lazy, lazy, lazy...

as you have probably noticed, it has been a while since my last update. it's not like we haven't been doing anything, but i have been lazy in keeping up with this blog. shame on me! but oh well, here i am now to try to catch you up on everything...if i can remember it all. haha.
so on the sunday after my previous blog was published, jarrod and i decided to make a trek out to the coast again, (it's awesome to get to do that when our schedules work out well together. which is rare now, and sad. more on that later, maybe. haha) this time to Seaside Oregon. yes, that is actually the name of the town. i can't say i'd heard much about seaside, but i've seen plenty of customers or just random strangers wearing shirts/sweaters that said seaside on them, so i figured it must be a pretty cool place and we should go visit. so we did! when we got there we walked around downtown. our first stop was a candy store/taffy shop. we got some more sea salted caramels (delicious. i love those things!) and of course, some taffy. they had a TON of flavors, so we had plenty to choose from. i don't really remember what all we got though i do remember ameretto being in there and banana cream or something like that. we bought plenty more, but what their flavors were, i do not remember. anywho, so after the taffy shop we continued to walk around downtown, looking in random stores and gift shops. the one that stands out most to me was a vintage clothing store. vintage clothing stores are awesome! i wish i had found something i liked, but oh well. it was still very entertaining to look around and see all the wild clothes. haha. anywho, after looking through just about every shop, we decided it was time to go down to the beach, and so that's what we did. once again, it was cold, but not as windy as it was at the beachside campsite. we just sat around people watching until about 7, when we decided it was probably time to find a place to stay. once we checked in to a motel, we went to eat dinner and then we walked around a bit longer before heading back to the hotel to be lazy and watch some tv. that was our sunday.
on monday we decided to go to the beach first, and so that's what we did. this time we just walked around on the beach and watch the birds. yes, it was still pretty cold, but this time i had on jeans and a long sleeve shirt. haha. after roaming the beach for about 30-40 minutes, we walked back to downtown to look around at the shops we'd missed on sunday. we found another candy shop that was filled with retro candy and candy i'd never heard of. guess what i bought? sour skittles and more sea salted caramel. haha. after the retro candy shop, we went into another retro store where we found some pretty awesome drinks (non-alcoholic). first of all, there was big red! (which we don't have hear) and then there was just a bunch of other random drinks. jarrod got a jolly rancher pear soda, flashback root beer and something else. i chose a peach soda, (recommended by the girl working there) big red, and orange leninade. yep, that's what it's called. it's communist lemonade, so i HAD to buy it just to keep the bottle. haha. so by this time we were getting pretty hungry and decided it was lunch time. we ate at a mexican place called the Taco Shark (http://tacoshark.com/) and yes, they really do have shark tacos. i did not try that though. i had a beef, chicken, and salmon taco. all really tasty. :) after lunch, it was time to head home so jarrod would get home in time to shower and be lazy for a bit before heading to work. the drive home was annoying because people drive way to slow for some reason....but enough about that.
so that's what we did for the weekend. we had nothing planned until wednesday when we went to go see THE SHINS!!! the show was awesome, as expected. it seriously was a dream come true to see them, because i thought i'd never have the chance. man, if i had a time machine, i'd relive that show over and over and over again....yeah, it was awesome. you know that now though, don't you? haha. i have a few videos posted on my facebook if you want to check that out. :)
and the rest of the time these past few weeks has been spent staying home and being lazy, or saving money, as i will call it. haha. so nothing exciting there. 
i do have something exciting happening tonight though. we going back to edgefield to see The Decembrists. WOOOOOO. they're from portland, did you know that? so awesome. haha. 
oh! some news you'll find amusing: we finally hit the 90's last weekend and let me tell you, it was HOT. haha. but nothing compared to the heat back home, i'm sure. still, we may be weenies now bc we've been spoiled with awesome weather. not that 90 degrees is terrible, it's not. it's supposed to get up to 90 today. i may actually sweat. crazy. haha.
OH. i totally forgot that last tuesday we went back to multnomah falls with some of my friends from work (bc one of them who has lived here for a while had never been). we hiked to the top and we also hiked a few other falls. work that night was miserable bc i was so tired and yes, i was sore the next few days. :P i leave you with some pics from that and a promise to attempt to continue updating regularly (at least once a week).

