The New Year in Portland

For New Years we were able to take a quick trip to Portland to see Jessica and Adam...

And their sweet new kitten Meeka...

Jessica gave us a great Christmas present.  A book about Oregon with pages all clipped with suggestions for what we can do when we come to visit.  We got started right away....

A dinner cruise down the Willamette River (a couple even got engaged on the cruise--we called it, but probably won't be invited to the wedding)



A visit to Pittock Mansion

The requisite stop at voodoo doughnuts for a voodoo doughnut.  



Dinner at Marrakesh, a fun Moroccan restaurant where you sit on the floor--not too old for that yet!



And lastly, pictures with the umbrella man in Pioneer Square with some Hot Chocolate from Starbucks!

Fun times--can't wait to go back!

Thank you Hawaii and husband

Steve and I have been married for 25 years; and for our anniversary Steve gave me a trip to Hawaii--Maui to be exact.  It served a dual purpose, since for the first time in 22 of those years we would have no children in our house for Christmas--Steve knew that wasn't going to go well for me, so it was a good plan to get me out of the house and to the island paradise of Hawaii!

I couldn't believe I would be looking out of my room and seeing this every day!

For 8 glorious days I laid by the pool, slept in the sun, ate yummy food, took in the beautiful scenery, and on occassion walked on the beach...that's about it...I loved every minute of the inactivity.



Perhaps my favorite place at the resort was the serenity pool.  It gave rise to my word for 2012--serenity. 

 We did take a quick trip up the volcano our first morning there.  We had to get up at 3:30 to see the sun rise and it was 37 degrees!  My Hawaii wardrobe didn't prepare me for the freezing temperature but the sunrise was beautiful.  It reminded me of sunrises in Ecuador.

We also took a day and drove the road to Hana--amazing!

We would have seen more glorious waterfalls such as this.....

Had I been wearing the appropriate footwear and not had my feet bathed in non-washable mud oozing between my toes..

we stopped and had the "original banana bread"  delicous!

By the way, this wasn't the car we drove--but I seriously would love to drive this car!



Thank you for a most lovely vacation

blogs and rain boots

So this morning I did a lot of work  and finished my seminary lesson fast, so I decided to reward myself with a little blog reading time :) before I sat down to study for finals :(.  During my blog reading extravaganza I stumbled upon this:


I thought to myself, self I think I'll see about getting me a pair of those fine rain boots. When I looked them up it said you could only buy them on line. I decided I'd think about it, you know all the indecision--what size to buy, would they really be cute, do I really need rain boots with a pink bird on the side, when will I wear them, where will I store them...?

Then I decided what the heck, live dangerously. And I bought myself those fine boots. And a pair of boot liners to boot (hehe). Now I'll be happy and dry in Portland on New Year's. Oh and by the way--free shipping and a discount for using my target card. It was meant to be.

Thank you http://www.practicalparalegalism.com/ for the suggestion!

Newport

Newport is pretty important to our family:


The Barton's annual beach house vacation
Newport Beach California July 2008



Jessica and Adam (now living in Portland Oregon)
 Newport Oregon August 2009



Michael (from a train while serving a mission in England)
Newport Wales October 2011



Ocean Girl

Something to share from my favorite niece:

I love the ocean too.  I miss it.  I wish I could make a visit to the ocean this weekend.  Every once in a while I find that I just need to smell the beach and it has been way too long. 

I read Sunset Magazine (scary thing for my family--I come up with all kinds of adventures that I would have never known about had I not read about them). There was an article recently about the new Open Sea exhibit at the Monterey Bay Aquarium.  I want to see it.  I want to see it even more because of this:

A few years ago they had a great white shark on exhibit at the aquarium.  Jessica and I went to Monterey just to see the shark.  We were going to the aquarium on Saturday morning at 10:00 am.  I was super excited.  The shark got "overly aggressive (think eating other animals)" and they had to release him back to the wild at 5:00 am.  So close.  In the ensuing years Jessica has determined that she's terrified of sharks, so I don't think she would go with me, but maybe Steve.....?????

I'm a cat person

I guess people usually classify themselves as "cat people or dog people".  I would have to say I'm a cat person.  I am attracted to their fierce independence and their attitude, you know the one that says, "I will do whatever I please, whenever I please, and however I please because I am me and I can.".  These traits are rebelliously appealing to the obedient rule-follower that I am. 

We have a cat.  His name is Max.  He's an insomniac.  He is loved dearly.  But lately,....  He has gotten into the habit of bossing us around about going in and out.   He comes in, then he wants out, then he wants in,...over and over.  This is especially bothersome at night.  He wants out at 2:00 am, then he wants in at 2:15,....

So last night I sat him down and we had a talk.  I told him this behavior was going to stop.  It was 9:00 pm.  He was in for the night and I wouldn't be letting him out until I got up the next morning at 5:00 am.  He listened attentively (ha).

I slept soundly until 3:00 am when I awoke to the loud sound of men's voices in my house.  I was in the "not awake not asleep zone" and I couldn't figure out what was going on.  I couldn't understand why there were men loudly talking in my house in the middle of the night.  I got up and went out to the living room to investigate (I haven't watched enough CSI to know better).  There was Max sitting calmly on the couch--watching TV.  Looking at me as if to say, "you told me I couldn't go out, you said nothing about watching TV.". 

I have no idea how he hit the right button on the remote to turn the TV on.  I'm a college educated adult and I can barely figure out how to operate the remote (Michael offered to write out instructions before he left on his mission). 

No one can ever tell me cats aren't smart.  At 5:00 am Max was standing by the door waiting to go out......

order

"When I cannot bear outer pressures anymore, I begin to put order in my belongings....As if unable to organize and control my life, I seek to exert this on the world of objects." --Anais Nin

I read this in a Real Simple magazine not long ago.  The picture has been hanging on the wall above my desk.  It perfectly describes my life of late.  I love the picture that they chose to go with the quote!

But since I can seldom resist the urge to insert a little humor in a situation; I found this picture, which also quite adequately illustrates the quote.

and then....exhausted--both of us

We had a great day today--exhausting--but great!  And here is a retelling, as Cameron tells his stories.

And Then...

We got to the lake.

and then.....

we went for a hike.

 and then...

we went throught the skinny place.

and then....

we saw the hellercopter.



 and then...

we went on the lake in the motor boat.

and then...

we took a little rest.



and then...

we ate a whole ice cream cone, a swirl because you get chocolate and vanilla, whatever you want.

and then....

we went fishing.

and then...

we build "dodger stadium" with rocks (so we wouldn't throw them in the lake and scare all the fish away)



and then....

ps.  funniest statement of the day:  Cameron saw some bird poop, and a lot of birds flying around.  He stopped, put his hands on his hips and said, "okay, which one of you did this?"  "I said, which one of you did this..."