Bella, Lexie, and Katherine at my house!

My girls came to visit me last weekend, aren't they beautiful?

Isabella is wearing the outfit Grandma and I made while I was down there last month.
Bella got to pick berries, play with llamas, and run around like a country girl. She wasn't so sure of what to make of me taking pictures though.

weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

Alexandria is really starting to grow and get her personality

hmmm... what am I thinking?

Dad teaching Bella about cooking

It was so much fun to have them here. Not sure if it will ever happen again though, poor Katherine had a heck of a drive home.

Family dinner

I had dinner with my Mom and family last Thursday. It was a bit of a comedic event. As I was driving in, Mom called to cancel since Shannon had a headache. I decided to go anyways, and called Laura to tell her to join us for a bit. So, Nick and Laura came over for a while. Then suddenly, everyone else showed up, Keith, Shannon, and Gabe. Keith, who we didn't expect to make it since he was at the beach, showed up at Nick and Shannon's wondering where everyone was. Shannon woke up from her nap with Keith looming over her. Miraculously recovered, she brought everyone over and we all got to be together, weeeee

Ah, Keith Keith Keith A picture of me for those of you who whine that there are no pictures of me.
Gabe, conversing with the lions

It was a fun night

Vancouver BC

I made my way up to Vancouver BC last week to meet up with my friend Cesar.
We spent the first day wandering around Stanley Park and the downtown area.

I dont have many pictures of the town itself (which can be pretty, but you can look online for those) since I was in the middle of it mostly.

But it sure was pretty.

The next day we took the ferry over to Victoria

It was a lot of ferry time for just a day on the island, but it was fun

Cesar y Yo

It was so much fun to see him after so long

Not a bad place to live, no?

One of the inlets, and yes the water was pretty gross

We went for a little hike and ate our lunch

There were lots of mosquitos

Then we drove around the peninsula

We were sitting in the car, watching the water, when suddenly, I saw a whale! I did not expect to see one so close to shore. If you cross your eyes or something as you look at this one, you can sort of see the leftover spray from his blow out.

I dont know why, but I love this picture

and this one too

It was a beautiful ride back to the mainland, with the sun setting over the islands

Cesar and I on the last day, boy am I going to miss him!

Christoph!

I got to see Christoph! My old roomie, and one of my absolute favorite people in the world. Haven't seen him in years. He's gone and finished a PhD, moved to the east coast for a post doc, gotten married (to a brilliant french girl, who I have yet to meet, grrrr), and is about to move back west. All in the time since we've seen each other. ouch

Man was it fun to see him again. Just for an excuse and for something to do, we went hiking in the gorge.
It was typically spectacular, of course.
And we ended up hiking a lot more than we realized, with a little hike here, another one there...

This is a pretty cool waterfall, another one you can go behind

Pretty spot. And after all the hiking, we went back into Portland, had an amazing dinner (another duh when it comes to Chris), and walked some more (so I could walk off the glass of wine I had with dinner)

What a day! I miss that boy so much, sigh

Even Rin go a little tired with all that walking.

Brynn's Wedding

Brynn got married a few weeks ago and I was lucky enough to join them for their beautiful day.

It was a wonderfully elegant wedding, with handsome boys escorting you to your seat, Brynn in her lovely lace gown, Zach looking nervous and handsome up front waiting.
Most of my pictures didn't turn out, but I still liked these, even if they aren't perfect.
Triumphant entrance to the reception

This might be the maid of honor and the best man, or maybe just a sweet pairing of bridesmaid and groomsman... but I liked it.

We finally meet Zach!

Isn't Brynn lovely?

Jenise, Emily and I

Cutting the cake. Brynn's grandmother made it, and it was good! Funfetti!

They managed to only make small messes of each other, and made up very sweetly

oh, hmm.. well... they sure look happy, don't they?

It was a very beautiful spot for a reception. An island in the middle of the delta, sun setting, table cloths billowing...

They snuck off for some sunset pics.

Happy happy day

And finally, the tossing of the bouquet. look at it go! Actually, Brynn was a little too enthusiastic, tossed it over the straining hands of the single girls and into the surprised arms of her happily married mother. The retoss went predictably well though, so all's well.

It was such a lovely day, and I'm so happy for the two of them!