Sorry I'm Late

Well our Portlandia adventure is drawing to a close and all our bucket list items have been wiped. We have loved our time here, but refuse this beautiful weather ruse us into staying for the everlasting drizzle. The few days it's been rainy here I find myself wanting to yell at the clouds just spit it out! Maybe it's my Texas roots expecting torrential downpour followed by sun, but the entirely cloudy days are rough. Anyway enough about the weather here is what we've been up to in addition to not blogging:

We visited Tillamook cheese and got some free samples as well as a couple scoops of ice cream (avoid the mountain berry it tasted like cold medicine)

We revisited the u-pick strawberries the last day they were open and got our money's worth.

Dan made a southern specialty. The jumble of goodness below is low country boil. 

This is how it is served. We had a little Sunday picnic our balcony.

My aunt and her sweet little girl were in town a few weeks ago and took us to the beach. It was a chilly but fun trip digging in the sand and flying the kite.

A couple weekends ago we went to the farmer's market and filled up on raspberries and green chile breakfast burritos and if that wasn't heaven we headed over to forest park  and took a sweet bike ride.

 We've tried to branch out of our usual foods while we were in such a culturally diverse place so this is a picture at a surprisingly delicious meal at a Vietnamese place called Pho Tango. 

Last weekend Dan and I headed out towards Mount Hood and hiked up to Veda Lake it was a short but beautiful hike but I think the part we most enjoyed was watching the crawdads duel over the food we threw to them. We even took an action video but upon watching 20 minutes of crawdad action we realized the depth of our ridiculousness.

Fourth of July, Family, & Fun

Fourth of July weekend my dear old Dad flew Dan and I out for The Rainsdon Reunion. This annual event consists of:

Gathering in a campsite on the just outside cell service

In-tents camping

Lazy floats down the river

A fishing tournament

Crafts

You guessed it...a hoedown!

(not from this year but I needed proof that my family has a full blue grass band...this is only half)

And for the fist time this year: Harley

I am so in love with this place. I thought I would miss it this year, being so far away, but I am so glad I didn't! I have a huge and diverse extended family and we enjoyed getting to know both the long-time Rainsdons and the new additions or soon to be additions to the fam. better. We are incredibly blessed to associate with such good people in this free land. These sweet pictures were taken by my cousin Naomi since I brought my camera and didn't snap one picture. We were lucky enough to ride with her, her husband Luke, and the adorable Harley to and from our flights in Boise.

This post wouldn't be complete without mentioning the 6 girls sinking Big Bertha above. Three of these lovely ladies are currently serving missions for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and have much more important things to do than float the river and play card games with me but I sure do miss them. Can't wait to squeal  down the rapids with them again in a couple years. Oh and Isaac too!

Camping the Coast

checked another adventure off our list

I've come to realize that flying a kite is a lot more fun and less tiring in a place with consistent wind.

 Look at those baby blues...

Question: why are girls still pulling this face (in the second pic.) in pictures? It's  the funniest thing and seems be passed down to each new set of teenage girls. Now don't go lookin' too far back on my Facebook or you may unearth this very pose but I had to leave some pictures that would make my future children point and laugh right??

Life is sooo sweet. This was the perfect thing for us. Life moves so much slower without anything but nature, Dan, and a good book. I have come to the realization that life is about as hard as you make it. We can choose to busy ourselves with gadgets, keeping up with the Jones', and about a million other things or we can sit back and notice that regardless of what we may consider to be lacking...life is sweet. 

Roses are Red, Pink, Orange, White...

Portland International Rose Test Garden

Being that Dan is a horticulture major and I tolerate flowers ;) we couldn't leave Portland without seeing the famous rose test garden. The flowers were as ginormous as they were beautiful.

There is also an arboretum down the road so we wandered through that as well. It was great to take a couple hours out in the outdoors to just relax and enjoy each other's company. Speaking of company, this little fur-ball is Elvis. He wandered over to us with his leash still attached, jumped onto the table and snuggled into Dan's lap. His owner was a few yards away (& seemingly homeless) and had no idea his dog was gone, or that we were snapping pictures but upon his return, he gave Elvis a stern talking to. Poor little guy.

Rain Bucket List

As you may or may not know, Dan and I are living in Portland this summer while he completes an internship designing landscapes for a company here. I was lucky enough to score a job working at the same company putting together newsletters, licking envelopes and you know--livin' the dream. 

There is so much to do here and since my dad so kindly informed us that we are too young to have a bucket list, we have composed a "rain bucket list" of things we hope to do before we leave Portland. Here it is:

Hike Multnomah Falls

We hiked this beauty first^

& then headed down the road less traveled here ^^^

The first picture is the famous Multnomah Falls. The other probably has a name but we can't recall it. The hike is about 1.5 miles to either and it is gorgeous-highly recommend it!

Go to Voodoo Doughnut

This is the sight we were repeatedly advised to go visit...it seems to be a right of passage so we made a stop before visiting the falls. It's as unique as the city to which it belongs and that's all I have to say about that.

Attend Saturday Market

Last weekend we went to downtown Portland and browsed the array of shops and food carts. There was never a dull moment. When we sat down to eat lunch there was a guy preaching, another juggling swords and these guys.

Powell's Books:

While we were downtown, we had to browse the 1.6 acres of books found here. 

Yet To Come: 

• Rose Test Garden-we heard June is when they bloom whoop whoop!
• The coast-AN HOUR AWAY!
• Tillamook Factory (see the world's finest medium cheddar)
• The OMSI-Oregon Museum of Science and Industry
• U-Pick Berries (more than 6 oz of raspberries for less than $5? can I get an AMEN?!) 

 feel free to voice any suggestions!

Oh Hey, Didn't See You There

Hey I'm Katy. The lad above is my husband Dan .This is our blog capturing the tidbits that make life so great. Thanks for reading (hope we're as fun as we pretend to be).