Portland Day 3

Today was a fun day! This morning, Maria and the boys went across the street to the Lloyd Center Mall to the Regal Cinema inside and saw the free family summer feature - Surf's Up. It sure was nice going into a movie and not paying one single solitary cent! The boys didn't really enjoy the movie in particular - you can't really blame them...it wasn't very exciting. But they did have a good time at the theater, and we toured the WHOLE MALL (all 3 levels!) afterwards. The mall was really big. The food court had tons to choose from - the boys picked Mediterranean. So they had a meat and spinach pie while Maria enjoyed her Falafel Gyro. We hit all kinds of stores, but the boys' favorite by far was Captain Henry's Pirate Store. It was a WHOLE STORE dedicated to pirates, a pirate's life, pirate parties, pirate wardrobe... all things pirate. Jeremy found a new friend - a doggy dressed up as a pirate. He's sleeping with it today, as we forgot Bunny back home. Aiden chose a stash of pirate toys, including binoculars, a ship, a treasure chest & loot sack. The boys already broke the binoculars, so now they have 2 telescopes instead. heehee...



We wore ourselves out shopping and playing. Good thing Maria rented the fire engine for the kids to ride around in...that was $5 well spent. There was plenty for them to see and do in the mall. There was even an ice rink inside, where you could see from all 3 levels. They really wanted to get out there on the ice...but Mommy decided they were a bit too young for that. The boys spent a long time in the Barnes and Noble kids corner, playing with their Thomas the Train table and asking to buy practically every single book they could get their hands on, then it was about time to head back to the hotel for naps. We were in the mall from 930 am til nearly 2pm today!



Needless to say, the kids slept a long time after that. They napped til almost 6pm. Then we decided to find somewhere family-friendly for dinner. We headed out to a place we found online called Grandma Leeth's. This restaurant is SO AWESOME! The restaurant is divided in half down the middle, by a wall with windows. One side is a kid's play area, and the other side is the restaurant dining area. They have SUPERVISED play for your kids while you wait for your food, and then they serve the kids on little tables inside the play area, and the kids are read a story while they eat. The boys LOVED it with a capital "L"! We enjoyed a nice dinner by ourselves, but we could see the boys through the windows the whole time having fun. There were so many toys for them, and they had a good time with the people in there - playing and interacting. There was a pretend kitchen, a tool bench, puppet theater, countless toys, craft table and more stuff that we didn't even see. They asked to go back. I think we might! Even though we're only here a few more days, we're going to try to squeeze it in.



After dinner, we went over to Bart and Lisa's to visit for a bit. The boys really like it there, too. They are having so much fun on this trip - those lucky kiddos! We played Rock Star together on their XBox 360. Drew played the drums, and Maria sang! The kids played downstairs a lot (this time, no one rode a car down the stairwell)...then the big kids and adults played a card game called Split upstairs. It was really nice to hang out. Lisa wasn't home until the end of the visit, after she got off work. But we were able to talk with her for a bit, too before we had to head back to the hotel to go to bed. We got back quite late.



That's it for today! Tomorrow is Drew's last day at the conference, then it's pure vacation from there! I think tomorrow morning, the boys will go get their haircut at one of the fun kid haircut places here in Portland or maybe over in Hillsboro. Stay tuned!

Outside Grandma Leeth's

A view of the kids through the windows

The boys playing at Grandma Leeth's

Drew on the OTHER side of the wall at Grandma Leeth's