Portlanders

As most of you know, Jeremy and I were both born and raised in Arizona and are basically Arizonans to the core. Given that, we are trying our best to acclimate and adjust to our new home. Oregon, and particularly Portland, is very culture rich with lots to do, see, and explore. Thus far in our almost month of living here we have experienced some of what Portland has to offer and what we have experienced makes us even more excited to find out what being an Oregonian or Portlander is all about.

One of the major rights of passage in becoming a Portlander, and one of our first to experience, is eating at a food cart in downtown. On the way to the food cart we had the full downtown experience with busy streets, difficult parking, interesting people, and one-way streets. We did, however, eventually find both parking and a cart we wanted to eat at.

Our cart of choice was The Sausage Shack. They lured us in with all their signs for their award-winning bacon and it definitely did not disappoint.
Here are Jeremy and Merrick in front of our luxurious dinner accommodations


The food was really fun, interesting, and bad for you. Jeremy had a boring burger with bacon and an egg, I had a philly cheesesteak dog with German smoked sausage, and Merrick had a bacon wrapped corn dog.


This was our view while we ate.



It was a fun experience, although we decided that dealing with downtown in general would be more enjoyable without a two-year-old in tow. We are already planning our next food cart experience. I guess becoming Portlanders might come more naturally than we had thought.

Adventures in Food Part II

Ok so I know that I have done at least one post in the past about how much Merrick loves to eat, but I think it is time for an update. The day before we left for Oregon my sister weighed Merrick and her son Kai (who is 11 months older than Merrick). Merrick weighed 28 lbs and Kai weighed 31. Since coming to Oregon, Merrick thinks it is so fun to hop onto Nana's scale and weigh himself everyday. He has been hovering somewhere between 28 and 30 lbs, but that seems especially crazy when I think about the fact that both of my 4-year-old nephews weigh in the mid 30s.

Don't get me wrong, Merrick is not chunky at all. He is just really tall, solid, and loves to eat. For the most part he is also a really healthy eater. I think he is the only almost 2-year-old in the world who has been talked into eating his meat at dinner with the offer that if he ate his meat he could have some more broccoli.

On the other hand, he also has never been known to turn down a sweet. Over the past two weeks we have had a couple of chances to splurge on some yummy treats. Merrick has been so cute with them we could not resist taking some pictures.

These are from last weekend and our visit to "Heavenly Doughnuts"





And these are from our trip to McDonald's for ice cream after a particularly hard day last week




I have had lots of experiences with a picky eater since we got to Oregon so whether it is broccoli or ice cream I am just really grateful that he eats.

6 and Counting

Yesterday Jeremy and I celebrated our 6th anniversary. We started the day with a shopping trip at the local outlet mall. As we drove we talked about how quickly the last six years have flown by and it truly does feel like it has passed in the blink of an eye.

In the evening my mom and dad (when he was not at the hospital with a friend) were kind enough to stay with Merrick so that Jeremy and I could go out on a date. We went to downtown Lake Oswego for dinner. We stopped at several fancy restaurants before ending up at The Tillamook Creamery. I had halibut and chips and Jeremy had a bacon cheeseburger and we shared some ice cream. We laughed about how even on our anniversary that kind of place was more our speed than a fancy restaurant.

After dinner we did venture out of our typical routine and went to a play at The Lakewood Theater in Lake Oswego. We saw "Boeing Boeing" and it was hilarious.

The first six years of our marriage have been relatively calm. We had our struggles in getting pregnant with Merrick, but for the most part life has been smooth sailing. The next few years however are going to be an adventure. We have done the school thing as a couple before, but never like this. We have all our eggs in this basket and life is going to be different than it has ever been. I take comfort, however, in the fact that I get to tackle this adventure with my best friend. In all honesty I can't wait to see what the future holds for Jeremy and I as a couple and for our whole family.

The Move

I know that there are only one or two of you who care, but I apologize that it has been so long since I have updated the blog. We have been completely wrapped up in our big move to Oregon, so here is a recap of the move:

Day 1: After spending the day before loading the moving truck, cleaning the house, saying goodbye to friends and family and crying, day 1 of our move began at 6:30am. Our goal was to be on the road by 7, but we neglected to take into account that we still had to say goodbye to Jeremy's parent and brother, my sister and my grandparents before we left. After lots of tears, and with tears still in our eyes, we hit the road at about 7:30. Jeremy was driving the moving truck and towing the Honda. I was driving the Lexus with Merrick and Lola.

We made it to Blythe without incident and actually made good time. At our first stop Merrick really wanted to try driving the truck.


After stop number one, the day was down hill from there. Once we entered California the speed limit dropped to 55mph since we were pulling a trailer. Not only that, but we experienced our first mountain pass and discovered that they are not designed for a large moving truck towing a car.

We did see some beautiful sights along the way.

