Oregon Trip: Day Two

Day two consisted of heading to OMSI (Oregon Museum of Science and Industry). It came highly recommended from Dr. Chad, our friend and chiropractor. The kids had tons of fun, as shown in the pictures below! I did wish that they were a little older so they could get more out of it, but they didn't know any better :-) OMSI had an amazing display of week by week fetal development, but photography wasn't allowed. All the specimens were real babies, which made it a little... uncomfortable... but it was beyond words to be able to see how intricately we are formed from the very beginning. (Note: There was a sign stating something to the effect that the babies were not all aborted. Some of them may have been, due to the wording "could not survive," but some had the entire uterus displayed, which would indicate further trauma to the mother as well.) I don't think Gabe or the kids were nearly as taken with it as I was, but it was just amazing to me to see the growth within that we don't get to witness firsthand.

We met up with Jeremy S. (old friend) at OMSI, then he and Gabe left to go shooting. (No surprise, right? ;-) The kiddos and I stayed at OMSI until lunchtime, then headed back to the campground to get lunch. Isaac fell asleep during the drive and lunch, and woke up just in time for the zoo. (Yep, I drove all around Portland, all by myself, with the GPS, while it was still working!) We had a GREAT time at the zoo- The weather was questionable, so there weren't any real crowds, plus alot of the animals were very visible, so even Isaac was able to see them and enjoy! We actually spent three hours there, until Gabe called to say it was dinner time. We attempted to meet up at Chili's but apparently the website lied about the address- because there wasn't any Chili's there! So we hit Applebees instead, and had a good time with Jeremy and his girlfriend Brittney.

How big are we???

The only animal picture I got- it was a wild raccoon that we caught sneaking through the zoo! I'm not so good at remembering to take pictures... Gabe always does a better job!

OMSI was super crowded, and I found it interesting the difference between how people react. Sometimes, parents or grandparents were right there, playing with their kids and helping them to be courteous to other children. Other times they were busy talking, like when the girls were being bullied by a little boy who "wouldn't let girls play," and his mom had no idea, even though we were there for 20 minutes. And like above, the girls are actually sitting upside down in the shuttle. The correct way was to lay down with your legs up, facing upwards. But when I let them do that, I got a VERY dirty look from some grandma who was telling her grandson all about my wild girls! Like I couldn't hear her just 5 feet away! What an example! It was a learning experience. I wasn't sad to get out of there by the time we were done being around that family!

Melia working on Morse Code.

Hair standing up :-)

Isaac learned the joy of digital cameras, as he was getting pretty bored in the stroller while the girls played.

Stand off with a not-so-nice little boy who hogged the machine.

Isaac cracks me up by the way he plays. He likes to throw things over his shoulder to get them out of the way. On the beach, he'd scoop rocks underneath himself- he looked like a cat in the litter box :-)

He was very into wrecking this creation- which was ok because it's creator had left a while ago!