On June 3, my niece Anne Cosette was born to my sister in law Trudie and brother VJ. I had to go meet her. After all, I've met my other nieces and nephew soon after they were born and Cozy was no different. Plus, I'm unemployed and I have never taken a roadtrip up the west coast!
So my baby sister Ashley and I embarked on our journey. We left at 1:00 in the afternoon and planned on arriving for the last tour at the Winchester Mystery House. The Godfather (aka, our dad) presented the Tom Tom and showed us how to use it. "Francois" as he came to be known thanks to a previous trip, was quite helpful!
We were on our way. We had the typical roadtrip food of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, beef jerkey, granola bars, waters and diet coke. We were on our way!
We got to San Jose an hour after the last tour for the Winchester Mystery House. We decided to do it on the way home instead. (Plus we missed the exit entirely so we headed to San Francisco looking for a Del Taco.) Ashley has never driven in San Francisco so it was quite entertaining :) Somehow, we ended up on Lombard St. (one of the crookedest streets in the world!) as Del Taco mocked us. By now it was after 9pm and we weren't sure where to go from here. That's when we decided, hey, why don't we just camp? There's tons of campgrounds up here, let's find a Target! And that we did! So, we bought a two man tent and some emergency blankets. We already had our own bedding, food, flashlight, etc. As we started to continue north, we decided to stop by our cousin Lindy and Leonard's house in Santa Rosa. They were more than happy to see us on our surprise visit! We stayed about an hour and they insisted we stay the night, but we had our hearts set on camping after purchasing that tent! so we bid them adieu and were on our way! Francois gave us plenty of options of campgrounds and Ashley was set on Mt. Cucumber (which, was actually called Mt. Cumber, but she blames this mistake on the fact that she was driving).
(Ash, Lindy, Leonard and I in Santa Rosa. I can't tell you how many times we were offered wine. Such hospital family, I love them!)
After Lindy and Leonard's it was my turn to drive. Now as most of you know, I am a part-time insomniac and sleeping in the car is pretty much impossible for me. So, Ashley gave me one of her fat burners to help me out. The camp site was only 3 hours away. I could make it!
At 5:30am, after the sun had come up and I decided it would be best to just drive as far as we could, since I was wired, I pulled over into a rest stop. We pulled the sleeping pads that Lindy and Leonard offered us over the windows and slept. For about 4 hours. I couldn't sleep anymore so we headed to my brother's.
We finally arrived just before 1:00 in the afternoon. We were greeted by my niece Jackie (JK) and nephew Owen (O), as well as my brother making us some Boca burgers for lunch. Trudie came home from the grocery store and we were able to meet Cozy (or Annie Pie as O likes to call her). Nothing less than adorable! She is a tiny little thing and looks more like a cross between JK and O than anything. She's precious!
(Anne Cosette having "tubby time")
After we talked and rested a bit (well, Ashley did, I had no intention of sleeping till bedtime) we decided to take the kids to the pool, leaving Tru and Cozy behind to nap. The pool in Portland is at the high school and MAN, this is the COOLEST pool I've ever seen! It has a little frog slide in the wading pool, a diving board, a big waterslide like at the water parks, a whirlpool with another whirlpool inside of it that goes faster. Not a jacuzzi, but an actual whirlpool, like a lazy river! Ashley and I swam with JK and had a blast! O was with VJ and we met up later on. then we headed to the diving board where JK showed us how far she could jump off. It was a blast!
(JK, Ash and I underwater at the coolest pool I've ever seen)
Later in the evening, VJ took Ash and I to downtown Portland. We went to his favorite book store in the world, Powells. This place is HUGE. Now when I see a bookstore, it's like seeing something shiny -- I can't help myself. Luckily, I was too tired to look for more than one book, so I escaped with only one. Then we headed out for some gelato and then dinner at PF Changs. By the end of the night, 11:30pm when we left the restaurant, we crashed hard.
The next morning we were pleased as we were able to sleep in till 9am thanks to VJ and Trudie restraining their kids. :) Then we were off to church. Ashley and I chose to walk back to the house and take in the fresh air and the beauty that is Lake Oswego. When VJ returned, he took us on a little field trip to The View Point Inn, which coincidentally, is where they filmed the prom scene for Twilight! How adorable is our brother?? JK and O walked around with us checking the place out marveling at the view. Then we were off to the waterfalls! We did a small hike and enjoyed the waterfall and river. We made a couple other stops then headed back to the house.
It was such a blast playing with JK and O and meeting Cozy! She is such a good baby! I couldn't help but laugh when my little sister attempted to hold her. As soon as she was in her arms, she began to cry. That's when Ashley let me know of her fear of newborns, ha ha! VJ handed Cozy to Ashley one more time and I quickly shot a picture.
The next day, we were awoken at 7:30 (well, I was as Owen came in to check on me). This was totally permitted because I wanted to spend as much time with them before we headed to Seattle that evening. This time, we went to the park, leaving VJ at home to work. The kids road bikes and we walked over to the nearest park. It was hilarious because Owen decided to keep his bike helmet on while he was playing on the playground. He was the special kid on the slide, ha ha! Good thing he had it on though because he fell a couple of times. Hey, he's only 2 1/2... We had a picnic there and watched the kids play then headed back home.
After our goodbye's (and a bit more playing) we were off to Seattle!
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