Our trip was a lot of fun and jam packed with festivities. We left San Diego on July 24th (Thursday) and since we were flying standby on a buddy pass from Sharla, we ended up getting stuck in Phoenix that night and then flying into Portland the next morning. Liana picked us from the airport and we headed to Wilamette McMinamins for some lunch.
It was a perfect beautiful sunny day, so we sat out on the patio. Greg and Liana had an ice cold microbrew...mmmmm. I had a couple sips :) We headed to dad's after that and Greg and I headed down to the river for a bit. I got really emotional sitting on the dock watching the river and remenising about all the happy memories I have of growing up on that river. There are very few things that make my heart feel so much love and passion...being home on the river is one of them. We headed down to Hebb Park for a bit and Mike & Lindsie joined us at about 4. About 6 we headed back into Wilamette for some food at Cooperstown. Dad and Marge met us all there and then we all headed back to the house for some drinks (lemonade and sparkling water for me!)
The next day was dad's annual party which was a lot of fun! After catching up with all the family, friends and neighbors Matt took us out on his boat for a bit.
Tom bro, a couple of Matt's friends and Uncle Bill were on the boat with us. It was dusk...my favorite time of day next to sunrise. 
The sunsets in oregon are amazing! We don't get too many sunsets in San Diego...they are there, but without any clouds in the sky, they just aren't anything special.
The next day was Gavin's 3rd Birthday (July 27th)! We got Gavin a pinata and stuffed it with a bunch of candy...no chocolate of course because JJ is allergic.
We had a little Hartgraves family reunion at mom's house! Dean, Sharla, Max, Jack, Carolyn, Brian, Danielle, Brian, Jarod, JJ and Gavin were ALL there! It was the first time we were all together since our wedding 5 years ago!
Gavin has developed such a little personality and is SO funny!! He was so fascinated by the fact that there was a "baby in aunt Stephanie's belly" and he was so cute because he kept touching my belly and kissing it and saying that he wanted the baby to come out so that he could meet her :) He even named her Hailey after his girlfriend!
We had a BBQ and then some cake and ice cream! I had 4 bowls of ice cream!!!! I was so sick to my stomach by the time that 4th bowl was gone. Yuck, I won't forget that feeling for awhile! Although, sitting here writing and thinking about ice cream is making me crave it...uh oh :)It was so nice to sit, relax and just be with the whole family. The Hartgraves are so nice to be around cuz they are just laid back and normal. My family is so hard to handle sometimes, but maybe that's just because it's my family. Everyone played ping pong while mom blasted the juke box with the oldies!
Next day was Monday and we headed out to the ranch for the day. Greg kept giving me shit saying, "whoo hoo, the big Rowan Reunion '08!" It was pretty funny considering the fact that it was just him and I out there! Uncle Bill was there too but he was working on building the great room lodge thingy/commom room out in the forest. He has done such a great job out there! There are 4 cabins he has built already and they each have their own private access to the river and plenty of privacy. Greg and I just hung out. Most people would probably be bored out of their minds, but we tool advantage of "BFE" (being in the middle of nowhere with nothing to do). We swam, hiked up the river a bit and fished. Didn't catch anything but it was so much fun trying.
The water is so clear there that you can see your hook 20 feet below the surface, so we could see when fish were coming to nibble :)
Here is a pic of Greg looking especially adventerous :) He always gets annoyed when I take pictures, so 9 out of 10 times when you see a pic of him he is being a smart ass!
And of course I made him take some pics of me...otherwise I wouldn't exist. I have asked him to take a lot of pics lately because I feel like my body changes so much everyday and I want to remember it ALL!I don't remember what we did on Tuesday, but Wednesday we went and hung out downtown portland all day long! Well first we stopped off in Wilamette for some Sharis breakfast with Greg's parents and sister and Gavin.
From there we headed down to Hawthorne district and walked around and went in all the cute shops. I love it down there! 
When I saw Ben and Jerrys I had to stop so we had some ice cream :) Here is a pic of Brian and Gavin as Ben and Jerry! We had our ice cream and did some more window shopping. The family headed home afterwards and Greg and I headed over to NW portland....my fav! We drove around and looked at houses way out of our price range with breathtaking views! I love dreaming about being able to live in a house like that....on top of a hill with a beautiful view of downtown portland. mmmmmmm. After that, I headed to the nail salon to get my nails done and sent Greg down to the bar to have a few beers :) If I weren't pregnant we would probably be on a pub crawl...there are the coolest little places to have a beer in NW portland! Next stop was St. Patricks Catholic Church...the church where we were married 5 years ago!!
It brought back so many memories to be back at the church. 
Memories of grandpa because his name was engraved inside for his generous contributions to the church. Memories of Betsy and how beautiful and full of life she was on my wedding day. Memories of all of our friends and family being with us to share in such a happy day!! I made Greg this great book for our 5th wedding anniversary that recaps the last five years and the first 10 pages or so are of our wedding day! The book turned out so nice...I love mypublisher.comf by the way! Thursday morning we went to see grandma again. Although Maryville is a very nice place, it kills me everytime we see her in there. All she can do is lay there and wait for people to come visit with her.
She doesn't have any friends left accept Maria and her only family is mom, uncle rollie and me. 
Matt never goes to see her which also breaks my heart. I assume that it is just too hard for him so he denies the whole situation. I hope it is not just because he is selfish. He has never been really good about wanting to be with family, but I know he has a good heart. We visited with grandma for awhile and then took her for a nice long walk. Then we headed out to the ranch to meet Josh and Bonnie, his finance! Noah and Amanda and Cadence were also there. 
Bill was there of course and then Dad even joined us for a little bit on his way out to the lake to go skiing. We bbq'd and swam. 
The water was so cold! I heard that a pregnant belly floats easily so here is a pic of me trying to stick it out of the water....it wasn't working too well :) I had about a gallon of gatorade while everyone else got to suck down cold brewskis. Even Cadence was enjoying a little Mojito! 
Well, I need to sign off for now, but will be back to finish off the Oregon trip festivities........
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