Summertime Fun

The weather in Portland has been absolutely perfect this year. We have not hit 100 degrees, and have only had a few days in the high 90's. Rest of the time it's been a perfect mid 80's! This has allowed us many opportunities to get out and about on the weekends to enjoy our great outdoors.

One of my favorite places to go in the summer while growing up was a place called Fall Creek. Fall Creek is a large creek that runs into Fall Creek Resevoir. When going to Fall Creek, you have the option of spending the day at the lake, or heading up the creak to one of many swimming/wading holes. A few weeks ago, we headed down to Eugene, and with our parents, we headed out to Fall Creek (the CREEK part) for the day. It was so special to share something that I grew up doing, with Sabah. To watch her experience playing in the creek and catching crawdads just like I did, was so fun. OK, SHE didn't actually catch the crawdads, but my nephews did. We actually cooked them on the campfire and Sabah got to taste them for the first time. No surprise....she liked them. My dad started a campfire, and cut wienni roasting sticks for all us kids and grandkids. After a couple of hours of swimming, we all sat around the fire, roasting our hotdogs, and enjoying a wonderful picnic that my parents put together for us. It once again, was just one of those perfect days that you don't want to end.

Excited that she stole the dog's ball....







Last Weekend, Sabah got to experience her first county fair. We decided to try out the Washington County Fair in Hillsboro. It's free to get in, and is a much smaller fair compared to other County Fairs around here, but it was PERFECT for her and for Elizabeth. It was not crowded at all, and so we got to stroll around at leisure and enjoy the exhibits and animals. We had a very greasy lunch of corndogs and curly fries, and of course had to let both Sabah and Elizabeth have their first Elephant Ear. And the highlight of the fair? Sabah's first Pony ride! She loved it, and all night long she couldn't stop talking about the horsey she rode. Elizabeth got to ride as well, and at first she loved it....she was giggling and laughing, and then all of a sudden, she decided she did NOT like it and just started crying and crying. What is hilarious though, is that as we walked the circle, every time we came past the parent section, you could hear all the other moms sigh "ohhhhhhhh" as Elizabeth rode by in tears. After about three laps, she did get off and was much happier to just watch Sabah from the sidelines.

Her first pony ride....


Despite her frown, she actually enjoyed it


Elizabeth's 1st Elephant Ear....



Sabah having her 1st Elephant Ear.....the sugar is already getting to her...silly girl













We live super duper close to Kelly Point park (10 minutes), but had yet to spend any time there exploring the area. Well, on Sunday, Sabah and I headed out by ourselves, early in the morning and enjoyed the river. There were only two other people on the beach. It was so calm and peaceful. We will definitely be back.




Losing her britches.....

Two Year Photos

On Saturday, I took Sabah down to get her hair professionally braided for the first time. I was so excited to get her hair cornrowed so that I didn't have to mess with it for a couple of weeks. It can be very time consuming in the morning to comb through her hair. She has beautiful curly hair, but it definitely takes a lot of work.

So we get to the salon, and the stylist parts her hair all out and does the first row. She then stops and tells me that Sabah has such soft curls, that she can't guarantee that the cornrows are going to last even a day. We discussed her hair type for quite a while and turns out that although Sabah can of course get cornrows, they will never last more than a few days. No two weeks plus for us! So then the question was, does she want me to go ahead and spend the time and money for only a few days worth of wear. We decided to do it because Sabah had pictures the next day and I REALLY wanted her hair braided for them. We did decide to only cornrow the front half of her hair, leaving the back in little puffs (that we actually ended up braiding with a regular braid). The stylist said this would last a little longer and I would only have to re-braid the puffs in the back.

Anyway, the braids turned out super dupery cute and Sabah was SO good during the braiding session. The stylist turned on cartoons for her and Sabah was in heaven (she doesn't get to watch cartoons very often). A couple of times she got a pouty lip because it hurt a little, but absolutely no tears (which is amazing for my over emotional child).

After she was done, the stylist gave a mirror to Sabah and the smile on Sabah's face when she saw her hair was PRICELESS. She couldn't stop looking at herself, and her smile was bigger than usual. We then showed her how to shake her head to make the braids move. Oh, my....my child was in seventh heaven. I was so proud of how well she did.

The next day, we headed down to get her two year pictures done. Back in November, when we had our Christmas pictures done, Sabah cried....THE ENTIRE SESSION. So, I was VERY hesitant to take her in for her two year pictures. Like I've mentioned before, she is over emotional and cries at the blink of an eye (although, to give her credit, in the last 4 weeks or so, she has been soooooooooo much better about this. I think as her vocabulary grows, her crying decreases). Anyway, we went in, and thanks to a wonderful staff at the photo place, we made it through the session with only one bout of crying. We had A LOT of lip pouting, but only tears the one time. We also got some stubborness, where she would NOT smile at ALL. But, it was a very successful photo shoot....I can tell, because I couldn't decide which shots to choose from. Below are the scanned photos that I chose. They didn't scan very well (I'm so technilogically challenged), but oh well.

Our Weekend

Two things first....

1) This is my third post today, so there are two new posts below this

2) Last reminder that I'm going private....if you haven't already e-mailed me your e-mail address and you want to read my blog, once private, then let me know, and I will add you.

OK, so the theme of these last three post seems to evolve around perfectness. I had a perfect day at the coast a few weeks ago and a perfect three day weekend over the 4th. Now I will share our perfect weekend.

