Been There, Seen That

This post is mostly for those in our family who don't have Facebook/Instagram. For many of you, this will be a "been there, seen that" post, so you can feel free to tune out whenever you'd like.

 Nayeli has become my little mime lately. Here she is using my headphones.

This picture was taken about a month ago when I decided one morning to cut my own bangs. I don't know what inspired my moment of hairstylist delusion, but they actually turned out pretty good. In fact, they're the bangs I've wanted for years but never had a hairstylist cut right.

Ben's first response when he saw them: "They look good but... are they crooked?" Leave it to Ben to tell me the truth in the most innocent way possible. And yes, they are a little crooked but I don't care. I don't think anyone notices anyway.

Nayeli is going to be a pumpkin for Halloween this year. I got the costume for $3 on the after Halloween sales last year. I pulled it out early and she hasn't been able to stop pointing to it since. She especially loves the hat. This particular picture was taken one morning when she put her hat on first thing.

Get Going

Mondays are my stay at home and get things done days. I get the laundry started, plan my meals for the week, make my grocery list, do the dishes from Sunday, etc. It's like a weekend recovery day.

Although today it was especially difficult to get going. I got a few things done, then realized about 11am that I needed to make it to the store. However it was just so nice to be in my pajamas in my warm apartment. Nayeli was entertaining herself so well and I didn't want to go out in the rain.

So I kept putting it off. Finally by 1pm I knew I needed to go to the store before Nayeli took an afternoon nap. I dragged myself into a pair of jeans and put on some mascara. The following were my attempts to get out the door:

Attempt #1- Ready to walk out the door when I hear the dryer stop. I take a second to take the dry clothes out and put a new batch in.

Attempt #2- Walking toward the door when I smell that Nayeli's messy. Change a poopy diaper.

Attempt #3- Already out the door when Nayeli signs she wants milk. Knowing she'll be signing it until she gets it, I unlock the front door and enter the house again to fill her sippy with milk.

Finally we get into the car. We're on our way when I realize that I forgot my reusable grocery bags. Oh well. I'm not going back a fourth time.

We drove the one mile to Fred Meyer and arrived by 1:30. I was sure I could run in and do some shopping all before Nayeli was sleepy. Then I turned around to this:

I laughed out loud. She's been so hard to get to sleep most afternoons (yesterday she didn't nap at all) I didn't have the heart to wake her up and drag her into the grocery store.

So I drove home again. I put her in her crib, put back on my pajamas, and sit here blogging. I guess the grocery store will just have to wait.

Silver Falls

Our major goal right now is to have an adventure each Saturday before the infamous Oregon rains begin. Last Saturday we drove an hour southeast to a state park called Silver Falls. It's a beautiful collection of 10 waterfalls along a 8 mile path. Unfortunately I was not feeling up to walking 8 miles on Saturday so we took the short two mile route instead. Still beautiful and not exhausting.

It's been the place that the most people have recommended since we moved here. Now we know why. The falls are breathtaking, and we only saw two of them!

South Falls. 200 feet high.

 The path goes behind the waterfall, as you can see here. Beautiful.

 

Ben's been getting into photo editing lately. It's fun to see what he comes up with.

Behind the falls. We look like a high school couple posing for a Homecoming photo.

We also hiked to Lower South Falls but by then we were pictured out. No photos from there. However I'm pretty sure these will suffice.

What's our next adventure? We've been told we should visit Sauvie Island, an island in the Columbia River north of Portland. It supposedly has great pumpkin patches during the fall so we're going to take Nayeli. The great thing about living here is that I feel I'm never going to see it all. But I'll be darned if we aren't going to try :)

No More Monkeys

Since we've moved away from essentially all of our family, I've decided to post more videos so that those who are interested (aka grandparents) can see how Nayeli is changing and growing.

Lately she's begun to mimic our actions. This is her version of "No More Monkeys Jumping on the Bed".

Labor Day

For Labor Day we were invited by a couple in our ward to hike to some beautiful waterfalls in the Gorge. The Gorge refers to the area east of Portland where the Columbia river flows and I-84 drives into the city. It's a gorgeous area with waterfalls, hikes and great views. Our last hike to Multnomah Falls was in the Gorge.

The falls we went to this time was Punchbowl Falls. There were three couples total with five kids between us. It was the perfect sized group and we had a great time chatting together on the two mile hike up.

Ben carried Nayeli in the Kelty

She braved the cold water and loved it

Upper punchbowl falls. Ben decided he wanted to swim to the falls...

so of course the two other men weren't going to be left behind. We women opted to stay with the kids. That water was COLD!

Nayeli's obsession: dogs. She recently learned to say "dog-gie".

The falls are beautiful but carry a hefty fine if you jump around them- $300. Apparently there have been some deaths of people jumping from the 60-80 foot cliffs above these falls.

However the lower falls are free game. 

I don't think I have to mention that Ben was the instigator for this jump.

And he did the 20 foot ropeswing. I love having Ben as my husband. He keeps me young... and on my toes :)

As we hiked back down Ben told me, "That was my favorite place we've been to so far!" He loves adventures. I love that about him. 

Thanks to the Gough and Clark families for a great Labor Day hike!

Daddy's Girl

Last night Ben put Nayeli in new pajamas. Since she awoke this morning, she's been walking around the house pointing to her pajamas and saying "Da-da" over and over. Although I couldn't get her impromptu performance on camera, I think this video clip gives you an idea of how cute she is.

Saturday Adventures

Every Saturday we make plans for an adventure. As I mentioned before, we're trying to take advantage of the nice weather, but it's also imperative to Ben's mental health that he get out and do something in the outdoors every weekend.

So last Saturday we drove into downtown Portland to go to the Farmer's Market. They had such great samples at each booth that Ben (Mr. Frugal) almost purchased peaches for $2 each. Luckily, I was able talk him out of it, but the rest of the time I could hear him muttering under his breath, "Those peaches were so good!" over and over. Not two-dollars-a-piece good though, I can assure you.

We also got the great opportunity to see my old roommate Brooke. She lives and works in the city and writes Super Bowl Ads. Yeah, she's pretty cool.

Nayeli's free flower

We then did a short visit to the Portland Saturday Market down by the waterfront. It's made up of more crafts, clothes, art, etc. I love Farmer's Markets and getting to see the creativity of others.

Ben and I then drove to Multnomah Falls, about 30 min outside the city in the Gorge (the area to the east of the city where the Columbia River runs). It's a beautiful falls and a pretty iconic Portland-area tourist attraction. I don't think we'll go again because it was a madhouse, but it's worth going once for sure.

 Remember my post on how to choose a good citizen photographer? When we lived in DC Ben was a master at picking a good one, but he has since lost some of his skill because he asked a guy holding a disposable camera (do they even make those anymore?) to take this picture. Look, there's our family standing in front of a bridge and... wait... is that a waterfall in the back?

 Ben's second Citizen Photographer choice was much better...except that Ben's eyes are closed. As they say, you can't beat 'em all.

Blurry but I love it.

 Looking over the Gorge. We hiked up to the top of the falls.

 At the top

This is an extremely common place to find Ben- in some obscure spot trying to 

capture a photo or video of Nayeli.

This photo perfectly captures Nayeli's annoyance at being interrupted from her play for a picture.