Portland and Food Carts

I have lived in this beautifully rainy, green state for..gosh…7 or 8yrs. And I am embarrassed to say that I almost never go downtown. Horrible. Massive failure on my part. I visiting cities! And  here I am, living right on a transit line too! Well, my cyber blogging friend, that will change. As of this month to be exact.

I will be taking more train rides to explore and have adventures. Hallelujah.

One aspect I am looking forward to is trying more of Portland’s  food carts! Today I will start with 

Sheish Kabob Grill :

I am a sucker for kabobs. I have a soft place for them in my heart. Reminds me of my first time visiting Frankfurt- which is the unofficial kabob capital. We had friends who took us around and I can’t remember much…but kabobs. It’s the important things in life.

This little food cart was awesome. A little pricey ($8 for my kabob) but great. We visited this cart in the middle of a photo shoot so the fact that their food was portable sold me. Healthy ingredients, good portions and an electronic punch card were some huge perks. 

Travis started laughing at me with a twinkle in his eye when I ordered mine with beef instead of the traditional lamb. I knew instantly what he was insinuating.

If you know me you know I am VERY opinionated about lamb. I think as cute as those furry animals are…they taste horrible! I can pick the flavor out instantly. Well some years back were in Frankfurt and a friend, Aris, ordered a kabob for me- with lamb without telling me. Well, I took one bite and let’s just say that lots of yelling and laughing followed. *It’s fun to randomly act overly dramatic. (it’s a talent I’ve honed since childhood)

Anyhoo, you will be happy you tried this place. I give it 4 out of 5 stars 🙂

10th & Washington

Jingle Bell Run/Walk Portland 2011

Yes, I have another goal to focus on. And I’m really excited about it!!!

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I have a friend I hung out with yesterday and as she told me of her weekly exercise routine I was so impressed! She has 2 kids, a wife and has a crazy full schedule outside of excersising BUT she makes time to run (at least 3-5 miles) Monday-Friday and then swimming laps on one of the off days. And chose to take a day off to rest. 6 days a week. Incredible.

CRAZY RIGHT?! (but I have to admit I’m totally jealous of her determination and endurance)

Without meaning to, she has inspired me to get back into running. Who cares that it’s starting to get cold. On the days when its raining sideways because of the rain will be my challenge. To go outside or not.

I know myself and know I’m mostly a wimp. 🙂 Totally OK saying that. But I’m a wimp who is in training to be a tough mama! And my hope is to run 3 times a week and maybe swim 2-3 times a month.

However, I really need a goal. I will totally flake out if I don’t have one, and also friends to complain to encourage each other.

So me and some friends have decided on the Jingle Bell Run downtown. It’s a run/walk so not too much pressure. Should be fun really.

Wish me luck! 🙂 (and if you want to join our group, comment and let me know)

Downtown P-town

Yesterday’s downtown adventure was full of tons of fun! (pictures coming) The sun graced us with her presence and now, thanks to her- I am the butt of all red neck jokes.

Before I realized what was happening I was blissfully taking random pictures of beautiful Portland. Which one is your favorite?

*All pictures are my own and would appreciate you not ‘borrowing’ them without my knowledge. Thanks.

(my favorite is the brick wall. LOVE the texture)

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14457714486.jpg 14464230968.jpgHave I mentioned I LOVE cities? 🙂

*Hope you have a wonderful night dahlings.

Lunch

Just some pictures from lunch.

Snacking is my specialty. 😉

I took some time to take pictures of our beautiful day today.

Did you know my favorite color is green? LOVE it!

no idea why… but the picture of the grass is dream y to me. Love the different shades of green.

and finally when I was coming in I saw a little man who was up to no good! Kitchen counter is off limits…or I guess if only we are around.

We’re going to the Portland Saturday Market and I’m so excited! I’ll bring my camera and take as many picts as the camera will let me. Enjoy your Saturday!

Oh and no I haven’t forgotten to make the cinnamon rolls. Tonight baby…

Itching for what?

It’s weird that since the new year, a ton of blogs I’m following are trying to keep up and post more frequent…when I’m doing the opposite. funny.

It’s another sunny day here but pretty chilly…we’ll by chilly I mean in the 40’s. Yeah, pretty nice. 🙂 My mom left yesterday and I was struck with how I got used to her presence. I really miss her. And you too Jamie. 😉 I am pretty much caught up with household things, and now just focusing on what is ‘normal’. Like our normal schedule. Emma’s normal nap time, we should make something fun with markers and coffee filters today. Yeah, and maybe I’ll give in and we could watch Snow White and eat some Cheeto’s – Emma’s all time favorite. She LOVES LOVES LOVES chips. *sigh just like her mommy.

