tea time

american girl tea party with mom and seester. found this gem while rummaging through old pictures. you would never know i was a tomboy by looking at this. were (are) american girl dolls not the coolest?

san francisco

DAY ONE

day one was spent flying with cameron, sarah, and tanner to sonoma from hillsboro with a much needed gas fill up in redding, ca.

although i spent the second half of the trip nauseated out of my mind, i enjoyed the first half with beautiful views of the ocean line, mountains, rolling hills for days, and secret lakes.

DAY TWO

we took the bus to the mission district where we enjoyed eating birite ice cream and soaking up that california sunshine at dolores park. 

next, we hopped on the underground bart and headed to china town. our "tour guide" zach bought poppers (not just any poppers. these things sounded like gun shots.)  from some little shady store and we all got a sick thrill from throwing them to the ground in the middle of the highly populated streets. we also got to eat the famous fresh fortune cookies from the little back alley. successful trip.

for our last tourist stop of the day we went to pier 39.

we frolicked.

we fed seagulls.

we saw the seals.

we just barely saw alcatraz.

DAY THREE

tanner and i spent the morning walking through some of the coolest neighborhoods i have ever seen. i love the classic san fran housing. we did some imaginary real estate purchasing, oh how i wish it was real! annnnd i got wripped off by some cute rich kids selling over priced cookies. 

san francisco, the land of fog, hippies, hills, and dented bumpers. it has a portland vibe but there are palm trees. what more could i ask for? i am completely in love with san francisco. already planning a trip back.

then it was back to the little plane. 

(dramamine quickly became my new best friend on the trip home)

thanks to tanner, race, zach, cameron, and sarah for a fun labor day weekend!

ms. freeman

the first day of school is quickly approaching. fortunately, i am not the student this time!! i will be teaching 

K-1 special ed until february (i'm hoping the teacher won't want to come back from her maternity leave :) i feel so blessed to have gotten the position and am anxious to get started. i've spent the past week and a half setting up my class and going to school and district meetings. last night was open house night, i got to meet about half my students and their parents. getting to see all their adorably quirky personalities made me super excited to get started. wish me luck!

ps- tanner and i are headed to san francisco (my homeland) tomorrow morning. his friend cameron owns his own plane and they planned a spur of the moment trip from pdx to sfo! is this real life? 3 days ago i had no labor day weekend plans and now i'm about to head out on an adventure. .....again, wish me luck! four man airplane, yikes.

amanda & kody's wedding

cheers to weddings!

we just got all these fun photos from the photographer (michelle pearl gee) at my older sister amanda's wedding. she got married this summer at the pomeroy living history farm in yacolt, wa. weddings are the best! everyone you love comes together in one place to celebrate your special day. it was full of laughter, hugs, kisses, tears of joy, and dancing ...lots of dancing. i was lucky enough to be her maid of honor and couldn't have been more happy to be there by her side. after numerous wedding showers, a wild little trip to lake chelan, and a week full of wedding festivities, the wedding party had formed a little family of our own. i almost didn't know what to do after wedding planning was done (i quickly recovered) i am so happy for my sister and new brother in law. they are some of the most fun people i know and a real joy to call family.

snapshots of my summer

picture overload?

oops. sorry.

(i had a fun summer with all these cool people)

small town usa

as much as i wish to live in portland i can't hide the fact that i secretly love my current location. we spent the afternoon/evening enjoying all the things the small town of camas, wa has to offer. we started out at camas antiques where you are guaranteed to leave with all sorts of fun knick-knacks. i could spend hours upon hours searching every nook and cranny of that place. we worked up quite the appetite while antiquing, the kind of appetite that can only be cured by the local joint, top burger. the weather was  perfect so we took our food to enjoy by the nearby lake. (the only thing better than top burger is top burger at the lake) it was really nice to sit by the water and enjoy our food and each others company, it was so calm we felt like we needed to whisper. after finishing our dinner we decided to hike around a bit and work off some of those seasoned fries. it's amazing that all this beauty is just 10 minutes away from my house, i can't complain about that. i must admit i'm a proud washingtonian. but seriously, who do i need to talk to about dipping the border of washington down around portland??