Ore-going to Portland

 Get it?

 We've been in the Pacific Northwest now for about 2 weeks. Splitting time between Portland, Olympia, Wa and Longview, Wa means lots of driving. For now, Lucia and I are living in Olympia, Matt is working and staying some nights in Longview and then we've all been making trips to Portland. Oh yeah, and our stuff is in Shelton, Wa. I'm excited for the day (in the hopefully near future) where the three of us and all our stuff are in one place! For now, it's fun to see family and friends in the area and get reacquainted with Washington and Oregon.

But to go back a bit into our journey out here (I'll do another post soon on the time between and August and now)...

 Matt left back in August so we had great time with special friends before he left. Here was our last hang out time with Janine, Aaron and Zeke. Lucia is trying to put her arm around Zeke.

 Last Wallgren family hang out at Depot Nuevo in Wilmette

 Heidi and Charley's wedding was a great time and a great chance to hang out with World Relief co-workers.

 And our last Johnson family hang out. We played a big game in the back yard, lots of fun as usual with this bunch.

 Then once Matt left it was a lot of mom and Lucia time...

 Fast forward a few months and we were already packing up the truck. Nice work Linnea and Greta!

And hanging out with special friends for one last time.

Matt came home on Halloween to help pack up the truck and then drive the car out. We got a little trick-or-treating in with our little grumpy Tinkerbell.

But she was much happier once daddy came back.

And then a little Halloween craziness at Linnea and Cam's.

The party was over...time to get this truck packed up

And we used up every square inch of space we could

 Pushing the wall to make it fit!

 Phew, that was close

We had a fun party with friends and family to say see you later (not good-bye)

 On the last day of hanging out with the fam, we had the pleasure of going through all of the childhood dresses my mom made us girls growing up and even got to take some for our own girls.

 Modeling some of the 'good' ones

The girls all looked so cute in them!

I just had to take one last picture on our drive out! And then we were off...

Some parts of the country more boring than others

Because we didn't have a swimsuit handy and couldn't find anywhere still selling them, Lucia had to settle for this Wal-mart get up. Matt's comment "she looks like her parents shop at Wal-mart".

 At the Great Salt Lake

 Utilizing the sweet 'smile timer' on my camera that takes pictures automatically when one in the group smiles.

We made a little stop at this cool nature walk/park in Boise, Idaho

 It had cool river viewing windows to see the fish swimming.

 Last stop in picturesque Enterprise, Oregon

Oregon on our side, Washington on the other side of the Columbia river.

 Lots of this in the car which was good.

 And then we got to Portland and it was off to a park after five long days in the car!

And another park the next day. This will surely be one of our faves, Mt Tabor in Portland.

Who says it rains all the time here?

 Lots of time with Nate in Portland. He's always so good at taking us in and showing us the good parts:)

 Bingo...obviously

 And day, another beautiful park in Portland

 We've spent some time outside but also inside, like at this cool play space in Tacoma that Lucia loved.

 Life here is so far, so good. Like I said, it'll be even better when we're full time in Portland:) I'll post more soon! It has been hard to get back on the blog without internet at home but I will find a way.