The Halom's First Adventure in Portland

My dad has family in Portland, OR, some of whom had yet to meet our baby boy. So with the long weekend, we decided to pack up Henry and make the three hour drive to Portland. We made arrangements to have dinner with my grandparents and great grandmother, stay with my aunt and two cousins and visit another aunt and cousin. We also wanted to play tourists in Portland so Lawrence let me choose a couple "Portland" things to do. I also wanted to take advantage of Oregon's lack of sales tax and go to Ikea to get Henry a crib and high chair but as I packed the car Thursday, I realized our car is a lot smaller than our last one and we couldn't fit even packed flat Ikea furniture in it.
Friday morning Henry had a doctor's appointment and, had we been going to Ikea, we would have left right after. Instead, we headed home to do some last minute packing and get Henry as ready as possible (clean diaper and full stomach) before we left. A little after 2pm, we got our slightly sleepy boy strapped in his car seat and we took off. Because of later start, we hit traffic in Olympia, Vancouver and through Portland to Tigard (where my grandparents live). This would have been fine except Henry decided he was hungry as we were crawling through downtown Portland. After a tense couple of minutes (with the baby screaming), Lawrence was able to make a bottle and reach into the backseat to feed the baby as I drove. Half hour later than we intended, we arrived at my grandparents' house for dinner.
Henry met his great-great-grandmother. Though he isn't her first great-great-grandchild, he is her first great-great-grandson. Dinner was pleasant. After getting fed, Henry was awake and alert during dinner. He sat in my lap as we ate. When dinner and dessert had finished, grandpa took great grandma home and we bid grandma a goodnight and headed to Beaverton, to my aunt's house. We spent the rest of the evening catching up with my aunt Michelle and cousin, Olivia, as they played with Henry. We lucked out and got a bed for the night. Michelle, Olivia and Allegra (my other cousin) are hosting a Peruvian exchange student who was out for the night, so we got her bed.

Us at the pizza place (sorry there aren't more)

The next morning, Henry woke us up at 8am (after waking at 3:30 and 6:30). I shared a breakfast of awesome pancakes with Michelle and Olivia. A little while later, Allegra and the exchange student (who's name I can't remember) came home and played with Henry for a bit. As we packed up to go play tourists, Olivia and Allegra's father, Joe, came by to meet Henry. We fed Henry one last time and headed to Voodoo Doughnut Too. As we waited in line for doughnuts, Henry fell asleep. We left with a dozen doughnuts with names like Miami Vice berry, Old Dirty Bastard and mango tango. Our boy slept as we traveled to our next Portland landmark, OMSI. At OMSI, we found that there was a line to get into the line to get in and then a line to get into the exhibit I wanted to see. We quickly decided we'd rather do shopping than wait in those lines. So off to Target we went. Shopping done, we headed to Hillsdale for our last familial obligation. We went to my aunt Renee's house so she could meet Henry and we could visit with her and my cousin, Sarah. We chatted as Henry got his fill of formula (he had been asleep up until then). We then went down to this little pizza shop where Lawrence and I had lunch while Renee and Sarah played with Henry.
With all familial obligations taken care and all planned touristy things done, we fed Henry once more and started back on the road. Henry, having slept all day, stayed awake for the first half of our trip. We stopped at a rest stop and fed him but about ten minutes later, he started to fuss so I pulled over and had Lawrence drive while I sat in back with our little man. Apparently all he needed was some company. Before long, Henry fell asleep, holding my fingers, as we rolled home.