Quick trip to Portland, Oregon

On Friday, April 15th, at 6:00am Blake, Randy, Courtney and I hopped in the car and headed toward Portland, Oregon. Randy's best friend, Michael Packer was getting married in the Portland Temple on the 16th. We drove to Twin Falls and met Jared and Nikelle for breakfast, then continued on our way. It was a long drive, but we arrived near Portland at about 6:00 pm, then it took us another hour to get through the rush hour traffic in a downpour to finally arrive at our hotel.  We stayed at the Fairfield Inn less than a mile from the Temple.


Saturday morning, we went to the Temple for Michael and Alexis' sealing. It was a beautiful ceremony, and a beautiful temple. 

Blake & I near a beautiful flowering tree.

Randy & Courtney

Near the pond in front of the temple.

Mike and his beautiful bride coming out of the Temple.

Best Buds

Funny story...Courtney wanted to get a picture of the Temple sign, so we waited in the car while she went across the street to get a picture, then cars started coming, so she ran back to the car. She didn't know that Randy snapped this picture from the car.

After the sealing, Packers invited us to a real nice luncheon at Olive Garden right by our hotel.  After eating all we wanted, we decided to take a ride to the coast. It was about a 1 1/2 hour drive. We went to Cannon Beach, and saw Haystack Rock.  Randy loved the beach with real waves.  It was a beautiful area. It was pretty windy and chilly, but beautiful.

This is Haystack Rock.  The tide was low, so we could walk right out to it.

Some more rock formations. Looks like a picture from a calendar.

There were all kinds of "creatures" stuck to and under the rocks.  We saw some starfish too.

Randy checking out the waves.

This sailor greeted us as we walked down the lane to the beach.

Tsunami warning signs.

Randy on an actual beach!

We stayed at the beach for about an hour, then drove back so we could make it to Mike and Alexis' reception. They had a program, Mike even sang a song to Alexis. It was really nice. We got to blow bubbles on them as they left the church.  

Sunday morning we went to Sacrament Meeting, then started home. We got to Boise about 7:00pm, and stayed in the Residence Inn. We got up early Monday morning and were home by 11:00am. It was a very fast trip, with lots of sitting and riding, but it was really fun and I'm so glad we went.

We were amazed at all the moss on everything.

On the way home, we saw this herd of big horn sheep right by the side of the freeway. They were pretty cool.

We also saw this beautiful waterfall right off the freeway.