A beautiful city

The most common comment I hear when people come visit us is how beautiful and green Portland is. I admit that when I first moved here all the trees made me feel claustrophobic, however once I got past the claustrophobicness of all the trees I started to realize how beautiful this city really is.

Kevin had a short day at school because of a test, and after doing some errands for me he missed the bus that afternoon so I offered to drive him up and just go enjoy the view. It was a beautiful clear day and Mt. Hood was very visible.

Later that night Kevin had a volleyball game and then was going to be doing lab work for hours after. Since I didn't want to just sit around home alone all night I decided to call my favorite hiking buddy Brianne and we hiked up to Pittock Mansion. It is a cute big house that costs a lot of money to go into but the view is free, and I think it is the best part. 

The White Coat

I will be honest and admit that I did not really understand the importance of the 'coating' at the end of the first year of dental school. It didn't help that Kevin kind of blew it off as just another day at school. Nonetheless he invited his parents and they were happy to come up and enjoy a little 'coating' ceremony.

Turns out it was kind of a big deal. Everyone dressed up and the guests filled the auditorium for the ceremony. The white coat means that the dental students are now entering the clinical part of the schooling, or in other words it means they survived there first year of book work and will be doing more lab work from here on out.

So why a white coat? According to a speaker at the ceremony "White coats became popular in the early 1900’s to symbolize sterility, cleanliness and a new wave of scientific medicine.  Before then, supposedly doctors wore black coats and were associated with death or bad news." In the 1900's doctors were not well respected and were believed to have crazy healing ideas. Then they turned to more of a science background and therefore adopted the science lab coat.  So now they honor them when they make the transition with a white coat.

All I know though is white coat or not, I sure love this handsome man and am so proud of all his hard work he has put into dental school.

Time flies when you are having fun

The first thing Brooklyn told me when she arrived in Portland was we were not allowed to have fun. I of course questioned this. In which she replied time flies when you are having fun, so if we don't have fun I will feel like I am here for a really long time. Well I guess she was speaking the truth because we had a lot of fun, but before we knew it time was up. So here are a few things we got in before she headed back to Florida.

We went to the Portland Zoo

We went berry picking at Sauvi Island and made some yummy raspberry jam with the berries we picked. 

We went to Omsi as well as an IMAX movie while we were there. 

Devin and Charm came for a short visit. It was short but fun. We rode the Tram, went to Nike town, and ate some yummy food at the food carts. 

We did a little golfing at the driving range. 

And visited the beautiful Portland Temple. 

And finally built a fort and had a little sleep over, where we stayed up all night watching the whole Anne of Green Gables series (it took us two nights). However the sleep over didn't last long once I realized that Brooklyn sings, laughs, hums, talks, and moves around everywhere in her sleep. After getting kicked a couple times and woken up to her singing a few to many times I ended up in my bed. And thankfully because by morning she had done a great job knocking the fort down on top of her. 

And then before we knew it, it was time for her to head home. I might have cried a lot but I decided that just meant that I need to plan a trip to Florida soon. Miss you Boo! Thanks for coming and making this a great summer for me! 

It's not my fault

Let's be honest, I am really good at blaming other people and getting away with it. When I was little it was always Devin's fault (then he moved out, but I still tried to blame him) and then I became an only child at home so then it was always a nieces or nephews fault. Now its typically Kevin's fault. However Sunday when we went over a little speed bump leaving church and our right axle broke it really wasn't our fault.

About a week and a half before we had taken the car in for an oil change before we headed out on all our little trips. They of course checked everything over and told us our right axle was leaking. After a little call to my father to ask him if it was important we get it fixed before we left we decided that we would get it fixed. So we did. Then we went to Washington to pick up Brooklyn, went camping, went to Grants Pass, Craig took it to Seattle, and then we took Craig to the airport. Saturday after Craig got back Kevin mentioned to me that when he was driving home from Grants Pass he went around a corner and the steering acted funny, and took him off the road a little bit. Craig had also mentioned to him that it had done it a couple times to him in Seattle. I asked my dad of course again and he said that we should take it back in and just have them look at it again. 

So Sunday came and my parents left and we headed to church. While sitting in sacrament I made a list of things I needed to do that week... I know I know real reverent. Needless to say the car getting checked out made it to the top of my list. So after church we headed out, went over one speed bump, then a second. There was a huge crashing/ dragging noise and the car came to a complete halt. (I admit I was afraid we hit something or someone). I soon realized though that something had gone terribly wrong with the car. I then proceeded to get out of the car and realized my door (Passenger side) would not open. The axel had broke and due to the motion of the car the tire had got jammed into the wheel rim which then jammed my door up. Luckily we were at church and everyone jumped in to help and offered us rides. Kevin headed home with our home teacher to pick up our other car while Brooklyn and I waited for a tow truck. We were hoping triple A would tow for us since my parents have triple A and they own the car. However when I turned 23 I could no longer be on the policy so they wouldn't tow. After a few panicked phone calls to the car place (sales was only open not service) we decided we would just call a random towing company and have the car towed to the car place. 

Then we waited. And waited. And waited. Okay so it really wasn't that long, it just felt like it because it was fast Sunday and we were really hungry. But the tow truck came and had a bit of trouble getting it hooked up since they usually tow it by the tires or the axle. Which was not possible on our car. But he figured it out and we got it towed. 

So after a few phone calls Monday morning (They said they hadn't got a good look at it because they couldn't figure out how to move it) the car place established that there was a bolt missing in the axel. Either they did not tighten it enough and it had come loose, or they tightened it too much and cracked it and it fell out. The other option was the axle needed a special bolt and they did not put the right bolt on. Either way though it was not our fault so it was completely covered. They fixed the axle, the steering column, did all the body work, and gave us a nice 2013 Cruze rental for the week while they fixed it. I was impressed with there service and that they did take responsibility for it and took great care of us after it happened. I was also very happy that this did not happen to us while driving 65 on the freeway during one of our many trips. We were definitely being watched over. 

An Ocean View

My parents request when they came out to visit was an ocean view. And since we cannot provide an ocean view from our apartment window we decided to head to the coast. First stop on the 4th was the Sea Lion Caves in Florence Oregon. We might have got a little blown around but the views were worth it. 

There was about 50 or so Sea Lions in the cave, and a couple of them even won my heart over :). Outside there were about 300 Sea Lions just hanging out on the rocks soaking up some sunshine. 

And of course we had to take a picture of the most photographed lighthouse ever.

Like I said, the view was beyond beautiful.

We then continued up the coast to our hotel in Waldport that provided an ocean view for my parents. Along with that view came a beautiful sunset, a yummy pizza dinner, and some great fireworks to celebrate the 4th in Yachats.  

 If only you could hear the dramatic drunk lady behind us, enjoying the fireworks. It was quite entertaining.

Did I mention that this town had a sense of humor?

After a good nights rest we continued up the coast. Next stop was the Yaquina Head Lighthouse. Here we enjoyed watching a seal swim, saw lots of birds, and got a cool tour of the lighthouse, which consisted of trudging up 228 stairs to the top. Yes we all survived. 

 We then continued to stop at every beautiful sight along the road, and tried our hands at Whale watching in Depoe Bay. No luck though. Soon enough everyones feet hurt and we were running out of energy, so we made a quick trip to Tillamook Cheese Factory where we enjoyed some ice cream. We then headed home (after a quick jog past Salem to pick up my purse I left at Panda Express). 

Thanks Mom & Dad for a great Ocean View. We loved the trip! Also thanks for putting up my shelf... Like always your life savors.