with Emily

We've had a busy week -- a visitor, a board meeting, a class, some organizing, some cleaning, a baby shower -- and I've got more happening in the next few days. AH! You can find bits and pieces of stuff (and a belly photo) here, and more pictures/stories here... but mostly, my thoughts are probably going to stay a little out of whack for the next little bit.

I wanted to post about our weekend, because my friend Emily came up for a visit and I had so much fun showing her around. I met Emily in 4th grade when we first moved to Whittier and we became "besties" pretty quickly, so she was pretty much my other half for the entirety of middle school/high school. I was trying to find a picture of us from way-back-when, but not many of them are digital at this point... So this is the best that I can do:

Emily, me, and Lydia (with depends)
(I think this is 11th grade? Yes, we're wearing nightgowns and prom dresses.
Just a little flash of insight into my youth.)

Anyway, Emily is a good friend and has always been an interesting source of inspiration to me (be it good or bad ;-) ), so it was nice to be able to spend some time just hanging out. Also, she is the first of my "home" friends to make it up to my neck of the woods (heh) and thus she shall be blessed beyond measure in all endeavors. Or maybe I'll just name my unborn after her.

You might recall that my boy was going away for the weekend, which I thought might slow us down a little (having Benjamin and all), but we were able to do quite a bit! On Saturday we headed out to the coast and visited the Tillamook cheese factory (mmmm) where we discovered the joy of free samples (and rootbeer float flavored ice cream), then we drove along the ocean for awhile and stopped at Cannon Beach to snack on some cheese and crackers. I don't have many pictures from Saturday because I wasn't feeling too inspired, but here are two that totally didn't work out:

Benjamin passed out
(or starting to wake up)

was supposed to be compared to the passed out couple parked in front of us:

...but they both woke up.
(I'm not really that creepy person taking pictures of other people in their car, I just zoomed in on a "casual, landscapey picture") It was really entertaining when they were head-back, mouth-open, passed out. You'll just have to take my word for it.

Sunday we headed downtown and had the best coffee ever, followed by the strangest donuts ever. (I tried the "dirty old bastard" -- cake donut with chocolate frosting, crushed oreo, and gooey peanut butter. I just about sent Rutabaga into sugar-shock.) We walked around by the waterfront for awhile, headed over to Powells for awhile, and ate lunch at a Deschutes brewpub (one of the only ones Corey and I haven't been to yet!) We had a pretty relaxing evening since I had to get the boy from the airport late that night, but we probably needed it! (No pictures from Sunday, sadly, since my lack of inspiration the day before meant that I didn't even take the camera with us.)

Monday we headed east and discovered Edgefield, which is pretty hard to describe. It has a few different pubs and restaurants, a distillery, a winery, some gardens, some random shops (like glass blowing and ceramics), a hotel, a movie theater, and a 9-hole golf course. We had lunch and spent a few hours walking around their grounds, stopping to enjoy the veggie garden and the wine tasting. Some random rambling pictures:

(they're growing hops on the water tower)

(Corey's trying to discreetly back out of being in the picture, but I'm quicker!)

Since we were already headed that direction, we continued east a little and made a quick stop along the Columbia River gorge. There's a really nice view point before you hit all of the waterfalls, so we thought it'd be best to just "take in" the landscape and leave the waterfall hiking for another time (like, when Benjamin wasn't passed out in the back seat).

"ooooh."

(obviously overwhelmed)

(it's windy up there, which is why we're both leaning to the left...or something!)

another sad attempt to capture people-watching joys.
we were awed by the various patterns that appeared on this woman's body (plaid, camo, bright toucans, polka-dot socks)... but the background is nice too :-)

I had class Monday night (and it looks like I might have underestimated it a little. Dang!), but after I got back we spent a few hours hanging out and trying to find a name for the unborn (among other things). Tuesday was a half-day and we spent a little time walking around a different area of downtown before leaving for the airport, but there's nothing picture-worthy about window shopping either! (Actually, that's a lie. I was wishing I had my camera when we wandered into Blue Moon... but their website doesn't do them justice. They had animal-shaped truffles. Animals!)

Overall we had a pretty busy visit, but I was so grateful to be able to hang out with my friend. Thanks again for coming, Em! (Again, for privacy reasons, there are more pictures and a link to an album on Benjamin's blog.)

Since Tuesday I've been trying to get on top of my schoolwork (like today, when I'm so OBVIOUSLY doing my reading instead of blogging) and keep the nesting train going. This weekend I'm planning on having a sew-day with Annie, painting a picture (that's not a joke!), cooking some freeze-able meals, and directing Corey where to hang shelves. I should probably do some more homework too... but it's so hard to focus when my brain is about 2 feet south of where it's supposed to be! I'll try to update again when there's progress :-)