The Hansons: First Family Vacation

The end of May, Eric, Ben, and I took a trip to Eugene, OR. Our first family vacation! We went to watch my older brother, Travis, defend his dissertation for his Ph.D. in developmental Neurobiology (with a focus on neural stem cells and the maintenance of neuronal differentiation). Phew! That's a mouthful! :) We were able to spend the week with him and his wife, Carrie, before his defense on Friday. We were able to visit some of Eric's family as well, do some shopping (DUCKS store!!), and visit a couple of zoos. It was so much fun! Ben did well in the car, even though his mama was very, very nervous about the drive! He kept fussing to a minimum and was actually awake for *most* of the drive, there and back...go Ben!

On our way!

Sleepy baby

Beautiful. Outside of Pomeroy, WA

We stopped at a park in Boardman, OR to give the critter a break from his car seat. Happy to be free!

Daddy and Ben

Mama and Ben

_________________________________________________________________________________

Our first official "vacation stop" was at the Oregon Zoo in Portland.

Big black bear behind Ben.

"Hey! The camera!"

He loved the goats! (We better get one!)

I love this picture.

Of all the animals we saw, I am pretty sure he never once noticed the elephants. Funny!

I love giraffes. So cool!

"haaaaaay..."

Beautiful boy.

Fish version of "grumpy cat" ?

This little guy was missing his left eye. Swam in circles. :)

This mountain lion was QUITE interested in Ben. Stalked him from within it's cage for about 20 minutes. Wouldn't take it's eyes off him. It was half funny and half scary! Mountain Lion Jumping @ Ben

_________________________________________________________________________________

Made it to Eugene, Oregon later that night where my older brother, Travis, and his wife, Carrie, live.

Getting help with dinner from Uncle Travis and Aunt Carrie.

"I'm outta the car seat! YAY!"

_________________________________________________________________________________

Wednesday we paid the price for our travels. I think we'd messed with Ben's schedule and routine enough he was a TERROR all day Wednesday. A short trip to the mall was all we were able to do.

_________________________________________________________________________________

Thursday Ben was back to normal, so we traveled south to Winston, OR and Sutherlin, OR to visit some of Eric's family.

Here, Eric and Ben with Eric's Uncle Butch. (Grandpa Dave's brother-if you couldn't tell:)

Great Aunt Sandy and Great Uncle Butch with Ben. He loved them!

We visited the Wildlife Safari in Winston, OR. I highly recommend it! They have a small, traditional, walk through zoo as well as a drive through safari. The drive took about 1.5 hrs, and is sectioned off, i.e.: "through Africa," "through South America"....etc. It was very cool!

Cutest little monkey in the zoo!

Albino black-tail deer.

We had another interesting mountain lion encounter, but this time, Eric was the focus. I'd walked by this cat and it didn't even lift it's head as I passed, but when Eric approached the cage, the cat became very agitated, watching Eric and hissing. Again, half cool, half scary! Watch here.

Anxious and pacing....

Notice, please, the perfect Oregon "O" in the background. Go Ducks!

The only instructions/warnings they gave us for the drive-through was not to stop your car within 3 car-lengths from the Rhino's. We drove by slowly...:)

LOL

The brown bears were cool. (No zoom used here). They were walking along the fence, and we kept pace with them in our car. They're so impressive close up! Especially watching them eat!

I wasn't able to get a decent picture of it, but we were also able to watch another pair wrestle and play with each other.

We had to stop the car because this guy walked out in front of us (cut us off?:)

We weren't able to get very close to the elephants, unfortunately. They have elephant "encounters," in which you can feed and touch the elephants, but we were there late enough in the day, all the jumbo's were corralled. They also have an elephant car wash...the animals use their trunks to spray your car. Missed that also...sigh....

That's one bad hair day, camel.

...awkward....

Greater Rhea with wee ones...

Those are some ugly feet on such a fluffy, cute little thing!

They have a cheetah breeding program, so they have many, many cheetahs. I couldn't get a good picture of it, but one of the cheetah's was raised with an anatolian shepard dog. It was awesome being able to see them interact, they were truly best friends!

After the Winston safari, off to Sutherlin OR, where Eric's Aunt Dede (Grammie Carol's sister) and Uncle Greg live.

Ben sure loved his great-Auntie!

_________________________________________________________________________________

Friday

I get up to pee early in the morning, and when I get back....no room for mama...

Ben sure loved Uncle Travis and Aunt Carrie's tiny dog, Touille. Although, at this point, I'm sure Ben is completely confused as to what a "doggie" is....! My sister has a great dane, and we assure him that is also a "doggie." Bet he thinks we're confused...

My mom, looking beautiful!

Enjoying the nice day with his Gramps

On our way to U of O campus to watch Travis's defense. (My dad, my other brother Matthew, and his fiance, Amanda).

"Stem Cell self-renewal and neuronal differentiation in the Drosophilla central nervous system"

It was very interesting. What parts I could understand, anyway!

It was awesome. Makes me so proud that he's my brother. His research was very interesting, and he did a great job "dumbing it down" for us!

Champagne celebration after defense.

The Carney Clan (minus my sister!)

Congrats, indeed, Travis. You are "the man!!"

Travis showed us around his lab. This is the fly room. See all those little bottles? Full of fruit flies just waiting to have their tiny brains examined!