Oregon Brewer's Fest

We returned from our trip to Omaha Wednesday evening, just in time to wake up early Thursday morning for the next trip to the Oregon Brewer's Fest in Portland, Oregon.

The flight was good for us, bad for the couple with 3 boys next to us. Their littlest one had an earache and cried most of the trip. Luckily, it didn't bother us too much, just grateful it wasn't my kid -- is that bad?

We took the train to downtown Portland from the airport which the kids really liked. But we couldn't check into the hotel yet so we grabbed some lunch and headed to the brew fest. At the brew fest I noticed that Bob didn't have his laptop backpack, which I also talked him out of checking in with the doorman at the hotel with the rest of our luggage. For some reason I didn't think it would be safe. Instead he forgot it at Quizno's. Should've let him check it in with the doorman. Luckily, it was still at Quizno's when Bob went back.

At the brew fest, the kids played in the sand/dirt for a while. They said they were making sand castles. Next the root beer tent where there was crafts like coloring frisbees. Then we threw the frisbees where Colin really got into it.



Dinner was at Rock Bottom, a chain brew pub. It's pretty good in the west, not so good in the east.

Friday, I ran a course that was suppose to be 10 miles. It took me 2 hours, so I'm thinking maybe a little more than 10 miles, more like 12 miles. I did get lost once but not too bad. I could see where I wanted to go, just didn't know the best way to get there.

At the brew fest, there were a couple of rough spots with the kids. They were getting bored. Bob and I would take turns hanging with the kids in this shady, grassy area by the porta-potties. At one point, a guy started talking to us -- wanted to take a picture of my Ale Smith t-shirt and started playing with the kids. Really lightened the mood a bit for us. Friday, we also saw friends of ours from Roswell Farms, Mike and Alanna. We haven't seen them in years and they live in Seattle now. And get this, the first time we went to the Oregon Brewers Fest was with them! How ironic is that!

Saturday we went to the Saturday market which is a really neat arts and crafts market, and bought some Christmas presents. I really wasn't interested in taking the kids back to the brew fest ... it was going to be so much more crowded on Saturday and they were getting bored with it. So I begrudgingly offered to take the kids to the museum across the river while he went back to the brew fest.

The route we took to the museum must have been over 2 miles, but I really wanted to walk over the "Steel Bridge" which is an amazing structure. Nothing like it really, with two decks that can move indepedently.


We finally make it to the museum, and in the free part of the museum is a steel ball run (like a marble run) called the "Gravitram". The kids were absolutely entralled with it. After watching for a while, I drugged them away to get tickets to go to the rest of the museum. Well, I forgot my wallet, so no money, so no tickets, and back to the "Gravitram". Good thing it was there! Good thing my kids are good sports too.


That night Bob and I went out to dinner with Colin (not our Colin but a beer friend from Atlanta) and Colin's girlfriend, Abby at Deschutes Brewery. Good times.

David's Wedding

My brother got married! Woo Hoo! Big excitement and celebration. Colin and Nathan were the ring bearers and Bob was a groomsman. I had the important job of mother of the ring bearers.

We flew in Friday, getting up at 5am. Bob had the special treat of flying to California the day before and returning on the red eye Thursday night. He flew in Friday morning, got a couple hours of sleep before going back to the airport again. We flew to Kansas City (fares to Omaha are outrageous!) and then drove to Omaha. First we visited with Grandma Mary, Grandpa Jerry and Great Grandma JJ before heading to Nikki's where we were staying. Bob and I had just enough time to get a teeny tiny nap in before going to the rehearsal. David was so cute, dancing down the aisle during the rehearsal. The rehearsal dinner was at Godfather's Pizza where everyone had a good time. We got back to Nikki's after dark and the fireflies were out, so we caught some fireflies before getting to bed.

Saturday was just as hectic. I woke up early to go a 16 mile run. Training for the Chicago Marathon doesn't stop for anything, you know. More visits to Grandma Mary's and Grandpa Jerry's where the kids stayed the night too. Bob and I had plans to go to Misty and Heath's where most of my cousins were getting together. That was the first time in a long time that so many of us were able to get together and chat.

Sunday was the big day for David and Bernadette. I was the lead person in getting the reception hall ready but my cousin Misty had been to many receptions at the Reed Center and was a big help in telling everyone what to do. My cousin, Scott's wife, Melissa was also a major helper in getting everything done. Uncle Tom and Connie were also there and blew up the balloons. Although every time I looked over at them, they were doing something crazy like using the balloons for augmenting body parts (that was Connie not Tom!)