yeah that's jarrod being dumb and going under a waterfall. i'm surprised the force of the water didn't knock him over. he did say the water was so cold it took his break away though.

 until we meet again. ;)

Sunday Funday

This past sunday will probably go down as one of my favorite days of this summer. Jarrod and i went to this event called The Big Float (http://www.thebigfloat.com/). we participated in the first big float ever! awesome. the event consisted of an inner tube parade across the hawethorne bridge (jarrod and i missed that because jarrod was working until 11am and the parade started around 10am) and the parade ended up on the West Esplanade where everyone would put in at the river. the "parade" continued back across the river to where they were having an "after-float party" featuring food carts, live music, the usual party stuff. haha. but, i am getting ahead of myself here.
jarrod and i showed up to the west esplanade just in time to see some people carrying their floaties (the rules required some type of flotation device, besides life jackets, though arm floaties were considered good enough. haha. you may think there are not that many different types of flotation devices. i automatically think of inner tubes, but there's plenty more out there. some people had inflatable whales, sharks, and alligators. some brought paddle boats, there was even a weird floating sleigh thing out there... all sorts of flotation devices. haha) and we followed them so we could stand in line and register our floaties (we had an inner tube and a... idk what it's called. air mattress? but not like the sleeping kind; meant for the water) and ourselves so we could get in the water. we waited in line for a while, but it was all worth it in the end. finally, we were on the shore of Marquam Beach and into the COLD water we went. we floated around and observed for a bit. i even got brave enough to take my phone out for some pics.

the focus here is the skyline, though you can see some fellow floaters as well.

after just floating around for a bit, we started paddling to the end of the "parade." initially, jarrod was doing all of the work (as it should be. hahha) but i could tell he was getting tired so i had to suck it up and actually get in the water. COLD!!! but as always, i got used to the water pretty quickly and we kept paddling along. some random lady asked to race us, so we were paddling hard and then she gave up and said we had a double motor so it was unfair. haha. by the time we made it to the dock, our legs were throbbing and sore, but that's alright. we got a nice workout. haha. after getting out of the water, we released the air from our floaties and then went to find some food (hungry hungy hippoes!). we ended up eating bbq from a food cart. i can't remember the name. i got pulled pork, jarrod got brisket. my pork was SPICY, so i didn't end up finishing it. besides the spicy part, it was still pretty good. and it gave me some nutrition so that i'd be up for the next part of our day.
walking around downtown! as always, i really wanted some cupcakes and i heard there was a good cupcake place somewhere near us, so that's where we headed to first. after walking 9 blocks, (probably should've taken the max, but that's okay-more exercise for us! haha) we finally made it to Saint Cupcake Galore (http://www.saintcupcake.com/) where we proceeded to have some really freaking delicious cupcakes. pic:

the one with green icing was vanilla with chocolate chips. the chocolate one has vanilla buttercream icing. jarrod got a vanilla cupcake with vanilla buttercream. YUM YUM YUM.

 i kind of wish i hadn't posted that pic now...i REALLY want more cupcakes bc of this. ergh. haha. oh well, maybe another day.
after we ate our cupcakes, we went in search of a fountain that we had seen on the road trip while we visited portland. after walking another hundred or so blocks (exaggeration) we made it to the Ira Keller Fountain where we were surprised to see people swimming. i was not aware people were allowed to swim in the fountains, but apparently it is allowed. a free swimming pool for all! pics:

i tried not to get pictures of anyone else at the fountain. i don't really like random people in my pictures. haha. oh! fun little story, a few weeks ago someone poured some type of detergent in this fountain and guess what happened? lots and lots of foam and bubbles. apparently cleaning that out cost several thousand dollars..i don't really know... yeah, so there you have it. haha.
we left keller fountain in search of pioneer place mall (http://www.pioneerplace.com/) so we could pass some time before we left downtown so we could go see the portland festival symphony (http://www.portlandfestivalsymphony.org/). we pretty much spent our whole time in the mall in a store called Fuego (http://www.shopfuego.com/). it's a really neat store with some fun stuff in it. haha. check out the website for more info. oh, i did get a pic of something great from that store:

i need this bag!

