Vancouver

Took a quick trip to Vancouver this weekend to see my parents, just me and the kids. This was the first time Sofia was really "into" the airplane experience, she loved watching out the window for the planes landing or taking off:



She was pretty excited when we got on the plane, and held my hand all through take-off and landing.



We couldn't get three seats all together, so Julien sat one seat back and across the aisle from us. He just hung out, read and did some puzzle books.



Barely recognized the guy picking us up at the airport - my dad had grown his beard out. Mostly for our benefit; he shaved it the next morning. Sofia was a little standoffish at first, but seemed curious later:



We went to the farmer's market in the Hollywood district in Portland the next morning, where the kids made some new friends:



Julien and Sofia both had 3 dollars to buy something at the market. Julien picked out a couple of apples and a pastry. Sofia wanted flowers. Here she is picking them out with Grandma Gail:





We had some big plans for the afternoon. First we drove partway from Vancouver to Portland and parked at the Vanport MAX stop. Here's the kids waiting for the train, and Sofia playing on a mosaic.





We took the MAX into downtown Portland, and got off near Pioneer Square and the downtown Library.



We took a look around the library, then left Grandma Gail and Sofia there to watch a puppet show that was happening. Julien, Grandpa Ken and I walked a few blocks to the theater that was putting on a Children's Theater show of Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing. We had seats pretty high up, in the second balcony. Julien seemed to really like it - kept his attention the whole time. Pretty impressive actors, those kids.

We took the MAX back to Vancouver and had a pretty quiet evening - here's storytime:



Had a pretty long night - that daylight savings kind of threw everyone off. The next morning we had a nice breakfast, then went town to the Colombia River one of our favorite places called Frenchman's Bar. They have a decent little playground there:





A nice beach to walk along looking for shells:



And a lot of sand to dig in and explore:





There were also some pretty good fall colors down there:





And that was pretty much the trip. To the airport and back home; pretty uneventful. Sofia liked studying the emergency card, for some reason...