Portland Take 2

We spent Tuesday night, Wednesday, and Thursday morning in Provo. We spent Wednesday night in American Fork opening presents at Alicia and Peter's house. Needless to say, Will was quite delighted to get to open so many presents!

Thursday morning I went to class (with more success at getting out on time) and then Kyle, his brother Jordan, and I headed out for Oregon for our Open House there. The drive to Oregon is long, but pretty. Since it was actually light outside this time I got to see how pretty so that was nice. We got in just in time to hang out with Kyle's family a little before going to bed. 

Friday was very action packed. After breakfast we went over to Kyle's dad's lab and met everyone there and got to see the new lab in action. Then we headed over to pick strawberries. The only thing I had ever picked in the large of a quantity was cherries a couple years ago, so it was a mostly new experience for me. But the Dowdles have it down! It's something they do multiple times a year. We ended up picking nine flats full of strawberries. 

We headed home to clean the strawberries. About half we cut up for the reception the next day and froze the rest for jam making later. We ate dinner before heading out to Audrey and Adalyn's dance performance. They danced to "My Favorite Things" and it was one of the best things I have ever seen. There is almost nothing cuter than a bunch of little girls in tutus trying to remember what they are supposed to do!

We left before the show was totally over so we could get to Davis's piano recital. Davis is super good at the piano. He did awesome. I got to meet some more people and had a good time chatting with everyone. That night we started making the cream puffs. We made about half of the 500 we needed for the next day before we went to bed.

The next day Kyle and I met up with my parents and went to hike Multnomah Falls. It was such a beautiful hike and we went at a nice pace so it wasn't too strenuous. I love hiking and so does my mom, so it was the perfect activity. Although we regretted it a little when we were super stiff after having stood in line for two hours later that night.

We almost ran out of gas, so we stopped at this small and old place.
We had to take a picture of how old fashioned it is!

The Oregon reception was completely beautiful. Maria really went above and beyond. Again, there was pretty much a line from the beginning to the end of the reception. We have popular parents (anyone who says everyone comes for the bride and groom is lying). Also, the food was as good as it looked! We got everything cleaned up pretty quickly thanks to everyone's help!

The next morning Kyle wasn't feeling well, so the drive back to Utah consisted of me and Jordan getting to know each other better for about 8 hours. The last 4 Kyle was more with it and rode in the front with me rather than laying in the backseat. Even though it didn't end super well, it was a fun trip!