Hey there,

We stayed the previous night in Oregon, Ohio. Ironic. Yes, we did plan that. It was located at the far northwest tip of the state. All of our travels are intended to explore different areas of the state. Since this area is so close to the border (Michigan), we decided to hop over the state line for breakfast.

We ate at Tim Horton’s having some donuts and coffee. It was fun; the kids hadn’t been since we visited Timmy’s in Vancouver, BC.

Also, since we were in the area, we took a photo. Because why not?!

After our quick morning in Michigan, we headed back across the boarder to Ohio and stopped to see Lake Erie.

The lake itself was beautiful. We happened to visit on a day that was spotted with clouds everywhere and overall the weather was great.

Since we had never been there before, we found some signs that we could stop at to take some photos.

Afterwards, we spend the afternoon driving across the north west Ohio countryside. It’s beautiful. We had planned to stop at the Marblehead Lighthouse while we were here. We love our lighthouses.

We are also very pleased with our Toyota Prius rental. We’ve been getting around 62 mpg. This really helps when traveling as much as we are. What also helps is the price of gas. It’s close to $2.50/ gallon in these parts, whereas on the West Coast, it’s closer to $4/ gallon.

After this, we took another trip, but this time to our hotel. We checked in and called it a night.

After having our days filled with so much to do, the kids were pretty happy to hit the hay.

just Pray

Hey there!

We started this month with our long-awaited trip to the Oregon State Fair. We had planned on going to this event for a bit because the Beach Boys were going to be playing.

Yeah, you read that right. “Were” going to be. They didn’t play. A couple of days before we were scheduled to go, they canceled the performance.

That would’ve been the first time since I’ve seen them live since… 1991 at the Arizona State fair. I can’t remember much. I do remember the music was loud. All of the adults were standing for the performance. This made it impossible for me to see the stage. Yet, I wanted to give my kids a chance to see them live (kinda going full circle). Maybe another time, if there is one. At least we tried.

Since we didn’t go to the concert, we checked out the animal area. I had the boys ride around for a while. Arabella met up with one of her pen pals. Sky knew this pen pal from her high school days.

We spent the next few days trying to get the house in order. Every time, it ended up being a mess again. The day before, and the night before we were to leave for Ohio, we managed to get it (mostly) picked up. Nothing like the last-minute rush.

The next morning, we took the MAX to the airport. We had to take a ride from our house to the MAX, then switch to the red line. We were up at around 4 am that morning, getting everything ready.

The wife dressed the kids in the same color clothing so that we could easily spot them. It worked when we went to Vegas, so we decided to do it again this time.

We then proceeded to security. Handed our passports over (since we don’t have Real ID cards yet). Then the TSA agent says, “Uh, sir, your passport has expired.”

I’m thinking to myself: What? No, no way. I have a valid passport.

When we packed them we might not have checked which one of mine we took. We had taken the one that expired over 10 years ago.

Yep, that’s what happened.

When I asked about returning, they said that I would likely still get through security, but would have to do bit more screening. So that was it and I got through. Then my mind started to worry about getting back across when it came time to end our trip.

Either way, for now, on to the plane. Which was delayed by like an hour or so. Which was unfortunate, since we were two hours early for our gate (as the airline had requested).

After the kids felt like it was forever and a day, we boarded the airplane. Ara, Ezra and the wife sat separately, and the two other boys sat in a different row with me.

It was overall, a smooth flight.

When we arrived at the airport in Kentucky, we searched for our car seats as we had checked them at the boarding gate in Portland. Nobody knew where they were. We spent around 3 hours at the airport trying to find out if they could locate them.

No luck.

The airline decided, after all of that, to loan us car seats that we can use until we return home. We loaded up the car seats and proceeded to dinner.

Ara said we should get chicken. I exclaimed “What a great idea!” We can have Kentucky Fried Chicken in Kentucky! That’s a first.

That is exactly what we did.

We kept driving afterwards to our final destination for the night (our hotel). We had planned to arrive around 11 pm. But there was a 4+ hour delay between the delay in Portland and looking for our car seats in Cincinatti. As a result, we didn’t arrive until nearly 4 am.

Then the hotel told us they cancelled our reservation at 3am. We fought with them and they eventually relented and gave us room keys.

Needless to say, we were tired.

Our trip is underway! Let’s get this thing on the road.

just Pray

hey again,

The day after Arabella returned, we took a trip to Seattle.

My parents came into town to watch them for a night so we could have dinner with each other. We planned this for a bit, and it got sandwiched this way in our month.

We didn’t count on I-5 being closed or 405 in Seattle being closed. We were going to arrive somewhat early and then head off to dinner. Those plans got scrapped after we spent 6 to 7 hours in the car trying to get to Seattle.

Yikes.

It was a long wait.

Instead, we had Taco Bell for our anniversary dinner. We also spent the evening at the hotel pool with the kids and my parents.

The next day, we went to Starbucks for breakfast at their roastery. We haven’t visited it in over 2 years, so it was time to visit again.

On our way out of town and back to Portland, we stopped at Snoqualmie Falls, which Ezra had never been to, and it had been quite some time since we had been back here. We tried to take a photo, but it didn’t turn out so well.

I had a work event at Wonderlove Food carts in Portland the following week. It was fun- mostly. I got to tell many people in a speed-dating setup about my work. I had to skip out a little early because I needed to return to VBS to take the kids. I ran late and made the kids a bit late as well.

I ended up launching a big project at work. It went so smoothly and successfully – I expected more issues to arise. They didn’t, and for that I’m thankful. Something that I had been working on in one shape or form for the last 1.5 years is finally complete. Now we can start to focus on other improvements! Onward and upward.

Next up? The beach!

We decided to take the kids to the beach after they were good at helping out, cleaning up some of the mess they had helped make.

We didn’t go to Seaside. We went to Cotton Wood Beach (near Camas, WA). It was fun, and the water was much warmer than I thought it would be. The kids said they’d love to go again.

Next?

September. How incredible is that?

The Ohio trip that seemed so far away is right around the corner.

just Pray