Me talking

So...I haven't made a real "vlog" with my face in it, but the other day I took a short video of some wall decor to show a friend and thought I would share it here too. You can hear me yapping while I talk about what's on the wall. I sounded a little congested still and breathy, but I am putting it up anyway! :p I find talking to a camera awkward still.
My most recent item to hang on the wall is a large frame with four colorful postcards I got while we were in Oregon. I thought they matched my living room very well and I like how it looks!

Germs, go away

Well.

We came home from Portland about 20 days ago. And I caught a little cold before leaving there, and it also felt like I had a sinus thing. Kavi's nose ran a lot at that time too. Then we started feeling better.

Now, he already has something else!! He started coughing a couple of days ago and it's still hanging around. The poor little boy. He does seem to be getting better though. I think he might have caught it last week at vacation bible school, that's my theory.

The upside to being around a lot of kids-fun! learning! new friends!

The downside-icky germs on children that spread to other children!

Random things:
My house is part clean and part mess. Will it ever be completely clean? It's my own fault. Some days I care, some days I don't.

And...how many little metal toy cars will I have accidentally stepped on by the time Kavi doesn't like them anymore? No injuries to report, thankfully. Just an almost injury.

Exciting news (and praying for good health for Kavi soon and for me! Please, I can't get sick again! And not before this trip):

Me and Kavi are supposed to leave to visit my family on Tuesday, with me being the only driver, just me and Kavi, for the road trip. That will be a first. I am a little scared, especially since the car's cruise control broke(am I insane to do this or what?!) and it's at least a 9 hour ordeal, usually 10. But I am going to be brave and me and Kavi will have an adventure in the car.

While we are there, I will finally see part of The World's Longest Yard Sale!! It starts in the city my parents live in now. It begins on Aug 4th and runs through the weekend.

And-we get to meet a fellow blogger!! Angela! And her husband(I believe). That is going to be fun!! She is like an expert buyer of cool old things now too! Maybe she can give me and my mom some tips. ;)

Fun Fashion Inspiration

Source: kendieveryday.blogspot.com via Christina on Pinterest

Source: flickr.com via Christina on Pinterest

Source: flickr.com via Christina on Pinterest

Source: flickr.com via Christina on Pinterest

Source: flickr.com via Christina on Pinterest

Decor Inspiration today

Just some finds to share.
I wonder if I have shared the piano one before, because it looks familiar to me. But I love it!

Source: classyclutter.blogspot.com via Christina on Pinterest

Adorable:

Source: ecx.images-amazon.com via Christina on Pinterest

....And by the way, Kavi is loving vacation bible school!!! Yay!

Vacation Bible School!

Over an hour ago, I dropped off my son at his first ever vacation bible school! I felt like I was dropping him off at real school for the first time. He has never been to daycare or anywhere where I had to leave him with someone we just met and then completely leave the building.

I was nervous and excited for him! I had been prepping him for it. For months now, actually. There were other vacation bible schools at other churches I was interested in, but the timing was off. After we got home from Portland, I searched to see if we missed all the vacation bible schools or not. I found that there was still one going on this week at a large church that is only 1/2 mile from my house! Perfect. Very close by, convenient, and reputable. And the theme is Rev it up: Full throttle for God. Kavi LOVES cars and any kind of vehicle, so I knew this could be extra fun for him.

So I called the church last week and a nice lady on the phone told me that we didn't need to pre-register. We could just show up today at 8:45 and I could register him then, and that "they had room for everyone!". And I started talking about it every day to Kavi. He left off the vacation part and just calls it "Bible School". He said yes he wants to go. We practiced what school might be like, with me playing teacher. And it cracked me up because his whole demeanor changed during our play school time. He would sit properly and treat me like a teacher instead of just mommy. I think he is a good kid anyway, but he was extra extra good during fake class time! hah. We did it for about five days in a row and he would ask to play school.

Here he is, trying to copy his name. He has already done it before, but I keep repeating the exercise with him. He is a lefty. (neither me or my husband are lefties, but my Italian grandfather was, until they forced him to try to be right handed at his school in the old days, kooky to force such a thing.)
So after all that practice, playing school time, I felt better about bringing him today. Yesterday we told him that if he goes and stays, I will take him for ice cream after I pick him up.

So anyway...
This morning I got up earlier than usual, showered, made some coffee and food, and then woke up Kavi. I reminded him that today he was going to bible school! He acted excited and kept acting questions in between bites of food."It's so close to our house?"; "Today I'm going to bible school?!"; "I'm not going to cry and I get ice cream later?".

I got him all ready and we drove to the church. I had pointed out the church to him during the past week saying that's where it will be! We pass it a lot because it's on a main road we take all the time. We parked and he says "this is not the church buildin', this is the doctor's place." I said, "no silly, this is the church building and vacation bible school! yay!" He finally believed me and we walked towards the church gym.

