Chanel's Visit / Random Thoughts

Chanel flew in Friday for a weekend visit. While I was waiting for her in the arrivals section of the PDX she sneaked up behind me and scared me big time. I yelled so loud I made the woman standing next to me jump. It was pretty hilarious. Any time I scream like a little girl on a carnival ride it's pretty hilarious. I can't explain how HAPPY I was to see her, to hug her, to be with her. She looked absolutely beautiful.

We drove back to the apartment and I gave her a quick tour. Then we drove down 13th Avenue and she dropped me off about two blocks from the office so she could hop on the freeway and check out the house in Sherwood.

Chanel did not instantly fall in love with the Sherwood house or neighborhood.  I didn't fall in love with Sherwood, either. We are not convinced that we are going to love Sherwood or even Oregon. The problem is Colorado spoiled us. It is, in our opinion, the best place on earth to live. If we are going to be truly happy in Oregon we're going to have to find a way to stop comparing the two places. And in regards to Sherwood, we need to keep reminding ourselves that we chose Sherwood because of the great schools and very safe neighborhoods.

This will be particularly important to remember when we write out a mortgage check that is much higher than the ones we wrote while living in Firestone.

Firestone. It is so bizarre that we love that tiny town so much. We despised it when we first moved there. About two days after moving in we went to a carnival in a field next to Safeway. We each got about 500 "goatheads" stuck in our shoes and feet, and some of us even started bleeding. We have never been able to keep our bike tires inflated for very long thanks to those goatheads. We went to a "honey bee" festival at the junior high school and it made us so depressed. The town smells like cow poop at least 75% of the time. There is virtually no shopping there, and very little to do other than visit the small rec center or hang out at the library. I honestly don't know why we love that town, but we do. We truly do. We love the ward, we love the elementary school, we love walking through the neighborhood, we love our park, and we love our house...the same house that we didn't even love when we bought it.

And at the same time, believe it or not, I am looking forward to our new life in Oregon. I can't imagine having a better job, and I'm looking forward to watching our kids shine at an excellent school. I'm looking forward to making our new house our home, meeting neighbors and ward members, shopping at Trader Joe's, going to the Portland Temple with Chanel, driving to the coast, riding our bikes to the movie theater...I just know we are going to have a lot of fun here.

We are in a tough transition period right now. I still don't know where I am going to live on August 21, which is when my corporate housing expires. I don't know when I will see the kids again, but I know it'll be soon. Lots still up in the air, but I believe these issues will be solved this week.

Friday afternoon I gave Chanel a tour of the office. I was especially excited to show her the free Coke vending machine. After work we walked to a Japanese restaurant and had a great dinner. Then we drove to Trader Joe's in downtown Portland.

On Saturday we went for a run along the Willamette River on our way to the Portland Saturday Market. The market was still being set up, so we ran to Powell's and picked up some books for the kids. After Powell's we went exploring and came across Mother's Bistro & Bar. It was packed with a 40 minute wait time for seating, but we figured it must be good if people were willing to wait for so long! We put our names down and killed some time by walking to Voodoo Doughnut. Neither of us are huge doughnut fans, so we didn't wait in this line very long:

We headed back to Mother's. I want you to understand what I am about to type: Portland has the best food in the world, and Mother's has the best breakfast in the universe. We were so entirely blown away by our amazing food that we still can't stop talking about it. We both had omelettes and potatoes, and we simply could not believe how great they were. Killer. This meal made us very, very happy.

 Chanel is so wonderful and so beautiful. Looking at this picture makes me so bad wish she was here with me right now.

After Mother's we headed back to the Saturday Market. It was cool, but we decided it'd be more fun with the kids so we walked/ran back to the apartment, cleaned up, and drove down to Sherwood and checked it out some more. We walked around the outside of the grade school and found it nice and spacious, with lots of fun stuff for the kids to do during recess.

After our visit to Sherwood we went to the Nike Store in Beaverton.

Nerd

We picked up some stuff for us and the kids (and ourselves, of course), and then decided to drive to the coast. When we realized how long it would take to get to the coast we instead drove to Salem and checked out the capitol building. Then we drove back towards Portland and made a pitstop in  Lake Oswego, where we had dinner at Chevy's, a place we haven't eaten since our early college days in Vegas. We loved it and totally pigged out on chips, salsa, flour tortillas, and our dinners. Muy bien!

Perhaps you didn't know this about us, but you have probably picked up on the fact we are huge Trader Joe's fans. We are thrilled that there is a TJ's in LO, about 15 minutes from our house. Here's a photo of Chanel flexing her bicep in front of the store:

We came back to the apartment and watched the local news. We got up super early and went to the airport for Chanel's 6am departure. She's home now with the kids. It was pure heaven having her here.

After going to church in Sherwood I had to return the rental car. I am going to miss that car, but I am looking forward to riding my new bike around town. I felt this sign in the elevator of the rental car return epitomized the extent to which people in Portland try to be nice. A simple note simply would not do.