i heart the water

in addition to hearting bridges i also heart the water. being from arizona it is truly weird that there is water all over the place here. i love all the nautical items i've been seeing all over town and i now have a small desire to learn how to salmon fish. laugh if you may, but i did learn how to throw a pretty mean line when i was younger from my poppy. oh, but if i have to touch or smell anything yucky count me out. also, have i mentioned that i live about a mile from a creek named Dawson's Creek? (forgive me, i've been a little camera crazy lately)

i heart bridges

there is no reason for this post except to post a couple pictures of bridges that i've snapped since we've been here. i've decided that i love bridges....well, not so much the driving on them part, but i do love looking at them.

(st. johns bridge-Portland, OR this picture does not do it justice, i will have to get another one while not riding in the car)

(astoria bridge-Astoria, OR this bridges cross the columbia river for over 4 miles and connects to washington on the other side)

A STORY A....

today we took a little day trip to a town called Astoria that is at the most northern part of the state right where the columbia river opens in to the pacific. the drive was filled with pretty green ferns and it only took about an 1.5 to get there. what is in astoria you might ask? well, it is apparently a little hollywood. for $2 you can get a movie guide of the local sites from the chamber of commerce to go visit movie locations for several movies (kindergarten cop, into the wild, the guardian, free willy one and two, ring two, short circuit, and GOONIES). we got to visit the goonie house, but i didn't get to her SLOTH yell out "HEY YOU GUYS" so that was a little disappointing, but all and all it was a fun time. in addition to the movie tour we had yummy crepes at the farmers market, purchased some dried lavendar for drawers, visited some gigantic column at the highest point of the town that tells story of lewis and clark, chatted with some very friendly sea lions, explored old hilly streets to look at really pretty queen anne vicotorian homes, and went to a fort where lewis and clark stayed for several months during their final discovery days. so basically what i'm trying to say here is the day was filled with the most random activities, but we had a nice time.

according to blake...

we have tons of these massive mosquitoes outside our house and they are just down right nasty! each time i walk past them i let out "eeeeeeeeeee" and blake just laughs. what's with the title of this blog entry? so, blake thinks these mosquitoes are prehistoric and has named them mosquitosaurus. one time he said something along the lines, "yeah, i think those are the kind that were around with the dinosaurs...." um, are you kidding? my response, "what did you see that one? juarassic park?" i was correct and then he laughed at himself and continued on. that is all on this story, i just wanted to share these gross things with you and post about silly blake.

oompah-pah-pah man no more

look what i found! just when i thought all hope was lost i remembered that jen had posted a picture of amy and ryan last fall on her blog....i searched and i conquered! thanks jen friend for the help!

here is the happy couple! ame, i can't wait to meet your ryan (hope you don't mind the posts about you on here...)

TO THE FUTURE MR. & MRS. OSTLER!!

Don't worry, this isn't the happy couple pictured, but they do look like they'd make a wonderful match! I just wanted to take a moment to say congrats to my dear friend Amy Christine Theriot on her engagement to Mr. Ryan Ostler! I wish you many blissful years together and I couldn't be more happy for you! If I only had a picture of them together....

i just can't get enough...

of josh radin that is! last night blake and i went to a concert at this very cool older venue in town called the aladdin and the show was great! this is now the 3rd time i've seen dear joshy and i will continue going to see him to hear his "whisper rock" (that is how he categorized himself last). anyhow, he had this girl named erin mccarley(http://www.myspace.com/erinmccarley)open for him and i was surprised that i liked her. go listen to her. by the way, if you're already a fan of josh radin (i don't know why you wouldn't be) he has a new cd coming out next month.

oh, and in case anyone was wondering it FINALLY rained here! Hooray! it has rained the last three days and we haven't seen anymore 100 plus temps...hopefully that last! if not, my a/c should be on my front door tomorrow.

selfish. for my enjoyment. sorry.

this is purely a selfish blog for my own memories, but i guess you'll just have to deal. after doing my last post i started going over the wedding pictures and some of them really crack me up...hooray for having disposable cameras!










































photo key:
*amy & tyler being at a very funny table with my family...ame looking a little freaked
*proof that we were cool enough to dance the Macarena (we also did the funky chicken, YMCA, and hokie pokie)
*jeff & dj fighting over a $4.00 bottle of champagne
*beau & jeff looking a little "special"
*dani & blake appearing child-like
*jamie, alexis, & danielle talking with candles (danielle is apparently not pleased with something)
*ben doing the ol' spoon and nose trick-he sure is talented
*beth getting make a run for it with those really pretty flowers
*sarah shaking her grove thang
*beau bringing sexy before it needed to be brought back
*blake's grandma elaine-do you think she is surprised?
*seth-member of michael flatley's lord of the dance
*bubble madness
*just married

just for fun

a few months ago i took all our wedding negatives to costco and put them on discs and i found a few others in the mix that i had forgot about (too bad i lost all the negatives from Carson and Westwood Days). below are a few of my favorite finds.

