Portland

A few weeks ago now we went to Portland to visit Lance's brother and sister-in-law; which are soon going to be my new brother-in-law and sister-in-law yippee!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! There is this funny little myth about Oregon. One that goes something like this....oh it rains all the time....dark and gloomy.....never see sunlight....you Oregon people get the big WHATEVER from me! It was so sunny and nice while we were there that Lance and I actually got a little burned one day. We were all laughing and joking that we went to Portland to get a tan. I think it's a big conspiracy theory. People from Oregon always mention how rainy and cold it is so that no one will move there! I'm onto your little game! I've got you all figured out and I'm exposing your secrets right here on my blog! =)

During our first full day in Oregon we headed South to Salem to go visit Aunt Kathy and Uncle Don. Since Aunt Kathy was at work we headed to the outlet malls and did some shopping before traveling into Salem. The outlet malls there are awesome! If I didn't bring such a small little carry-on with me, I could have done some damage! But every store I went in I kept thinking, how am I going to get this home?? Every store we went into that day has a sales associate saying the same thing when we entered, "isn't the weather great"? At first Lance and I would explain that we live in Southern California and the weather that you are experiencing today is what we get in the winter. Then we realized that it was the same song and dance in every store. So, we started to play along and we got just as excited about the weather as they did. It turned out to be quite funny!

After shopping we headed into Salem and had a nice dinner with Kathy, Don and Jimmy. It was nice to see all of them and spend some time with them! After dinner we headed over to Kathy and Don's house to visit some more and see the cats. I haven't been to their house since I was about 13 so it was nice to show Lance where we used to stay when we would take the train rides from hell!

The next day we got to hang out with Ryan and Emma and see some sights in Portland. They took us to some awesome brew pubs were we got to taste some great new beers.

We don't have too many independent brew pubs like this in Cali so it was nice to be able to taste the different kinds of beer they had. This place was especially cool because it was an old Victorian style house that they turned into a restaurant. We got to sit out on the porch and drink some beers, eat some fries and get some sun. (This is one of the places where we got a little too much sun and it left us a little red!)

Apparently this picture of Lance looks like a picture of Ronnie (Lance's dad) when he was younger. Now I just need that picture so I can do a side by side! I think it's a funny picture because it looks like he is taking his beer tasting very seriously! hahahahaha

That night Emma and Ryan had a few friends over for a nice dinner. **Shout out to Jen, Pete and Ben!!! It was really nice meeting you all!** =) Emma is a fabulous cook and I encourage all of you to check out her blog here. She makes some wonderfully delicious food and one day I want to grow up to cook just like her!! hahahaha

This next picture is one that Ryan took while Lance and I were in the backyard soaking up the sun. We purchased some of the beer we tasted earlier in the day so we could drink it that night for the party. Everybody seemed to have liked it as you can tell by the empty beer glasses on the table!

This next picture is one of my favorites! Ryan and Emma have an awesome black lab named Puma. Puma is so sweet and such a friendly dog! And, as you can see from this picture, he thinks he is a lap dog too!!! The thing that makes me laugh the hardest is look at Puma's face. He is totally soaking up those sun rays. Maybe you Oregonians are telling the truth. Dogs don't lie. And Puma looks so happy to be out in the sun! hahahahaha

Well, that's all I'm going to post today. I'll have another post with more pictures for you tomorrow. I just wanted to thank Ryan for sending us these pictures since it never dawned on myself or Lance to pull out the camera and take a few. But then again it worked out for us because Ryan is quite the photographer and his pictures our much better than ours! You can check out all of his awesome pictures at his flickr site. And be sure to leave comments when you visit Ryan and/or Emma's site! Tell them Suzanne and Lance sent you!!