Hot Goose in the summertime

A few more pictures from this summer... Turns out most of them are of Eric (i.e. Goose, Beebs, plus many, many more names that I will not embarrass myself by sharing here).

At the first wedding Eric has officiated (and the first time he officially wore his robe), on a beautiful farm outside of Yamhill:

At the Portland Brew Fest with Ron:

Our favorite salad bar ever, Sweet Tomatoes:

We've been sporting these for a while--I highly recommend them! After Eric's brother, Scott, raved about his new running shoes, Eric immediately wanted to go out and buy some. It took me a bit longer to come around, but the REI anniversary sale and the arrival of our REI dividend intersected and it seemed that the time had come. They say it's the closest thing to walking (and running) barefoot, and "they" are right. They have inspired many conversations with strangers and have led to lots of looks and whispers ("pss spss psss shoes pss psssps monkey toes pss"), which I think is funny.

Eric led the campfire time at Family Fiesta, an evening family gathering at FGUMC in early August of each year. Some Creation Vacation families came which was awesome.

A Creation Vacation shot from one of the Family Friends. :)

One of my favorites:

Tillamook ice cream!!!

Some juicy sandia (that's watermelon en espanol). This one came from our friend, Maru, who came by one evening selling these Hermiston melons out of the back of her mini-van. We have eaten many this summer!

Eric and Bill, who has invited Eric to play in a benefit golf tournament to raise money for esophageal cancer research for the past three years. This year, I was invited, too! It was hot (in the upper 90s!) and we didn't win, but we had lots of fun.

Papa Murphy's stuffed veggie take-and-bake...mmmm.....

Eric playing with his flight simulator. He likes planes.

Din-din with the W-Fs

After spending the day at the coast Tuesday, Eric and I grabbed a Hermiston watermelon (the perfect food for a hot summer evening) and headed to the Wilson-Feys for dinner. We always have a great time hanging out with Dan and Kathy, and Max and Noah (who will both be in high school within just a few weeks--crazy) are each charming and funny in their own ways.

Kathy's quinoa dish and broccoli salad were excellent, but the main dish was definitely the sangria. When the W-Fs returned from Spain earlier this summer, they kept talking about how great the sangria was (and had some funny stories, of course) and around the same time, I came across this recipe from my Project Tranformation friend Ali's blog, Gimme Some Oven (you should really check it out--she's got some amazing recipes and food photos that will make you drool). I passed it along and a sangria-centered gathering was in the works! It was tasty!

It cooled off a bit after dinner--it had been in the high 90s in the valley--and we wandered through the field and blackberry bushes behind their house, staining our teeth with our first dessert and watching the full moon rise over the farms. Of course, dinner with the W-Fs is not complete without Tillamook Mudslide, so we headed back for brownies, hot fudge and ice cream. Yes, our third time eating Tillamook ice cream in three days! Did I mention that we also stopped at the cheese factory on the way to the coast as well? We did. Yum.

I dare you to find one cloud in these pictures

No matter the weather, the Oregon coast is beautiful, but I have never experienced two more perfect days beside this ocean of ours. Ron and Cathy invited us to join them on their overnight to the coast when they learned that their rental had an extra bedroom. We thought about it for about two seconds, then promptly rearranged our Monday plans and said yes! The purpose of our friends' trip was a deep sea fishing excursion, so we stayed in Garibaldi, a little fishing community on the Tillamook Bay that we drive through to get to Camp Magruder, but in which we had never stopped.

The outfit is run by the family of a Deacon in the UMC, Carol, who I recently met but who didn't happen to be in town while we were there. Her husband, Joe, is the boat captain. You can't see it in this picture, but there is an apartment upstairs from the office on the far side of this building and that's where we slept and cooked and watched Saved By The Bell in the morning. The back windows and deck of this vaguely fishy-smelling place look out over the gorgeous bay and the "front" windows look out over the fish-cleaning table in covered area of the building. Yuck. Thankfully, Eric and I weren't around for that. At first sight, it wouldn't have been the first choice for this vegetarian non-fisherwoman, but I loved being close to the water and it turned out to be a really great place to stay. Very hospitable. We had lots of fun being there with Ron and Cathy and are so thankful that they invited us!

