The Portland Zoo

Ok, so we are running a little behind on the blog posts...

Two weekends ago Aaron, Christa, and Charlotte (check out their blog here) were back in Portland. It seems this summer we all traded lives when they moved back to Fresno and we moved to Portland. While they were here we joined them on a trip to the Oregon Zoo. The zoo is in Washington Park and is beautiful! It seems like the zoo has been built into the park rather than on top of the park. On top of that, the day was beautiful! We took tons of pictures, so enjoy!

The meercats in their little nest.

A hippo. He's so happy because he just ate his weight in twinkies - this guy is huge!

Ok, I know this is horribly blurry, but it's a bald eagle! So cool.

In the lorikeet exhibit, you can get a cup of sugar water and they will sit on your hand and drink from the cup. It's pretty crazy.

Here's an elephant...

...and here's me eating an elephant ear. By the way, my eyes are closed because of the yummy cinnamon and sugar fried goodness.

The zoo's amphitheater.

The zoo from above.

And here's us enjoying the zoo!

Two for the Price of One

Although we had already set up house, we thought that we were still missing something. Our fish didn't (or should we say couldn't) make the move up to Oregon, so today we went to go find some new ones. While recording our (SV's) first album with Jared and Lazz, I was introduced to the wonderful world of fresh water African cichlids. Jared had many different species and swore up and down that they (even though they are highly aggressive and take more time to maintain) were the best and most beautiful fresh water fish to keep. So today we added three new members to the Porter family (an electric blue cichlid, an electric yellow cichlid, and a red zebra cichlid). The funny thing we didn't realize about the tank was that we wouldn't be the only ones enjoying the fish. Yes...Autumn loves them too! Sad to say, this is our new kitty's drug. She has already spent hours in front of the tank trying to find out what those colorful little things are. I just hope that our cat doesn't go through withdrawals if one of the fish dies.



Mmm...fish.

A little local flavor

After a minor 'snafu' with our new computer (including sending it back to Apple and getting a brand new one), we are back online.

Well, now that we are 'Portlanders', it is time to do what the locals do...

A couple of weekends ago, we rode the Max (for the first time, hooray public transportation!) from Beaverton to downtown Portland to visit the Portland Saturday Market. And what a market it is! I have never seen so many pop-up tents. I was expecting more of a farmer's market (I guess I could have read the website a little better), but this was the buying and selling of all things handmade. While it was not what we were expecting, it was very cool. We found some really neat items, along with some very strange items. Here is a picture of the Skidmore Fountain and the front of the market - this picture does not do that market justice - it's huge!

The next weekend I had to work. 'Aw, too bad' you say? Nope! I had to attend the Portland Timbers soccer game in downtown Portland. During halftime I went onto the field to present a check from First Tech to a nonprofit organization we support. Bummer, I know. I also had to take 8 other people with me. So...Ben, two friends from his work, Uncle John, Aunt Alexis, Joanna, Hillary, and Daniel (Hillary's beau) joined me for an awesome soccer game. We had tons of fun and got to see Timber Jim (who pumps up the crowd with a chain saw) and the infamous Timber Army! Needless to say, Ben was in heaven.

Here are some pictures of the game and the Timber Army.

The Timbers kicking butt in the quarter-finals before losing in the semi-finals. Oh well, not a bad season.

The Timber Army going crazy.

Ben wearing his Timber pride scarf.

Can you see me?

Labor Day Weekend

With a whole 3 days all to ourselves, we had to do some exploring around our new home besides just laying around and relaxing. We decided to visit a different area on the coast - we had gone to Lincoln City and Newport on our trip here in February. This time we just took the 26 (the freeway closest to us) and headed west.

We first stopped at Camp 18 (at the 18 mile marker on the road) to eat some highly recommended cinnamon rolls - actually, we only ate one cinnamon roll since it was the size of a dinner plate!

The breakfast was ok. but the cinnamon roll was smeared in butter and awesome!

We also made a rare discovery - the mythical Oregonian elephant. Only those who are worthy can see it. Can you see it?

So, with some yummy food in our tummies, we headed out to the beach. Beach, you say? I thought beaches didn't exist in Oregon and it was all rocks and water. Yes, we found beaches in Cannon Beach and Seaside.

We also found Haystack rock - the third largest monolith in the world (and the backdrop to Goonies).

Here is a cool picture of a washed up jellyfish:

Here are some other neat pictures that we took:



The rest of Saturday and Sunday we just took it easy and hung out. Then on Monday we went to Uncle John & Aunt Alexis' for a Labor Day BBQ. After some yummy food and great company (thanks guys!) they took us out to the nation's largest dahlia farm - with over 350 varieties! Here are some beautiful pictures for you to enjoy.

The new addition to the family!

I would like to e-introduce Autumn! She is a calico/tabbie that we adopted from the Bonnie L. Hays Animal Shelter in Hillsboro on Tuesday, August 14th. She was caught in a trap and brought into the shelter on that previous Saturday, got her shots on Sunday, got fixed on Monday, and then adopted on Tuesday. Whew! She has already had way too much excitement for a 4-week old kitty.

As soon as Ben saw her, he knew if we adopted her we would have to name her Autumn for her orange and brown coloring. Good job, Ben!

So far she has been the greatest kitty ever. She has adapted to her new home, litterbox, and food perfectly. It took her a few days to come out of her shell, but now she is super playful and the most cuddly kitty I have ever met! We love her to pieces!

Here are some pictures for you to enjoy.

Our Crib

Well, here is a tour of our apartment...

Here are some pictures of the living room and our "dining room" sans dining table.





Here is our lovely kitchen complete with "butler's pantry" and washer and dryer.


Here is our office/game room/library/storage/home to our new gigantic iMac computer.





And finally, here is the bedroom with our new "his" and "hers" dressers from Ikea.



(And here's the bathroom even thought Ben doesn't think people need to see it.)



Hope you enjoyed the tour!!