Perfect Portland Weekend - Day Two

Day Two - Saturday



I got up early and went to a yoga class, Clark had to be to work at 4 a.m.and Tessa had dance at 9:00



After yoga, Jim, Cali and I headed to the Beaverton Farmer's Market - one of my favorite places.


We enjoyed a huge omelet for breakfast at the market - one fed all three of us!



We bought some yummy strawberries, asparagus, kettle corn, Dave's Killer Spelt Bread and I found some fun new garden art!







Mike Darcy, a local plant guy who is on the radio was there and selling these fun things he had made in Vietnam to create yard art - you just slip the pieces over some re bar and PVC pipe and stick it in your pot or the ground - love it! I got enough to make two.


While we were at the Farmer's Market we got a call from Clark that he was on the way to the Urgent Care.

He had caught his elbow on a sharp shelf at work and now required stitches. He was excited that he got to go sit in the Urgent Care and he was still on the clock - Costco was paying him to go to the doctor. He ended up with 6 staples in his arm!




It didn't slow him down much because after work he went to work in a friend's yard, planting plants for her for several hours! Fortunately Costco also picks up the medical bills!


After the Farmer's Market Jim, Cali and I went and picked up Tessa from dance and headed down to the Saturday's Market. It was a busy day because the Rose Festival Fun Center had opened. We had a fun time walking around, looking at the different booths and especially the people.


The street performers can be very entertaining!

Deciding on what to eat is always a challenge - so many choices!

We ate lunch at the market a lamb gyro for Jim, Cali and I and Tessa had noodles.

The girls enjoyed checking out all the booths selling wares.

Afterwards we came home and invited Debbie and Hannah over for dinner - we barbecued Spicy Honey Chicken and fresh asparagus from the market, pasta salad and some yummy garlic cheese bread. We also grilled pineapple and made dulce de leche and served it over ice cream - yum!

After dinner we enjoyed a round of Five Crowns! Another Perfect Portland Day

We are happy to report that Logan has arrived home safe and sound on American soil!!

Perfect Portland Weekend - Day One

We have a four day weekend! Friday is a teacher planning day so with Memorial Day that makes four days - no school!

In addition to four days off of school Portland is having beautiful weather. I told the kids at dinner tonight that days like today are why we live in Portland - it's why we endure all the rain and dreary days - for incredible days like we are having this weekend. Seventy -five degrees, sunny skies - perfect! It promises to get up to 80 by weekends end.

We kicked off the four day weekend with a trip to the doctor. Tessa has had some major congestion all week and came home from school Thursday with laryngitis. Because of her deviated septum she tends to get sinus infections easily (3 in the last 5 months) so I knew we were in trouble. She felt so yucky she couldn't dance at class on Thursday so I knew we needed a visit to the doctor.

The three girls headed to the doctor Friday morning where he told us he was surprised Tessa could breath at all! He asked how bad she was snoring - amazingly she isn't. Her sinus were totally swollen. He thinks it is probably allergies. So we left with allergy medicine, a nasal spray and a prescription for an antibiotic in case we need it.

We ran over to the Bishop's Storehouse and Dry Pack to pick up some lids for some quinoa I want to can and I bought some cans of beans that were leftover from the dry pack canning the day before. The girls' got a little lesson in how the Social Service/Welfare system of the church works, what the Bishop's store house is etc. I actually think they enjoyed it were amazed by how it all works!

After that we headed out to explore the North Mississippi of Portland. A new and growing trendy area of Portland. Lots of fun little boutique shops and restaurants. We enjoyed lunch at a fun Mexican restaurant. Sitting outside to enjoy the sunshine.

The homemade chips, salsa and guacamole were wonderful!

And we discovered that Carrot/Passion fruit Juice is rather tasty too!

Cali enjoyed a Brian's Bowl - a bowl full of rice, beans, chicken, cheese and veggies...

And Tessa loved her quesadilla. I enjoyed a couple of tacos.

After lunch we wandered up and down the street. Lots of fun little vintage boutiques. Tessa tried on a couple of amazing vintage dresses and then found an old bracelet made out of coins from Peru she bought and a silk vintage scarf. Cali found a fun vest off a sale rack at one little shop.

