My Table is Full!

The other night we were all sitting around the kitchen table playing cards.

I looked around and every seat at my kitchen table was full. There were my two handsome boys.

I was glad to have them at my table - even if they were picking each other's zits! That's true brotherly love - letting your brother pop your zits!

And I loved seeing both my pretty girls at the table.

Even if we had to put up with Tessa's craziness and constant use of the expression - Santa Vaca over and over again! Literal translation is Holy Cow in Spanish.

And of course my handsome husband too!

The majority of the year only half of the seats are filled.

I am grateful that for two nights I had a full table.

A Perfect Seattle Day

It has become a Wilkes family tradition to spend a day or two in Seattle at the end of the summer - a kind of end of the summer celebration. This year, due to schedules etc. we only spent the day.

Jim had some business in Seattle so he went up on Tuesday. We picked Clark up from the airport Tuesday night and then we all got up early and drove up to Seattle Wednesday morning.

We started the day with a visit to H & M. The girl's discovered the store in NYC and have been anxious to visit the new one that opened up in Seattle. They picked up a few back to school pieces.

From there we headed down to Pikes Market. It was a beautiful Seattle day!We had fun checking out all the fresh fruit and beautiful flowers.

Cali decided the monk fish wasn't too pretty.

Logan googled the best places to eat at Pikes Market and the 3 Sisters Bakery came up so we tried it - they were right, it was great! We sat at the counter and enjoy some yummy soup and sandwiches. Logan loved the baked salmon sandwich.

The French macaroons at Le Panier bakery were pretty good too!

When Jim finished with his appointments he met up with us and we went over to University Village to check out a few shops including a cupcake bakery!

We then went back down to the pier and had our traditional Seattle dinner - fish and chips at Ivars. Of course feeding the seagulls french fries was part of the evening!

The kids got a little goofy as we waited for Jim.

After dinner we headed down to Safeco Field.

But before we went in we had to buy treats for the game - kettle corn, licorice, peanuts and sunflower seeds.

We had great seats for the game - since I could actually see what was going on I even paid attention to the game instead of reading like I usually do!

Logan bought himself a new Mariner's shirt and hat. Love the old time logo!
Clark was still dealing with jet lag so he took a little nap during the game.

The Mariner's beat Oakland and we headed home as soon as the game ended. We got home just after 1:00 a.m.! A fun day in Seattle!

Dimples

An important part of being a member of the Best family is that you have a dimple.

Fortunately all my children were born with a dimple - Logan's has since disappeared.

Grandma Best (my mom) always said if they didn't come with a dimple they would have to go back. I think she was just kidding but fortunately we didn't have to find out!

Clark made an astute observation the other day - all three of us girls have dimples which is not that amazing but all three of us have one dimple on our right sides!

Eastside Culinary Adventures

I love the Eastside of Portland.

I miss the Eastside of Portland.

Every few months I need an Eastside fix.

When we first moved to Portland 27 years ago we lived on the Eastside - we lived there until we outgrew our little one bathroom bungalow when Tessa was born. We then moved to the Westside which we love but I miss the character and charm of the Eastside.

I was in need of an Eastside fix this last week so we called our friends the Watts and met them for dinner.

The Westside of Portland is sorely lacking in fun, unique, local restaurants. We've got plenty of chains but that's about it. If you want something other than Chevy's, Stanfords etc. you have to cross the river.

Knowing I was looking for a little diversity Shauna recommended a Cuban restaurant - Pambiche - we were game

The restaurant had lots of charm and character. Lots of fun, bright colors!

It was a Monday night and the place was super busy - we waited 30-40 minutes and then when we left at 9:00 p.m. there was still a line of 15 people waiting!

We got in lots of visiting during our wait -

The dads...

The moms....

And the girls...

We were glad we had Merrill with us who speaks Spanish because quite a bit of the menu was Spanish words and we had no idea what to order.

Cali, our always adventerous eater, ordered Ox Tail.!