Unfortunately I had LOTS of time to take this picture as we were stopped for an hour in construction traffic. Once we got going again we were stuck behind this

In case you can't tell, that is a semi full of onions. Not only did the air smell of onions, but it also proceeded to shoot onion peels at us as we drove down the road.

After 15 hours on the road we finally made it to my Aunt Launa's house. She was so sweet to let us stay there and while we were not there long enough to enjoy it, this was our view


Day 2: Day 2 was definitely an improvement on day 1. Again we tried to leave by 7, but after getting blocked by a semi at a gas station, we did not really get on the road until almost 8. The highlight of day 2 was our stop for lunch in Mt Shasta. It was really beautiful

Even more important than being beautiful, at this stop we got to see Jeremy's brother Bryce (now you would think I would have a picture of us together, but alas I am not that smart). Bryce is serving a mission for our church in Mt. Shasta. He left when Merrick was about six months old, but we have made sure to show Merrick pictures so he would know his uncle. It was so sweet because when we got there Bryce stooped down and Merrick walked right up and gave him a big hug.

Eventually we said goodbye to Bryce and got back on the road. Most of the rest of the trip was uneventful. We were just really trying to make our final destination as quickly as we could, but just past Eugene this did happened in the Lexus


We finally pulled into my parents' house at about 8pm and had this waiting for us courtesy of my sweet niece Lauren


Over the last few days we have really gotten settled. All the boxes are either unpacked or in storage. Jeremy starts school on Monday and I start watching my two 4-year old nephews full time and another little girl Merrick's age two days a week. Let this new adventure begin!

Thank You

In case you were wondering, this is Merrick giving you a big "thank you" kiss. Life has been so crazy lately and I have been focusing so much on the move that I feel I have neglected to properly thank many, many people...so here is a little shout out to just a few of you.

Thank you to Shaunell, Aubrey, Keith and Nancy for getting us lot of packing boxes.

Thank you to Grandpa and Lollie for watching Merrick, helping to move furniture, and much more.

Thank you to Emily for helping us sell some of our furniture.

Thank you to Nancy for helping me pack boxes.

Thank you to Grandpa and Grandma Great for bringing me packing material and applesauce when I was down and out.

Thank you to Shaunell, Tristan, Morgan, Daphne, and Violet for spending time with my little man so I could pack.

Thank you to Papa and Nana (in advance) for letting us invade your house and for all the time you have spent getting it ready for us.

Thank you (also in advance) to everyone who is coming on Saturday to help us load the truck.

Thank you to all our family and friends for the love and support. We are in the home stretch of this moving and could not have done it without all of you!

If You Are Looking For Us

It is Thursday so if you are looking for Merrick and I you will mostly likely find us at the Superstition Mall at the Westcor Kids Club with Dewper the prairie dog.


We discovered Dewper a few months ago and have been every week ever since. It is funny because Merrick did not like Dewper at first, but we talked about it and decided that he was actually our friend. After that Merrick was sold and he now decides whether or not he like things based on if they are our friend, like Dewper. For awhile he was afraid of the big outside trash cans, but one day he came to me and said "the trash is our friend, like Dewper". While I'm not sure I want him making friends with the trash can, I do like that we now measure our friends on a Dewper scale.

After Dewper, you will find us at the play area.


He went through a stage where he was constantly running out of the play area, but now he is a great little player.

Our next step is always the pet store. Merrick love to see the kitties, doggies, hamsters, and "carrots" (ferrets).

The last stop of the day is the carousel. Merrick likes to pick what he is going to ride on and then report it later to Daddy. Over the weeks he has ridden on horses, zebras, a rabbit, an eagle, a gorilla, and a dinosaur...no report on his favorite though.



After all this, Merrick is ready for a quick lunch and a nap. It is great way to spend a Thursday morning and we are going to miss our good friend Dewper.

Home of the Brave- July 4th, 2011

This year, with all the changes coming up, we decided to stay home for the 4th of July. This meant that all activities had to be centered around staying cool. In the morning we decided the perfect way to get our energy out and stay cool at the same time was to go to a bounce house. I thought that the place would be packed with families that had the same idea, but thankfully I was wrong. There were very few people there and at one point it was only us and one other family.

Merrick had a blast playing in all the different areas.






The funny thing is Jeremy and I probably had just as much fun as Merrick. Since there were not many other kids around, we were able to play too and if you know Jeremy at all you know that he never forgot how to play. I loved watching him don the velcro suit and make a run for the velcro wall.



The biggest surprise of the day involved this


This was one of two big slides (the tallest of which was 22 ft. tall). After going on this slide a few times with us, Merrick decided that he was big enough to climb up and slide down all by himself. I really wish someone would tell him that he is not even two yet!



It was such a fun morning, we all had to come take a nap. After we all recharged we headed to Jeremy's aunt Kristin's house for pizza and swimming. You will all be relieved to know I forgot to take pictures so luckily for you there are no lovely swimming suit pictures. I guess you will just have to use your imagination.

It was a great 4th of July. We all had a blast and all managed to stay cool!