There was even an old house that was a plant nursery. The girls' couldn't believe it when we found chickens walking around the nursery -right in the middle of the city! Some were in cages and some weren't

After our fun afternoon the boys went to dinner with us at Five Guys Burger and Fries and then we went to see Angels and Demons - I liked it! Seeing all that Roman scenery made Clark anxious for his upcoming European adventures!

Stay tuned for the Perfect Portland Weekend - Day Two!

Taylor Swift Concert

Saturday night Tessa and her friend Justin went to the Taylor Swift concert - and no it wasn't a date.

I had to do a bit of explaining to Jim to convince him it wasn't a date! Tessa and Justin (who is a freshman) are friends. Tessa had wanted to go to the concert but tickets sold out right away. Justin's mom works with someone who had tickets but then couldn't use them so they sold them to Justin's mom and Justin asked Tessa if she would like to buy one of the tickets and go with him.

So Tessa paid for her own ticket, Cali and Hannah drove to the concert and Justin's mom picked them - no, it was not a date!

Tessa was excited because another favorite - Kelly Pickler was opening for Taylor.

Justin came over on Friday and he and Tessa decorated their shirts to wear to the concert. I don't know if everyone does this but every time my girls have gone to a concert they have made/decorated shirts to wear??

It was a late night - they didn't get home from the concert until 12:30 as they hung around a while afterwards to see if they could see them come out - no luck!

They're Back!!!!

There are a lot of reasons why we don't have a dog.... a whole list!

One of the main reasons we don't have a dog is that they POOP in your yard and then you have to pick it up - yuck!!!! That is the only reason I need for not having dog! Oh yeah and then there is the fact that they make me SNEEZE!

Well for the last two weeks, each and every morning we have found one or two piles of POOP right in the MIDDLE of our backyard - and we don't have a dog!

We tried to figure out how the dog was getting in - we barricaded the gate on one side, we covered up a hole in the fence they could possibly get through and we still found POOP every morning on the lawn!

This weekend I was at the beach - enjoying this......

Scrapbooking at the beach with this view! And it was perfect weather - in the 70's and no wind. Heaven!

And in the evening we got to look at this.....

I got to do this while Jim was home picking up POOP!

I mentioned to the ladies I was scrapbooking with about our POOP problem! One of the gals said - it sounds like you have raccoons. We hadn't even considered raccoons - not knowing how big raccoon POOP can be (the size of a medium dog according to my friend) Sorry if this is getting a little too gross for you......

Given our history with raccoons I figured this could be a real possibility so I called Jim and let him know.

We left a few eggs out near the spot where the mystery animal likes to do his business to see what would happen - we learned with our last raccoon episode that they like eggs! Sure enough this morning the eggs were eaten (along with two fresh piles of POOP! - so off we go to borrow the raccoon traps again!! Maybe we have two raccoons!

Kid update:

Logan called via Skype this morning from Finland. He sounds tired. They are having an amazing time. The tour planner( Logan) really planned a full tour so they are running very hard. Some time for sightseeing but not alot. Logan actually called our home phone through his computer using Skype - yea for technology. They return to the US on Thursday. He will recover in Provo for about 5 days and then be home for a week - yeah! Can't wait to have everyone home - as Jack Johnson says "It's always better when we're together!!"

There are several video clips of some of their community outreach performances on the YA blog - check them out.

http://byuyas.blogspot.com/

Clark: - is enduring working at Costco. He is busy planning his European adventure and every day seems to add a new country to his list - think he will be visiting 15 different countries. Greece was just added. He has been on several dates since he has been home.

Cali - is enjoying working at the UPS Store. She only works about 18 hours a week so is hoping to pick up a few nannying jobs too. She is having fun hanging out with Hannah and working out at the gym. She is also having fun reconnecting with high school friends as they return home from college.

Tessa - is still in school. She is busy at ballet getting ready for their Spring recital. She also had a fun weekend attending the Taylor Swfit concert with a friend.