Annual Portland Trip

We made our annual migration to Portland the first weekend of April. Friday Jon and myself did the largest automotive swapmeet on the west coast for the fifth year in a row. We took Joe along this year. Jonah even bought some tools with his own money, but after four hours got a bit weary of watching Jon and me rummage through items we found interesting. Overall he did well for his first time, and even pushed the hand truck around a while. Elisabeth was gone for most of the first three days so we got to spoil grandkids at will :-).

Here Brynne and Ava are seen enjoying ice cream for breakfast. The kids were ecstatic when they heard about the possibility the night before, and quick to remind us when they got up the next morning. ( I think we started a new family tradition of ice cream for grandkid's breakfast in Houston over New Year.) Also, Brynne is really growing and finally getting some hair.



Jonah had his first Little League Baseball game of the season, and is also taking piano lessons. Here he is doing his thing at the keyboard (in baseball uniform) before a game. He needs no prodding to get him to practice piano. Trying to get him out in the yard to throw and hit a baseball with Papa Mel is another matter. He'd rather be at the keyboard.


On the way south we stopped in Sacramento for a night with friends. One night stretched into two as I got my arm twisted to seek out a guy selling dune buggy parts in the foothills. The extra few hours ended up putting a bunch of parts in my truck bed for the trip south. (Like I needed more stuff in the garage.)