check in wasn't working, so we had to wait for another. Security was about as strict as it was right after 9/11, so it was very slow for everyone in front of us, and even slower for us with the stroller and all the other stuff we had for the baby and kids. We had to take a tram to our terminal. The escalator (which Jason would have used to get there that much faster) wasn't working. There was construction on the way to the elevator, so we had to take a detour to it! A detour, to the elevator! So, we missed the flight. We got there and watched it pull away just like in a movie. I was so determined to get there on time and worked so hard, that I just fell apart. The girls did too.

Jason went to find out what our options were. As I sat there nursing, I heard them say that a flight to Detroit was being moved to a different gate. I told Jason I was going there and to meet me there, as he was having no luck. We got back on the tram and I told the girls to say a prayer in their hearts that we could get on this flight. Right there, in the tram, they each folded their arms and bowed their heads. Right after, Victoria asked me, "Is God real?" I asked, "What do you think?" She said yes and I about fell apart again.

The next terminal had a working escalator and no detour to the elevator. The lady at the desk said she'd do what she could do to get us on the flight. She was so sweet. I could see her willing the computer to let there be a space for us, but of course we had to wait about an hour before knowing for sure. By this time, I knew we would get home. I couldn't say I knew for sure all of us would get on that particular flight, but I felt very comforted by the prayers my girls offered and knew everything would work out. After many names were called, we were called last. They had space for all of us!!! We happily took our places (3 seats together and 2 together in the back), so glad to be on our way only 2 hours later.

Karissa had left Beary at Jessica's, but Grandma and Grandpa were able to stop by and get him for us. Now Karissa has Beary again. Here's Beary being watched over by Annalise. Thanks Grandma and Grandpa!