C's 30th Birthday!

C turned 30 today! Earlier in the summer we had a birthday celebration with friends and family so this weekend was pretty low key. Janet and Grandma Gail flew up from California and spent the weekend with us. We had a wonderful weekend walking around the neighborhood and taking Grandma to the park and the mall. The weather was beautiful all weekend and at night C kept us cozy with a warm fire. Janet made C's favorite birthday treats, peanut butter squares and a pizza cookie and we had his birthday dinner at P.F. Chang's which turned out to be much better than we thought it would be. His day was happy and I think he is looking forward to "many more!" Happy 30th Birthday!!

My New Kindle

I got this for my birthday and couldn't be more excited about it. Thank you Tara!

Enjoying our new home

We are now officially Oregonians. We have our new Oregon drivers licenses, new Oregon license plates and we are registered to vote in the state of Oregon. That should prevent us from future hand gestures as we drive "California Style" on the freeway. I can't even begin to describe the difficulty in slowing all the way down to 55 mph while driving to work! We do take the speed limit more seriously up here being that the fines are the 8th highest in the country and the highway patrol are out in force. It has been 2 1/2 months since making our sojourn to the north. C is slowly aclimating into the Portland office and T continues to press on teaching a classroom full of kindergartners at her new school. We love being home in the evenings and on the weekends and have spent a lot of time enjoying our yard, hot tub and new couches! These photos are some we found and wanted to post from various activities around the house. One of the photos is of a little toad that hopped out to explore his new surroundings after T cut down a fence full of ivy. He had been stuck to the side of fence and seemed to feel a little too exposed once the ivy was gone.. He was a cute little guy so we couldn't resist the photo op. The tomatoes are ones that came from our garden. They have been delicious, but we don't think we'll get many more. The roses in our rose garden are absolutely beautiful and so fragrant as well. T loves clipping them and putting them in bud faces around the house. The other photos is of C enjoying lunch out on the back deck one sunny Sabbath afternoon.

New Couches!!

Time to celebrate!! Our first big furniture purchase has finally arrived in the form of brand new couches!! We are thrilled and have spent quite a bit of time enjoying them already! The circle couch is called a "Cuddler" but I affectionately refer to it as the "Snuggle couch." Enjoy the video!

Visitors!!

We love having visitors!! We had long been anticipating a visit from Kirk and Lindsey and the day finally arrived! T picked them up from the airport and introduced them to Portland by night. The following day, they were able to pick up C who was just arriving back from San Francisco. T had to work so the three of them spent the day touring a little bit, running errands and assisting in the delivery of our new Snuggler couch (which we LOVE!!). Friday was spent hanging out around the neighborhood. T took Friday off and we had a wonderful day just enjoying the weather and company. We made it to downtown Portland for lunch at a wonderful restaurant near Powell's Books. Saturday found us on an adventure attempting to reach a hidden waterfall near Multnomah Falls. We started off on a trail which soon led us to a creek. We, of course, couldn't stop there, so we decided to take off our socks and shoes and go wading. Mind you, the outside temp was barely 60 and the water temp was so cold it made our legs tingle, but on we pushed. K and C were very brave (or crazy!!) and continued on all the way to the waterfall. Lindsey and T, however, decided to call it quits and make our way back. Eventually we thawed out and enjoyed our lunch at the picnic area by Multnomah Falls. That evening we made it over to Whole Foods, a wonderful gourmet grocery store that has incredible samples on the weekends! Afterwards, we relaxed in the hot tub and made the most delicious tacos (and not so delicious brownies...) Unfortunately, Sunday came all too soon which meant K and L had to head home. BUT, we are really looking forward to the next visit!!! We love you guys!

Fun in San Francisco

Every year around this time thousands of people migrate to San Francisco for Oracle OpenWorld, an amazing week that features tech giant Oracle. It's quite a sight and Oracle will stop at nothing to impress! As for those who work for George P. Johnson Company it's another story! This year was C's 5th time on this event and second time being the head of the onsite technology team. Needless to say, the months, weeks and days leading up to the event were....stressful. Yet, despite a few minor (okay, maybe a little more than minor) glitches, they pulled off yet another successful event!! HOORAY! I LOVE this show! I love living in the city for a short period of time and delight in watching the event take place. It is really quite fascinating to watch them put up giant banners, build stages and tents and then in just a few days tear it down to get ready for the next event. It is mindboggeling to think of all that goes into making something like this happen! So, even though we no longer live just 20 minutes south of San Francisco, I still HAD to be there! Luckily, I was able to fly down on Friday and sneak in a jam-packed weekend before having to go back to work first thing Monday. Janet had planned to spend the weekend with us, which was wonderful and worked out so nicely. She picked me up at the airport Friday night and we drove into the city to stay at the Parc 55. Saturday morning while she was getting a tooth fixed, I went on a run down to the Ferry Building and back. I love going there on Saturday mornings. It is alive and buzzing with people from all over looking for fresh produce at the weekly Farmer's Market. There are many sidewalk vendors that are selling anything from jewelry to photo art. It's wonderful! We spent the majority of the day walking around and sightseeing and even got to meet up with C's cousins and aunt who were there for the night. We enjoyed some hot drinks while sitting in the middle of Union Square. What a delight!! Saturday evening we got to have dinner with three of my favorite girls and my previous rock-star team; Tracy, Stacy and Sonja. We ate at a delicious vegetarian restaurant called Golden Era. I HIGHLY recommend it! What a great night! Sunday was spent shopping, visiting C and taking the tour at Moscone. The day was topped off by meeting up with Candy and Dean and heading to the 49er game!!! They were playing the Lions at home and they actually WON!! YIPPEE! I had to head back after that, but I did so with a big smile on my face!!

C 'n T Road Trip

After dropping mom and dad off at the airport C and I decided to go on a little road trip! Since C didn't get to go to the falls on Thursday, T wanted to head there to hike up to the top again. We decided to cross over into Washington and travel along the Gorge on the Washington side. Along the way we stopped at a place called Beacon Rock. It is a rock that is 848 feet tall and sits right alongside the Colombia River. There is a mile long hike and 52 switchbacks that take you to the top and we loved it! Once you get to the top the view is absolutely breathtaking! You get a 360 degree view of your surroundings. We sat up there for quite a while just taking it all in. After hiking back down with an interesting group of people who had been out sailing, we continued on to Multnomah Falls. We stopped for brunch at Cascade Lockes just over the bridge on the Oregon side of the Colombia River. The drive to the falls was once again beautiful and once we got there we headed straight for the top. C was very glad he made the trek, as was I. We'll take you there when you come for a visit!