A few nice photos

Emma reading a book in her room

Addie posing on the newly cleaned porch
My photographer in action
cozy dog

First Lemonade Stand of the Summer

Holly has been wanting to do a lemonade stand since we left California in August last year. We gave it a try at our last house, but Birdshill Court was too quiet, not much traffic.

We live on a busy street at our new house, however it may be too busy. Drivers are going to fast and it's difficult for them to stop.

We did have success with pedestrians. They made about $3.50 each.

She got to do it with her friend from soccer and kindergarten, Megan.

Avenue Q

Went to see Avenue Q on Thursday. Great show, Tom and I were smiling the whole show!

Here's a photo of the fountain across from The Keller Auditorium

The girls love going to Ikea

Two thumbs up!

They love to eat there and we do too, it's only costs about $20 for all of us.
Ikea play area. They get to play for an hour while we shop.

Oregon Evening

Holly enjoyed her ice cream on our back porch one evening. Nice photos Tom!

Multnomah Falls

Drove out the Multnomah Falls, didn't realize it was right on the highway. I thought we were going to have to hike in. We walked up to the bridge and got light bath from the spray. The girls enjoyed themselves, but the highlight was standing under the train track when a train passed over us at 40-50 mph. LOUD!

Is that water cold?

This is a working train track. Its on the path to get to the falls. We kept waiting for a train to come and eventually we gave up. We let the girls run around the grass near the parking lot, all of a sudden we heard another train, we ran! Tom got there first with the girls, and stood right under the track. Powerful!

Nana's Visit

We had a great visit with my mom (Nana). We packed in a ton of activities. Holly and Emma each got to have their own special day with Nana.
Emma got to go to Build a Bear, lunch and shopping at Washington Square Mall.
Holly went to an art studio, lunch at Sip N Kranz, played in the fountain at Jamison park. After getting drenched they walked to Hanna Anderson to buy a dress (underwear too) and then to Cupcake Jones, and a taxi ride home.
Tom and I got to go out a couple of nights. We saw two movies, The Visitor and Son of Rambow. We also got to go to Jen’s birthday party at Grand Central Bowling and Green Dragon to listen to a bluegrass band. Dinner at Pok Pok first with the Rau's.

Emma at Nordstrom Cafe on her special day.

Holly being dropped off by a cab. She loved it!

Good night stories with Nana
Fun in the kitchen
We made Vietnamese Salad Rolls one night.

My version of Silk's Cilantro Kumquat Gimlet

Muddle kumquats, kaffir lime leaves and cilantro with vodka and small amount of icelime juice, triple sec and splash of fresh squeezed OJ.

Holly's On the Stage Class - Fairytopia Play

Holly was in her second play at the Garden Home Recreation Center. They did a story based on Barbie's Fairytopia.
They did the play, a short dance and each performed a solo of "Somewhere Over the Rainbow".

Holly with Bibble

Holly with her great friend Alex
Performing her solo song

Going for Gold with Dad and Brother.

I think we earned the gold metal for packing in so many activities in 3 days!

They arrived at 10pm on Thursday night. We went to Doug Fir for a drink.

Friday was specialty market day. We took Holly to school, then headed downtown to Fuller's Cafe for breakfast. Then to City Grill to see a great view a the city. They weren't open yet so we killed some time and walk to Stumptown for the best cappuccino in the country! Stopped by Voodoo Doughnuts, but we were still too full from Fuller's and something about ordering X rated doughnuts at 10am is awkward. It's now 11 and we take the elevator up to City Grill 30 floor. Great view! Next head to go grocery shopping for our Prime Rib dinner. Steve's Cheese and Square Deal for wine and blue cheese for our lettuce wedge salad, Food Coop in NW to look for fiddleheads (not found) City Market for fiddleheads (none their either), Trader Joe's has fiddleheads but they don't look too good. We skip it. At this point Brian (brother) wants to go home. He can't go to one more grocery store. I don't blame him.

That night we cooked a prime rib from City Market with Yorkshire pudding and salad wedge.

After dinner Brian wanted to go see live music. My Dad, brother and Tom ended up at The Crystal Ballroom and saw Pink Martini, then to Jake's Grill. They all came home happy!

Saturday - Portland State Farmers Market. We found fiddleheads! Wine and hors'doeuvres with friends of the family from Laguna.

Spicy Margarita at Nuestra Cocina - yes, it's spicey! Look at Brian's face.

Dinner at Vindalho - Clinton Neighborhood

Pool game at Dots - Clinton Neighborhood

Brian purchases a burrito from a food cart. "and a burrito to finish it off"

Spanish Coffee at Huber's

and late night doughnuts at Voodoo Doughnuts

More on Sunday, but this blog is too long!!!

Cocktails at Silk & Cabbie

Cocktails:

I have been making decent cocktails for a couple of years now, so every time we go out and order a fun drink we are always a bit disappointed. Not last night. We had dinner at a Vietnamese restaurant in the Pearl District called Silk. Great cocktails with fresh and unusual ingredients like kumquat, cilantro, lychee and lemongrass.

Cabbie:

Has anyone seen this cab? On the way home Tom and I saw an recent model London cab. It was so great, the driver was even driving on the left side of the car. We sped up and it had The Avalon Hotel on the door. Too cool. I want to stay there now. Just checked their website and it looks like they have a great spa too.

K

My First Commissioned Shots (sort of)

Emma asked me to take a photo of her stuffed animals. She arranged them on the bench and then directed me on how we should shoot them.



She then got a book and posed with them. We tried different poses until she was happy with this one.



It was a bit of fun for both of us.

Emma asked me to say (she is here with me now, seeing how I put the picture on the web) that: "I sleep with them and I love them".

:)

Sunriver - Bend, Oregon

We decided to spend the weekend in Sunriver, Holly had a 5 day weekend and we wanted to see our friends (our inspiration to move to Oregon) from California that moved to Bend.
Started the trip out paying $4.00 per gallon.

We stayed at Sunriver Resort. Great place to stay. Tons of fun things to do. Here are photos of a few of activities we did. Detroit Dam
Had dinner in Sisters. I tried to get them to play it up for the camera but Holly couldn't stop laughing.
Great little town. Next time we may try staying at Black Butte Ranch, near Sisters. It's about 45 minutes closer to Portland.
Tom's photo of Sunriver Resort.
Relaxing...... in our cabin
Our friends from Bend. We had a great dinner at their house and the kids playing great together.


Bike Ride




Pony riding.

Bubbles of Fun

A lovely afternoon in our backyard. Tom taking more beautiful photos.