anywho, after we were done with the mall, we walked back to the waterfront and stared out at the river for a bit while listening to some street artists. we then left for Peninsula Park so that we could listen to some lovely classical music. once the concert was over, we went to popeyes (i was craving it and by some great coincidence, we were literally 3 minutes away from one. yes!) and then we came back home and were lazy the rest of the night, as we deserved. haha.
so that was our sunday funday. lots of sun and fun. hahahaha.
we haven't been doing much this week besides working, as usual. that's alright though, we really are saving money by not going out too much, and really, we have more time on the weekends, so why not do fun stuff then anyways?
speaking of the weekend, i have sunday and monday off, so i'm hoping to make another trip to the beach or maybe camp around the columbia gorge. it's up to jarrod. i mentioned the beach idea and he said nothing. :P i'm hoping that wins though. haha. but i'd be fine with camping anywhere or just getting out for a bit. :)
so, i'm looking forward to this weekend, but more than this weekend i'm looking forward to seeing THE SHINS!!!! only one week and i will be in heaven. haha. i did not think i would ever get to see a shins show, as i had heard they had split up, but apparently they're working on a new album (yes!) and are very much a group, still. and so i will get to see the shins, and i will be happy forever. haha. ONE WEEK.
besides that, nothing is really set in stone for next week or the week after.... i need to get on planning things to do, especially with summer coming to an end....yep.
THE SHINS!
that is all.
-sarah-

You walk along the stream, your head caught in a waking dream

so it's been a while...but that's because nothing's been going on. nothing but work and laziness. i'm going to say we're not doing anything so we can save money, but that's just to make myself feel better. haha. truthfully, we haven't been doing anything bc work is keeping us apart. our schedules used to work out pretty well, not so much anymore. i don't know what's going on, but my work schedule keeps changing every week. wish i always knew which days i'd have off so i could plan to do stuff, but i don't and i only know my schedule up until next thursday which is incredibly lame. so with my schedule absolutely nothing like the schedules of the past and jarrod getting called in to work at random, we really don't ever have time to go exploring. that's also very lame. :P i mean, i guess we could go wander around by ourselves, but i'm terrible at directions, even with my gps i'd get lost, and jarrod doesn't have a working car at the moment. pretty much we spend our free time at home watching movies or playing video games. blagh. i suppose eventually we'll get to the point where we'll feel comfortable enough to roam around by ourselves, but i personally am not up to that point yet. haha.
now to say we've been doing "nothing" is an exaggeration. sometimes while jarrod is at work i'll go to the free movies in the park with catherine, my new friend. :) we've had some pretty good times there. i enjoy those days. soon catherine and i will start re-watching LOST (yes!) but that's after i get her caught up on movies that she NEEDS to see. haha. so not all alone time is spent alone, but the majority is bc catherine also has an opposite schedule to mine. lame.

anywho, jarrod and i did do something exciting this past sunday. we went to McMenamins Edgefield (http://www.mcmenamins.com/54-edgefield-home) to see the Fleet Foxes! ahhhhhhhhhhh. awesome. fun. lovely. haha. the concert was part of the famous "concerts on the lawn" series for mcmenamins, so as my sentence states, the concert was on a lawn.

