April | HAPPY BIRTHDAY, ZINA!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ZINA!

Last weekend was Zina's 50th birthday, and I drove to Seattle after work Friday night to help her celebrate :) My Aunt is one of my favorite people in the world- she helped raise me, has always been there for me, and is one of the kindest, most generous people I know. Not to mention she is always down to do something fun... I love her so much. ♡

& since it's fun to look back... her 2013 birthday is here and 2012 birthday is here!

Since I knew we weren't meeting till later, I took my time driving up, and when I got gas in Castle Rock, I couldn't help but looking around a little bit.

 especially when I found a quilting store!!

Then I stopped at St. Helens National Park, which was actually closed, but there was a back parking lot that was open! I have been there once before, with my ex-boyfriend Joseph and it was just as pretty as I remembered! 

Up the street from the park, was this resort/camping area that was amazing! Can you imagine staying in that lake front hotel?!

I finally got to Seattle right in time for dinner- my parents were in charge of dinner both nights and the first night it was a great BBQ.

 Birthday girl & I with our birthday hats :) I think we look SO much alike! I can only hope to look as great as she does at 50!!!!

Friday night we just ate, talked and had a great time. I love spending time with my Aunt, grandma and parents :) 

There were only 4 bedrooms, since since there were three couples + my grandma, Zina and I got to sleep in the walk in closet ...it was a walk-in closet. :)

Saturday 

After much needed coffee, I went on a walk. After a little bit, I met up with my parents and Zina. It was SO beautiful!

That night my parents brought steaks for everyone (all our family plus some friends my cousins invited). soooooo good. I want to eat them all. I helped my parents get dinner ready  (I didn't help my Dad grill, despite me posing for a picture!)

Sunday

My Mom stayed longer, but my Dad & I had work, so we drove home together. We tried to stop at Cabellas, but it was Easter....so it was closed :( my Dad was sad. 

It was such a great weekend, and it was great to spend time with some of my favorite people! Happy Birthday Zina! I can't wait to celebrate again next year! ♡

April 2014 | post spring break vacation, part 2

We took a quick detour at a (closed) state park to see this pretty waterfall. It's probably much cooler from the bottom but we couldn't see any way to get to the bottom... plus there was a large rattlesnake warning sign so we didn't want to go tromping off trail, too much. Though Elaine had a pet snake so I like to think she should have good snake kharma and we wouldn't get bitten, we didn't want to chance it :)

Part of our groupon deal included tickets to the Maryhill Art Museum, which was actually pretty cool. There was this weird room that Elaine and I were pretty amused by. We liked the guy looking at the floor in the back-

The museum was actually really interesting and there was a lot of random stuff. (really random)

More pictures from the rest of the day-

Sunday we headed back to Portland early, but first went to this viewpoint-

It's when I do things like this that I can't imagine leaving the pacific northwest. 

April 2014 | Post-spring break vacation, part 1

Elaine and I decided to plan a post-spring break vacation, to make going back a little easier. It was a great idea. Gave me something to look forward to, and was a great time! We found a groupon for one of my favorite hotels, and left Friday after work-

 ^ I borrowed this hat, but I think I rock it! :)

Friday night we met up with another friend for pizza and then headed to the hotel, where we both fell asleep at 9.

Saturday we woke up early and hiked up to an old Cherry field outside Lyle (on the Washington side).

 The views were great the whole way up!

 ^ the cherry orchards ...I guess? I have no idea what a cherry tree looks like

We wandered around at the top a bit. But it was kind of boring, it all pretty much looks like this.

spring break 2014 | petersen rock garden

After reading some of the amazing reviews on tripadvisor about the Petersen Rock Garden - you should read them here, or there are even more here - I knew I had to go. It lived up to my expectations by being the creepiest place I have arguably ever been. 

I have heard that it used to be cool. 

And now it's a run down creeptastic rock garden. We were the only people there. 

Just us and the peacocks and chickens. 

Creepy run down old diner- 

At this point, I told Joe that I felt like we were in the movie the Hills Have Eyes. But really any horror movie could start here.

Creepy patriotic rock house-

Creepy weird statue of liberty-

Apparently, this used to have water, which would have been cool-

The best part of the going there was that we survived.

Side note: I do think that this place is cool and definitely one of a kind - and hats off the the guy who created the whole thing. It really is a work of art. It's really sad that it is not taken care of at all like it should be...if it was it wouldn't be so creepy.

spring break 2014 | tumalo falls

For spring break, I went down to Redmond for three days to hang with my friend Joe. We went to Tumalo Falls, which was awesome and pretty and a flat/easy walk. You can drive all the way to the falls in the summer, but the road up was closed so we walked down and back, it was about 5 miles.

 ^ where do these giant rocks come from?! 

 ^ at the falls. You can walk all the way up to the top, too.