This weekend we drove down to Long Beach for the International Kite Festival.
We joined up with Grandma and Grandpa and they shared their camp space with us.
I've been nervous about camping with Julia, because I'm a worrier, and was concerned about her running off into the brush to join her fellow Wild Things.
She didn't, and in fact, was really great about sticking around.
She did clean a lot, with baby wipes, washing trees and the picnic table and whatever else she decided was dirty.

Antonio was right at home, he's such a great traveler.
He was up early with the Grandparents the first morning and had was excited to have hot chocolate.
Grandma was way more on the ball than I and brought breakfast. I had figured we'd go to a nearby drive through McFastfood place.



The kids having breakfast at camp enabled us grown ups to have more time for lattes

The Man was a barista in a past life.



The tents are not only good for sleeping in, also provide a fort for the kids to play in during the day.



Grandpa and his team were competing at the festival, so we went down to the beach and watched.




But, as far as Antonio was concerned, it was all getting in his way of finally being able to ride the go-carts. For this year, he was finally old enough to ride the little ones by himself.





We only stayed for two night, so Sunday morning with the help of Thing 1 and Thing 2 we packed up.



We went down to the beach to catch Grandpa in another competition, it was freezing and so foggy we could hardly see the kites, but it looked like he did pretty well.
Then we went to town to see Jake the Alligator Man at Marsh's Museum, did another round of go-karts and headed back home.

Now that we have first hand proof the kids can hang with camping, we're looking forward to going again.

Today, after a nice restful evening at home, we hit the road again, although this time not so far away. We spend the first part of the day at EMP
We thought the interactive music exhibits would be fun for Antonio, and hoped it would be busy enough inside to keep Julia entertained. We were mostly right, he got a little impatient with The Man and I lingering in some of the exhibits.

After EMP, we played around the Seattle Center to run off some yah~yahs.
Antonio and I went on some rides while The Man and Julia watched from the shade.



I thought I'd share this cool view Julia had during an al fresco diaper change.



Balls at the base of the Space Needle



This is the International Fountain in the middle of the Seattle Center.
A lot of kids were playing in it & Antonio was able to race up and touch it and race back without being sprayed.
Superhero fast!

Finally The Man and I were able to find a week that we could both take some time off for a family vacation.

We compiled a list of places we thought would be neat to see and decided to wing it a bit.
This is our first family road trip with two kids, so there were some learning opportunities, like please let us out of the car to run around every once and a while, big bags of trail mix + 2 kids in
the back seat + who don't like sharing = trail mix all over and hotels with pools are the best.

We started off driving South to Portland, we had a nice visit and meal with my sister, and then headed over to the coast. We arrived late in the evening and with no reservations anywhere (winged it, remember) and ended up staying in Astoria for the night.
While we drove through town after we had checked into our hotel, looking for some place to eat, we drove by the Columbia River Maritime Museum
which had this huge window with a Coast Guard ship up on display, it looked cool & we looked forward to seeing it the next day.

Here is Antonio in one of the exhibits.



Julia said her first sentence here.
"Fish. Eeaat! Nummy!"




After the museum, we packed up and left to go to the Tillamook cheese factory.
We did the little self tour of the factory, had some ice cream and picked up some cheese and crackers for an afternoon snack.

Back on the road, we headed back to Portland, arriving in town in the evening, but had much better luck finding a hotel than the previous night.

The next day we went to Portland Classical Chinese Garden Which is this amazing and peaceful garden located in the middle of this huge city. Once you pass through the garden wall, you can easily forget that there is this city bustling along just a few hundred feet away.



I was distracted by all of flowers in bloom and wondering what ideas I could incorporate into my own yard at home.
A fountain with one of these would be perfect.



These would be nice too...



Antonio thought this dog at the main gate was pretty cool.



We walked around Chinatown, which was pretty quiet since it was before noon.
A recommendation from one of the people at the garden, we had dim sum at Fong Chong's. The kids loved the ladies with their carts full of dim sum goodies.

After short drive through town to Washington Park, we arrived at the Japanese Garden

We had a bit of trouble with the mega wee (jog stroller) on the windy paths, but it was good to have instead of lugging Julia up most of the hills.

Here is the sand and stone zen garden.







About halfway through the garden, Julia decided to walk and happily held hands with Antonio the rest of the way.



These dogs are similar to the ones at the Chinese garden and Antonio though it would be much easier to bring home.





After the Japanese garden, we did some shopping downtown Portland and called it a day and headed home.
We were ready for sleep in our own beds, even if there wasn't a pool out back.

Today Antonio and Dad got up at 0430 to have a quick man breakfast (cheerieos) and meet the neighbor to head off on Antonio's first fishing trip.

I received a text message from Dad around 0700 and it was a picture of Antonio with his first catch.




Here is Antonio reeling in one of his fish.



When they got home this afternoon, he was so proud to show off his two keepers, who are now waiting in my fridge for their date with our BBQ grill tonight.




Antonio had a great time, although he was a little impatient when they were trolling, he wanted to go much faster.
He's pretty tired out though, he layed down with his sister and took a nap soon after he got in the house.

This evening Antonio and I went school supply shopping.
Armed with a long list of items required for first graders at his school, we wheeled the shopping cart to the back-to-school area of our local megastore.
We found pencils, crayons and glue sticks easily enough.
Antonio was way more interested in the compasses and pencil sharpeners than revelling in this experience as I thought (hoped) he would.
When it came down to paper bags, pump hand sanitizer (not liquid soap!) cotton balls and other odd to me classroom things, we had to start what felt like a scavenger hunt.
An hour later, a shopping cart full of potential we headed to the cashier.

Antonio had brought along some money to help buy school supplies, which I told him to put away because I'd gladly pay them.
He asked if he had enough to buy a Matchbox car, after a quick peek at his handful of change we determined that he did.
As I loaded up the supplies on the conveyer belt, he studied the rack of cars for the perfect one, narrowing it down to two cars.
He asked if he had enough for two, and I told him if he had 9 quarters he'd have enough.
He carefully counted out 9 quarters from his handful of change, and patiently stood in line behind me, with his cars on the grocery conveyer belt.
After I paid for his school supplies, the cashier rang up his cars, he proudly handed over the entire handful of money and she picked out the amount she needed.
He got his receipt, his own bag with the cars and change back.
He was so proud, this was the first time he's ever bought something.

He talked about it the whole way home.
"Mom, I have my own bag, my receipt and change too!"
And told Dad about it,
and his friends playing outside, each and every one of them.