A trip down south

Since Blake's summer break is wrapping up we decided we need to get in one fast trip out of Oregon. I was sitting in the house trying to figure out what we were going to do and then quickly decided we were going to drive to Half Moon Bay (just south of San Francisco) to visit Blake's mom and stepdad...next thing I know we have the Subaru loaded with Gypsy and we were off. Man, that was a LONG 12 hour drive each way and I'm not sure we'll be doing that again. Our visit with Kathy and Troy was very relaxing and it was very nice being close to the water. Highlights of visit:

-I milked a goat (oh yeah, Blake did too-just look at how VERY excited he was about that milk coming out!)

-I met Bart the llama (just look at those teeth!)

-Gypsy got to play with Jake

-Eating breakfast at our favorite breakfast place EVER in Sausalito (you might think I'm kidding, but we been to the bay area now on three different trips and we've now had breakfast there 5 times...man, I want some of their food right now).

-Seeing massive amounts of seals and pelicans diving in the water to eat loads of sardines.

-Mexican food! We had the first good mexican food we've had in over a year! Someone please move to Oregon and open a good mexican dive.

Visitor take 15

While my grandparents were in town Blake's stepdad happened to be in Portland so he was able to come over for a quick hello. Troy got to meet miss Gypsy and Blake took him to one of the taverns out in the farms for some dinner. Too bad his visit was so short, but it was still nice seeing him either way.

Visitors take 16

Blake's dad and stepmom came the day after my grandparents left so needless to say it was a very busy couple of days (or maybe weeks or maybe even months!). I didn't have my camera with me while they were here so this is all there is in the way of pictures. We drove south one day and took them to one of the major wine areas in the state since they are both big winnos and it was a very clear day and I must admit it was funny to see hills of rolling vineyards all around in Oregon. For some reason most of their visit here is blurry in my mind, but I do recall us eating a lot. HA! Brent treated us to some very yummy meals while they were here-Thanks!

Vistors Take 14

Hooray! My grammy & poppy were able to come for a nice long visit! This was not an easy task of getting them to agree to fly, stay for a whole week, leave their dog, etc. It was so nice having them here and I hope they come again in the near future. We did a repeat of many of the same sights around Portland, but it is a difference experience with each visitor that comes so it makes it worth doing some of the same things over and over again :)

Some highlights:
-We saw a couple of bald eagles in the gorge
-W saw a four-horned sheep
-My grammy made us beans and brought tortillas with her (seriously, OR doesn't know a thing about tortillas)
-It was so hot the day they arrived they purchased a second portable a/c unit so our house is now livable
-Blake and Poppy ate lots of cheese, I mean a lot of cheese!

There you have it, my random list of highlights....I sure have some neat grandparents!

Vistor take 13

13...wow, and we haven't even lived her one full calendar year! People, keep coming, because it sure is fun to have all of these visitors. Yes, we are going to a lot of the same places more than once, but having all these visitors has really helped us learn are way around the area and has encouraged a lot of exploring and some creative hosting on our part.

This was Grant's second visit to see us so we were able to skip a lot of the "regular" outings and we spent almost 100% of his time here out in the sun. We had another week of above 90 weather and the three of us got pretty nice burns while enjoying our fun in the sun.

A few highlights from his visit: eating delicious roasted corn at Kruger Farms, Blake & Grant renting funcycles at Cannon Beach, watching the fog over the ocean, Grant trying to eat the mancakes at the Stepping Stone Cafe (if any of you watch Man vs. Food on the travel channel this was one of the places the guy did a food challenge at), eating the juiciest red pear I've ever had in my life purchased at farm in Hood River, beautiful dark sunflowers, and seeing Trillium Lake for the first time (soooo pretty)!

Visitor Take 12

Blake's mom flew up for the 4th of July to spend the long weekend with us and to play doggy and kitty grandma. Since our neighbors complained about Gypsy we haven't been leaving her at home at all by herself and this has difficulty with our visitors.

I was totally lame while Kathy was here and didn't take any photos to document her trip, but we had a nice and relaxing visit. We went to Sauvie Island and picked berries, browsed the Saturday Market, took Gypsy to the dog wash, made a yummy dinner at home, drove to the coast and spent several hours sitting in traffic. Oh the traffic! Seriously, what should have only been about two hours in the car was about ten hours and when we'd get out to stop it was freezing! Mind you, it had been above 90 in Portland the whole time she was here, but the day we decided to go to the coast is was in the low 50's and we were all dressed in summer clothing. She was a good trooper about being stuck in the car all day and kind of having a bum day, but miss Gypsy got so bored she ate the car....when I say ate the car she ate all the way down to the actual metal frame of the car! That means she ate the carpet, fiberglass, & fluffy insulation. What a cheap fix-NOT! Try $226 for this "little" puppy mishap, but it was hard to be mad at her when she was stuck in the car for 10 hours with little exercise, but she still was sneaky, b/c she was able to destroy the car with none of us noticing.(I didn't actually take this picture, but was able to find one of the free we were stuck on-this is about two exits from our house. At least the freeways are kind of pretty to look at.)

What did we do for the 4th? I had these great plans to buy loads of fireworks since they are legal here and there were both set up on every corner of the street, but I just never got to it. Instead, we drove around the streets and watched all the families doing the firecrackers in the front of their homes, which actually was very fun. There were so many firecrackers done in Hillsboro that the entire air had a big cloud of sulphur-smelling smoke (is it weird that I like that smell?). Oh yeah, we made a stop at Albertson's where I got carded (really, I don't like 18?hahaha) and did buy some sparklers which we did on our balcony.

Jammin'

Today I had my first go at jamming...what a mess it makes, but hopefully the jam will taste fantastic and will make the mess of my kitchen worth it. I went to Sauvie Island today with my friend Amy and we handpicked all those blueberries you see below and bought the raspberries from the farm all for $20! That price really just seems amazing, because we even have extra blueberries left after making the jam. With all those berries we were able to produce 12 jars of blueberry jam and 10 jars of raspberry jam. Assuming these turn out okay I will have to make peach jam when the peaches are finally ready.