The girls actually did sleep pretty well. Clara only woke once to tell Amy (with her face about two inches from Amy's) that she didn't want to sleep any longer. This was about 2am. Clara went back to bed and nobody else stirred until about 5:30am. My alarm was set to go off around then so I could go hiking, but I was already awake so I disabled it and snuck out of the room. Lilly rumbled to life and although it sounded all quiet as I left it turns out she never really did go back to sleep.

I headed off for a rainy hike up Eagle Creek in the Gorge. This turned out to be one of the best river hikes I've ever done with at least seven waterfalls in as many miles. Although the trail continues on I turned around just after passing behind a waterfall in a short tunnel. Absolutely stunning. I got back to the house and into the shower around 1pm after hiking about 13 miles.

The girls took off to go shopping with Clara while Lilly got a nap. I hadn't intended to, but I wound up sleeping for about an hour as well. We would both probably have continued to snooze had the phone not woken us.

Nana and Papa arrived in the late afternoon stretching the two bedroom house to the limits.

That night we were reacquainted with the joys of two kids sleeping in the same room. They seemed to play off each other so just as one would settle down the other would start up. Around 4am Lilly just couldn't get back to sleep so I took her for a drive. Without much of a plan I wound up at Starbucks, which was open, but decided that if I had any hope of sleeping I shouldn't jack myself up on caffeine. We drove back to the house and I parked on the street outside. I had a blanket and pillow and tried to make myself as comfortable as I could, but it was cold and the seat wasn't terribly comfortable. At 8am I finally called it quits and went back inside with Lilly who had just woken.

Saturday was the day of Gramps' 80th birthday party east of town so we spent much of the morning getting ready. So many people in the house made just getting a shower a bit of a challenge. We did manage to leave almost on time, though, so we felt pretty darned accomplished. We tried to stop for a Slurpee, but were denied at three consecutive 7-11s. We wound up at the party with nary a drop of Slurpee goodness to be found, but were quickly handed glasses of wine to dull the pain.

For the last couple of weeks Amy'd been working on a narrated slideshow. It featured pictures from Gramps' life as well as a surprise video message from Amy's sister, Nicole, who couldn't make the trip from Kentucky. We got it all set up and tested before letting Gramps enter the room at the golf club where Amy's cousin, Ian, works.

As folks started arriving the girls provided entertainment. Although Lilly had taken her first real steps a while back she chose this day to really start walking. She was great about letting go and taking a few steps before toppling over. Clara loved holding her arms out to Lilly and catching her at the end of her little strolls.

Amy's other cousin on this side, Shannon, arrived with her husband, Chris, and two year old daughter, Sierra. Clara and Sierra hit it off immediately and spent the duration of the party running about like crazy. There were only a few moments of unpleasantness related to sharing, but in general it was loads of fun to watch them play. (This is something we've seen more and more lately. Clara actually plays with other kids rather than just next to them. Looks like she might have missed out on my loner genes!)

After the party we headed over to Goggi's house for dinner. Or at least that was our destination. We stopped at the one 7-11 that we hadn't stopped at on the way in and broke the streak of three unsuccessful visits. Unfortunately, or fortunately depending on your viewpoint, Amy spotted a sign for a quilt shop behind the 7-11.

Yeah, sure, we can stop, but just for a minute. Uh oh. Oh, CRAP! (A 75% off sign was taped to the door.)

So four hours later we were finally back on the road heading to Goggi's. (No, it only seemed like it was four hours later. Amy actually did a great job of getting out of the shop in pretty decent time and with a relatively small bag of fabric that she promises is all for projects, not for her stash.)

The girls fell asleep on the way to Goggi's. We transferred Clara to Goggi's bed and left Lilly to sleep in the car in the driveway. Both grabbed an extra hour or so while the rest of us visited and helped Goggi hang pictures and eat snacks. Lilly woke in great spirits, but Clara woke all crabby. She eventually came around, but it took a LONG time.

We headed out all too soon to get back across town to put the girls down for the night. We decided to try a new tack and have Clara sleep on the floor in the living room with Nana and Papa instead of on the floor in our room with Lilly. It meant moving her midway through the night, but that went ok and everyone slept through the night. Too bad it took us so long to figure out this little trick.

Sunday was Easter so of course we had to look our best. The girls were wearing matching dresses and we were all in good spirits until we got to Starbucks. They clearly had the second string in because it took them WAY too long to make my drinks and on top of that they were out of cider. Out of cider? How could it be? I'm still not sure, but we settled for a hot chocolate for Amy and a free drink coupon for my wallet.

At church we joined the reserved table for the Sperling clan and started eating. Both girls were covered in bibs and napkins to keep their dresses and sweaters clean and in the end they came out looking somewhat respectable. Clara, Lilly, and Sierra had a great time collecting eggs in the little kids' room, but Clara was so good we had to put the brakes on her a bit. We thought she was hoarding the treats, but just then one of the organizers came over with a bag and started dumping eggs into the girls' bags! Yeah. Great plan. Sugar for the little kids right before the service.

At least I think there was a service. I wasn't really in there long enough to find out. Although Clara behaved fairly well, I'm told, Lilly was evacuated within five minutes of the start. We wandered the church for a while, then went back to the handy handy carseat for a nap. This time I stayed awake as the hail pounded down on the roof.

After church we returned to the Sperling home that was now even more crowded than before since Shannon, Chris, and Sierra joined us. We had dinner (that freaky, middle-of-the-day kind of dinner) and then started packing up to leave.

Although poor Tokul had gone on the hike with me on Friday she had spent most of the rest of the weekend in the garage. I slipped her a couple bits of ham to make up for it and she seemed to forgive me or at least figure that pretending to do so was her best bet to get more ham.

We were in the car and heading home by 3pm. Except for the initial departure from North Bend to head south we had done a great job of getting on the road pretty close to our planned time.

On the trip home we didn't fight traffic as we had expected, but we did encounter crazy weather. Dark clouds chased us almost all the way home and in fact slowed Nana and Papa who were about half an hour behind us. They had to deal with standing water and piles of hail where we had sped along dry pavement. The storm did catch us as we pulled into McDonalds to grab dinner for eating at home since we realized too late that we had only expired milk and nothing of substance to eat.

Both girls had slept almost the entire trip north and I managed to stay awake the entire time. Good thing, too, since I was driving.

All in all a great trip. The next won't be so bad either, now that we know the secret to getting a good night's rest and I've found that hiking in the Gorge can be as great as everyone has told me. No clue when the next trip is, but I'm sure it won't be too long.