our trip to oregon in 24 pictures

It was a nice little trip.

I wish at times like this, I could read his mind and know what he's thinking. It's probably something like, "I love my mom. I love my mom. I love my mom. I love my mom. I love my dad, I mean, my mom. I love my mom. I love my mom."

On our way down, we stopped in Vancouver at a soda pop shop that boasted having 300 different kinds of bottled soda pop. This thing was parked there:

After the Pop Shop, we went to Fort Vancouver for lunch and then spent the next couple hours walking around the ol' Fort.

They had a couple blacksmith's on hand, giving demonstrations and talking about how the past was.

And because Corgan stood there and watched and listened to the old timer, he made him and gave him a little hook.

Did you know that Fort Vancouver was the headquarters of the Columbia District for the Hudson Bay Trading Co.? And that company has been around since 1670-something and is the oldest commercial company in North America and one of the oldest in the world? They started out trading furs and still operate as a clothing business up in Cananananda. You've just been schooled. End of lesson.

We left there and made a quick stop to the Beaverton Bakery.

Everything is made from scratch and is, oh so good.

We reached our final destination and the kids let off some steam.

It wouldn't be a complete trip to the Hillsboro Smith's without a late night run for some food. A recent find of a local joint, the Gyro House was the place this time, accompanied with some Sonic cherry limeade. The only reason I go to the Puyallup Fair or any other fair, is to get a gyro. I love gyro's. This gyro put all those others to shame. It was the size of Texas with an extra special kick of a garlic sauce. It was to die for.

On Saturday we took the kids fishing at Horning's Hideout, a fun little family-owned place where the peacocks run wild and so do the kids.

They all patiently waited to get their hooks baited.

Papa Smith taking a bit of rest.

"He-hawks" (as cade called them)

I forgot to send the camera with Aaron and his dad while they were at the Volvo thing. So unfortunately, I am unable to bore you with awesome pictures of awesome Volvo's. But I can tell you that one of the best things about the trip was walking into church on Sunday and looking up on the stand and there was my cousin, Peter. I knew he lived around there somewhere and lo and behold, he and his wife had moved into the ward only three weeks before. Peter was the cousin who was closest to my age growing up on my dad's side, so we always ended up hanging out and doing cousin stuff like being loud and driving our parents crazy.

I also forgot to take pictures with him and his cute kids.

The end.