I had pork and Jim had chicken. We even ate yucca and plantain. I have to admit that the oxtail was my favorite - very tender and yummy!

There were lots of yummy desserts to choose from too!

Cali chose a piece of Tres Leche Cake, Kelsey had some German Chocolate Cake and the rest of us opted to walk over a couple of blocks to the gelato shop!

We have decided to form an Eastside dinner group - once a month we are going to explore a new Eastside restaurant!

He's Back!

He's tired, hairy and hungry but he's home!!!

We picked Clark up from the airport Tuesday night about 10:00 p.m. He had requested that we have a pepperoni and black olive pizza and a Big Gulp waiting for him!

He's only home for a couple of days before he heads back to Provo on Friday so we are going to enjoy having him here!

Girl's Week

It was Girl's Week at our house - all week. Jim was in Alabama the whole week for training.

He even had to celebrate his birthday all by himself in a hotel room (actually sounds kind of nice to me!) Fortunately he got lots of birthday calls from his siblings, his parents and us of course!

We will celebrate this next week when the boys are home!

We enjoyed our Girl's Week - we did things like eat quiche for dinner, we went to see a chick flick (Julie & Julia which I loved), went to yoga class and I enjoyed a garden dinner with some of my beach babe friends.
Cali worked and babysat quite a bit and Tessa had her first driver's ed lesson. She did great and is already feeling more confident. She even learned how to parallel park!!

I had my first paid catering job this week (no this is not a business I am starting but someone asked so I figured why not!) I catered a cupcake bar for a women's 40th birthday party her husband was putting on. It turned out great despite being a little stressful.

I baked the cupcakes the night before and then put them in a container just like I had for the wedding reception. Except I used different cupcake liners this time and when I opened them in the morning all of the liners had peeled off of the lime cupcakes! They looked terrible. So I ran to two different stores looking for different liners and then got to rebake the lime ones a few hours before I was due to deliver them! Everything ended up fine and the client was happy so that was good!

My neighbor Debbie was having a anniversary party for her friend so I peeled off all the liners to the bad cupcakes, frosted them and took them over for them to enjoy.

On Saturday the girls and I headed out to Oregon City to a new barn sale - the Queen of Tarte.

My friend April met us out there and it was so fun. Not only was there lots of pretty things to see and buy but we all devoured a piece of this amazing cake. It had the best buttercream frosting I have ever had - I have got to figure out a way to get the recipe!

We of course made a few purchases. I found an old chair that was painted green that I fell in love with and the girls both got these pink wire things that you can hang on the wall and slide pictures into - not sure what they originally were but that's what we are going to use them for!
We of course did a little more shopping during our Girl's Week. We are getting ready for a family picture next week while the boys are home and we were working on what everyone was going to wear for the picture!

Boy Update: Logan is now the proud owner of a new car! He is loving it. He said it is so nice not to open the passenger door for a girl and have her jump because she thought one fired a gun - the door made a really loud noise when you opened it! He is also squeezing in as much golf as he can before he starts his job Aug. 31st He also enjoyed a fun day out on Utah Lake with a girl he is dating and her family on their boat.

We are so glad he is coming home on Tuesday!

Clark is enjoying his last weekend in England at the summer/weekend home of our Clarke relatives (the family of my Grandma Violet Best's younger sister Margaret). Clark spent one night in London with our cousin Georgie (she visited us here in the states several years ago) and then they went out to the family country home which is on the River Thames. He has some amazingly beautiful pictures posted on his Facebook page and on his blog so check them out. He is having a wonderful time and I'm not sure he is actually going to come home on Tuesday!!

We are excited to see him though. We will be making two trips to the airport on Tuesday - in the morning for Logan and the evening for Clark. Jim will be in Seattle on business but we will drive up to Seattle on Wednesday to join him for the day - the girls want to do some school shopping at H & M and then of course we will take in a Mariner's game that night!

I Want This!

I think Cali would look so darling crusing around Provo on this!!

I entered to win it over at the Lovely List

Wish me luck!!