Portland

Last weekend we took a family vacation to Portland. One of the main purposes of the trip was to visit our friend Clint and his family and check out the restaurant he opened a few months back. I researched some eating options for Reed before arriving, but besides that we were planning on pretty much winging it. We arrived on Friday afternoon, checked into the hotel, wandered the city a bit, caught a bus to Rip City Grill (Clint's restaurant), and had a great meal and wonderful time catching up with him. Reed ate two bacon burgers (sans bun) but Kieran hardly touched his food. To be honest K turns into a bird with his dinner a lot of nights so I wouldn't have even noticed except I felt bad that he wasn't eating the food Clint had made for us. Fast forward a few hours later and the poor kid was vomiting every hour.

By morning we were all exhausted from being up all night and my stomach was also in knots. Jon ran out to get supplies and then he and Reed hit up the Discovery museum. By the afternoon Kieran was still throwing-up but my stomach pain had passed without vomiting. Jon and I switched hotel duties and Reed and I headed to the zoo with Clint, Jessica, and Mick. The zoo was great, they had polar bears and hippos, two of Reed's favorites that our local zoo doesn't have. We grabbed dinner with the group then Reed and I went back to keep Kieran company while Jon and Clint went to a Timbers game.

The next morning everyone felt great and Kier ate a ton for breakfast. We had also been in touch with C and Tio and found out they had the same bug a day earlier and that it only lasted about 24 hours. Since everyone was well we took the boys to the Japanese Gardens which were beautiful and the kids had a great time doing the scavenger hunt. Everyone still felt fine after lunch so we made plans for Clint to pick us up and go to his house for homemade pizzas. We made a pit stop on the way to check out the huge waterfall in Oregon City and then got to see his house. All three boys had a great time playing together but unfortunately the stomach bug struck Jon so we cut our visit short and headed back to the city. To make matters worse Reed started throwing up on the car ride home. To say having two violently sick people sharing a hotel bathroom isn't ideal is an understatement. The night was rough and no one got much sleep. By morning everyone had stopped vomiting but neither Reed or Jon were feeling great. Jon cancelled his work trip to the east coast and came home with us.

Even though our trip wasn't quite what we had planned we still had a great time seeing the sights, visiting with Clint and his family, and spending time away as a family.