Easter Weekend

Last Father's Day I gave Matt a date to downtown Portland. I wanted to take him to do the "Underground Portland" tour to see the Shanghai Tunnels and eat somewhere fun. Well, weeks and then months passed and I still had not made good on our date, so Friday night we decided that we would make it happen. I bought our Underground Portland tickets online and then set out to find a fun restaurant to try. It so happened that our tour was meeting in front of a little pizza place called "Old Town Pizza" so I decided that it would be fun to just eat there before our adventure. I am so glad! The food was amazing and the restaurant even more fun! On the menu there was a history of the restaurant. It used to be a hotel and where we had ordered our pizza used to be where people checked in. It also told of the ghost of Nina, a prostitute who worked at the hotel, got saved by some missionaries, started working with the police to catch the pimps, then got thrown into an elevator shaft and died when the pimps found out. It is said that very weird things have happened at "Old Town Pizza" and that Nina has been seen wearing a black dress and strong odors of perfume have been reported when she is around. It was fun eating there, but I did keep looking over my shoulder to make sure Nina wasn't there.

Matt hanging out at Old Town Pizza.

After dinner we met our tour group out in front of the pizza place. While we were waiting this couple came up and asked the tour guide if they were in the right spot for the Shanghai Tunnels. To my surprise he said that the Shanghai Tunnel group was meeting around the corner. When I questioned him he explained that the group we were in was done by the same company that does the Shanghai Tunnel Tours, but that we had signed up to do the Downtown Portland Ghost Tour. What!?! When I googled 'Portland Underground Tours' I just clicked on the first thing that came up and bought the tickets. So, we were still going underground for part of the tour, but we would also be jumping on the Max and would be hitting all of Portland's most haunted spots. We were surprised to learn that we were on a totally different adventure than we thought! We were going to be Ghost busters! It was hilarious when the guy handed us all a flashlight and an electromagnetic sensor so we would have the proper tools for summoning the ghosts of Portland. He explained to us that the electromagnetic sensors would flash, but that when it went red it had sensed an electrical field, which meant ghost activity. SCARY! In the room above we were in the basement of Old Town Pizza trying to get Nina to show herself. It was actually really dark down there, but the flash on our camera worked really well. While we were down there all of our lights went red at the same time. Our guide swore to us that he had never seen that happen before. Yah, right.

Matt coming up from the basement.

We made a stop at Voo-Doo Donuts after learning about the ghost at Kells Irish Pub, the old fire chief of Portland who died in the basement during a bad fire years ago. We also learned about the ghost who frequents an antique shop nearby. Kinda freaky.

Look at all the weird donuts! Cocoa Puffs, Trix, Fruit Loops...

Our guide got the actual Voo-Doo Doll donut and even had us think of someone we wanted revenge on, taught us a chant, then stabbed the doll with the pretzel. Oh, the people of Portland make my life seem very boring! It was a little strange, but the voo-doo doll donut tasted great, so it made up for the strangeness of the night :0)

Next we hopped on the MAX and went to this haunted hotel.

Here's Matt in front of the room of the ghost we were trying to summon. Sam, a drunk who killed a lady many years ago, then hung himself in that room. We got no electromagnetic readings here. What a weird but fun night!

On Saturday we dyed Easter Eggs with the kids. They each got a dozen eggs to color. It was a lot of fun and Ivy was a mess! We are still working on getting all the color off of hands and somehow off of Ivy's chest.

On Easter morning we got up extra early so the kids could find Easter Eggs and see what the Easter Bunny brought. We also have a tradition of making Creamed Eggs On Toast, so we needed enough time to do all that and get ready for church, which starts at 9:00. Sophia woke up not feeling very well, so Matt stayed home with her and I took the rest of the crew to church. It was a great service and I was grateful for the opportunity to reflect upon my Savior and His life, death and resurrection, through the beautiful music and touching messages that were shared. I was also excited to get to sing with the choir.

After church we headed over to Grammy and Papa Tripp's house for Easter dinner. The kids had fun going on on Easter Egg hunt with their cousins. It was nice to visit with everybody and watch the kids play.

The popular toy was obviously this little tiny bunk bed.

Before dinner Mom put out a huge spread of appetizers. We were full before dinner even started! Here's the ham, cheese and cracker sandwich that Eli made. It was humongo!

Aayla and Ivy. Cute cousins.

During our Easter festivities the rain started to down pour! It was coming down really good when my sister Kari decided to go be one with the rain. She got soaked. What a nard!