Quick Weekend in Oregon

The last weekend in July we made a little last-minute trip down to Oregon. As mentioned in my “Missing Girls Camp” post, this was the year of the TREK for the youth in the Springfield stake and since I had been on the 3 previous ones, I thought it would be fun to pick up Lizzy on the last day. I talked with Sean and we decided to make a weekend of it! So, I got home w/ Ethan Thursday night after my usual 2-day work spree in Eugene and then Friday morning we all got up bright and early [i.e. about 5:30am] to take Sean to work. His summer job was in Salem, so while he worked from about 7am to 12:30pm [Fridays were his short day], Ethan and I bummed around downtown.

First stop was to Costco for gas, since I think we were running on fumes! But after that we went to good ol’ Mickey D’s for breakfast. Ethan had pancakes, apple slices and milk while I ate my standard egg mcmuffin with a folded egg. And then, we cheated and went into the play area about an hour before it was “opened” because, dang it!, that’s why we went to that particular McDonald’s and it was barely 8am and I still had almost 5 hours to kill!! So I sat and ate and kept an eye on Ethan while he ran around, climbed the towers, slid down the slides and occasionally ran to the table for a bite or two of pancakes before running off again. Finally, at about 9am I was getting ready to leave when a little girl showed up with her grandma. Well, Ethan and her just hit it off and since we had nowhere to be, I let him play for another hour! That’s right, I was at McDonald’s for 2 HOURS!! But Ethan had fun, so it was ok. We went to the bathroom and then after I loaded him in his carseat, I decided I needed a little caffeine to reboot my system and went through the drive-through for a Coke. {Mmmm…. McDonald’s fountain Coke.}

The plan for our next stop was either the Carousel, A.C. Gilbert Children’s Museum and/or playground. I hadn’t decided yet. Salem decided for me because the carnival was in town! That meant no parking at the carousel or children’s museum. Grrrrr….. After several loops throughout the downtown area to find a parking spot and several more ggrrrrrrrrr…. sounds under my breath, I finally found a spot just across the street from the carousel w/ free parking for the first two hours. Perfect! Children’s Museum was definitely out, so we headed on over to the carousel. Cost was $1.50/ride [parents not riding a horse were free] so I just bought one ride to begin with and the lady at the token booth was nice enough to give Ethan an extra one since it was our first time. Sweet! So we get in line… We check out all the cool horses as they pass us [I’m thinking the bucking cowboy one is pretty cool]…. The operator opens the gate… Ethan pretty much has his pick of horse to ride and he picks… he picks… drumroll please…………….. He picks the covered wagon. What?! Are you my kid?! So he sits down and I say to Ethan, “I just want to make sure you know that this one won’t be going up and down at all. Is this still where you want to ride?” “Yes, mommy.” “Are you sure?” “Yes, mommy.” “Totally, 100% sure?? Because you can still ride a horse if you want to!” “Yes, mommy.” Ok. Fine. So Ethan’s first ride on the famous Salem Waterfront Carousel was in the stationary covered wagon.

Alright next ride. The free ride. We get in line again…. We check out the horses again…. The operator opens the gate and Ethan makes a beeline for…….. “The food cart” as he calls it. Say what?! Seriously? This time I only ask, “are you sure?” once. He’s sure. So we ride the stationary “food cart” and I check out all the other horses longingly. Each with a different theme. Seashells. Fairytale. Knight. Cowboy. Native American. The possibilities are endless! I even spot this one by us with a CTR crest on the harness. The ride ends and we get off and walk around, check out the gift shop, annoy an employee at the gift shop because Ethan and I are the only customers in there and Ethan is sitting on the floor checking out the toys and taking up “space”. Oh brother. We decide to do ONE more ride. C’mon Ethan, let’s pick out a horse to ride. He likes the black knight one, so once again we are in line… waiting…. watching…. getting on the carousel and this time we know we want the black knight horse… we’re walking, we’re walking… the black horse is in sight, but what’s this? We come across the “food cart” first and Ethan is distracted. Mission failed. We ride the stationary “food cart” again. I am 0 for 3 in the cool horse category on the carousel.

So once we were done with all the excitement of the carousel, we thought we’d better at least check out the carnival since it was free to get in. Of course, Ethan is dead set on the car ride {clearly his 3-year-old brain hasn’t made the connection that the car ride is essentially a carousel in car form!} but I check out the cost anyway. 3 tickets. And 1 ticket costs? You guessed it! 1 ticket = 1 dollar. $3 for this ride?! This frugal mama isn’t liking the sound of that. But what luck! I only have a $5 bill left. Ha! I’m not lying when I tell the little guy that he can only ride once because that’s really all the cash I have! So I march up to the ticket booth and proudly buy just 3 tickets. Ha! Ethan LOVES his car ride! He got so into it… turning the wheel and making car sounds. Meanwhile, two girls got in another car and just sat there. They didn’t even put their hands on the steering wheel. Boring! After Ethan’s ride we walked around the rest of the carnival and ignored the hecklers trying to get us to play the carnival games. I wasn’t falling for that rip-off! On our way out we bought a churro to share with my final $2 and then headed over to pick up daddy. It was a great morning!

The rest of the weekend was fun, too, but I won’t go into nearly as much detail! Friday afternoon we hung out at my family’s house and once Ethan was in bed, my mom, Sean and I went to see the new Angelina Jolie movie, Salt. Saturday morning we drove with my mom to pick Lizzy up in Bend and then made the traditional Harrick’s general store stop for ice cream and sodas for the drive home. Saturday night we went to Dickie Jo’s for dinner. The burgers and fries were awesome… definitely rivaling In-N-Out and Five Guys. Sunday we went to our old ward and it was great to see familiar faces. We had several inquiries as to whether we were moving back and sub-sequentially several disappointed faces. That poor ward has had 6 or 7 active families move out in less than a year. After lunch and naps, Lizzy and I made brownies to take over to Tim and Danae’s so we could cuddle the new baby. Yeah, Lizzy got way more cuddle time than I did!

Finally, after our whirlwind weekend in Oregon, we headed home.