The wedding was beautiful, and Colin and Nathan were the perfect little ring bearers. Colin took the responsibility very seriously and stood up there very solemn the whole ceremony. Nathan was a typical 3-year-old and got a little antsy but it was all so cute. Just a little wiggling around, but still he was very good.

David and Bernadette got married in the same church that Bob and I did. During our wedding we forgot to light the candles so we had no flame for the unity candle. David kept in the tradition by forgetting the paperwork for the judge to sign after the ceremony! Fortunately, the paperwork was found after the wedding and the judge agreed to go to the reception and do the paperwork there.

The reception was also at the same place as when Bob and I got married, the Reed Center which is also the same place that I went to Summer Day Camp when I was a little girl. After it got dark, Colin and Nathan played in the backyard where I played as a little girl. Colin and Nathan caught more fireflies that night.

While staying at my sister’s house, I noticed that she had the same eye shadow that I had. I mean out of all the million’s of different eye shadow colors out there, we have the same one. It actually was a 3-pack and it was the same color in the 3-pack that we both used. Reminded of the time I returned home from college with my long hair cut off. Only to discover that Nikki had cut her long hair too. We had no idea the other one was thinking about doing it. I guess there is just something about sisters.

Diving board

Last Thursday after swimming lessons, one of the teachers, Tyler asked Nathan if he wanted to go off of the diving board. Nathan is fearless but wouldn't do it at first but then Colin said that he wanted to do it and viola! both boys were jumping off the diving board. Colin can almost swim to the edge by himself but Nathan still needs lots of help getting to the edge of the pool.

Nathan jumping to Anna.


Nathan going in!


Colin and Tyler.


Colin's big splash.


Colin swimming to the edge.

Colin Swimming

A couple videos of Colin swimming. I am still in awe of him swimming and can't believe how far his has come since the beginning of the summer.

Here Colin is talking about the first time he swam!


In this video, Colin demonstrates how he can swim all the way to the bottom of the pool.


And this one shows Colin doing all his swimming moves like jumping in, and his freestyle strokes. I really like his trademark move at the beginning where he adjusts his googles by hitting them with the heels of his hands, classic!

Playdate at Carlton's

It started out as a regular playdate, I brought Nathan over to Carlton's when Colin was over at Edward's house at another playdate (I accidently double booked playdates). Nathan played with play-do with Carlton while I went and picked up Colin from Edward's house. When I returned with Colin, we decided to play outside for a while. Eventually the water was turned on and that's when the fun really started as you can see in the pictures.

As soon as the water was turned off, the rain started. It was like a switch was flipped. So Colin, Nathan and Carlton started doing a naked rain dance.

Fourth of July

Fourth of July in Atlanta means the Peachtree 10K Road Race which is one of the largest 10Ks in the US. 55,000 runners signed up on the internet in less than 24 hours. I heard about race numbers selling for $200. Anyway, Bob and I ran it this year. My time was 54:50 and I was very pleased with that. I typically pour the water from the water stops in my face to cool my body temperature down. I kept on getting water up my nose whenever I'd did that. Yuck.

At 4:00pm, Inman Park had a picnic at Springvale Park. It was the first neighborhood function that Bob and I took the kids and didn't have to constantly help, entertain, or just play with them. It was great! Colin and Nathan ran around with a couple of other boys and had a really good time.

Colin and Nathan fishing with their new friend, David at Springvale Park during the picnic.

The originally plan was to go home and take a little rest (aka nap) before going to the Grinnel where we were going to watch the fireworks from on top of the building. Well, we stayed really late at the picnic and just had enough time to go home, clean up and reload the keg with more beer and head back out.

On the way to the Grinnel, we past another gathering where a classmate of Nathan's was so we stopped there to chat for a bit, get some ice cream sandwiches and glow tubes for the kids. Then off to the roof top where the view of the fireworks was really something. Against my wishes, the kids even did some sparklers (I'm such a mom sometimes).

Looking on the bright side ...

Colin and Nathan are going to be the ring bearers in my brother's wedding in July. So we went to the tux shop to get their measurements. This was not something that Colin was very interested in doing. He was complaining about being cold and wanted to go home. After a while I was getting very tired of the whining and asked Colin to think of something to be grateful for. My example was that the tux place was located outside of the mall and I thought we could get to the car without going back inside where it was cold.

Colin thought for a minute and said that the longer it takes, the warmer the car will be. And then the rest of the trip went much more smoothly!