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!

Foil leftovers...

This past Friday Ashley and I wanted to try something new and check something off of our summer checklist. So we headed to Le Bistro Montage, a cajun style rstaurant that is very Portland. Its been around for quite some time.

We spilt an order of the Gator Bites; yes, with real gator. They were just average, not great but not bad either. I ordered the anduille sausage pasta and Ashley got the Spold Mac & Cheese (a hybrid of their old and spicy mac & cheese). Both were delicious but I really enjoyed mine.

Besides the excellent food and people watching all the wait staff looked a bit odd and had full arm tattoos, they also wrap your leftovers in tin foil in the shape of animals. My leftovers became a crab and Ashley's were turned into a giraffe.

Nutella and gushers...

Today the oldest two nephews were at a day camp, Devin & Bridget went on a date, and Patrick was at work so I was alone with the youngest two. We decided to pack a picnic and walk to the park. They were very excited to go and we packed everything up as soon as their parents left and then hung out at the house until it got closer to lunchtime.

 We ate nutella sandwiches, gushers, goldfish, bananas, and cookies.

 That mark on her forehead is chocolate frosting from the cookies we ate.

 We were later attacked by a dog who ate our goldfish.

Making "ant soup" with water from the water fountain.

Michigan visit...

My mom needed to have a knee replacement so my parents flew me out to be her personal nurse for a two weeks. I got to MI the same day she got out of the hospital. I had a nice time visiting my parents and was glad I could help them.

She had a lot of deep bruising.

Mom shortly after I got here.

She needed to spend 6-8 hours a day on her CPM machine. At first she had a hard time relaxing but by the time I left she'd get the machine going and fall right asleep. Besides watching movies and napping during CPM time we talked, had visitors come over, and worked on a family photo book.

 While back in town I decided it would be a good idea to set up a few appointments. This is after my haircut with my favorite stylist.

Patrick flew in from Oregon for Father's Day weekend and brought Voodoo donuts! It was an awesome surprise and we ate them all up!

Taylor also came home for the weekend! Patrick and I picked him up and he gave us a tour of his apartment.

Patrick working on lunch.

Dad with his lunch of flank steak, shrimp, and veggies all cooked on the grill with a salad. We followed it up with hot fudge sundaes!

We did a small sewing project.

I got an ice cream cone from Culver's (one of my favorite places) which just happened to have my favorite flavor as their flavor of the day!

 I made a few freezer meals for later.

Cleaned out the downstairs freezer.

 We helped set up for the Kojima girls' graduation open house which was at my parents house.

Mom and me the day before I flew back to OR.

Salvador Molly's...

We decided we need to start trying more Portland restaurants so a few weekends ago we went to Salvador Molly's.

 Patrick ordered a slow roasted Tamarindo BBQ pulled pork sandwich.

 I ordered a sweet potato mac-n-cheese with red onions, scallions, and pineapple salsa.

If you've ever been out to eat with us you know that per usual we split our dishes so we could each try both. We liked the mac-n-cheese better but it was definitely unique.  Salvador Molly's is known for its Great Balls of Fire Challenge. This involves eating  five habanero cheese fritters and all of the sauce that comes with them. If you're successful you get your picture put on their hall of flame. We had a fun time enjoying new food together in the sunshine and can't wait to taste more of Portland!

Farmers Markets...

Portland has a bunch of farmers markets. During the summertime there is one every single day! A few weekends ago we went to one on the campus of Portland State University. We ate breakfast there and Patrick chose a chicken tamale and I enjoyed a pork crepe. Both were delicious. We enjoyed checking out all of the produce, meat, sweets, and flowers for sale. This weekend we plan on visiting another one.