Oregon Historical Society - Portland, Oregon

Oregon Historical Society gave free admission to the new Beatles exhibit. They did a great job putting this together. In addition to the exhibits, several rock bands made up entirely of kids performed amazing covers. One favorite was Zombie by The Cranberries.

BONUS ADVENTURE:

After the Oregon Historical Society we ventured into the Pearl District for lunch. Then we took an unplanned detour to Marquam Nature Park. We have passed by this place 2-3 times a week since coming to Shriners and OHSU but this was the first time stopping.

Spring Photo Shoot at Orenco Park - Hillsboro, Oregon

Having just been here we decided this would be the perfect place for our annual spring photos. It was actually a little too sunny for us.

Orenco Park - Hillsboro, Oregon

There was no school today so we went looking for these sculptures that we recently heard about in Orenco Park. The sculptures, called Head Over Heels, is meant to be a temporary structure that kids can climb in. Overall this is a really beautiful park.

Red For Ed - Tigard, Oregon

Teachers and staff all over the state walked out in support of funding for students. We joined them, along with so many other families.

Pathfinder Trail - Tigard, Oregon

We discovered new paths and waterfalls off the Pathfinder Trail that runs through our neighborhood.

This is our second year going to the Assistive Technology Fair at Shriners Hospitals for Children. We were originally going to give a demonstration on using the Tobii to access an Amazon Echo Dot. The wifi wasn't working so our backup plan was to demonstrate using the Tobii to play with a toy robot. That's when the fun happened. A group was there with their own toy robot. We had a robot dance-off.

The highlight was definitely getting to see two of our favorite physical therapists in one location. Joel works at Shriners. Bruce contracts for the school districts.

Camas Festival - Tigard, Oregon

We went to the newly reopened Dirksen Nature Park for the Camas Festival. There were lots of activities, including chainsaw sculpting. The highlight was getting to meet our mayor!

Symposium Coffee - Tigard, Oregon

This wasn't exactly a big adventure, but we decided to go for an after dinner walk. Our original plan was just to stick with the trails near our house. Ultimately we decided to walk downtown to get coffee and pastries at Symposium. We stopped by a pond on the way home to watch a family of ducks swimming in the water.

Sankey Park - Sweet Home, Oregon

On our way back from a road trip we decided we needed to find a covered bridge to check out. The Weddle Bridge in Sankey Park wasn't too far off our route.

Portland Saturday Market - Portland, Oregon

We were just wanting to check out the market but got distracted watching this brass band. The band, Give Back Brass Band (GB3), is all about having fun with music and giving to charitable organizations. They came all the way from their base in Seattle.

Nobel Woods Park - Hillsboro, Oregon

Sunny day so we decided to check out this 40 acre wooded park in Hillsboro.


Bonus adventure after a short nap in the park:

Tualatin Hills Nature Park in Beaverton, Oregon. The trails were not all paved so we didn't stay long. They did have a cute visitor center and gift shop.

Birthday Shopping Spree at Barnes & Noble - Tigard, Oregon

A winter storm took out the power at our house so we started birthday celebrations a day early with a shopping spree at Barnes & Noble. We were there for a few hours even though it wasn't Powell's. Finally decided on adding several Peanuts and Pete the Cat books to the collection as well as starting a new collection of Fancy Nancy (a new favorite).

Cathedral Park - Portland, Oregon

We wandered around Portland trying to find restaurants that were open without a 2 hour wait list. We finally found one that had lots of vegan options a nice coffee. After lunch we took our guests to see St. John's Bridge at Cathedral Park. It was soooo cold! We warmed up afterward in an impromptu visit to Powell's City of Books.

Summerlake Park - Tigard, Oregon

Out friends were in town but we needed something close to show them. We've visited this park several times before but never when it was this cold out. It's still beautiful, but the name Summerlake is funny during the middle of winter.

Dirksen Nature Park - Tigard, Oregon

It's winter break and we are waiting for out of town guests to arrive to celebrate New Year's Eve. We had a desire to check out this newly created play area in Dirksen Nature Park. The City of Tigard did a great job. It is really beautiful and peaceful!

Cinnamon Bear Cruise - Portland, Oregon

I mentioned to the UCP Family Support Director how much fun we had on this cruise last year and within minutes she had contacted the cruise company and arranged a huge group discount. It was, of course, a lot of fun again and we were surrounded by so many families like ours. There were something like 100 people onboard that were families connected to UCP.

