Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Eugene!!

While Samantha was off practicing, we decided to have a little fun and explore Eugene. We ended up spending most of Friday on the University of Oregon campus.
It was a chilly morning and had to wait for 10 minutes before the museum opened so we decided to keep warm in the neighbouring law building, where I took a few pics of Elise.



We ate lunch at the cafeteria where the kids got the CHEESIEST grilled cheese sandwiches I have ever seen!!
Abby was excited! She called it a "double cheese"
We spent a couple hours at the Museum of Natural and Cultural History, which was heavy into geology, but we also got to see the worlds oldest sandals (around 10,000 years old!). The kids were actually the first to try our their new hands on geology exhibit and meet the lady who had created the exhibit.
Staying up until 11:30pm the night before and waking up at 5:45 caught up to the kids around 2pm and they all had a quick snooze in the car


Refreshed about 20 min. later we took the kids to the art museum on campus.
The art museum was installing 2 exhibits (so the exhibit halls were closed), so we got a short version of the museum, but it filled our time nicely.
There was a LOT of Buddhist art and the children's area was all centered on Buddhism. Here are the kids coloring pictures of Buddha.
I saw these in the Museum store and LOVE them!! They are exactly the colors I want to do my kitchen in. Alas, they were a bit expensive, but great inspiration!!
Since we were at the University of tree huggers we figured... "when in Rome" and gave a hug to this HUGE tree.
After all the tree hugging we headed over to Samantha's concert which was enjoyed by all.
We stayed both nights at the Super 8 in Eugene and the best thing about staying in the hotel is hotel beds that mom doesn't care about!!
Once we were ready on Saturday morning we headed off to.....
THE MALL!!
This was the 2nd time we've been to a mall since we moved to Bend a year and a half ago (the last time was almost a year ago) Who knew it could be so exciting to go to the mall??
(Clearly not quite as exciting for Brad :D)
After our mall trip we head over to the ice rink to skate on some real ice, on a real ink and had hoped to get Brad some laces for his skates, but they were sold out!! We had a good time though, and we were able to get Samantha's skates sharpened too.
We headed home around 4pm and Ethan and Abby drove us nuts doing their various renditions of the following video...
Isn't that funny? Not so funny though when you're trapped in a car for over 2 hours with kids going crazy and repeating "Char-lay, Char-lay" over and over again!! :D
We survived though and got home safe and sound.

9 comments:

brittany said...

man, you guys sure know how to pack it all in! how do you find all this stuff anyway... wait, is there a Eugene Bulletin?? ha ha. You guys always have so much fun as a family. I love seeing all the cool things you do, I'm just always wishing we were a part of them.

Grandma Whiting said...

Loved all of the pictures. May I say Elise looks so fashionable and pretty in her white jacket? Cute shot of them sleeping.

Christie said...

looks like a good time... I love the picture of Ethan on the bed, well not on the bed... LOL too fun! Looks like fun @ the mall too.

Sarah said...

You guys sure know how to have fun! I am amazed at all of the fun stuff you guys always find to do. It looks like you guys had a great trip, and I love the picture of everyone sleeping in the car. And I can't believe how far you live from a mall! That is crazy! I don't know what I would do... probably save a lot of money! Maybe that would be a good thing :)

Anonymous said...

Way to be multi cultural, and that is some serious double cheese! It looks like a fun day. My kids love Charley too, and they used to take turns reenacting it. Including my 3 year old. Sometimes they will still say,"that really hurt! And it's still hurting..." Fun times!(unless your cooped in the car)

Becky said...

I've probably only been to the mall twice in the past year, and I live in DENVER! I'm with Brad on the mall excitement.

SJacobus said...

That was a lot. Are you exhausted? I want to know if those sandals were in good condition. If so I might get me a pair. Mine never last that long.

Anonymous said...

That was some GREEN grass there, much jealousy.

I am glad your kids liked those grilled cheese sandwiches, those are too cheesy for me.
Sachie

Shawna said...

There's not a mall in Bend? I thought we drove by one when we went out to Tumis (sp).
That Char-lay video is hilarious. The first time I saw it I seriously had a head ache from laughing so hard. I haven't seen it in a long time a forgot about it. How funny of Ethan and Abby to drive you crazy with it.
Sounds like you guys had a fun trip. Hooray for Samantha and her talent for you guys to get to experience Eugene!