Portland and Boise

I decided last minute to take the kids, well 6 of them, to Portland.  Those kids had a full week off of school and we were going up to Boise for the second half of it already.  So I thought we might as well go a little further and spend the start of our vacation in Portland.  We have been tossing around the idea of possibly moving to Portland so I thought we should check it out in that light and see if we might like living there.  (The jury is still out on that idea right now.)  Celeste had school, Andy had basketball practices, and Steve had work, so they stayed back  until they met us in Idaho on Thanksgiving.  

We arrived in Portland after a scary 12 hr drive in nasty weather.  

On Sunday we decided to go to two Churches.  We never really experienced a different Church together.  Nor did we know much about any other churches.  And as we were far from home and not close to a Mormon building, we thought this would be interesting.  We attended first, a Catholic mass at a famous placed called The Grotto.  It was beautiful and pretty fascinating.  We found it to be very interesting.   Lets be clear-- we were NOT investigating these Churches.  We took part in their Communion.  Which is their version of the Sacrament.  I thought it was neat to experience this.  So we all walked up there as our row filed to the front to partake.  The Priest gave a few of us the bread, or these small thin wafers.  He also quickly blessed Charity, Sam, Jonah and Hana.  Then I took the crystal goblet from the nun for the water.  At least I thought it was water.  It appeared colorless. But one taste made it clear, this was wine!  Never before have I tasted any form of alcohol.  I was shocked.  So I held it in my mouth and rushed out of the cathedral to spit it out.  Oops!!!

After that, we went to some born again Christian  church.  Walking in you could hear the rock music blaring songs of Jesus.  What a contrast to anything we've seen!  We got the fit of the giggles.  But it was awesome.  After the song, the preacher started explaining why raising your hands to God was good.  He explained it was a symbol of submission to the Lord.  I looked over and saw Sam doing this.

I about died.  He was totally into it!

They invited everyone to a potluck dinner that night.  I thought, "free dinner!"  So we went back for dinner.  It was fun!  Everyone was very friendly and never asked us why the heck we were there or who we were, other than our names. 

They played a little turkey game to commemorate Thanksgiving.  Jonah volunteered to be the turkey.

On Monday we went to the zoo in Portland.  It was so green and pretty.

Becca was taking lots of photos.

Charity and Sam were thrilled to get to pet a lizard.

After the zoo we went to the children's museum.  The kids loved it.

The kids put on a play there that was so funny!

They had a face painting station.  Charity thought she wanted her face painted green.  But after seeing the finished product, she was not so pleased.

On Tuesday we drove around and explored areas to possibly live and even toured four homes.

On Wednesday we drove to Boise.

We went out to eat at Black Bear Diner with mom and dad Bishop.  But unfortunately I neglected to get any other photos the rest of our time in Boise.  Dang!  We had a great time and a nice Thanksgiving there with Steve's family.  

Haircuts

I took the boys in for haircuts last week. I normally cut their hair myself, but we got free haircut coupons.  It was nice having someone else do it.  And their haircuts were way better than how I do it.

Jonah always has to make a funky face in photos.

Preschool

New car

This week we said goodbye to our old car.  We bought this Ford Escort just a couple of weeks after we got married in May of 1998.  We hadn't even found out we were pregnant with our first child yet.  It was brand new when we bought it.  And now that first child is just 3 months away from getting her drivers license.  It was a little sad to say goodbye to this car after 16.5 years of driving it.  It just broke down on us pretty badly a few weeks ago and we needed a reliable car.

 

And what did we buy?  This adorable red Honda Fit.  It was a week and a half ago that I had been researching good, reliable small cars.  This car rated #2 on ratings.  So we started looking for a used one.  Unfortunately, used ones were hard to find.  And when we did find them, they were priced quite high!  So we decided to just go and get a new one.  That way it would have no negative history, and we could enjoy the much better improvements that the 2015 models have.   

Race Photos

 

The race emailed us these photos yesterday.  

Steve running the half marathon.

