Week in Oregon

We went to Oregon.

We flew into Portland. After landing ten minutes early we proceeded to sit on the tarmac for over an hour. First we had to wait for another plane to get out of our way. Then we had to wait for them to hook up the walkway to the plane. Apparently it was too low and while I certainly wouldn't have cared if I'd had to "mind the gap" they wouldn't let us get off. Matthew was screaming. It was late. He was hungry. He hadn't really napped. It was exciting. Then we had to wait for them to tow us to a different gate. Then we were allowed to get off.

The Husband, The Rock Star and The Little Buddy spent the night with Troy's sister, Jolene. I spent the night with The Kristin who is now, like, published all over the place and is my Nearly Famous friend. But I refrained from asking for her autograph. Instead I had bananas foster and a raspberry truffle. And they were good.

In the morning, we went to Starbucks with Kristin and then we went back to Jolene's. Our boys (ages 4 and cruising toward two) played with her boys (ages 6 and 4) and then we went to Eugene.

Troy's sister, Jana, and her family live with Troy's parents and graciously gave us their playroom and kids' room. Our boys had a blast playing with her kids (ages 7 and 5). One day we went shopping with Troy's parents and took Colby. Colby, at five, is an Oregon Ducks fanatic. His parents are even bigger fans so the fact that I got Colbs (as Garrett calls him) to agree to this picture is nothing short of miraculous.

I'm not kidding that I was actually a little afraid that if his parents saw it they'd kick me out of their house, break my camera, or stick bamboo shoots under my finger nails. So I quickly snapped this one...
You know, to save my own life. Also. Seriously. That kid is 11 months older than mine. 11. But he stands an entire head taller. I'm going to start paying for jockey lessons for my son.

On Tuesday night Troy surprised me with a night away. We drove up to Albany and stayed in one of the hotels that we stopped at on our honeymoon. Seven years ago we were not supposed to stay in Albany. When we got to our hotel, in a different city, our room had been flooded by some nimrod who forgot to turn off their spa tub. When Troy explained that we were on our honeymoon they sent us down to Albany and upgraded us like crazy. The room was amazing and last week my husband booked the same room. We think. It was, at the very least, identical.

We had dinner and did some shopping and rented a movie. I relaxed in the giant jetted spa tub. I also forgot that when you turn on the jets the bubbles multiply like rabbits so I ended up with a ratio of 30% hot water and 70% bubbles. There's a picture. I'm not posting it because, well, even though you can't see anything except my fleshy shoulder, I'm naked in it. And that would be weird.

It was wonderful. I was thoroughly surprised which is amazing. Usually I foil Troy's plans by figuring out what's happening well ahead of time. On Tuesday he told me what was happening about twenty minutes before it happened. Well played, Husband. Well played.

We took The Rock Star and two of his cousins to see Tangled. Just two days after I'd had a conversation with my father-in-law about how I didn't see any point in paying extra to see a movie in 3D, my husband read the times of the movie wrong and we ended up with three kids bouncing-off-the-walls-excited to see a film that was only showing in 3D until 8:30. We couldn't very well see a movie with three kids that didn't start until then so we coughed over the extra dough and put on our very sexy glasses.

I mean, they're cute on the kids but they are down right sexy on my husband, no?

On Thanksgiving we ate with Troy's parents, sisters, brother-in-law, niece and nephews. And we tried to take pictures. Do you know how hard it is to get six kids under the age of eight to smile at the camera at the same time?
(Clockwise from top left Gracie-7, Colby-5, Cooper-6, Garrett-4, Matthew-1, Sawyer-4)

I went to the Ducks game. They won. It was loud. And cold. And altogether an enlightening experience.

We snapped this picture before the Oregon game which is good because if we'd waited until the next day we would have had to omit my father-in-law from them as he had a bloody nose that lasted all morning. This prompted my son, when he saw the volume of blood, to say, "Grandpa, do you have blood on your hands?"

I explained that we don't typically ask people this question. Unless we're accusing them of murder. For the record, he wasn't calling his grandfather a killer.

We flew out of Eugene on Saturday afternoon. When we were walking through the Salt Lake airport I saw Rosie O'Donnell. I'm 99.98% sure it was her. If it wasn't her she has an identical twin with the same hair, same body, same smile, same everything. She was walking out of one of the little convenience stores and I was towing Matthew on my carry-on. She looked me in the eye and offered the small Rosie smile. I smiled back and kept walking. She looked like she actually might have wanted to have a conversation with me. It didn't dawn on me until last night that she may have caught my eye since we both have adopted children. My clearly adopted son was being toted a foot behind me. And here I thought she wanted to give me Nora Ephron's card.