Mom and Charlie's visit

We had a wonderful couple weeks with Mom and Charlie here! Apparently time with my mom was just what I needed.

When they arrived Thursday evening, I was beyond tired and allergy-y after camping the long weekend the weekend before, starting my new job that week, having our first birth class all night after work, a flurry of activity for our refi, the basement being torn up and making the rest of the house a mess, etc. So, they arrived just in time - when I needed a distraction and break from everything that had been going on around here recently.

- Thursday night we grabbed beers and a bite at Burnside Brewery, and stopped at Pix for dessert.
- Friday, Ashley and I had to work, so Mom and Charlie took Carmen for a long walk and to Broder for breakfast, where I hear they ate outside while Carmen enjoyed the smells of all the food with her nose right at the table. : ) They then drove across town to Washington Park to the rose garden which is in full bloom. Friday night we cooked up halibut on the grill with pesto and overall had a nice low key night
- Saturday, Mom and I did a bunch of baby shopping - researched pack n plays, strollers, car seats, etc. and picked up all sorts of adorable other baby items. The guys went golfing meanwhile and picked up steak on the way home to grill for steak salad. We watched a movie and had another low key night. I was BEAT from a day of shopping!
- Sunday, Charlie and Ashley attacked the basement and finished up the demo work (thanks Charlie!) while Mom and I did some more shopping nearby, picked up groceries for dinner (we made tuna salad sandwiches from some of the tuna I canned last fall and a cold curried carrot soup), rested up a bit and got pedicures in the afternoon - not too shabby!

pedicures while the guys worked on the basement

Charlie at work in the basement

 - On Monday, Mom and Charlie bought public transportation passes for the whole day and poked around the city via bus, max and street car. They met me downtown over lunch where we headed to the food carts to grab a bite and then they came upstairs to see the PECI office. They then hoofed it all over town - to Powells and beyond.

Mom and Charlie at a food cart

Mom and Carmen taking off for one of their many walks

 On Tuesday, they took off in the car and headed up to Timberline Lodge for their big buffet lunch, then to the "Fruit Loop" - a beautiful drive around Mt. Hood filled with orchards, farms, wineries, etc. Then to Hood River for beer at Double Mountain Brewery. When they got back to town, we dragged them to Ashley's softball game, and then to dinner at the Whiskey Soda Lounge (owned by the same person as Pok Pok. The line at Pok Pok was still 1.5 hours at 9pm on a Tuesday, yuck). Long day for them!

Wednesday they took off for Doug and Evelyn's in Auburn, and Ashley and I stayed in Portland as we had work and our birth class again. They bummed around Tacoma on Thursday and on Friday headed to Bainbridge where Charlie golfed and I took off early from work to meet up with them. (Ashley had his 4 day bachelor party sailing/island camping extravaganza so he didn't come along).

Beautiful Friday night on the boat

Charlie making salad and Evelyn making halibut while Carmen oversees

Three furry kitchen supervisors. They get a birds' eve view of the galley and all the smells from this vantage point. Pretty cute : )

Mom and Charlie dining on the back of the boat

Sunset behind the Olympics

Gooey colorful sea stars on a piling at low tide

Saturday morning, Doug and Evelyn's friends who were staying on the boat next door made a delicious breakfast for all, and we then headed out to collect the crab pots they had put out the night before.

Charlie and Evelyn inspect the catch. A few rock crab and a few dungeness keepers

We then took the pots to another location to drop them and see if we'd have better luck.

Mom and Evelyn captaining the ship

In the early afternoon, Mom and I went into town to poke around and pick my friend Jeff up from the ferry dock. He came over from Seattle for a bit to hang out.

In the afternoon we headed out on the boat again to pick the pots up:

Is it a keeper?

Jeff measures to see if its a keeper

Jeff and Evelyn cleaning crab back at the dock

Mom and I on the back of the boat

The whole group lined up on the pier between boats eating dinner

 We ate dinner, hung out, ran Jeff back to the ferry, watched the sun set, etc. - such a nice night.

Sunday a.m. we picked the crab and Evelyn made the most amazing crab omelettes. We then had to pack up and all went our different directions - Doug and Evelyn's friends left by boat back to Tacoma, they left by car to Auburn with Mom and Charlie and I headed back to Portland.