 

This photo of Sandee and I is blurry because we were running so fast!

LA

Steve and I had a fantastic weekend getaway.  We flew into LA Thursday morning and drove over to Long Beach to hang out with my brother Andy.  He showed us around his aparatment and Long Beach. Later we drove to Hollywood to try and see the Jimmy Kimmel show.  We were at the start of the standby line.  They told us initially we should be getting in, so we happily waited.  Jim Carrey was to be the guest. While we waited I was asked to have my head shaved.  And if I was willing to shave my head, I would be on the show, because Jim Carrey would be shaving it.  I immediately said No way!  We waited almost two hours and were disappointed when they said we wouldn't be making it in.  They still hadn't found a woman at that time willing to shave her head.  Steve was so disappointed we didn't get in that I told him I'd volunteer if that made him happy.  He said it wouldn't.  So we left and walked around Hollywood Blvd.  We had a yummy dinner.  As we were walking back we actually saw Jim Carrey with the recently shaved woman posing for photos.  

That could have been me.  I don't regret my decision.

After that, we drove up to Griffith Observatory.  What a great view of LA.

That night we stayed at the Queen Mary in Long Beach.  It was an actual cruise ship that had a great deal of historical significance.  It is now a hotel on water that does not leave port.  It was a cool place.

That afternoon we met up with Sherod, Emily and their friend Sandee.  We had lunch, then headed to the hotel we were going to stay in that night.  The race expo was there.  I love this photo of Sherod.

Early in the morning Emily, Sandee and I went to the marathon.  The bus ride up the canyon was an hour ride.  I realized on the bus I did not have my phone.  I was so upset!  A 26 mile race with no running app or music seemed like too big of a blow.  

So I ran with Sandee the whole race.  She was the perfect running partner!  So it worked out.  I finished in 4:28.  It was a tough race!!!!  The decent was about 5,000 feet and was painful.  But it was gorgeous and the weather was perfect.

I was happy with how it went and very excited because it qualified me to be a marathon maniac because I had done 3 marathons in 64 days.  I was excited for that!

Tim stayed with the kids and took them to the Museum of Natural Curiosity.  He's the best uncle.

After resting and showering we went out to eat in downtown LA and saw a show at Groundlings.  It was a comedy show and we laughed ourselves to tears.  It was a wonderful trip!

charity & sam dance partners 11/14

Becca's play 10/14

Sunday Becca, Hana, Charity and Sam worked on and performed a cute little play for us.  I remember doing this kind of stuff as a kid.  Good times.

Vegas

I flew to Vegas Halloween afternoon to meet up with my brother Andy.  I was supposed to pick him up at the Greyhound bus station at 8:20 pm. The bus station is right in the heart of Vegas.  So I was down there by myself at night, not just any night, but Halloween.  Well, as I arrived, Andy texts me to say that the bus was going to be late.  He didn't arrive until 10:30.  

These were some of the sights I saw.  Fremont street was packed!!!  Many people were pretty much naked.  I felt like a preschooler at a college rave.  

I so wish this photo below wasn't so blurry.  You'd see these "Playboy Bunnies" were men.  Vegas really isn't my scene.

I went inside a hotel lobby and bought an apple to snack on. As I sat there eating, this guy sat in front of me.

We were up until midnight getting things set up for the triathlon in the morning.  

We got up at 5:30am and headed over to the race.

Andy took this race very serious and was so anxious to beat me.  I didn't think I could beat him because I am so slow on the bike.

But he ended up beating me by only 28 seconds.  I beat him on the swim and run, he beat me on the bike.  I got punched in the face trying to pass someone on the swim.  Ouch!  I also wiped out on the bike.  But it went well otherwise.  I placed 9th overall among the women.  I placed 25th overall among all participants.  I was happy with that.  Andy placed 24th overall.

He rubbed beating me in my face all day.

We had a few hours after the race to hang out before he caught his bus and I caught my plane home.  

Andy wanted us to take photos with this weird baby guy.

I can only take Vegas in small doses.  But we had a great time.