Oregon 2010 Part Two: Tigard & Washington Square Mall

So as you may know Dan and I love Oregon. It wasn't always that way with me. Back in 2008 when Lexie was about 1 and Olivia was 3 I said to Dan "Let's go to Hawaii this summer!" Dan's response was "Let's go to Oregon!" Um, no. I don't want to go to Oregon, I want Hawaii. Dan said there was an aquarium somewhere there and Olivia would love it. Hello, Hawaii has an even better aquarium and it's called the ocean. Well, I wasn't back to work yet and Hawaii was expensive so I started to research Oregon. We had a blast that first trip and couldn't wait to come back the next year. The first place we stopped in on that trip was Tigard. Tigard is a suburb just south of Portland. I found it by googling Pottery Barn Kids and then using google maps to find the nearest hotel. Love google maps!!! Turns out the nearest hotel is an Embassy Suites. The hotel room is an actual suite with the bedroom seperated from the living area. The room is huge! To give you an idea of how huge picture this: in the bedroom we've got a playpen, a stroller, 2 suitcases and a nightstand. Yes, that's right OUR own nightstand. On our way from Seaside we drove by a Costco and at that costco there were about 3 different nightstands that match Lexie's furniture. Our van is so honkin huge we are able to buy that nightstand and bring it back home- with room to spare. So we've got all that stuff just in the bedroom and there's still tons of room to move around. Anyways, back to the trip. We got to the hotel early and we were able to check in about an hour and a half early. All of us were super excited to get over to the mall next door. It's got so much that we love: Pottery Barn Kids, Gymboree, Build a Bear, Lego, Disney Store, awesome play area, and a Cheesecake Factory. If you've never been to a Cheesecake Factory and you're in the States YOU MUST GO!!! The menu is like a book. There are pages and pages to choose from. The food is delicious and the portions are huge. Olivia was just asking today if we could go there. But the awesome thing about is that we can take our food to go! That was really handy, especially considering I start nursing Cassidy to sleep around 5:30. So I would get Cassidy down to sleep by 7:30 and Dan would have the big girls in bed by the time I would come out of the bedroom. Olivia and Lexie slept on the pull out couch in the living room. It would take them a while to get to sleep but they were usually asleep by 8pm. Dan would go out to do some shopping from about 7:30-9pm and I would hang out sneaking around the dark room. That room got so dark too! It would be super sunny outside but in our room it was like the middle of the night. The girls slept in a little bit the second part of our trip. Breakfast was in the atrium and was so yummy. There was omelettes, bacon, sausages (or hot dogs as Lexie calls them!), pancakes or french toast, fruit, yogurt, muffins, cereals and juices. And we only paid $103 a night for our huge room and yummy breakfast!

The first full day we were in Tigard we went to the outlet mall about 30 minutes south called Woodburn Company Stores. Dan and I just love it there but the girls weren't too excited to be there. They were happy the first hour or so when they played in a little tree house but after that they were bored. I went to the Gymboree outlet first and was so excited when I found a 15% off coupon. I have an obsession with buying stuff ahead of time. Each girl has rubbermaid buckets of stuff I've picked up on sale. I HATE buying stuff at regular price. Even Olivia and Lexie know that we only buy stuff on sale. The gymbo outlet had their watermelon line on sale and I snatched up tons of it. I get people all the time telling me that they can't afford Gymboree. Ya, I can't either if I were to pay the regular price. It's all about knowing the ins and outs of sales and being on their email list. Never buy stuff from the front of the store unless it's part of a special sale. Most of what we bought was for the girls but we did manage to get a couple things for ourselves. Coach had an extra 20% coupon so I finally got a Coach purse. We didn't get to shop nearly as much as we would have liked but that's life with 3 little ones. It seemed to be the theme of the outlets: bored, crying, whining children with not enough to do. It actually made me feel better to see other parents struggling to control their kids. (I know, not nice of me!!) Dan and I have dreams of one day visiting Woodburn by ourselves. That's right, no kids. As soon as I stop breastfeeding...

***We were so busy that we forgot to take pictures of us at the Embassy Suites. Here are more pics of us at the beach. ***

Stay tuned for more about our trip to OMSI (Portland's Science World) and the zoo.