Winterhawks at Moda Center - Portland, Oregon

One of the wonderful secretaries at Charles F Tigard Elementary School gave us free tickets to see the Portland Winterhawks. It was our first time seeing a hockey game as a family. We didn't get to hang out with the mascot, but even better... we got to see two of the amazing CFT instructional assistants. They came all the way over from the other side of the rink to say hello. Awesome!

Audubon Society - Portland, Oregon

We were just cruising around in the hills and remembered the Audobon Society just as we were passing it. We turned around and parked to see their visitor center. We didn't stay too long because the trails were not paved. Inside the visitor center/gift store were many displays, including stuffed animals (toys and once living animals).

Milwuakie Riverfront Park - Milwaukie, Oregon

We dropped Kate off at Sibshops, a monthly meeting for children with special needs sibblings. This month the meeting was held at Providence Milwaukie Park Hospital. After a very yummy breakfast at a cozy restaurant, named Gramma's Corner, we walked up and down along the river at what looks like a newly constructed waterfront park.

Happy Halloween! 2018

Overheard Mr. Blasquez (aka Captain Underpants) running down the hall saying he "had to get a picture with Jilly!"

Fido's Taphouse - Tigard, Oregon

Wait! You are probably wondering why a family is going to a tap house. Let me explain. First, Fido's "The World's First Dog Tap House", was created for a purpose. Owner, Scott Porter, is a veteran and dog lover that is passionate about dogs as much as he is about beer. Fido's hosts dog adoptions and supports rescues and non-profits for the benefit of dogs.

On this day, Fido's was donating the day's profits to Canine Companions for Independence, Dundee's Alma Mater. We just had to go. We did so, not expecting to see CCI puppy raisers (and puppies) and learn how and why they generously give so much time and love for dogs that will move on to other things. The puppy raisers told us they really appreciated us being there because they got to see an actual CCI recipient with an actual CCI graduated service dog. 

Durham City Park - Durham, Oregon

Dundee needed some time to run and play since we were at the UCP Conference for a couple of days and he pretty much slept at our feet the entire time. We found an off-leash dog athletic field in a very small town almost enclosed by Tigard. Durham is about 200 acres and contains over 50 parks and trails. There are less than 400 homes. It's tiny but nice.

UCP Family Conference - Portland, Oregon

We attended our first United Cerebral Palsy Family Conference, an annual event that takes place at the Red Lion Jantzen Beach in Portland. This two day event was packed with useful seminars and browsing vendor booths, along with getting to know other families. The Keynote speech, delivered by a dad of a young boy with cerebral palsy, was one of the highlights of this event.

We plan on attending the conference as many times as we can.

The Pearl District - Portland, Oregon

We decided to go exploring in an area of Portland that we don't normally go to. Mommy's office is going to be relocating around here somewhere so we thought we get a little more familiar with it, especially coffee locations.

Vancouver Waterfront Park - Vancouver, Washington

We've been very excited to check out this new 7.3-acre Vancouver Waterfront Park since we first heard about it a few months ago. This community park is part of a 32-acre, high density, mixed use urban development, along the Columbia River. Portions of the park are still under construction, and a water feature is going to be opening in the spring.

The Columbia River Renaissance Trail connects Vancouver Waterfront Park to Wintler Park, which we visited previously during a hot summer day. See July 1, 2017 Wintler Community Park- Vancouver, WA

After our visit to the park we headed to a street market a few blocks away for food, coffee and some live entertainment.

Fanno Creek Trail - Tigard, Oregon

We took a late morning family stroll from our house to the nearby Fanno Creek Trail. The trail connects to Downtown Tigard conveniently close to Max's Fanno Creek Brewpub. So we stopped in for lunch, walked around downtown a bit and then walked home.

Willamette River - Portland, Oregon

With time between appointments we had a picnic lunch and a stroll along the Willamette River near mommy's work.

Magic Wheelchair reveal at Rose City Comic Con - Portland, Oregon

By far, one of the most exciting days ever! So exciting that we came back for seconds the next day! We got hooked up with the best builder from an already great organization, Magic Wheelchair, to build the most epic Despicable Me Grumobile with sound system, lighting and button activated fart gun. We took over Rose City Comic Con. We could hardly get a hundred feet without someone stopping us to take pictures. Each time we stopped we were surrounded by cameras and cell phone cameras. All of the visitors and exhibitors were incredibly nice. Possibly the nicest large group we've ever encountered. Now we are anxious for Halloween so we can sneak this into the classroom!

