Salt Lake City Trip

My dear friend Stacey and Josh got married this weekend in Salt Lake City. Jason, Ella and I flew to Utah for the wedding and all the festivities. I was a bridesmaid in the wedding, it was so special to be a part of their big day! We had a wonderful trip and Ella was a real trooper...most of the time!

Bachellorette Party

Getting Ready

Let's just begin with our adventure at the Portland airport....well we got to PDX with what seemed to be plenty of time. We got in the long line at the Delta counter and waited about 20 minutes before someone said "oh you are in the wrong line, you need a boarding pass from that line over there before you can check your bags..." ok fine, so we got into the other line after wasting 20 minutes in line #1, waited another 20 minutes in line #2, got boarding passes, waited another 15 minutes in line #1 again, I booked it to security to get a spot in line there while Jason finished getting us checked in, of course the line was a mile long there too. We waited and waited, knowing that getting through the acrobatics of security with a 3 month old was not going to be fun, started to stress a bit. (On a side note....the lame folks that make you take a SLEEPING infant out of their warm cozy car seat so they can pass through the metal detector must be out of their minds! Maybe they should be forced to fly next to an infant who has been rattled awake from their slumber by such madness!) Anyway, so by the time we waited eternity in the security line we had 10 minutes until our flight left - I thought for sure we were going to miss it. Jason grabbed all of our stuff, diaper bag, car seat base, baby carrier, breast pump that wouldn't fit in the checked bag, carry on with books for us (that was a joke!), and piled it all onto the stroller and straight up sprinted to our gate. Ella and I followed behind at a jog decent enough to make it to the gate on time but slow enough as to not give her shaken baby syndrome! :) We boarded the plane very last and sat down with 4 minutes to spare! We've never cut it that close and my gosh I hope we never do again! Thank goodness Ella slept through the whole flight! After we got off the plane she had a lovely diaper blowout all over me so I got to be poopy through the airport and rental car line....thank goodness I had a suitcase of clothes for backup. We made it safe and sound although had a bit of a rocky start to the trip!

Thankfully the rest of the trip went much smoother. The wedding was beautiful. It was in a meadow nestled in the mountains, overlooking a flower-lined pond! Stacey was a radiant bride and you could see the love and happiness Josh had just bubbling over...so sweet! It was a fun reception with great food and dancing, although Ella had had enough by the time the day was done so she didn't let us dance together too much. Awesome wedding, beautiful bride and groom, need I say more?

Rehearsal

We see a trip to France in her future!

Mr. & Mrs. Turner

We got to see a bit of Salt Lake City between wedding to do's, it's a very pretty city. We took a tram ride to ~11,000ft up snowbird. We saw the state capital, saw the temple downtown, drove through the university, and went to the 2002 olympic village.

At the top after a gondola ride

The Olympic Park

Pretty chilly at 7,500 ft. so we bundled Ella up

Future Olympian

All Dressed Up

We had a fun bbq at the Manson's this weekend. Ella got to hang out with her family and great grandpa. She got all dressed up in a cute summer dress.

A Day in Portland

Last weekend we went to "Sand in the City". They brought a ton (well probably lots more) sand to Pioneer Courthouse Square and artists carved giant sandcastles. They were really cool! Ella was enthralled with all the sites and sounds that downtown Portland had to offer.




After the sandcastles we went in search of Voodoo Donut. We'd heard about this iconic Portland donut shop but had never been there and didn't know it's exact location. Conveniently enough we pulled up alongside a Portland Police car at a red light, rolled down the window and asked "do you know where Voodoo Donut is?" He knew the answer right off...of course the cop knew where the donut store was!:) We realized the irony in asking the policeman directions to a donut shop after the fact and busted up and were dying laughing! Jason went in while sleepy Ella and I waited in the car. He said it was a pretty funky place and that no child should go there due to the inappropriately named donuts! We got quite the collection of crazy donuts, fruitloop covered, m&m covered, cookies & cream and of course the voodoo donut himself.

No problems there!

Wake Up Smiles

It has been so hot we've been swaddling Ella at night with just a diaper on. These were the happy smiles she greeted us with when she woke up one morning this weekend.

Ella Found Her Voice

In the last couple of days Ella has found her voice and has been cooing up a storm. It's tough to catch on video because we sit there and talk to her and coo back! By the time we finally think "oh, go grab the camera" she's over it and ready to move on to something else. It's been so fun to see her grow and change, every day there's something new and fun that she does.

Fourth of July

We went to the Hillsboro Fourth of July Parade. It was a fun good old hometown parade. Ella slept through the whole thing. Josh and Amy saved us an awesome spot in the shade, which was a rare find. Afterward we went to a BBQ at the Manson's. Ella wore her watermelon dress today and was ready for the seed spitting contest, but nobody wanted to take her on! :) We watched fireworks from the balcony of our apartment, we overlook a big hill of nice houses and they set off lots of big fireworks....free entertainment from the comfort of our own patio, couldn't ask for much more!

Beach Trip

We took Ella to Seaside today. It was about 80 degrees there, SO pretty. There were lots and lots of people on the beach and in town for the holiday weekend. We hung out on the beach in the sand for quite a while. Ella slept for most of the time and played a bit while she was awake. Even with an umbrella shading us, it was so bright out that she didn't want to open her eyes all the way, it was pretty funny. Her stroller doubled as baby carrier and pack-mule....we loaded it up with blankets, mini-cooler, camera, diaper bag, baby wrap, water bottles, umbrella, all the things one might need on the beach. I'm sure we looked like the hobo wagon rollin down the sidewalk but at least we were prepared...Bob to the rescue again!