It's amlost August, which is just crazy to me, I feel like we just got here. Nicholi & I have been working non-stop this summer, with the exception of a week off in Santa Cruz visiting my family. But I think we're both ready to go back to our normal routine, school, our normal jobs, our apartment, even if that does mean back to the fridgid Minnesota. At least we'll have close to 3 months there before the winter really kicks in. And my 21st birthday is coming up so there's something really exciting to look forward to. And Christmas! Where we'll be visitng good ol' California again. Even though we've been busy this summer, with little time or money for activities, we managed to have some fun.1st Nicholi's cousin Jordan came to visit for a few days, who we havn't seen in over 2 years. We took him down the Old Columbia River Gorge Highway to see all the sights & falls. Beautiful as always. The black & white photo was taken at Multnomah Falls & the other in old town under the Portland Oregon sign when we were wandering through Saturday Market, one of my favourite places here. All these local vendors downtown set up booths along the Willamette River & sell their one-of-a-kind jewlery/food/etc. We also took Jordan to a few of our favourite restaurants in the city.
My best friend Bri came up for the week of the 4th of july, to visit me & to run a marathon with her sister Leah. This is the 3rd summer in a row that Bri has come to visit, it's a nice little tradtion we have going. If we're not livivng here next summer, hopefully she will be, so we can continue it. It was so fun seeing her. She is one of those friends you can go months without seeing or even speaking to, but the minute the two of us meet it's like no time has past. Those are my favourite kinds of friends. We went out to dinner a few times & shopped around a little. & on the 4th of july we all had a bbq then watched fireworks at Tigard High School, where we proceeded to make little voiceovers for the fireworks as they decinded into the air & exploded. We thought it was histarical. I have a lot more pictures on my camera, but sadly our laptop crashed so it will be awhile till i upload them.
Bri left on a wednesday & by Friday I was on my way to Santa Cruz. Nicholi had planned to come all summer, but when it came down to it, he just couldn't take that much time off from work unfortunately. So I drove all by myself from 2pm untill 9pm Friday & spent the night at nicholi's cousins, the Madsen's house, in Redding, Ca. All the older married kids in the Madsen family were in town for the summer, so it was really fun catching up with all of them. Saturday i drove 5 more hours to Santa Cruz & spent the week there. It was so much fun seeing my family, my sister Janette, her husband Miguel, son brian & their sweet little girl Kloey, who is just over a year old. I fell so in love with her on that trip! I never knew i could love a little thing so much. We all rented a beach house in Aptos, 15 minutes south of Santa Cruz. We used to rent a beach house there every year since before i was born, for the week of the 4th of July. We havn't in a few years & I planted the seed this year to get back on board & I'm so glad it worked out. Such fun memories. My dad builds his anual sand castle & we hit the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk atleast once or twice. This year we also went ocean kyacking, which I've never done, but I think will be our new thing. It was so amazing. Sea otters & lions were just feet away from us bobbing their little heads out of the water. It was incredible. & the weather all week could not have been better. I also got to see my other bestie Leith, which i couldn't be more happy about, I miss that girl so much & we just don't get to see enough of eachother. Shes another "no time has passed" friend. Also my cousin Alexi made a visit. We havnt seen eachother since my wedding & we used to be so close! I'm glad we could catch up as well. It was hard to say goodbye without a few tears. Especially knowing the next time i see Kloey she will probably be twice as big & talking. Im so glad we made this trip happen tho, hopefully it will be the 1st of many.
The weekend after I came home from Ca, the Barrier secreteries & I had planned a girls weekend. The 4 of us went to Lincoln City on the Oregon coast just for one night. Our room was right on the sand, it was fabulous. We all brought a bunch of food & snacked all night on saturday. We made a fire a had smores & between the 4 of us, took amillion pictures. Oh and one of the famous UofO duck football players was staying in the room right above us. We thought we'd play it cool to see if he & his friends would join our fire that night. Andi got the opposite message somehow & starting yelling, shouting, waving her arms in the air & clapping, screaming "WHOO HOO GO DUCKS! MY SON'S A GRADUATE!" Blowing our cover completely & making a fool of herself! Needless to see they could not get away faster & we all gave her crap after saying, wow andi, way to play it "cool" haha. Oh well, makes for a good story. We had a really fun time on that little trip & in the morning we went to this super tiny but quaint breakfast place called the Surf Dog. The walls were covered in pictures of all sorts of dogs & the food was increidible. Would definitely go back. Our last stop before home was the outlet mall, where everyone found something for cheap!
Ryker, our boss, took the girls in the office mini-golfing, which of course was hilarious. He also brought us Joe's Burgers, which i swear are the greatest knock-off of In-N-Out Oregon has to offer. SO DELICIOUS! And now the summer in Portland is coming to a close, my plane ticket is booked & I'll be leaving Aug. 17th. I have to work at the salon on the 19th & school starts on the 22nd. Nicholi is working up untill the very last day, & driving the car back over the weekend in time for school on monday. I would drive with him but i have to be at work sooner than he does & he wants to milk the summer sales for all it's worth. It will be bitter-sweet leaving because I'm not sure when the next time we will be back to PDX will be. But cheap school is calling & the sooner we finish, the sooner the next step in our life can take off, who knows where we will end up next.
