I promised my brother when he graduated with his Master's in Architecture I would not miss it. So this was the year. Unfortunately we couldn't discover Portland, OR as a family, but I feel so fortunate that I was able to go out for 5 days with my mom and brother Tim to see Kyle graduate and spend time in the beautiful state of Oregon. Here are TONS of pictures from our time! We had a busy 5 days but I was so glad we got to do all that we did while I was out there. I can't wait to go back and show James and Mikayla.
The first day we had a long start to our trip-the weather was horrible and we spent a lot of time on runways of airports waiting to fly and then after a few delays-almost missing our plane in Chicago-more waiting on the runway in Chicago-we ended up getting into Portland about 4 hours later than we were supposed to
Here is a picture of my mom and I in the Grand Rapids airport-waiting for our flight!
After a later arrival in Portland-our first day consisted of getting our car, checking into our hotel and seeing my brothers. We did a little bit of sightseeing in downtown and made a trip to REI-what an amazing store!
On Friday we spent the morning at the Rose Gardens-many of the buds were not blossoming yet-but they were so close. I can only imagine what it will look like in a few weeks!
Me, mom, Tim and Kyle
Kyle and I
Tim, Mom and I
After the Rose Gardens-we headed down to the AIA museum to see Kyle's thesis project on display. Then he did a shorten version of his thesis presentation for us. Such a wonderful concept I can't wait to see it come to life someday. I know someone is going to grasp onto this concept because it is such a wonderful idea for large cities! One of the amazing things about the program my brother went through at Portland State University is that his class was the FIRST Master's class to graduate from PSU. So it was a very big accomplishment and we are so proud of all Kyle and his classmates accomplished.
Kyle giving us a shortened version of his thesis presentation!
Kyle sharing his thesis project with us-YES he created all those boards-he is amazing!!
After he did his presentation for us we headed back for the hooding ceremony and graduation of the Fine Arts department-this is the only graduation we went to-because the PSU graduation is like 8 hours long! Glad we went to this one-it was very personalized and a much smaller setting. And it only lasted an hour or so!
Kyle walking in....
Getting his hood put on!
Being congratulated by Clive-the department chair and one of Kyle's mentors throughout his program!
Not the greatest picture-but it shows his happiness...
The 12 MASTERS in ARCHITECTURE graduates!
Sergio and Kyle-my brother had a fellowship this past year and Sergio was his mentor and guide during his fellowship. He has been an amazing inspiration in my brothers life and it was great to meet him finally!
Family picture!
After graduation we went out for dinner and drinks and had a wonderful time celebrating!
On Saturday we started the day heading to the Farmers market-of course I forgot my camera-but after getting some breakfast-picking up some goodies for dinner we headed out to see some Waterfalls, hiking and Mt. Hood.
This was an amazing water fall. It was was Multnomah Falls-there was 2 falls. I am not sure how you get to that top bridge but we just went to the bottom of it. This one we didn't have to hike to, it was a very busy one, and I could see why-such an amazing sight!
My brothers...
Our next stop we did hike to. It was a long hike-but it sure felt long because it was UP HILL the entire time. But it was so worth the hike when we got up there.
At the top of Horse Tails falls.
These three are very into plants and so much of the day was spent looking for the different species of plants. I love this picture because they were all huddled around the book looking for the name of certain plants.
This is a picture from the bottom of Horse Tails falls.
After checking out the waterfalls we continued our journey to Mt. Hood. What a HUGE mountain! The coolest part was that there was still a TON of snow on the mountain in June and people were skiing. It was a beautiful day for the drive up the mountain. We went to Timberline lodge right on the mountain.
On Sunday we headed to the West Coast to see the ocean and my mom's friends Rod and Julie. Background story of Rod and Julie is that the night I went into labor with Mikayla-this is where my mom was at when I called her to say that Mikayla was not waiting to come and that they were going to do a C-section-needless to say-my mom's trip was cut short and she headed back to GR so she could see her grand daughter. So it was nice to finally meet Rod and Julie and see there house. Rod and Julie lived near the ocean so we headed to their house first for a delicious brunch. After brunch we headed to the ocean-it was not a great day for a walk on the beach-in fact it was rainy and cloudy-but we still managed to see whales, tide pools, caves, clay/sand dunes, and sea lions. Here are a few pictures of our day at the ocean!
Ocean city-dunes-we hiked to the top of this-amazing view-but the picture didn't turn out from my camera so I will have to get them from my mom.
Star fish in the tide pool.
Sea Anemones in the tide pools!
Sea Lions on the rock!
Our last day in Portland was Monday and we spent the day packing and shopping! We had an uneventful trip back-which was nice. However I was extremely tired because we flew overnight. My trip to Portland was amazing and it was great to spend time with my mom and brothers, but I sure was happy to get back home to Mikayla and James. I missed them-this was the first time I had been away from them for 5 nights! But while I was in Portland-they went to Rockford-to visit James family! Those pictures will come tomorrow!
