Fritz and Susanne's layover in Portland...

If I'm going to get photos posted from all the special events the past month, I figured I better get started doing them bit by bit otherwise it might not get done!

The events started with Fritz and Susanne's layover in Portland the weekend of Sept 7th (four weekends ago already?!?). They left CA via train to Portland and had a couple days with us before catching the train east to Wisconsin. We picked them up from the Portland downtown train station on Saturday afternoon:

Train station arrival. First time we get to see them over the next few weeks!

We got home, settled in, cooked dinner and went out for ice cream at Salt and Straw - an ice cream place by our house that has had lots of visits from us lately. : )

Sunday we opened the goodies box they brought - a box of adorable baby books and other items, and of course the cradle, which Fritz had shipped in advance and arrived at our house in two boxes via mail the week before.

Ashley and Fritz pulling the parts of the cradle from the boxes

Starting to assemble the pieces

Fritz used 30 year old wild walnut from two of Baby O's great great grandparent's farms to make the cradle

Putting the blades on

Right side up and putting the mattress in!

Carmen takes it for a test drive

 The cradle is just beautiful and we're as excited to show it off as we are to put it to use! I think it'll stay on the main floor for naps.

As long as they were at work on baby stuff, I asked the guys to glue a rocker the neighbors gave us that had wobbly arms. I could have dug projects up for them to do all week : )

It was such a beautiful day, we headed to Sauvie Island that afternoon to soak in some sun and let Carmen swim.

One of the few photos I have of the three of us plus baby bump. We need to get better at these family photo things.

For dinner we headed to Sen Yai near our house - a new noodle restaurant by the owners of Pok Pok, and then went for ice cream at Salt and Straw again afterwards : )

Monday, Ashley and I headed to work and Fritz and Susanne headed to Broder, packed up and hopped on their train to Wisconsin!

More photos from the rest of the following weeks to come.....

Last Days of Summer - First Days of School...and Brooke's Birthday!

Last Thursday was Corie's last day with the girls.  Though there are smiles in this picture, they did turn to tears.  Believe it or not, Macy was the first to cry:(  Followed by Morgan and then Brooke - so not the order I expected - lol.  We will miss her next summer and she will always have a special place in our family.

I never knew ballerinas have to sew their own ribbons into their shoes - not what I was expecting when I purchased them;)  Here I am, none the less, enjoying every frustrating minute of it.  

7th Grade - still not too old to have her picture taken on the first day of school.

I went to say goodnight to Morgan last night and she was writing Brooke a letter since she wasn't going to see her before she left for school and on her birthday - soooo sweet.

Brooke's response to Morgan this morning before she left for school.  She put it on Morgan's pillow

Brooke loved her shoes - for decoration only!  Can't wear them until she is 12.

This is a picture of Gretchen, the daughter of a friend of mine at work.  She is going to come over to the house and give Brooke a private ballet lesson at the ballet barre we put up in her room.

Enjoying our Garden

Here are just some of the yummy dishes made from our garden the last few weeks.  Love how fresh, free, and healthy it is:)

Weddings galore

Holy post, Heather! So fun to see everything the girls have been up to.  : )

We've had two weddings the past two weekends. Both were really beautiful, it has been fun having such positive things to celebrate the past couple weeks!

Hector, Juanita and Sophia got into town on Thursday, so we met up with them and Michelle for dinner Thursday night. Friday was the rehearsal at the wedding location up in Woodland, Washington (about 45 mins north of Portland).

The dinner space all set up for Heather and Bryce's wedding Friday night (just over a week ago)

Groomsman at the rehearsal : ) 

 And Saturday of course was the wedding...

The "reveal" before photos before the ceremony - the first time they see each other all dressed up. Pretty cute. Its the only good photo we have of the bride and groom.

Ashley walking down the "aisle"

Hector, Juanita and Sophia

Beautiful space for a wedding

Juanita and I at dinner

Toasts and speeches, my favorite part.

On Sunday, Ashley slept in really late (he has been sick for ages), I caught up on weekend chores around the house, we worked a bit on the basement and we bbq'd with everyone Sunday afternoon/evening at Michelle's house. Such a nice weekend. Ashley had breakfast with the gang on Monday a.m. before they all headed out.

This week, I traveled for work to Coeur d'Alene, Idaho. The weather was awesome and it felt like I was extending summer since it has started to feel a bit like fall in Portland already. I didn't get to take many good photos, but here's one of the geraniums that are all over town, so pretty:

I finally came down with Ashley's cold while in Idaho, so between that, work travel and being 7 months pregnant, this week was a bit tough. I've had really good energy up until recently.

On Friday night, I went to Ikea to get some storage for baby items (that place is crazy! Going solo was not a good idea - I lugged a shelf all over the store and into the car, oy.) and this weekend was Colette and Alex's wedding. So on Saturday, I made desserts for the wedding:

Strawberry cheesecakes in a jar

Before heading to the wedding around 2, we picked out paint colors for the basement, ran some other errands and the tile guy was over finishing the tile in the basement bathroom (exciting! its a tiny bathroom, but almost done, can't wait).

Again, I took no go photos of the wedding ceremony, but did get some of the reception, which was at the groom's parent's plant nursery in Washington - not far from where we were last weekend for Bryce and Heather's wedding.

Roasted pig

All set up for dinner

Colette and the "desserts in a jar" that a group of us made

Ashley in the bouncy house. : ) They had tons of games, a bouncy house, fire pit, etc., very fun.  

Overall it has been a really fun week of weddings - people are doing such unique and creative things at each event, its fun to see.

Today Ashley is off mountain biking (surprised?) around St. Helens with a buddy. I'm running errands (finally getting a car seat!), washing and organizing baby stuff now that I finally have storage for it, grocery shopping, made banana bread for a bake sale, worked on a quilted baby blanket I'm making - overall a really nice day. Hoping to get dinner together for us to do a little Labor Day bbq after Ashley gets home from biking.

Everyone is probably at Heather's today for Brooke's birthday/Labor Day celebration. Wish I was there with you! Miss you guys tons. XO