Date Day

We try our best to have one date night each week.... but last week it wasn't just a date night, it lasted the WHOLE day. And it was marvelous.

Saturday went something like this.

Walk around and sample all kinds of delicious foods at the HUGE local farmer's market.

Spend over an hour in Kitchen Kaboodle. I definitely have a wish-list in my head of all the kitchen supplies I will someday own.

Drive around town and visit various stores. i.e. craft stores, shoe stores, clothing stores...

Come home and exercise so we can eat whatever we want for dinner... Then shower and get all dressed up.

Go to dinner at Tai Elephant. This was our first time eating Tai food and we were in Heaven. We loved the curry and the sweet and sour pork and the coconut ice cream finished the meal off perfectly.

Go to the movie theater and use our free passes to get tickets for Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides

Walk around the closed mall (it was after 9) since the movie didn't start for over an hour.

Go to the only open store in the mall- the frozen yogurt shop. Since it was open we HAD to check it out. And when the lady offered us cups to try the flavors, how could we NOT sample? and once you've sampled you HAVE to buy some.
SO we had our second helping of icecream for the night. (good thing we exercised earlier!)

Then we finished off the day by watching the movie. We loved it. Johnny Depp is hilarious. And I especially loved the movie because I have been to some of the scenes in Oahu and Kauai where the movie was filmed and recognized them in the film.

Overall the day-long-date was absolutely wonderful, much needed, and cost under $20!

I love my Dallin so very much, and I like when he is home from work and can hang-out with me. :)

There is beauty all around...

Last week was beautiful here in Portland!!
I decided to take a walk one of the days to waste a little time while Dallin was at work...
this is what I found.

I just love it here.

Adjustments

Since moving to Portland, Dallin and I have realized that there are many changes that come with our new apartment that we will have to get used to.

#1 We now live on the third floor. That means a whole lot of stairs everyday.

#2 Private bedroom! No more walking into our house and seeing our bed in the front room!

#3 Dallin can actually stand-up under the shower head! And we can WALK AROUND in our bathroom!! For anyone who visited our studio in Provo... you know how drastic that change is!

#4 Walk-in Closet. Actually having room for all of our clothes? That is a definite change.

We are also getting used to having a washer and dryer IN our apartment. woohoo!!

#5 Cable TV. Since we haven't cable for over a year... we are a little behind on "what's new" and spending a little too much time trying to catch up.

#6 The Kitchen. Lots of counter space. A fridge that doesn't freeze our eggs/milk. Dishwasher. Garbage disposal. Need I say more?

Although... I had a rude awakening when I found out just how hot our dishwasher gets....

#7 I knew it rained a lot in Portland... but I guess I wasn't quite prepared for rain every day. On a positive note, everything is green and beautiful so I'll take the occasional frizzy hair-do.

#8 There is a fitness facility at our apartment complex!! Now I can lift weights and work-out on an elliptical or treadmill if I so desire.. and not be stuck with just exercise dvd's. AND I have a work-out buddy because Dallin comes home for lunch and exercises with me!!!

#9 Bugs. LOTS of them. I am not the bravest person in the world and therefore cannot kill them. So they angrily wait under glass/plastic containers until Dallin gets home to take care of them. This one is currently in the dining room... see that black dot? It's huge.

#10 The biggest change for me is having so much free-time. I don't have a job. No school-work. And I don't know anybody. I'm enjoying every minute of our time here... but I really need something to do. I'm sure something will come along. :)

Here's some other pictures of our new home.
We're getting a few things up on the walls so it's feeling more and more like a real home. :)

Zoo Time!!

This weekend we went to the Portland Zoo!!

Mom, Dad, Lori, Darran, Eliza and Talia came down to visit and we took the girls to the zoo. We had a blast!! The weather was beautiful and it didn't start raining until we were leaving (thank-you Portland.) Because the weather was a little cooler a lot of the animals were very active! I'd never seen the lions up-and-about, or the hippos out of the water!!

A little short?!

The petting zoo. Way to go Eliza!!

GO COUGS!! :)

Lions, Tigers, and Bears ooh my!!

The baboons were pretty crazy looking. This one made this face when one of the zookeepers walked by... wonder how that relationship is?





The bald eagle did a nice little pose when he noticed Dallin was taking his picture. :)








We spent most of the day at the zoo. We only left because it was closing. :) I think Dallin and I enjoyed the zoo just as much as Eliza did... if not more. haha!

Boxes. LOTS of boxes.

Here's a few more pictures taken during our move from Provo to Portland.

And here's a picture of the cake we made for dad's birthday.... Oreo's, whipped cream, sugar and cream cheese... how can you resist taste-testing the filling?!

Welcome to Oregon!!

We are officially living in Portland. We ran into a few minor bumps along the way... but we made it and are LOVING it!!!

Wednesday evening Dallin's family arrived in Portland. It was dad's birthday so after going out for dinner we celebrated at our ex-apartment with a delicious oreo cake that Dallin and I had made. We spent the next few days packing, eating off paper plates, visiting the Bean Museum, and dress shopping with Elayna. It was a great way to finish off our time in Provo.

Saturday morning Provo gave us a going away present... SNOW!! Yes. The perfect present for packing up a Uhaul.

We drove all day Saturday...
with a few stops at Krispy Kreme and Cafe Rio...

until we arrived in Kennewick. My family waited to eat dinner until Dallin and I arrived at home and could enjoy the French Dip sandwiches with them. (it was only 10:30pm when we got there....)

The next morning we all left for Portland. "We all" being me, Dallin, Mom and Dad Heath, Branden, Danielle, Trevor and Dakota. It was a party! and the drive was great! We stopped at Multnomah Falls to eat lunch and ended up hiking the 1.5 miles to the top of the falls.

When we were back at the bottom, we realized that both Dallin and I had a missed call on our phones from the apartment complex. They informed us that they close at 5pm and were wondering if we were going to make it. Well... it was 4:30 and we were at least an hour from Portland.... in other words there was NO way we were making it by 5pm. Luckily we convinced our manager to stay a little late and we quickly got in the car and on the road.

We found our complex without a problem and got there right before 6pm. We signed some papers and had dad give them a check because we had no idea where we had packed our check book (they don't accept third-party checks but would just hold dad's until we found our check book... we made quite a first impression didn't we?!) After the legal stuff was done we got to check out our new home.. and then started moving all of our stuff in. Thank goodness for all the extra hands!!! It made the job MUCH quicker!

Dallin started his internship with Intel on Monday, and my family left that afternoon. Things have been going well so far. Dallin is liking his work with Intel and I'm breaking in the fitness center and unpacking/organizing our new home. It's so nice being able to relax and not have to worry about school.

Sorry we don't have many pictures... there will be more to come. I accidentally left the camera on the parents couch back in Kennewick :( so once I get it back I will be posting more pictures!!

With love from Portland!!