Girls Road Trip

This past Friday, my mom, my girls, and I left town for a road trip to Eugene. Thanks to a very generous member of my family, we were able to stay free of charge in a very cool house (that we had all to ourselves). Julietta even said that it was, "The coolest house ever!"

It's a rare occasion that I get out of town and out of our usual routine, so to be somewhere else was quite a treat. Below is the room that Melania and I stayed in.

This is the room that Julietta and my mom slept in, and the incredibly comfortable bed that we piled into to watch the movie, "Cow Belles".

For our trip, (which I surprised Julietta with, telling her about only the night before), we planned to go to Chuck E. Cheese's and Enchanted Forest. Friday evening, after arriving in Eugene and settling into our house, we went to Chuck E. Cheese's for dinner and games. Melania, having been there with us before, (back in September), was quite reluctant to go again. The big Cheese terrified her. She was literally trembling at the sight of the big headed costume. So, when Melania had overheard me telling Julietta that we would be going again, she quickly spoke up and said, "Not me!" After hanging onto my neck like a little monkey for the first 10 minutes or so, she started to get into it again. She continued to keep a safe distance from Chuck, but loved the games and putting her own tokens into them. This is Melania riding on a ride that is very similar to my favorite Chuck E. Cheese ride as a kid.

Here Melania is playing in the kiddie area and having fun. She even sat on the Barney train (which had also terrified her the last time that we were there). She liked Barney this time.

Saturday morning, after having breakfast, we headed up towards Salem to spend the day at Enchanted Forest. The last time that we were there was three Summers ago, when Julietta was about the age that Melania is now (a little older). At that time, my mom and I brought along Julietta and my niece Brooke (who actually celebrated her 13th birthday on May 30th). Enchanted Forest is a pretty cool place. This picture is of my girls heading into Hansel and Gretel's cottage.

Here is Julietta and Melania peeking into Snow White's cottage. Melania stood there looking into that window for minutes. I would love to have known what she was thinking.

This is Melania and I sitting in a car of the roller coaster, just getting ready to take off. I thought the ride was a little rough (maybe that was because I was trying to keep my 2 year olds head from bouncing off of the side), but she loved it.

My mom and Julietta were in the car ahead of us. I snapped this picture of my mom at the start of the ride as well.

Here is Julietta on the Frog Hopper ride. Melania wasn't tall enough to ride this ride, but as you can see from the video I posted below, she was preoccupied anyway.

This shows Julietta and Melania getting onto the Ferris Wheel. My girls enjoyed riding this together - twice. The second time they were allowed to go around so many times that Julietta even began to look a little bored. Melania loved every second of it.

At Enchanted Forest, they had a play called "Snow White and the Seven Dorks". We bought some lunch and ate while we watched. The play was crazy, silly, and over the top. The kids loved it. All three of them (Julietta, Melania, and my mom). This photo below is of Melania watching.

These are the seven dorks. The entire play was performed with only three actors.

Julietta and Melania on the kiddie train. I love the look on Melania's face in this shot. She was having such a good time.

So, the picture below probably needs a little bit of an explanation. It's pretty much the funniest thing I've ever seen. My girls and I have this face that we make called our "duck face". It's a silly face that I realized a few months back that I make at my kids far more often then I was actually aware of. Then Julietta started practicing, and now on occasion Melania can pull it off fairly well herself. Here Julietta is making a variation of the duck face that she made up, this is "monster duck". Like I said, it's pretty much the funniest thing I've ever seen. There's really nothing quite like it.

I know that this pictures is incredibly blurry, but I like it anyway. It's a self portrait.

On our way home from Eugene we stopped at Rice Hill for ice cream. Here is Julietta eating her rainbow sherbet in the car.

This is Melania sleeping through our stop at Rice Hill. Shhh, don't tell her she missed out! ;-)

Lastly, some videos to leave you with. Thanks mom for coming along with us. It was a great time. We should get away more often.