P-town!

We just got home from an incredible trip to Portland to visit Papa Jerry (grandma Margaret was out of town visiting Lindsey and Jett) and got to see lots of extended family too! Jason's cousin Brendan is home from Iraq for a couple weeks so it was the perfect weekend to head down and see everyone. It was such a nice break, the weather was gorgeous and aside from the Luke and Ava having ear infections, it was a perfect getaway!

We headed to the park when we got there Friday to get some wiggles out!

Driving Jett's cool car to the park!

Ava is OBSESSED with poor Bandit. It's like she thinks she is the dog-whisperer ;-) Bandit probably couldn't wait for her to leave today, but he is a very patient little guy!

Jason and his Uncle Andy at the park friday.

Naughty little monkey ;-)

Here he is in action...

Handsome daddy ;-)

Ava lovin' her Papa Jerry!

Precious!

She is a Gardiner, that's for sure, lucky thing!

Here's Luke and Lola (Jason's cousin's daughter) and silly Ava...

Jerry*Bradley*Max*Andy*Tom*Jason*Brendan (in red hat)- who is home from Iraq! Jerry had everyone over for a spontaneous BBQ and hang out. It was so fun to see everyone!

Lola's face is PRICELESS. Not liking her second cousin: Luke! And he is, of course, sticking his tongue out at her!!!

Here's Ava the "dog-whisperer" and her victim: Bandit ;-)

Saturday we walked around the Portland State campus a bit and then got to meet up with Cousin Conor who is on the Portland state football team! This was a HUGE treat for Max. He got to run drills with Conor (and Papa Jerry & Daddy)...

Some serious strategy being talked about here...

Conor*Max

Luke was busy in the long jump pit... thinking it was a sandbox, while the guys played!

He got in on the action at the end...

He may be the next Michael Jordan of football ;-)

I cannot believe I didn't get any pics of our fun dinner last night at Flying Pie... we were so happy to see so many family members! There were 24 of us in all!

This am we walked to Starbucks for coffee and look who's holding the leash!!!

Max & Daddy enjoying their drinks!

Messy boy enjoying his, post-meltdown!

Since it was such a gorgeous day, we headed to Grant Park for some play time!

Teeter-totter. This is the only picture of me all weekend since I'm always behind the camera ;-)

Papa pushing Luke in the swing. Luke's face is too funny in this pic!

Here's the dog whisperer at Brendan's party today. It was the only shot I got there... didn't even get one of the man of honor! ;-(

It was a LONG drive home today........... we were all wiped from an awesome, packed weekend. We ended up giving the kids oreos out of total desperation to keep everyone happy, and Luke managed to make a HUGE mess. We were all cracking up because we were soooooooooooo delirious by this point!

A messy ending to a fabulous getaway!