Saturday Sabah and I got up early, and decided to hit some garage sales. I didn't have anything in mind that I needed to get for Sabah, but I did have a few things that I was actually looking for for myself. After a quick trip to target, we spent a very nice morning going from garage sale to garage sale, and then headed to a neighborhood nearby for the Mississippi Street Fair. At the conclusion of our morning, Sabah ended up with the following items:


And me? What did I come home with? Well.....



I only got the video because it was the last garage sale and I hadn't purchased anything for myself and was feeling left out. The shampoo I got at target and only added it to the picture so that I looked less pathetic. I'm afraid it had the opposite effect though. Ha!

Anyway, Sabah got her first tricycle, and she LOVES it. She also got a new (to us) step stool for the downstairs bathroom, two new videos (and on a side note, she had NEVER watched Dora at my house, and her daycare claims to not watch much tv, yet this child LOVES Dora the Explorer....how does that happen?), a new dress from the street fair (always trying to support our local vendors), a new babydoll from one of the MANY african themed booths at the street fair, a brand new pair of shorts, some new pencils, and a new book. Not a bad haul for not needing anything. She was quite spoiled Saturday.

Her new dress is just so darn colorful, I couldn't pass it up (and like I said, I do try to support the local vendors)



And an up close picture of her new dolly. It too was just so darn cute, I couldn't pass it up. We named her Salayha (Suh Lay Ha), but call her Sally:



After a nap at home, we went down to Kruger farm to get some fresh berries as our contribution to a dinner at a friends house in BattleGround. We then headed north for some food, fun and friends.

Sabah was at the same orphanage, at the same time as Ruby and Roman, and in fact, I was able to take pictures of the two when I went to pick Sabah up. Ruby and Roman came home a few months later. Ruby is two months older than Sabah and Roman is two months younger. It was so so so so much fun to see them together. Sabah and Roman actually hit it off the best, and the two of them had so much fun playing in the little pool. Their laughter and giggling had us all cracking up. Sabah also got to play on a trampoline for the first time.





We had a wonderful dinner of BBQ chicken and veggies, and fresh berries for dessert. And as a parting gift, we got a new kitty!!!!! She is a calico and just the sweetest, fiestiest thing ever. Our other cat Otis HATES her right now, but I'm sure he'll get over it. He's been in a bad mood ever since we came home.




Sunday was equally as great. My sister came over WITHOUT her three kids, and though I love love love my niece and nephews, it was really nice to have her all to myself (well, I shared her with Sabah). We just ran some errands, and then hit a couple of garage sales, before stopping at a local park for a few minutes of fun:






After that, we then stopped at our favorite Ethiopian restaurant for lunch. I've said this before, but Sabah LOVES Ethiopian food. She now insists on breaking off the injera herself and scooping up the food. It's so cute, because she doesn't actually scoop the food, she just tears of the TINIEST piece of bread and dips it in the food (like the food is a sauce), and then eating it thinking she actually has food (other than injera) on it. It takes us FOREVER to eat, but she has so much fun. I do feed her so that she gets the other food and isn't just eating injera.





Again, home for naptime. While Sabah slept, I prepared a picinic dinner of fresh (off the cob) corn, grape tomatoes, grilled chicken, Orzo pasta, mixed with ricotta cheese, sour cream, lemon juice and lemon zest. We recently switched to a healthier, Organic when we can, diet, and so I'm always trying new recipes, and this was one of them. I think 80% of the items were organic, so I was pretty proud of myself. The recipe sounded YUMMY, but in reality, it was just ok. Probably won't make it again.

But anyway, after her nap and snack, we headed over to McCoy park with our dinner (including more berries and watermelon) for the 1st concert in the park series. We got our litte spot on the grass, had our dinner and enjoyed the music:

If there was such a thing as a perfect day, this would be it.....

Once again, we got the opportunity to spend the day at the Oregon Coast. For those of you NOT in the Pacific Northwest, let me tell you how a trip to the Oregon Coast typically goes:

First, you decide, usually last minute, that you want to go. So, you get up early, throw together a lunch, throw in some chairs/blankets/change of clothes, etc, throw in the dog if you have one, and set off towards the West. If you are like me, you have several places you can choose from...from Newport on up to Astoria, but you probably have a favorite, and 9 out of 10 times you head there. For me, it's Gherhart....cause it's one of the few places you can actually drive your car onto the beach, and just camp out for the day next to your car away from everyone.

Anyway, you start driving, and you wonder....what will the weather be like. 9 out of 10 times, it will be overcast and windy....but it doesn't matter, you still trudge on out there and enjoy it no matter what you end up with. The coast NEVER (well, rarely ever) matches the weather in Portland. It could be 90 here, and 50 there, or 60 there, or 70 there, or 80 there...you just never know.

So, a few weeks ago, it was about 75 in Portland, so we were pretty sure we would get very overcast and cold, windy weather, but we were overjoyed to find bright blue skies and very little wind. I'm telling you, it was the absolute most perfect day you could ever imagine. Then, to have my baby, and my sister's babies, all playing in the sand together, laughing and having fun...well, it just couldn't get any better. The seagulls were flying overhead (and I didn't get pooped on), the waves were crashing on the shore, I was laying on a blanket, listening to the calmness of the day, and just basking in the perfectness. It was one of those days that you just don't want to end. Here are our pics from the perfect day: