BEACH!

It is over 100 degrees in Portland and Ashland. So I decided to make a stop at the beach on the way home. Neskowin has been a perfect 80 degrees and sunny! My BFF's Lauren and Lotus joined me gladly! We are loving it! I am so grateful to have such a beautiful place to visit.

Chinese Gardens!

Last Thursday I had a wonderful day with Darlene! We went downtown to the Chinese Gardens. I have wanted to go for years, and just never went. So during my trip to Portland I made sure I didn't miss out, and it was a perfect sunny day to visit. Then gardens were gorgeous and I loved the floral garden. Our only discrepancies were that there was cob webs everywhere and all the windows were dirty. Afterward Darlene took me to lunch at DIM SUM and it was delicious.

Fortune teller! You shake a can, pick a stick with a number, and choose the number box with your fortune!

Darlene next to one of the many beautiful wooden doors!

Birthday week festivities

#27 Saturday my grandparents had a very nice birthday party for me! It was great to celebrate with them this year! It was truly special, and 90 degrees in the shade! This year I was lucky to have my Mom, Will, Anna, and Alicia all there too. My Grandma made my favorite dessert, lemon meringue pie, from scratch! YUMMY! And I got a fabulous crock pot from them. I already made a pork roast with it. Delicious! It is a great way for me to cook since I don't enjoy the act of cooking, just the eating part suits me. Thank you Grandma and Grandpa.

Now I am off to Portland to see family and friends for the rest of my week. I am excited to see Darlene, Al, and visit with my Dad and Robin! Its a good thing since Matt just began his Physics Class and his Business class is crazy hard. Now he will be more focused to study. Only 4 more weeks of classes and then he gets 6 weeks off! YAY!

The Mountain Lakes

Fish Lake This last week, and this week too, was over 100 degrees everyday. We decided to take an afternoon and cool of at the mountain lakes. About 30 minutes from our house and 5,000+ feet above sea level are 4 beautiful Lakes. It was a perfect 78 degrees in the mountains! We had a great sandwich picnic. We did try to fish at Howard Prairie Lake, but again unsuccessful.

Lake of the Woods

Hyatt Lake

We hiked a trail where there were amazing views of the lake and a nice seat to rest in!

Matt is posing the "I'm cool" look here!

Harry Potter

Its true, Matt and I along with my sis and her friend went to the midnight showing of Harry Potter.

All three of us girls made sure to fit in with the crowd by drawing harry scars on our foreheads! Matt didn't want to fit in!

We patiently awaited while the theater had a costume contest. Then the movie began. In MOJO's critics corner the movie got a C rating. We felt lost in many parts of the movie and it seemed to lack on the plot. Anna explained that the book filled in the gaps we were confused on. Over all we still had fun!

~4th of July 2009~

The birthday party! This afternoon we visited my cousin's family, who is from out of town, and celebrated her son Aaron's fourth birthday at my Aunt's house. We also had the opportunity to finally meet their son Ryan. We had a nice evening with family!

Happy 4th. This weekend we stayed in Ashland and enjoyed one of the towns largest celebrations of the year. We started the day by watching the town parade. Matt admitted that he believed it was the first parade he has ever been to that he was an observer and not a participant.

Later in the afternoon my family came to visit and we enjoyed a casual walk through the towns festival booths and enjoyed some evening fireworks! It was sweet that our apartment complex put together bbq food, casual music, and activities that happened to be right outside of our front door. Overall it was a quite and peaceful holiday!

Bandon Weekend

Last weekend I took a trip out to Bandon to visit my old roommate Joel and our friend Kevin. Unfortunately Matt had school and work and stayed at home. He is such and hard worker, and I missed him so much that I had to text him constantly (he probably got sick of my texting, but I didn't care). We had a lovely time relaxing on our own private lake, Laurel Lake. With jet skis, catch phrase, and sun I was definitely amused.

We visited a safari petting zoo and I fell in love with the baby lions and leopard! They were only weeks old and still adjusting to walking. It was so cute! But the white Siberian tiger was my favorite! Beautiful animal!

I did take the first book of Twilight with me, and I ended up reading the first two books in two days! I can't believe it, but I love it. I read book four (I couldn't wait to see what happened in the end) and now I am reading book three. I know it was disrespect to the Cullens, but whatever. This is the first time I have ever read a whole book series, I can't believe it.