Put A Bird On It...

It's no lie that I needed a break from the country for a while.  The gray skies, no neighbors, and kids getting cabin fever has gotten to me...even more than in the past few years.  So when we started looking at the Utah Jazz's schedule and saw they would be in Portland this weekend, we jumped at the chance to see somewhere new!

Portland is just a 3 hour drive from us, so it's totally do-able and a good place to go on a long weekend.  After watching a few segments of Portlandia hearing some things from a friend that is from there, I totally got why we saw these signs everywhere...

We spent the weekend with the Thornocks and the Copelands, always a good time!  We got to get a head start on everyone else since Nate didn't have to work on Friday, so we thought we'd check out the zoo since we had a few sunny, 50 degree weather days.  It was such a nice zoo!  So green and the animals were all out and very active.  Gotta love the zoo in the winter :)

It sure makes me miss my season pass to the Columbus Zoo, though.  I wish we had a zoo closer so the boys could go more often...oh well.  Maybe one day :)

 Next up, our first trip to VooDoo Doughnuts.  It has been featured on tons of Food Network/Travel Channel shows, and lucky us, it was right across the street from the Embassy Suites we were staying at!  Needless to say, we wen't there twice.

Tucker was a big fan of the Fruit Loop Doughnut, and my favorite so far has been a mango one, but really, they are all good and the line was worth standing in!

Trip #2 with the whole group...

I was also THRILLED when I found out that the Mellow Mushroom was in Portland.  We first discovered this place in South Carolina with a group of our best friends from Ohio.  Then, they built a few in Columbus and we visited many times after that with friends.  Good memories, and good pizza!

 We also spent some time at OMSI, the children's museum downtown.  The water area is always a favorite for my boys!  The boys had lots of fun running around with their friends Jayden, Ryleigh, and Baleigh.  

The rest of our time was spent hanging out in the rooms, swimming in the awesome pool, playing games, and of course the men's trip to the Jazz game.  It was a good weekend, and I can't wait to get back again soon :)