Such a fabulous weekend - THANK YOU to Doug and Evelyn as usual for being such great hosts, and to Mom and Charlie for spoiling us while here. Apparently some good time with family was just what I needed - I feel 100% better than before they arrived : ) Can't wait to see everyone again in September!

4th of July weekend

We have usually gotten out of town camping or something similar over the 4th of July each year since getting Carmen. Last year we stayed in town and watched some great fireworks from a friend's balcony, but poor Carmen was really freaked out, so we decided to get out of town and avoid all that again this year.

I was hoping for a "babymoon," or one last get away just the two of us before having a baby (this was also the only day off I was taking in over 5 months - trying to stash vacation/sick time for our Wisconsin trip and maternity leave). That romantic get away somehow turned into a camping/mountain biking trip near Bend with friends. Which turned out really good - I'm glad Ashley is getting lots of time on his new bike and we had a really great time with a neat group of people.

The group, minus me. I stayed back with Carmen while the rest of the group went off biking each day.

Carmen and I got out for some good hikes and swims along the Deschutes

If I wasn't pregnant I would have figured a way to get myself out on one of the rafts! Gorgeous weekend to be on the river and we had never rafted this section of the Deschutes.

More trees and river 

Emily and Sarah cooking dinner back at camp

We got back in time to do some additional basement demo on Sunday. Here's Ashley all ready to tear out some tile (that possibly had some bad stuff in it so he's all suited up : ) 

We spent the rest of Sunday demo-ing, I started my new job on Monday, had our first birth class at the hospital on Wednesday night, signed the refi on our mortgage Thursday a.m. and Mom and Charlie got in Thursday night. Phew! Busy week (but still probably calm compared to what our lives are about to be like : )

More photos to come from Mom and Charlie's visit!

Last week of June already!

I can't believe June is already over! A few good things went on around here to wrap the month up...

I left around 5:30a.m. Tuesday to drive up to Bainbridge Island. Heather was in Seattle for work, so I worked remotely from Evelyn's floating office during the day and we met up with Heather in the afternoon. Her and a coworker flew in and caught a ferry from downtown Seattle, across the Sound to Bainbridge Island.

We wandered around the shops on the island, went out to dinner, got ice cream, and I drove back late that night. An exhausting day, BUT SO WORTH IT. So glad I got to see Heather and Evelyn, much needed family time.

Evelyn hard at work 

Fiona captaining the ship

View from the back of their boat. It was a really nice day, although we got a thunderstorm later in the afternoon.

The boat next door

Shopping "downtown"

Back at Doug and Evelyn's

Heather double fisting ice cream after dinner. Seriously, really good ice cream! 

When I got back to work the next day, someone had left me a hand knit blanket in Packer/Ducks colors with no note! Finally figured out who it was, so sweet. 

And this dumpster arrived in front of our house while I was gone....

And we started to fill it this weekend - the plan is to start by remodeling/cleaning up the basement (and adding a bathroom down there). We'll then move our bedroom down there while we finish the upper level. We'll see how it goes timing-wise with the kiddo and such.....

We emptied a bunch of stuff out the basement to store in the attic or sell on craigslist. Ashley got started tearing out the closets in this room, and all the other weird junk on the walls (like that mirror that was attached to the wall, door jambs, shelving, carpet, etc. ).

Weird ceiling texture "before" (but with the closets removed)

"After" with the ceiling removed. Turns out it was original 1930s lath and plaster. What a mess.

At least he was wearing a mask, but the dust and who knows what else kind of sketches me out  - who knows whats in there?! 

Clean up in progress

 Meanwhile I stripped the wallpaper from the pool room, helped clean up, carry stuff to the dumpster, etc. Also, it was 90+ degrees this weekend. It was cool in the basement, but got hot running around.

I went to a birthday party for Sydney, Josh and Michelle's 2 year old, Saturday afternoon. It was outside and HOT, even in the shade. We turned the air conditioning on on Sunday finally, so it wasn't too bad.

Other things going on here...

Our hydrangea is so happy this year after being transplanted! 

And I started knitting a new sweater in blue/gray now that I know we're having a boy : )

A belly picture from this weekend. Still not that big quite yet! I feel like it just looks like I ate a big meal. Ashley says I look like I might be pregnant or just like the weirdest fat person ever. Thanks honey : )