tsamina mina zangalewa, cause this is portland

We are home from our wonderful vacation in Portland!  Recapping a 10-day trip is a bit overwhelming, so I've kind of been dreading this post.  But I want to record the memories, so I must press on.  For all of our sakes, I'll keep it brief and stick to the highlights.

THURSDAY:  Duke's first time on an airplane | our first flight with a kid | being "those people" on the plane with a toddler | arrived at the Watson home around 2:00 a.m.

FRIDAY:  Duke was pretty crazy after just 5 hours of consecutive night sleep | had Porque No for lunch | Brad cooked a delicious salmon for dinner | loved chatting and catching up with the Watsons | ate the most delicious cookies ever made by Mirela | Duke sneakily grabbed a cookie from the counter and, after a long while of hearing nothing from him, we found him in Brad and Mirela's room with the door shut eating this cookie

SATURDAY:  had a glorious New Seasons breakfast burrito | played in the park | walked around and ate the best pizza at the Farmers Market | Brad and Colt had a guys night and watched the game over some greasy food | Mirela and I watched Legally Blonde after the kids were in bed (p.s. it's just as awesome as I remember it)

 (Thanks for the pic, Mirela.)

(Colt bought me some flowers. :))

SUNDAY:  went to their church, Bread and Wine | Mirela made a tasty Sunday lunch | Mirela and I went shopping at H&M while the husbands/kids took naps | dinner at New Seasons | chatted by the fire in the backyard after the kids were in bed

MONDAY:  Grand Central Bakery for breakfast (my absolute favorite) | playtime at home | grilled steaks and had a cookout with some of their friends | Duke and Norah enjoyed playing on the new play structure in the backyard | ate crepes for dinner

TUESDAY:  morning at the park with coffee from Coffee Division | paninis for lunch (tell me, why do I not own a panini press?) | kids played outside | Duke became a slide pro | put kids down for bed and had some friends stay at the house so the 4 of us could have a date at Kuhn Pic's Bahn Thai (another one of my favorites)

(Dad playing the nice troll under the bridge.)

(a little Mary Poppins art in the park)

WEDNESDAY:  went to Playdate PDX (giant indoor playground meets coffee shop) for the morning | had dinner with Konnor, Tana, and baby Finnick | Duke screamed, cried, and was beside himself when I got my turn to hold the baby | said goodbye to the Martins and played Scattergories after the kids were in bed (favorite round - "things you see in a park" - the letter was 'H' and Mirela wrote "help station" - one of the 359 reasons why we love her) | watched some Shakira videos and dubbed "Waka Waka" our theme song for the trip

(It's a slide!)

(Dads and kids)

THURSDAY:  morning at Grant Park | Porque No for lunch (because you can't just have it once when you're in Portland), packed for our little excursion to Mt. Hood | woke the kids up from their naps and drove to the mountains | arrived at our beautiful cabin and were like little kids exploring every room | ate a dinner which consisted of all frozen food from Trader Joe's | played Scattergories and then topped the night off with a dip in the hot tub

FRIDAY:  ate breakfast croissants | did a morning hike and, while on this hike, got talked into running a half marathon the next morning (much more on that later, trust me) | put the kids down for naps and attempted to put together a really hard puzzle (we all eventually got head/neck aches and stopped, or just gave up) | went up to Timberline Lodge (yes, where this happened a few years ago) for some photos | had one last night in the hot tub | packed and cleaned so we could head out the next day

 

(It doesn't matter where boys are.  They always will toss a ball around.)

 

SATURDAY:  did a 14.2 mile trail run around Timothy Lake (like I said, a full recap of this race will be coming soon) | felt like death and celebrated my impromptu run with a greasy burger, fries, and a coke | spent the rest of the day recovering | soaked up our last night in Portland and talked by the fire in the backyard

SUNDAY:  flew back to OKC

This was our 5th time to visit Portland.  (You can read about some of our other Portland adventures here, here, here, here, and here.)  Each time, we fall more and more in love with that place.  We love spending time with our sweet friends and getting to live life in their world for a bit.