We walked inside, and he looked a little overwhelmed since it's a big room and there were kids and parents scattered around at tables. I said "are you feeling ok? isn't this cool!?" and he just nodded a little. I signed him up, me being nervous as well, and talked to a nice lady at the table. I put Kavi's name tag sticker on him and then walked him behind the table to the 3 year olds room! He wanted to hold my hand and we peeked into the open door. There was a child gate up so the kids couldn't just walk out(I was glad about that). Kavi shyly stood there with me looking in and the "teacher" of the group came and said hi to Kavi, asked his name, and invited him inside. She picked him up over the gate and immediately got a cute car puzzle to distract him. I only partially said bye to him at that point. I stayed outside the room for a few mins, seeing how it went. I didn't want to just walk away. He looked like such a big boy, and content but also shy, as he sat in a chair at the table with his activity. Now he was really experiencing a school-like thing! I got his attention as he looked around the room and waved bye and blew him a kiss. He waved bye back and sat nicely. He had another little boy sit next to him and was looking at him, so then I left.

So, it looks like we are getting ice cream later on! :D

And I actually had some tears in my eyes on the way home. It's a very short drive, and actually we could walk there in about 10 minutes(too hot!). I was just so relieved that he didn't cry. I was so happy that he was going to have a fun day. And he looked like such a big boy! I am glad this first real "say bye to mommy" challenge went so well. I kept wondering if I'd get a phone call that he is crying and won't stop. But I haven't. I truly pray he is having so much fun right at this moment!! I will pick him up at noon. :)silly time with 3D glasses and "rockstyle hair", as he calls it

Oregon: Day 4 & 5

I slacked this week! I was getting over my cold/sinus infection and lacked the concentration power to finish this next part. But now it's here! This is about the last part of our trip. (We have been home a week now.)

Day 4, Waterfalls and Crown Point:

We went to Multnomah Falls first that day.

We took the interstate highway to the correct exit, and then had to drive a couple miles on a beautiful road called the Columbia River Scenic Highway until we were at the waterfalls. On the way, we actually passed a sign for another smaller waterfall, but didn't stop. I didn't get a picture of the roadway myself but here's an idea for you, found on flickr:

source

Oh and one more, because this really captured it too!

source

And now, on to my (less outstanding) photos!
The sun was not at a good angle for pictures of the waterfalls. I guess you have to figure out the best time of day for pictures there when the sun is out. Plus, my real camera battery died. :( Most of these are cell phone pictures.

So it flows from the top of the cliff/hill and dips into a small stream which falls once again, a double waterfall. We walked up the paved trail to the bridge where we got a closer view of the upper part of the waterfall. It was a hilly walk up! There was a cute lodge/restaurant/information center there at the falls, along with a cheaper food shop and an espresso stall! So when we walked up to the location, what I noticed right away was the sound of the water falling, and the smell of coffee in the air! That place is awesome.

I didn't get a great shot of the building myself, so here is a photo from it's wikipedia link:
We hung out at the waterfalls for an hour or more, ate lunch there, got an Americano, and sat on a shaded bench before leaving. We next went to the Vista House on Crown Point, a high hill/overlook point. It was nearby.

The Vista House was finished in 1918 as a rest stop and observatory for travelers.
A part of history.

view from parking spot
view from second story of observatory

My husband snapped a picture of one more waterfall that day. We were back on the scenic highway road after leaving Crown Point, and saw a sign for yet another waterfall. By that time I was so tired out, and I saw the uphill path you'd have to take to see it. So me and Kavi stayed in the car while he walked up the steep path to see it.

Latourell Falls

So it was another day of beautiful scenery.

Day 5, Zoo & Rose garden:

It was our last full day in the Portland area. We decided to go to the Oregon Zoo. I didn't get a lot of outstanding pictures of animals at the zoo, but here are a couple of pictures anyway.bear comparisons with pull up info tabs

Owl that didn't look real, but it was

And then within the zoo there was a train ride you could buy a ticket for.
So we did and we got on the red and black train.

And the train took you on a very pretty ride through forest covered hills for 2 miles (I think). It stopped at a station outside of the zoo property where you could get off, get a hand stamp, and get back on later.

From the station, the Rose Garden, the Japanese Garden, and a children's play area were within walking distance. We chose to check out the rose garden. Outside of the garden area there was this view, of some of downtown Portland and Mt. Hood hovering over it in the distance.

Hey Mt. Hood, I know you!

We walked into the garden area and it was even prettier than I thought it would be. Bright colored roses in bloom all over! And a very good rose smell in the air.

After spending at least 45 minutes there, and laying on some soft grass that did not have Florida red fire ants living in it, we decided we should catch a train back to the zoo before it got too late. We had to wait back at the little station for 25 minutes, but it was relaxing anyway. We got to take the retro 1958 Zooliner back into the zoo.
I had many thoughts going on during the train ride back. I wanted to take in every second of the scenery. I am usually afraid of heights, and while this train wasn't on a high up mountain, there were some steep looking areas right off the side of the train tracks. We were in the hills right by downtown Portland. But I felt like some of my fear had diminished. I had been up and down mountains, hills, and pathways the previous days. I was enjoying the unique scenery instead of feeling nervous about falling down. I didn't want the train ride to end!