it was a really great experience since all i'm used to are indoor concerts. the weather was lovely, once we were sitting on the lawn in the shade of a giant tree. :) it actually got up to 85! and while jarrod and i were standing in line to get in, we were actually sweating! a first for this summer, besides the times we rode bikes on a sunny day. yeah, sweating, crazy, huh? (i laugh at your constant 100 degree weather back home. bwahahahahha!!!) back to the concert: it was very laid back, maybe bc the music was is so mellow, maybe bc of the venue, maybe both. anywho, it was really nice to just sit there and listen to the music and relax. i really enjoyed it. :) i liked the people-watching and being mellow, and not getting stuck behind some tall guy so i can't see the stage. very enjoyable experience. i should be going back to edgefield for The Decembrists in late august. i'm positive that will be a great time too. now i must add a fleet foxes song in here:

ah! so good! such a unique voice. fun show. :)
um....i don't think there's anything else i need to add...no big plans for the next few weeks, just the same ol, same ol. oh! except that daddy's coming to portland the last week of august. i'm looking forward to that! :D yay!
alright, i'll leave you with some lovely pics i took sunday morning after dropping jarrod off at work.

mt. rainier at sunrise from rocky butte

mt. hood at sunrise from rocky butte.

 

-sarah-

Half a Decade and still going strong

July 6th was mine and jarrod's 5 year anniversary. FIVE YEARS! Half a decade! wild, right? i'd say so. it doesn't feel like it's been that long, but if i really think about all we have shared in the past five years, then yeah, i can understand that it's been that long, but it still doesn't feel that way. that's probably a good thing though, right? haha. good thing we're not tired of each other! hahah.
alright, so for our lovely half a decade anniversary we decided to go out of town and head to newport to see the Oregon Coast Aquarium. (http://aquarium.org/) it was a pretty nice aquarium, but not as big as i thought it'd be. no matter, we still had a good time. here's some pics from that:

i tried to get a pic of a sea lion, but they wouldn't stay still long enough. haha.
after the aquarium we headed to Historic Newport Bayfront where we stopped at the Undersea Gardens, Wax Museum, and Ripley's Believe It or Not. all 3 of those came in a special package, which was really cheaper for all 3 than just one or two of them, so yeah. it was fun. pics!:

The Undersea Garden

Lewis and Clark

Johnny Depp, if only

LOTR

we then walked around the bayfront, looking through the shops and galleries. we stopped at a nice chocolate shop where we bought some delicious sea salt caramels. yum. after the chocolate shop we left newport to check in at our campsite at Beachside.
we unpacked our stuff at the site

then went back into town to find some dinner. we ended up having pepperoni pizza, which was pretty good. after dinner we headed back to our campsite and then we went to the beach so we could freeze our bootys off. it was COLD!!! and incredibly windy. somehow we still managed to stay on the beach to get some good pics:

see the wind blowing us away? haah

once we headed back to the tent we decided to start a fire to warm ourselves up and to get our smores started so we could get nice and warm under our blankets sooner. haha. jarrod built the fire (of course, that's what he's here for...hahahahah.)

we had some smores and then got in our tent and talked; reminisced about our previous anniversaries. we couldn't think of what we did our third year anniversary though...i still don't remember. weird. haha. but oh well. after talking for a while, we fell asleep.
Wednesday July 7th we woke up, packed up, and headed back to the beachside beach for a bit. it was low tide which blew jarrod's mind. haha. he took some pics while i kept my toes buried in the sand to keep them warm. once we left the camping grounds we went back into newport to the Yaquina Bay Lighthouse (http://www.yaquinalights.org/). we took a tour around the lighthouse and then headed down to another freezing cold, windy beach bc that's what jarrod wanted. :P my hat blew off on the beach-aggravating! lol.

then we decided to head to the Yaquina Head Lighthouse that was a few miles north of the Yaquina Bay lighthouse. i don't know how it happened, but it got COLDER while we were at yaquina head. maybe bc we were at a higher elevation plus the maddening winds and lack of sunlight. MAN was it cold. we were only at that lighthouse for maybe 10 minutes before i got so cold that we had to leave. we went to visitors center for some educational fun. we were there longer than the actual lighthouse, but it was inside, without wind. haha.

