Sunday Times {Plus a Quarterly Review}

A weekly update has now begun! If not for anything but to keep more of journal for ourselves to recap and think about each week. So much happens so quick I don't want to forget all the fun details!

This week was my first full week to work with all the crew at my new job. Lots of planning with caseloads and meetings, and such. Excited to get working with the kids more in the next weeks. Dylan started his clinical this week too for his last semester of grad school! Woohoo! He's been killin' it and so close to graduating. 

Monday was Labor Day and was a very cozy rainy Oregon day. It's been quite toasty lately, so this actually felt good. So we had a long walk to Peninsula Park for some roses and then hung around the casa making bags and relaxin. 

Back to work on Tuesday for a good day and a rocking Crossfit after. I made some chicken tzatziki, a new fav. 

Wednesday night we tried a Burmese place nearby after another very hot bike ride. 

Thursday we actually went to a concert! The Osees were quite entertaining at the Crystal Ballroom.  They had two wildly energetic drummers jamming the entire time, the lead singer was rocking so hard I think he hit his head on his guitar a few times. Next time, we're braving the mosh pit. 

Friday night we biked to Tabor for a nice sunset sit before getting some delicious thai at Kati. I ate entirely too much but was thankful for that bike ride home to help my belly chill out and recover. 

Saturday was a lovely day trip to Astoria. We walked around the town, found some super cute shops; Forsythia with a lot of Scandinavian items that I will definitely be going back to, another with so many fun handmade items. It seemed like they had a lot more going on than last time we were here. Somehow we ate at the same coffee shop we've eaten at like all 4 times we've been there. haha After 4 years since our last time here, we hiked the Cathedral Tree to the Column where we enjoyed some mostly relaxing sits looking over the Columbia river. I say mostly because Toulouse often things he is the master protector from all *unseen* threats so her was just kinda on high alert. We almost did another hike + the shipwreck but we headed on home instead. Very nice day.

Hobie loved the view up top. 

Today was a stressful start as I cut off a chunk of my pointer finger last night when I went to make ONE cut into a piece of fabric. It was gnarly. It is gnarly. I'm still really mad about it. It's only been 6 months since I actually went to the ER for getting an open crush fracture in my right middle finger. It only is just starting to look like a more normal finger and then boom. Here we are again, bandaged up and awkwardly maneuvering.

But once I got it rewrapped, I ventured over with Elizabeth to check out an open house! A very cute home with a perfect ADU for the parents to just come hang all the time. It even had Oregon Birds and butterfly arts for my Mom! BUT, seems a bit too high $$$ for the size for now. But it was still fun to go and see. 

Since I'm a little behind, I'll just do a quick like quarterly review. 

Biking: 

The biking continues with so much exploring. We turned our grocery store runs into a nice like hour long ride, lots of rides up Mt. Tabor to work these legs, riding to Sellwood to dip in the Willamette-- so refreshing on our heat wave days! I get to bike ride only 5 minutes to my new Crossfit gym. That is fantastic. Rides up to Peninsula Park bring us so many rose sites and smells and a ride up to the Japanese gardens with phenomenal international rose test garden. We were smelling em all. It's been fun to go for a ride to new coffee shops, or return to our Ladd's Addition cafe, Floyd's, that we enjoy near their sweet rose garden (this neighborhood has a perfectly planned diamond of rose gardens with one in the middle). Floyd's is one of the top coziest with their colorful wallpaper and rug-upholstered seats. So far at least. 

Pedalpalooza: 

These rides were a blast and I'm sad they're over for summer. But hopefully we'll join some of the other yearlong rides that happen. So we went to the first kick off 80s ride, Goth Ride, Teal Ride, Portland Beer Week, Loud and Lit, Rocky Point sunset ride, Loud and Lit redux... I think that's it! For all the pics and videos, you can check the Pedalpalooza Highlights. 

 

Water: 

Reveling in water has been one of my new favorite things this summer with a lot of river and lake adventures. Dylan has been getting his ocean time in as well with several trips to the coast. I've gone on most of his coast trips for some awesome beach days and hikes with the boys while he surfs. I can never keep track to actually watch him surf... Then it's just stressful cuz I'm like, gosh, well when do I call the coastguard? Anyway, there have been some great days on the coast and having to drive out there has kind of added an added layer of fun to these trips. 

One weekend had a Willamette swim + a Lacamas Lake paddle with Tara and Avery. Another weekend we enjoyed a river/waterfall time at Dougan Falls. A beautiful area in Washington where we walked up the river to the area with all these little falls you could swim under and around. So fun. With a side of wild ass Washington dudes-- they are on another level. Salmon River Trail offered an awesome, easy going hike along the river. I had to jump on in for a chilling dip, especially after my recent trip to the Goldmyer Hotsprings where I came to realize the joys and rejuvenation of jumping into freezing rivers and waterfalls. haha Oh and the hot springs were a wonder. I was skeptical, as I'd never been to one and just didn't image them being so relaxing and enjoyable but it was great. We got to do a camping trip there thanks to Chad's lottery reservation success. That trip had so much to share about I think it'll need its own post. 

Kayak at Lacamas Lake, not pictured: awesome rope swing times!

Dougan Falls. No pics of the falls cuz... well, we were swimmin' in 'em.

Movies: 

We've gotten into movies lately and have gone to more movies in these 3 months than we have in the last 5 years. It's still only 4, but still. We saw Furiosa at Bagdad, The Shining, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, and Drive at Hollywood Theater. Drive had a wacky show before the movie with a performance by the band that did the soundtrack. Eternal Sunshine had us so sentimental. The Shining had me covering my ears, but I made it through the whole thing this time.

4th of July: 

We got to meet up with Dylan's friends from 10+ years ago that he'd met while teaching in Vietnam! They invited us to the Blues Festival on the water and it was fantastic and it was so good to meet Joe, Laressa, and their kiddo. I got to hear some good stories about Dylan hiking a crazy trail in China in flip-flops and short and supposedly needing to be rescues by some Israeli war hero who wrapped him in an aluminum blanket. Dylan's not so sure he remembers it like that, but Joe was certain. Was he so cold and traumatized it's gone from his memory? 

Another fun reunion was seeing a friend we'd met aound 9 years ago while we were traveling in Costa Rica. Naomi was over there studying butterflies, we surfed once together and kept our instagrams, and actually reconnected this many years later since they'd moved from Hawaii to Portland! They're already off to Bend, but still close! Shoot we didn't get any pictures with them! This was from the killer hike Naomi took us on right when we got here! Funny story here was the very next day, we made the mistake of trying to bike up the NW Hills and our legs were burnin'. 

Maybe I'll write some extra posts about the hot springs, oh, and Crater Lake for Dylan's birthday! That was certainly too phenomenal for just a little blurb. Oh, "Perfectly Portland." I am about to go start that little series right now; there have been so many events, people, activities and such that we see that I'll say, "that's so perfectly Portland." Like the Portland Plage. Or the Swift Watches. So I will go start that post now. So stay tuned. And this is exactly why we need the weekly reviews. This post was huge! 

 I guess also let me know if there's anything you'd want to read more about! :)