I have always wanted to stop by this place but, alas, it is no longer in business.

The view from our bedroom. Below the window was a giant fish freezer, stacks of crab traps, and some fisherman driving forklifts and using some rather salty language as they shouted at one another above the noise of machinery. It lasted a short enough time to be pretty funny.

There's a passenger train that goes up and down the coast that I'd love to take sometime.

Eric wishing his dad a happy birthday. Happy Birthday, Brody!

The next morning, after bagels and cream cheese and counting the number of hours that Ron and Cathy had probably already been on their boat (it was an early start for them!), Eric and I drove 12 miles up the gorgeous coast to Manzanita to have coffee at a favorite cafe from our last visit. But apparently Tuesdays are not big days in small coastal towns and lots of stuff was closed, including our dreamed-about place, Bread and Ocean [tear]. So we grabbed coffee at another little joint and found and even better place to drink it--the beach!! Did I mention that it was the most perfect weather ever? 80s all day and I did not see a single cloud! Amazing, really.

We did stop at Bread and Ocean afterward to dump the sand out of our shoes. Cute, no?

Next door is the coolest little book store that I could have stayed in for much longer if it hadn't been for that sunshine.

Manzanita is a very cute town, something we didn't really get on our first visit to our friends' Leah and Mat's family cottage there five years ago, when it poured rain without a single pause for two days. Without the hood covering our eyes, it is easy to see how cute it is.

We then continued north, to Cannon Beach, where we just walked and splashed and talked and soaked up the sun on our faces and marveled at how happy the beach makes dogs and children and all other people, really.

Haystack Rock, featured in The Goonies.

What a wonderful day. Once their boat was in and their fish and crabs were clean and ready, we hopped in the car to head home. Ron and Cathy had had a great time, and, thankfully, they didn't smell too fishy. As usual, we stopped at the Tillamook Cheese Factory to eat the most amazing ice cream ever made.

The perfect end to a lovely little trip.

Miracita and Cessie La Loca

Since Mr. Weaver's homeroom class in 7th grade, Cessie and I have been dear friends, and we still share everything and make each other laugh like we we're twelve, often at inappropriate times. I'm thankful to Cessie's brother for having a baby and living in central Washington so Cessie and her mom have another good reason to come west from Michigan. It's hard to compete with a cute 4-month-old, so I'm happy to have made it as a stop on the tour. It was so fun to have Cessie and Cindy at our place and have them experience a bit of our life in Cornelius and to just hang out. I sure miss living in the same town as my second family. There is something so special about being with people who have known you almost your whole life.

Waiting *patiently* for me to take the picture so we could eat Eric's special pancakes:


One of my favorite drinks in one of my favorite mugs from Barn Happy, Eric's cousin's family's store in Cedar Falls, Iowa.

Big tree on Pacific University campus:

After lunch and a ginormous cinnamin roll at Maggie's Buns, we wandered around McMenamins Grand Lodge, which is a former Masons retirement home and orphanage and is full of cool, funky, sometime freaky artwork.

One of the freakiest paintings/descriptions in the whole place. Click on this to read the words painted on the wall and see the strange expressions on some of the faces--including the doll.

Cessie and I in 40 years:

That evening, Cindy headed to Tualatin to visit old friends and Cessie and went to Oaks Park, a tiny amusement park along the Willamette River in Portland with my Little Sis, Alondra, Alondra's cousin, and Eliser, who turned 28 that day!

Though I loved riding all the carnival rides as a kid and could spin and twist twirl for hours never get sick, my amusement park experiences as an adult have included dizziness, nausea and even a little bit of upchuck, so I was a little nervous. But we had the best time! Our bracelets allowed us unlimited rides but I only had to request a break once before getting back in line. And at one point we sat down at ate a nutritious dinner of nachos and ice cream before immediately lining up for the craziest (and best) ride at Oaks Park: the Screaming Eagle. Amazingly, not only did I feel fine afterward but I couldn't stop smiling.

At the end of the night, the kids, happy and a little woozy, conked out almost immediately in the car (there was even a bit of snoring) and Cessie and I got to talk the whole way home. Yay for lifelong friends.