So that was another great day. And we did tons of walking, yet again!

We were hungry when we got back to the zoo and it was already almost 6 pm, zoo closing time. We left and since we had to pass by downtown to get to WA and to our motel, we decided to drive into downtown and stop at an Indian food truck we read about.
My husband stood in line(on the other side of the truck) to buy their $5 special. Incredible pricing for a prepared Indian meal. And this one meal fed us three, no joke. It had rice, 4 vegetarian Indian side dishes, and a huge piece of naan, which was folded in half below.

Day 6, say bye to Portland:

(airport)

And now, I think I have shared everything I wanted to share about our trip.

I realize I posted a bazillion pictures in this blog entry!

I hope you enjoyed!

Oregon: Day 2 & 3

We were in Oregon for five full days, and each was filled with activity. We actually stayed in Vancouver, Washington, 15 minutes from the Portland airport which was SO convenient. But most of our days were spent within Oregon. There is so much to do there within a 2 hour driving distance, and we didn't even do all of it! I bought some good Asics walking/running shoes a few days before we left for our trip and it's a good thing I did! They have gel insoles and are so comfy. We walked our butts off during the trip! It's amazing how nice weather and beautiful scenery can turn me into such a walking machine. ;) When it's hot out here in Florida, the last thing I want to do is spend the day walking around outside. I get ankle pain if I walk a lot, and the shoes really helped with support.

We were fortunate to be there during some really nice weather. That area is more known for cloudy, rainy days. But it was sunny every day, with mostly mild temperatures. The only day that started out cloudy and a little chilly(sweet relief for these Floridians) was the Sunday we were there, but by the afternoon the clouds had cleared and it was sunny again, and in the lovely 70's.

Day 1, Mt. Hood: So our first full day was spent going to Mt. Hood, which I posted about already, two posts back. I miss that mountain.

Day 2, Downtown Portland:

Crossing bridge border into Oregon from Washington(where our motel was)

Started cloudy, ended sunny

The Saturday Street Market -but on Sunday! They still call it the Saturday Street Market on Sundays. It started as only on Saturdays, but it was so popular they extended it to Sunday. This is a handicraft, import, handmade marketplace. There are also a variety of food stalls.

So we went to the Market for awhile, ate lunch there, then took a free light rail (metro train) to Pioneer Courthouse Square. We hung out there for a little while, and then took the light rail back to the Market and we were hungry again! So we ate some more food.

We already had done a bit of walking around that day, and by the time we got back to our car an hour or so later, we wanted ice cream. (hehe) So we actually got out of our car to leave it in the same parking spot (we had gotten a great deal, $3 to park it until 6pm. You know how it is in the "city", you can't just park for free, or even cheap, usually!) We walked several blocks back to the Pioneer Square area to a Ben & Jerry's. YUM. We shared an ice cream. We did a lot of sharing on the trip. To save money, and to save calories. After that we were too tired out already, and found the right route to get on the light rail again for a free, quick ride right back to near our car was parked.

Hmmm this may turn into a longer post than I had imagined!! I may need to break it up into another day of posting.

But for now, I will go on to...

Day 3, Cannon Beach:
It was the 4th of July! We had decided that we were going to drive to Cannon Beach, on the coast of Oregon. It took us almost 2 hours to get there due to a gas and food stop, and a little bit of traffic. I was yet again blown away by the state of Oregon. The drive to the beach was actually sometimes more "mountainy" feeling than the drive to Mt. Hood had been! It seems the Mt. Hood road is wider and has less steep areas, yet Mt. Hood was much higher than the road to the beach. I couldn't believe that in order to get to the beach, we had to drive up and down curvy mountain roads. So different than Florida! Flat Florida. So you are still driving down from higher hills when you are about to reach the beach. And then even when you get there, the houses and shops along the beach are higher up on hills. And mountains/hill stretch right into the sandy shores and in some places all the way to the water!

And get this. We were chilled on the 4th of July! That has never happened to us. We had our jackets on at first. While walking around the town in the sun, we got warm enough to take them off. But once we were down on the extra windy beach, we were cold! I kept feeling like it was October and not the 4th of July. And that made me happy! Because it's just so hot in Florida for so long. It was a quaint little town there. It was crowded since it was a holiday. But it was still enjoyable.

We left the beach around 6:30pm so that we could get back to our motel before dark. The time difference was the most complicated when dealing with our son's sleep schedule. It all got messed up! But we survived. :) We were in PJs in our motel room by the time all the fireworks were going on. Our son fell asleep and me and my husband peaked out the room window for a few minutes watching lots of little fireworks displays going on in the distance. They didn't start until around 9pm, which was midnight to our bodies!

So I think that's all I will post for today. This took a really long time! I will post the rest tomorrow or Wednesday. :) It's going to be about waterfalls, lookout points, a zoo, and a large rose garden.