Canby Ferry & Town Center Park - Wilsonville, Oregon

We had nothing else going on and wanted to get out of the house for a little while. We heard about a ferry that takes cars across the river for $5. It only took a two minutes but it was still nothing we had done before. After that we headed into Wilsonville for lunch at Shari's and played in the fountains in Town Center Park. 

Camping at Battleground Lake - Washington

Some new friends invited us to share their ADA campsite and experience camping for the first time. Not everything went to plan but we had a lot of fun. Yes, we did sleep on the ground inside a tent. Yes, it did rain on us one of the nights. It was still so much fun that we're looking forward to doing it again as soon as we can.

Catalyst Picnic at Willamette Park - Portland, Oregon

Mommy's new firm had their annual picnic at Willamette Park. We got to play some fun games like cornhole and ladder toss. Kate managed to get one of the rubber bolos stuck in a tree. It was fun and we were surrounded by nice people.

Gateway Discovery Park - Portland, Oregon

United Cerebral Palsy of Oregon hosted a barbecue at the grand opening of this park. It was a beautiful day and we saw lots of wonderful people from UCP and Shriners Hospitals for Children. We even splashed in the fountains for a little while to cool off.

Lunch on the Willamette River - Portland, Oregon

We decided to have a picnic lunch and a walk at the river.

Wallace Marine Park - Salem, Oregon

After lunch we crossed to the other side of the Willamette River, to Wallace Marine Park. The beach had round rocks instead of sand but we were able to get the boats out into the water. 3 out of the 4 of us had slight sunburn.

Riverfront City Park - Salem, Oregon

After watching kayaks and boats last weekend, we headed out in search of a place to drop our inflatable boats into the water. We drove to Salem. The Riverfront City Park was beautiful but very crowded because there was a festival going on. We rode a carousel and splashed in the water on the splash pad before moving on for a picnic lunch.

Lewis & Clark State Recreational Site - Troutdale, Oregon

We had actually just left Ikea but didn't want to go home quite yet. We decided to drive out to Multnomah Falls. Crap!!! The parking lot was full so they were turning people away. We decided to make the best of it. We spotted a river and exited the freeway to investigate. In no time at all, we were playing on the shore of the Sandy River near where it meets with Columbia River.

Lan Su Chinese Garden - Portland, Oregon

We had a lot of friends from California visiting coincidentally at the same time. We met up as a huge group and took on Portland as tourists together. We started at Lan Su Chinese Garden. After stopping for lunch at Alder Street Food Cart Pod, we hopped on the Max train to go into Washington Park. From the Max station at Oregon Zoo, we hopped on shuttles to get around the park to destinations like the International Rose Test Garden. We stayed out very late into the night at a downstairs lounge area at Embassy Suites. Such an amazing day!!!

Providence Park - Portland, Oregon

Okay, so the staff at Providence Park are starting to recognize us. I think we've seen a few games here. We happened to be at a game during Pride celebration. It was a little rainy at times but still lots of fun!

Woodard Park - Tigard, Oregon

We got out our very old digital video camera, which unexpectedly attaches quite easily to a wheelchair with a mount intended for a food pump on an IV Medicine Pole. Here's a link to the bumpy video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WNpkOfhv4lQ

Alberta Park - Portland, Oregon

We went to the park to watch a softball game (Pitch, Please!). Out of town extended family was there. We tagged along afterwords to Great Notion Brewing and then a backyard barbecue (actually, nap time).

Marshall Park - Portland, Oregon

We were attempting to find some wheelchair friendly hiking places. This wasn't exactly wheelchair friendly but we made the best of the bumpy ride. We looked like those videos of Jeeps in the desert doing slow rock crawling. It was worth it for the views we had. And we encountered many small waterfalls.

Father's Day - Portland, Oregon

We started out with a walk along the western shore of the Willamette River at Cottonwood Bay. It got a little hot so we made our way downtown to play in Keller Fountain before having lunch at Veggie Grill.

Oregon Zoo - Portland, Oregon

Charles F Tigard Elementary School - Mrs. Foote's class, took a field trip to Oregon Zoo. They had a full size school bus with a wheelchair lift in the back so the whole class could ride together. No parental chaperone this time!