I have tons of food in my cupboards and I am feeling itchy to make a meal schedule for the next 2-3 weeks. Is that sick that I’m itching to do that? Hmmm.  My mom took me to Safeway (which is CRAZY expensive if you don’t coupon) and she bought me things I NEVER AND I MEAN NEVER buy.  Curry Powder, Brie, really nice Olive Oil, V8 Splash for Emma and other things. Thank you mom for spoiling me! 🙂

Many cool new recipes to follow, and I promise that they’ll be easy to do too.

We also went…shoe shopping! Enjoy- I sure did. 🙂

Morning Adventures with Alexis

What you are about to read is the actual turn of events as they happened:

Waking up at 6:30am is brutal. I know I can’t complain, but jeesh! I have a lot of respect for Trav and everyone else who wakes up before 7:30am. Unfortunately we woke up at 6:30am and rushed to get dressed, eat breakfast (most important meal of the day people!) and leave the house by 7am. Oh, did I mention it was ALL 3 of us? Yeah, we rock. Anyways, we drove downtown, dropped Trav off at work and I ventured onward to the zoo with visions of Cheetahs in my mind. We arrived at 7:55am and it didn’t open till 8am, so perfect timing!….but wait a minute…no body’s here…hmmm. My friend and I were the ONLY people there. That’s strange. At that moment we looked up at the reader and saw in bright red letters, “OPEN 9-6pm”  Oh holy crap. Good thing we hurried to get here on time or woke up at the butt crack of dawn. Of course we have our daughters all strapped in their strollers and both of us look at each other and busted up laughing. What else could you do right?!

So we decided to go on a little morning adventure. We took the MAX (light rail for the Portland metro) into downtown Portland. It was SO beautiful! The sun was shining, the girls were content with being strapped into their strollers and we had no idea where we were going. It was GREAT fun for me! We didn’t EXACTLY buy tickets but looked like mindless mommies and anyways, if the transit police stopped us we would just sound apologetic and ask for forgiveness. 🙂 Horrible I know. Anyhoo, we stopped at a random stop and strolled until we found a random, and quite fancy, donut shop. All I have to say is, ‘Yum, yum, yum!’ Emma, of course wanted nothing to do with my delish raspberry filled donut and wanted to just walk around. It was so relaxing and cool. Of course I took pictures!  Food is a favorite of mine to photograph. When we were finished we jumped on the train (took a new one on the way back and boy are they nice!), talked about scary spider stories and arrived at the zoo to find about 200 mommies and their whinny toddlers waiting to enter the zoo! Yeah. Crap. Did we get in? You’ll just have to wait and see. 🙂 I’ll post part 2 tomorrow. Enjoy the pictures!

Hmmm, suspisious...

Everyone needs someone to snuggle up to and drink milk with

New hours as of Labor Day

Subways give horrible light

So pretty- and only $.90

Beautiful huh

We are such posers, hehe

Millions of mommies and babies

Portland Zoo

I love going to the zoo. Everything about it. Packing a picnic for lunch, looking at exotic animals and being mainly out of our house. But there is one thing I don’t like- all the crazy people (mainly unsupervised children) snuffling their noses against the glass to see a glimpse of a lion. Well today we beat the system and got smarter- we went way early! Like around 9:30 am. We met a friend who has a years membership and got us in free and we strolled our strollers around the empty paths and did whatever we wanted. It was really relaxing actually! (Let’s not get into me getting lost taking many wrong turns/exits on the way there) No it was a great time and even though I did talk yesterday about getting ‘unconventional pictures’  I wasn’t feeling super creative. I was more focused on keeping Emma entertained so she wouldn’t freak out wanting to walk around and snuggle with a lion or leopard. (yes mom, Emma is wearing the jean jumper you got her and it looks freeking adorable on her 🙂 )

I did, obviously, take some photos to post.  ~Amy, thanks for inviting us today, we had a great time. I absolutely LOVE the cheesy smile Rylee gave me. I’ll have to e-mail it to you. Emma slept the entire way home and is now talking in her crib. Crap. Well, lets hope her second nap will be a long one.

Zebra

UP!

Cheesy Smile Rylee

Hungry hungry hippo