Well Deserved Shout Out

6 months ago I had a phone conversation with my sister that went something like this:

Chels: What are you going to do this summer, just live in Yakima again?

Me: Well, I was hoping the girls and I could live with you while Nick studies for the Bar in Yakima...

Chels: Sure, Shea's going to be here for part of it and I'm hosting some people here and there, but it would be fun.

Me: Great. I promise we won't ruin your house, although I realize now that Ev is potty training so she might pee on your carpet.

Chels: If she poops on my carpet I'll kill you.

Me: Okay, see you in a month.

With opened arms and little hesitation, Chels allowed us to bunk with her for two months this summer. Minus the absence of Nick, it was so fun. So much sister bonding (CW watching) and with Darc just minutes away it was awesome. Plus Shea was there for a few weeks basically making it a Smart Compound (creepy? We think so too).

Not sure if Chels enjoyed it as much as we did (especially since she had to have her carpets professionally cleaned afterwards) but we can't thank her enough. My girls absolutely adore her and there is not a better Aunt out there. 

Our last hurrah was visiting the Japanese Gardens in Portland.

In my head it was a lot more child friendly then it turned out to be. Apparently you have to be serene and quiet in a Japanese Garden, so my wild toddler was unwelcome at certain points (oops!). Also, Nick and I had to carry our heavy/crappy double stroller up these stairs that rivaled the RB stairs at BYU. No joke (sweatastic!).

In the end?

Totally worth it and a super blasty blast.

Awkward.

Double stroller up this baby.

We may have been approached by a grounds worker at this point, politely asking us to not touch the statues.

The politeness didn't last long.

"THIS IS NOT DISNEYLAND!"

You know what? 

I wish we were at Disneyland. There's better food and cooler people there.

I'm thinking about starting a new string of blog posts called, "Bear's Life."

It's all about what Bear does on a daily basis, how she's feeling, maybe some photos of all the places she gets to go.

Would you all be interested in this?

Diseased stuffed Teddy Bear travels the world with crazy toddler who thinks that Bear is an actual person with feelings and thoughts?

It might have potential...

Otherwise, I need to seriously reevaluate my life.

A beauty and a beast.

She is my stinker but oh, she can manipulate.

YIKES.

WE LOVE YOU AUNT CHI CHI!

My Favorite Place

My friend Emily texted me tonight and now I'm in mourning.

No sad news, in fact the exact opposite. Her text was full of inappropriate references to body parts and sexual innuendos - things best friend text messages are made of.

I was definitely cry-smiling, cryling if you will. 

I miss Eugene.

I miss the Fall there.

I miss coming home from my morning runs sopping wet.

I miss Best Lane Park.

I miss Mama Leone's soup from Whole Foods.

I miss Off The Waffle.

I miss La Perla.

I miss Duck games and green and yellow tortilla chips.

I miss the hippies and the weirdos and the Duck Fans and most of all, I miss my friends. I miss our Wednesday playgroup and Bachelor Girls Nights and late-night craft sessions.

I walked outside last week and noticed all the chalk on our driveway had been washed away by the rain. But it didn't smell like rain. It was just the sprinklers that had washed our artwork away.

Do they sell bottled rain smell?

I need it.

I'm seriously craving it.

So in honor of Eugene, here's some photos from what feels like forever ago (not long before we left Eugene). Let's just say we did a lot of hiking. 

Picking wild raspberries or poisonous mushrooms - I can't remember which.

Ev and Char.

I'm going to go cry in my closet now...

A 6 month old Anna! (She turned ONE this week!)

Someone told me this guy is a Spartan or something...

If I had to choose a Sister Wife, I am convinced Emily would make a great one. She makes popcorn every night at 11 PM and she loves hiking. Its amazing that we found each other in this big giant world.

Anna? Are you there?

She hikes with triplets (sort of).

My hero.

I know there are so many beautiful places on Earth. I've seen a few and I hope in my lifetime to see many more. But I don't know that anything is as beautiful as Oregon.

I adore it.

Hiking = bonding.

I have a few amazing friends here in Yakima. And I'm grateful for that. It has made missing my Eugene friends bearable. I'm convinced friends are essential. Just ask Harry Potter or Skeeter Phelan. Friends matter.

Lazy

I had such grand aspirations of blogging about our entire summer. Are you surprised that I didn't? You shouldn't be. Instead of doing justice to all that's happened, I chucked a bunch of photos into a video and called it a day. It wasn't until after I'd uploaded it onto YouTube that I realized it's chalk full of mistakes and even includes one random video (What the?). Ain't nobody got time for that.

I'm going to blog about a couple of things we did that aren't included in this lazy and mildly cheesy video and I hope beyond the entire Belgian waffle I ate this morning that it happens sooner than later. I strongly dislike when I let my blog die for a few months. Its just daunting trying to catch up - plus it stifles my creativity and I feel like I get boring (well, more boring than my usual). See? I'm boring you now with words that really should be kept inside my crazy noggin.

Without further ado,

This is Fab

This reminded me of my sister (who turned 21 years old today!) in the Philippines.
While we often make fun of her buffoonery towards anti-makeup, her relatively poor personal hygiene and her ability to not feel the emotion of embarrassment, you have to admit ... its sort of awesome.

And Lily Myers kills this slam poetry sesh. Enjoy.




Sister Smart on Mother's Day of this year:

My pants would be on fire if I didn't admit that I'm impatiently counting down the days until November 19th!

Also, here's a link to another song that was LEGITIMATELY written about Lil D. I didn't put the video on my blog because it has two swear words and we like to keep this family friendly.