Ashland Trip - driving down

My sister-in-law Alyssa and her parents organized an awesome family trip down (or "up" for some people) to Ashland for the 4th of July. On the trip were Washingtonians Dana, Blake, Kaylee, Ethan, Aline & Dennis (aka Nana & Gramps), Darren (Uncle Darren, who technically lives in NY, but that doesn't count), Shawni & Kris (Alyssa's parents), and Aron (Alyssa's brother) and Californians Evan & Alyssa and Grandpa & Donalee. Most of us all stayed in one house all together, and it was a great trip. Everybody saw some plays and people rotated babysitting so that Blake and I could go to some plays too.

We split up our drive down to accomodate the kids' sleep schedule and it looked like this:

Tuesday:
Dana goes to the dentist and then to get her stitches removed in downtown Redmond. Blake gets the oil changed and takes the kids to a park to wear them out.
We drive to Portland (3ish hours) during what is normally nap time. They actually slept the majority of the time and we didn't hit tons of traffic so that leg was a success!
Meet up with my parents and uncle darren (or uncle durn as the kids call him) at the Portland Zoo. The kids were so surprised to see Uncle Durn! Spent the afternoon/evening there checking out animals and even riding a train.
Then we found a quiznos for dinner and hit the road again at about 7:30 (pretty close to bedtime). The kids slept the entire ride to Redmond Oregon.
Pulled into our hotel, Kaylee peed on me as we sat in the lobby and blake checked us in (she has an amazing ability to pee out of the side of her diaper somehow).
overall - a success!

Wednesday, the fourth of July
Breakfast at the hotel and then we visited with Blake's grandma diana and his aunt wendy who live in Redmond Oregon. Grandma Di excited everyone by buying a few small fire crackers which Blake set off in the street while the kids watched. You know, at 10am. We had lunch there and then as nap time approached and we started getting fussy it was into the car and off to Ashland!
We arrived in Ashland with a few moments to set up the pack and plays at the house and then we handed the kids off to my parents and headed into Ashland w/ my brothers and Alyssa and Aron for dinner and our first play.
again, not a bad day!

Now here's the part you really want - pictures!

looking down on some bears

proof that I was there too

uncle durn was trying to show them the water. they were not sure.

it's always exciting to get to wash your hands at the petting zoo

the goat was trying to eat the zoo map in Gramps' pocket

kaylee was really not pleased about that and let Gramps know

Ethan saying "bye goat" as in, "do not get any closer, you're just fine right there"

getting on the train

fireworks with great grandma di and great aunt wendy

kaylee bringing daddy another firework

ethan did not want to sit w/ great aunt wendy

but then, he didn't want to sit with daddy either!