Food carts and Japanese garden arts...

For lunch today Ashley took me to the downtown Portland food carts. It's basically a small block (four whole sides) with carts of all kinds. From a cart vending gourmet popcorn (we bought Maple Bacon) to Egyptian to carne asada grilled cheese. We split haddock and chips from The Frying Scotsman and the Pad Kee Mow at a Thai cart. Both were very tasty! We'll be back for that carne asada grilled cheese!

After lunch we headed to the Japanese Garden. Ashley was really excited to go. It was fun too see. A lot of detail was put into the garden that sits on 5 acres. I loved all the moss that was around, often in the place that you might expect to find grass.

Here are a few pictures:

Tired bods...

Due to a slight miss-communication Ashley and I ran last night another 3 miles even though our bodies we're telling us for different reason to take a break. My legs were toast and I was feeling a little off Friday morning after I rode a bike ride to work. Ashley had blisters are her feet from excising and running so much. She thought I still wanted to run and I thought she did. So we ran. Well, more like jogged the 3 miles. It was rough and afterwards we realized that neither of us wanted to. Bummer!

So we postponed the hike Ashley was planning for a day when my legs weren't jello and her feet didn't have blisters. So instead we went to Sports Authority and it was way fun.

After a long time waiting I've finally received a pass to the Nike employee store! Nike's world headquarters is just a few miles away. Ashley and I have been hoping to gain access to the exclusive store where almost all is 50% OFF! Finally we did but ONLY I can go and here are the stipulations. I've bolded the more interesting ones.

o Refrain from wearing any competitor brands into the employee store.

o No exchanges. Returns only.

o The passes are intended for guest(s)to purchase product already in stock at the store.

o Select merchandise may be available to NIKE employees only.

o No special product ordering.

o No autographs or photographs of any athletes or celebrities that may be in the store.

o No photographs of any items/products.

o If you have old athletic shoes you wish to donate for recycling, you are welcome to bring them to the NCS and place themin the donation bin to contribute to the NIKE regrind project.

So really without being able to rely on a good way to communicate and show the products and not being able to make an exchanges we were forced to spend 2 hours in Sports Authority to do product research and help me sync up to with Ashley's tastes. It was way fun!

I wish Ashley could come inside with me. It would be really, really fun. That said, I am now very excited to be able to pick out clothes for Ashley all by myself! She won't be able to say, "that's too crazy Patrick". I know, I know what you're thinking... with great power comes great responsibility. I will try to remember. I do think I'm pretty good about picking out clothes for her and after today's sync up I'm feeling pretty confident.

Running with the animals...

Last night I had the most awesome experience but because life is so busy of late I haven't had the opportunity to relish it. So I'm going to blog about it.

Due to an Intel vs. Nike Dodgeball tournament yesterday Ashley and I had to go running a little later than usual. We run on a nice outdoor track that's within walking distance of Devin & Bridget's. So upon returning from a disappointing Dodgeball loss we headed over to the track. At this point we were well into the evening and sun had long before set. It wasn't dark completely yet but just very heavy shadows. Half way into our first lap I noticed an animal on the horizon of an adjacent soccer field. The field borders basically a forest (it's a part of the park but too dense with shrubbery to walk through). The animal looked about the size of a dog and was standing at the edge, where the field meets the forest. While it was some 100 yds off, I could see that the animal wasn't all dog. It walked differently, had lean muscles, and pointy ears. I said to Ashley as we jogged by that I thought it was a coyote. So I gave it a howl-barkish call. It perked up but continued to stand at the forest edge.

Ashley and I continued our laps. We're running 3 miles now so we have to do 12 laps. Each lap as I jogged the portion of the track closest to the small coyote I'd give it a call. It would perk up but just stared back. I told Ashley that I really wanted to go towards it but she insisted I wait until after my 12 laps. So I ran faster all the while, each lap I'd give the coyote a call. Lap after lap he remained, moving only slightly but watching me as I ran by perking up when I called to him. I'm sure the other half dozen runners thought I was crazy but I didn't care and with Ashley at the opposite end of the track no reason for her to be embarrassed. So I continued, each lap surprised the coyote was still there, watching me. At points, admittedly, I did feel a little silly but who cares, right? On lap 10, half way through as I came to the part of the track where I could see him a small group of walkers were standing talking. Then as I neared he howled loudly, again and again! He had disappeared into the forest but I felt vindicated, and excited. Like a crazy person deemed sane. I wanted to yell out to everyone on the track "Boo-yah, haters!!"

In reality, people most likely weren't even aware of what I was doing nor of the coyote.They likely had headphones on but whatever. Had they seen the coyote at all they probably thought it was a dog. In my mind, they were all haters thinking I was crazy for howling every lap.

After my twelfth lap I walk down to the edge of the forest. No sign of the coyote and it didn't matter. He howled at me and that was awesome enough!!

Portastic...

As many of you know Ashley and I live a fairly hygienic life. We wash our hands a hundred times a day, don't touch public spaces, and disinfect often. Ashley used to not let me put luggage on the bed and she after coming home from nursing would strip off her clothing and put them in a plastic bag to be washed separate from other clothes.

Ashley and I had bad colds for much of the summer that seemed to morph and shift. The way I see it, we had weakened our immune system from being so "clean". After moving into a house for the summer with three of the boyest of boys and a little girl that likes to be in the thick of it, our immune systems brought swords to a gun fight. We were sick in various ways for many weeks and it wasn't until recently that we started feeling like normal.

So this weekend we did some of the things we thought we would be doing more of prior to being hit with a million and one kids germs.