jarrod was trying to make me as tall as the lighthouse, but it's still a tad taller. :P

once we left yaquina head, we headed towards Tillamook so we can visit the famous Tillamook Cheese Factory (http://www.tillamook.com/cheesefactory/index.html). once there we went straight to the cheese sampling line (yes, jarrod DID sample cheese!!! OMG, i know, right? madness) and then we walked around the rest of the factory until we got in line for some yummy tillamook ice cream. we both got double scoop waffle bowls (a bit too much for me. sad days.). jarrod got root beer and something else...he didn't really like the root beer but he seemed to enjoy whatever else he had. i got grandma's cake batter (YUM) and german chocolate cake (YUM). omg, it was GOOD. haha. the ice cream was the end of our visit to the tillamook cheese factory.

we headed home after this and once home, we were lazy as can be. good times. :)
so that was our anniversary! :D it was lovely.
it was back to the real world after our few days off, but we did do something exciting friday!
we went downtown for an ice cream Churn-a-ment and free ice cream samples. YES. great beginning to a great day. after our samples we went to a food cart pod and got some cuban food which was so tasty!! yum. it was good. we got our food and then headed back to Pioneer Courthouse Square where we ate our lunch and people watched for a while. once done eating we walked to the Tom McCall's Waterfront park and then we walked over the hawthorne bridge and then back over to the park. we then got on the train to head back home. the rest of the weekend we were lazy once again. we don't really have much planned for this week, yet. i'll get on it though. in the near future (by this weekend) i plan on making some pie from scratch after we buy some fruit from a local famers market. i'm excited! other things for this upcoming week include....unknown. haha.
alright, now it's time for me to get back into my dexter addiction.
-sarah-

it's been a while....

where to begin?? i'll start with the hartfields visit, bc the week before they came we seriously did nothing but be lazy. haha.
the hartfields arrived around midnight friday 1st and all of us pretty much went to sleep right after that (except for jarrod, who didn't get home from work til 3am. yikes!) saturday morning i got to into at 8:30am. oh boy! the hartfields (including jarrod) went to Rocky Butte, the Grotto and Saturday Market. From what i heard, they really enjoyed their time at those places. :) they bought us some tye-dye shirts/dress (for me) at the saturday market. lovely. :) finally, i was free from work and ready to join the hartfields in their adventures throughout portland. they met me at the house and then we headed to Washington Park. our first stop was the Japanese Gardens. (http://japanesegarden.com/) we got to spend about 20 minutes in there because the park was closing soon. haha. here's some lovely pics:

after the japanese garden, we went to the International Rose Test Garden, which was finally in bloom! :D

after the rose gardens we went to eat at the Laurelhurst Market (http://www.laurelhurstmarket.com/) for the absolute BEST STEAK i have ever eaten. my mouth is watering thinking about it. i'd almost give anything to have that steak again....man, DELICIOUS!!!! hahaha. it was so good. i cannot stress how GOOD that steak was. man. haha.
alright, moving on to sunday. on sunday we went driving around the columbia gorge scenic highway and we went walking around multiple falls. here's some pics:

after that, jarrod went to work and me and jarrod's parents came back to the house to chill for a bit. i went into work at 5, leaving the hartfields watching The Return of the King on tv (mwahahahhaah!!!). they stopped by the theater later to see the green lantern-the first people i actually personally know to come to my new theater. haha. that was sunday.
monday we went to Voodoo Doughnuts, Too! and stood in line for about 45 minutes. the donuts were worth it, i'd say. :) after the donuts, we went driving around downtown in search of the world's smallest park, and we found it! but it was in the middle of the road, so we didn't stop to stand in it or anything. Mills End is it's name: (http://www.portlandonline.com/parks/finder/index.cfm?PropertyID=265&action=ViewPark). i'm sure sometime soon we'll go back and take pics in the park, but we didn't have time then. once we drove by the park, we went to my home: Powell's City of Books and looked around for an hour or so and then headed back to the house, then the hartfields had to leave for their flight back to texas. :(
and that was our fun four day weekend with the hartfields :D.
i'll save our anniversary for tomorrow, bc i'm too into this episode of hoarders to go on....hahahah.
so there you go...an update. i hope you enjoyed.
-sarah-