{Christmas in Portland}

Christmas seems like forever ago!!

We had a great time with my whole immediate family in Portland beginning late Christmas Eve.

We flew on the 24th....the day before poor Chase had symptoms of the stomach flu, so we were very thankful to be able to fly!

But about 24 hours after arriving, poor Beck got sick.

Then Chase gave the gift that kept on giving....the stomach flu- to almost everyone we were with!

We know that they won't soon forget her gift!!

Adam & Rachel's house was full to the brim.  They were very gracious allowing us to stay with them, as well as Rachel's mom, brother and his girlfriend.

We enjoyed the opportunity to get to know them.

And my parents stayed with my other brother, Zach, in his apartment about 2 blocks away.

Christmas day Adam cooked a wonderful gourmet dinner that we all enjoyed together.

We had a slow paced day.  Fellowshipped with one another, opened gifts, ate yummy food, relaxed...

Custom pillowcases by Grandpa.  A real hit!!!

The day after Christmas most of us went out to explore the city a bit.  It was nice to get outside and enjoy the cold, crisp air (especially after having been indoors several days due to sickness)

We were on the hunt for vintage/thrift type stores but didn't have too much luck :(

We did find a couple and we also scored a yummy lunch at a pod of food trucks!

Look at that reformed vegetarian go to work!!!

On the last full day that we were there, we all went hiking in Forest Park which is in the city and supposedly the largest inner city park in the country.  It was lovely and again, such a nice day.

By this day several people were almost sick and by the day's end, really sick.  Rachel's brother and girlfriend left that night...we were feeling pretty crummy that so many were sick :(

And on Friday, we took it easy.  Mom & dad left for Seattle, poor Rachel was in bed all day, so we hung out with my brothers.  Zach was off of work for being sick so that was nice to have some extra time with him.  He and I went on a nice long walk around their neighborhood.

Then Adam dropped us at the train station around dinner time.  That was a new world we had not been around before (in years).  It was a fun little adventure to travel by train from PDX-SEA.  

We discovered that train travel is the way to go.  You can easily walk around, the kids can watch electronic devices the moment they get on the train and they can remain on, there is a restaurant car, the seats/tables are comfortable...I could go on and on!

That's a lot of luggage!!

Can you tell she's still not quite herself?  

This first part of our trip was marvelous!

Thank you Klipsteins for hosting us and for the out of town Klipsteins for joining us there to be together!

We love ya'll!!