PDX Pix - October 2012

October!  Fall is here.  Banjo enjoyed the treasured last sunbeams before we get socked in here in the Northwest.

Anonymous came out for a Calobo concert that was fun time.  A says he sang 100% of the lyrics during the ~2.5 hour show...  Good time.  Here's a shot from the show at the Crystal Ballroom.

We also made a deliciously decadent German Chocolate cake for Cara's birthday!  Yommm.

And of course gave Banjo some attention.  As you can see, our dog is pretty stressed out and high-energy these days...

Come back and visit again soon, A!

We took a trip up to Mt. St. Helens, but unfortunately picked the first rainy weekend to do so.  As such, the view was not what it sometimes is, but Kate was apparently still excited about it.

 

It did clear up a bit here and there, so here's the bottom half of the bottom half of the volcano.  It is a good visitor center and I'd like to go back and explore around some more.  Quite a bizarrely barren and affected landscape, but also amazing how much nature has come back in 30 years.

 Us, Dustin, and baby Noah on a hike.

 This is what October is like, I guess.  Sun still trying to hang in there, but the rains are clearly taking over.

Halloween at the office - we decorated our cube area for trick-or-treaters that parents brought in.  I think my fake legs legitimately frightened some poor kids!  Some of them came up and kicked them to make sure it wasn't real...

My parents visited and made the most of a cold, rainy week!  We still went out and about and saw some sights, including the requisite trip to Multnomah Falls.  They even took a couple day trip to the coast.

They helped a lot with painting and sanding, thanks guys!

 See you next month!  Happy Thanksgiving week, everybody*!

* - by "everybody" I mean all 4 of you that maybe still happen upon this blog, and Anonymous who will clearly point out any chronological errors within 8 minutes of my posting this.  :)

PDX Pix - September 2012

September.  Indian summer here in Portland.  Some of the highlights:


Made lots of fruit "extracts" from the large quantities of Yakima fruit that Anonymous brought from Yakima.  These are basically simple syrups made out of fruit pulp instead of water.  We mix them with seltzer to make delicious semi-sodas.  Flavors include lime, apricot, cherry, peach...


We finished installing the kitchen cork tile floors!  As you can see the closet area provided some frustrating difficulties (exaggerated here for effect) but probably no one will ever look closely in there.  Now to cut and install the shoe-round and baseboards...


Yet another clear day from Council Crest - lots of people out for the view.



And the raspberries kept coming and coming!  One of my favorite qualities of our house...  I love getting a handful of fresh berries to put on cereal every morning.  Alas, they are pretty much done now.  And as you saw, Banjo seems to like them as well.



Speaking of the garden, we successfully did some plumbing repair after one of these old PVC junctions started leaking.


We went to Newport (coast) with D+C+N to visit D's parents, and had some fun walks on the beach

Meanwhile...

(I had added text for all the below pictures but somehow it got lost and the post reverted back to a draft...  maybe I'll update them later but for now just use your imagination for captions.)

Banjo discovers he likes raspberries...

PDX Pix - August 2012

August marks one year in Portland for Kate (and almost Tom)!  Our adventures this month included:

Anonymous visiting and bringing exploding non-saleable Gilbert wine, which made great sangria,

as well as a ton of fruit!  We dried some, made fruit extract simple syrups to use with our new spontaneously purchased Soda Stream, and ate apricots, cherries, and nectarines until we nearly exploded (like the wine)!

It got HOT.

Our dahlias bloomed.

Visit to Cape Cod for family fun!  We spent a week doing this:

Chatham Anglers game

At the fish pier

Paddle boarding

Beach walks - here's the 4 girls

Reading

Kadima

Building a sand turtle

Back at home, Banjo would like you to know he has not been weaned off his shoe addiction.

We went to an "Adult Soapbox Derby" on Mt. Tabor - Here's some of the zany action.

Apparently stop sign "editing" is a thing around here now.

I went on a bike ride up the gorge to the Bridge of the Gods, passing many scenic sights along the way:

Bonneville Dam Power Station

Bridge of the Gods, looking into WA

Multnomah Falls

Bike trail

The Gorge from the Vista House at Crown Point

Finally, to celebrate the "end of the summer" there was a free symphony concert at the waterfront park, culminating in everyone's favorite patriotic song written by a Russian featuring the French national anthem set to Howitzers and fireworks!

Hope everyone else out there had a great summer as well.