On Saturday, we took a trip up to Portland to visit Sean’s aunt, Marie, and take the kids to OMSI, the great science museum up there.

They had an absolutely incredible Lego exhibit with huge, amazing Lego sculptures. Seriously unbelievable. After we went through, they had some areas for kids to make their own creations. Jonah (surprise) liked playing with the Lego train.

Nora worked on building a tunnel for the train to go through. She showed it to Aunt Marie.

And then we went to the special photo area to get a picture of the proud builder with her tunnel.

The next stop was upstairs to a special area set up for little kids to explore all sorts of different concepts. They both enjoyed the water area, playing with fountains, scoops, balls, and whirlpools.

Nora really liked playing with balls in the vacuum tubes and the air blowers. Watching the ball go up…

And trying to grab it out of the air.

She wanted to give Dad a turn.

Jonah showed Aunt Marie something he made with some people blocks.

Nora cut up some flubber (which she always sees Jonah playing with at school).

And Jonah got to touch a snake! He said it was not as smooth as he expected a snake to feel.

There was also a sand area with all kinds of scoops, strainers, and funnels (and trucks) to play with.

We took a little break to eat lunch before visiting a few other exhibits and returning to this fabulous room again. While we ate, Jonah told us that he wanted to live at OMSI so that he would never have to leave. We decided that Sean should just drive back to Eugene and get all the clothes and stuff we would need. Nora was eager to get back to playing and was saying, “I so excited for SCIENCE! I really like science, so just GET ME SCIENCE!” over and over. It was pretty great. We all had a super time.

Back at Aunt Marie’s house, there was a surprise for Jonah – a rug that looks just like Citizens Bank Park where the Phillies play! He has had so much fun with it back at home, setting up players on the field and running his train track around it to do all kinds of new stories.

Both kids mentioned again and again how much they enjoyed going up to the city, and they’re such good car travelers that it makes for a very pleasant trip. Somehow they didn’t even fall asleep on the way home(!), even after all that excitement.  It was really nice to see Aunt Marie, and we sure look forward to our next visit to Portland!