We started out the day splitting the "Reggie Deluxe" from Pine State Biscuits in NE Portland. That's a piece of fried chicken, bacon, cheddar cheese, fried egg, and gravy, sandwiched between their famous biscuits! I don't think I have to say but I will anyway, it was fantastic!

After our early breakfast we headed to Multnomah Falls to do a little hiking. We've been running a couple miles everyday so we were ready! We started at the base then hiked to the top of the fall. We then hiked down and hiked up to another couple of waterfalls. No pictures because I forgot my phone in the car.

It was a pretty steep hike and as it was still early in the morning a bit chilly. Ashley kept taking on and off her jacket.

By the time we reached the top both of us were quite sweaty.

At the bottom again, we had someone take our picture.

The hikes were FANTASTIC and really made Ashley and I excited to do more. I think we're going to work up to a whole day hike in the same region. We were both on quite the high afterward. It's great to be in a place with so much to do outdoors. Earlier in the week I went whitewater rafting with the other finance interns and some supervisors. It was great fun and a bit scary when I jumped off a 20 ft cliff into a narrow stretch of fast moving river to get into our rafts again.

On our way back we stopped at a hole-in-the-wall Mexican store with small well-reviewed deli.

Sweaty Ashley with carnitas tacos w/ cactus, beans, and rice.

Me with a carne asado burrito made with a house made tortilla. (Warning: if you stare too long you will get hungry). Both were fantastic!

On the way out Ashley couldn't help but get some pan dulce with coconut. Ashley would have better success eating it if she were a snake and could unpin her lower jaw. As that's not the case, a lot of coconut hit fell to her lap as she ate.

After a short nap, Devin, Bridget, Ashley and I headed out for an evening out together (our first of the summer!). Since we were celebrating my birthday it was my choice. We headed to Du Kuh Bee, an authentic Korean restaurant. We ordered dumplings, fried rice, napa cabbage w/ spicy pork, bbq'd beef ribs, and pork noodles. It was all fantastic, and despite the familiarity in the names, very different then other Asian food I've had. My favorite was the ribs and pork noodles (the noodles made from scratch throughout the day).

Behind Ashley is a man hand pulling individual thick, round noodles! So, so good!

Portland is a fantastic place! We've really been enjoying it! We're sad our time here this summer is coming to an end.

Yum...

The menu last Saturday consisted of Thai noodles and ice cream on the East side. We were able to eat dinner outside and walk around the neighborhoods as we enjoyed dessert.

 We went to Sen Yai for dinner and both choose wide noodle dishes.

Both were tasty, we liked my dish a little bit more.

 Afterwards we went to Salt and Straw for ice cream. They make their ice cream using local and organic ingredients. They are known for their quirky flavor concoctions. Patrick chose Almond Brittle with Salted Ganache and Freckled Woodblock Chocolate.

I enjoyed Strawberry with Cilantro Lime Cheesecake as well as Birthday Cakes & Blackberries.

Say Cheese...

Patrick and I were looking through recent pictures and stumbled upon this gem.

 

Awesome. As Patrick was laughing he realized he had seen the face Maddie made before on Colin.

In a family photo :)

Enjoying the long weekend...

With the 4th falling on a Thursday Patrick had a four day weekend! We still weren't feeling great as we were still trying to get over the longest cold ever but managed to do some fun things.

Friday:
We headed down to Powell's Books in the afternoon. It takes up a whole block and was a bit overwhelming but fun to navigate through. They sell both new and used books and have their entire inventory online.

Patrick connected with a guy who will be starting BYU's MBA program in the Fall so we went out to dinner with him and his wife. We met them at a Lebanese food place called Nicolas Restaurant. We ordered a meat mezza platter that came with humus, tabbouleh, beef cabbage rolls, chicken kabab pizza, and freekah rice.We enjoyed eating some Labanese food again since we haven't had it since we lived in MI. It was fun to talk to them and tell them about what to expect in the Fall. Afterwards we headed to Tiger Bar to hear the band Polar Sleep.The couple we were out with knew all of the members of the band. We almost didn't go but changed our minds last minute. And good thing because one of the people that was also at the bar was a good friend of Patrick's from his freshman year at BYU. They had a fun time catching up with each other.  

 

Saturday:

We headed to the Portland Saturday Market! It was full of all sorts of stuff and had a food section.

Later in the afternoon we went to one of our favorite stores called Uwajimaya. It's an Asian grocery store and is AWESOME! It deserves a blog post all it's own. It is close, big, clean, and has a wide variety of food/grocery/gift items. This trip we bought some different snack foods and bread to try. The bread pictured below is a lotus bread in the shape of a pig. Patrick was trying to convince the kids that it was a real pig that had been baked, which a few of them may have believed for a moment.

We loved our long weekend together!

Our 4th of July...

We spent most of the day at Bridget's parents. Their neighborhood has a parade and the older boys decorated their scooters to ride in it.

We watched and played with bubbles.

With most of Bridget's family together we celebrated Maddie's birthday early. Patrick and I went shopping for a present for her and were having a hard time. Luckily he had the great idea of taking her to the store to have her pick exactly what she wanted. At Toys R Us she chose a My Little Pony stuffed animal. She sang to the pony on the car ride home :)

After playing games, eating dinner, and catching the last part of the movie Independence Day we headed home for fireworks!

One year older...

My birthday was nice and relaxing which was perfect since I was a bit under the weather. During the day I ate donuts, went to Target, and spent some time at a pool with Bridget and her kids. For dinner we had take out peperoni, Thai chicken, and patate & prosciutto pizzas followed up with a chocolate peanut butter birthday cake. Patrick and I watched the movie Warm Bodies in the evening and it was a great ending to my birthday!