(from the roll of our engagement photos...i just love how candid this picture is!)

(my aunt &uncle...they're so cool! really, they are! i think we were at an IMAX in Baltimore on the Titanic.)

(Both of us extremely burnt after a day of kayaking in Kona, HI Forrest or Blake? Oh, and why am I hugging the sailor and mermaid?)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY GORDON

HAPPY BIRTHDAY GORDON!

From one kitty cat to another (even though you are much stronger and bigger than me as a cool LION) HAPPY BIG BIRTHDAY!!!!

LoVe, AL's kitty CaT ElLa

a couple pics

here are a few pictures of the new place (grammy-i'll post more later so you don't have to check your e-mail). they aren't the best, b/c its night and hence no sunlight, but now i can check this off of my to-do list.

my husband the flying nun

as i have already mentioned it has been hot here. it is literally 95 degrees in my house as i type. anyhow, trying to think of ways to keep cool i put a wet flour sack in the freezer today and below is the outcome. (blake doesn't know i've posted this...heehee oh, and can you see the similarity with sally field aka "the flying nun" ?)

are you frickin' kidding me??

part of the reason i wanted out of arizona was to get away from the heat and it seems that we have brought it with us. good ol' oregon teased us the first few days with wonderful weather and now it is just plan terrible! there have now been heat advisories and record highs of 104 today and on the news tonight they said 110 tomorrow...i think i might just die. i know that shouldn't seem too bad for someone from arizona, but the problem is we don't have a/c, just fans that don't do much when it is this hot. back to my post from earlier this summer i am once again melting! oh, and to weather.com (the weather channel)-you lie and it just isn't very nice of you!

notes to self...

So I keep being told by locals how much were going to hate the winter, blah, blah, blah...with that said, I'm trying to be pretty good about taking pictures so I can remind myself in the months to come just how wonderful it is here.

activity journal

Friday: The best pizza EVER at Apizza Scholls (http://www1.apizzascholls.com/index.htm). This wasn't my discovery, but thank you Anthony Bourdain! He went to this place on his Portland show and it was so fantastic. Too bad everyone seems to know about it, because we got there at opening and there was a line out the door. After dinner went to a wonderful show put on by the Portland Cello Project. They're a group of about 16 cellos that collaborate with other local groups (mostly indie) and they make beautiful music. We will be sure to catch a few more of their shows. Thanks to them I learned about a great singer by the name of Laura Gibson (best song: Hand in Pockets...check it on myspace).

Saturday: Fell into a deep depression after finishing Breaking Dawn. I loved the book, but I am just sad that I don't have another one to look forward to. Hooray for the movie coming out in December. By the way, we rented the movie Penelope the other day and there was a great trailer for Twilight on it that I hadn't seen anywhere. Oh, and we unpacked a little more...Ella helped.

Sunday: Farmers market goodness! Bought some of the best strawberries ever and got a couple bunches of fresh lavender from a local farmer for the house. I love, love, love lavender and I think I might just need to fill my entire house with it. Later we drove to Cannon Beach and had lunch and walked along the beach. The water wasn't as cold as I was thinking it was going to be, but it definitely wasn't warm either. The drive to the beach took about an hour and 15 minutes...a little longer than I was thinking, but still not too bad. Ah, I almost forgot that we stopped at a roadside stand and bought fresh cherries!

Monday: Drove up north to Washington and visited the Hoh (pronounced HO just in case you were wondering) Rainforest and then traveled on to Forks and Port Angeles. Ah, to be in vampire country! Edward my love! I think Forks feels the same way-can you see the window on Sully's? (yummy burgers by the way) Check out the cool pictures of Bella's truck now on display at the Forks Chamber of Commerce.

Wow, Blake was such a good sport...he even listened to the Twilight book on tape for the entire car ride! I think he gets enjoyment out of my schoolgirl attitude regarding the subject. From Port Angles we took the ferry to Seattle, had a yummy dinner and stayed the night with our friends Alexis and Edi. Yeah for having a couple of familiar faces up here!
Tuesday: Drove home from Seattle and the rest is still TBD.

Does it sound enjoyable to anyone? If so, get your butts here for a stinkin' visit!