my week in pictures 66 my birthday

monday 6/18 - sunday 8/24

Last week was a bit of a recovery from all of the Brewfest madness the week before, so as you can imagine, my birthday weekend was much more mellow in comparison. I made it through my work week, bowled with some friends on Wednesday, went to a little "girls night" on Friday and then celebrated a bit Saturday and Sunday.

[[ bowling with the dinans - i am terrible, but definitely had the best bowling ball ever, which was way too heavy for me. sweet new workout pants. ice cream! pretty little heirloom tomatoes. ]]

On Saturday me and Pat tried brunch at Jackson's Corner and then headed to the Farmers Market at NWX, which was admittedly smaller than I anticipated, but I still got to try the ice cream truck I have been stalking online called Addy Mac's. They make everything from scratch using as many local ingredients as possible and have really unique flavors, often incorporating some of the brews from around here. I ended up getting a waffle cone of their coffee ice cream and it was by far the best I have ever had. Ice cream = happy Jenn. After that we sat outside of a little wine bar for a glass, went home and relaxed on the hammock, went for a walk around our hood, made a delicious scallop dinner, and drank some wine while we watched movies. Super relaxing Saturday.

[[ farmers market. finally getting my ice cream on!! ]]

We were a bit more ambitious on Sunday, which was my actual birthday. In the morning Pat let me sleep in, made me macadamia nut waffles (yum!), and then we walked to Pilot Butte and did the full hike, which is exactly what I wanted. We stayed at the top a bit longer than usual soaking up the sun and then made our way back down to get ready for the day. Pat had made dinner reservations at Pine Marten Lodge on top of Mt. Bachelor, but we had a little time (and were both getting a bit hangry), so we ran by Boneyard to get our free birthday hats, and then to Crux for a beer and some lunch.

[[ friday night's scallop dinner. bday breakfast! pilot butte hike. beautiful wildflowers. the city. my free birthday hat! ]]

Afterward we drove up to Bachelor and I experienced my first ski lift ride to get to the lodge. I, disliking ferris wheels for their height, was totally freaked out, but it was actually a really fun experience. At the top we grabbed drinks and then met our friends to take some pictures before dinner. The dinner was so so, as expected, but the uniqueness of the evening was worth every penny. After watching an amazing sunset and finishing our meals we called it a night and headed back down the lift. Despite it being August it was absolutely FREEZING at this point and I was thankful that they gave out blankets for the dark ride down. I am also thankful that the ride down was completely dark, because despite that adding a bit more of a fear factor, I was unable to see the 40ft drop directly below us, and the much larger one in the distance. Plus, nighttime lift rides are kinda romantical. Kuddos to Pat for planning out the night! I had an awesome time!

[[ the ski lift. scurred selfies during the ride. views of the sisters and broken top from the lodge. cheesing it up. reflection shots. the amazing and unobstructed sunset from 7,775 feet. my dinner. goodnight. ]]

Here is a little video I took of the ride up before my phone was too full. Pat took a really funny one also of me kind of freaking out (with excellent commentary by the way), but I don't have it in a high enough quality to post right now. You can find it on Facebook though.

Oh yea, I also ate ice cream almost every single day this week. I am not sure if that is winning or loosing, but I think I'm ok with it! Ok, ok, I have eaten it several days this week too... This is why I NEVER have ice cream cartons at my house! Way too tempting.

my week in pictures 65 pat's bday // brewfest weekend

monday 8/11 - sunday 8/17

Last week was all about Pat, and beer... lots of beer in honor of his birthday. 

We basically started off Pat's bday week on Wednesday with the IPA Wars at 10 Barrel, which was a blind tasting to rate the best IPAs by region. Central Oregon won, followed by Washington, the rest of Oregon, and lastly California. While we were there we bumped in to the owners of Pfriem in Hood River and Pat showed them that he was wearing his Pfriem shirt, so they ended up taking a picture of us and putting it on their Instagram. Pat was pretty excited. One kind of crummy thing about the week was that it was pretty much all rain and thunder/lightening storms, so while we were tasting various IPAs we were getting soaked! I have never seen it rain that hard over here. Thank goodness for our Columbia rain jackets, but my poor boots got soaked through! I guess I put a hole in them at Smith Rock while we were taking our engagement pictures... oops.

On Thursday we went to day 1 of Brewfest for a bit in the evening with Hayden, Maggie, and Sam who were in town for the festivities, and then bumped in to Braydon and Rory before Tony and Alex showed up later. It was still damp and pretty cold out, but at least there was no torrential downpour while we were out this time. Later that night Sam brought her puppy Rogue over to our place, so we got some puppy play time in too!

[[ weekly storms. downpour at 10 barrel. we're famous! ipa wars. brewfest night 1. silly group shot fails. puppy play time! ]]

Friday we packed up and got ready to move in to the vacation rental that we had booked for our large incoming group. We had not necessarily planned on making it to Brewfest that day, but we had about an hour to kill, so we showed up for a little bit to experience day 2 before getting back to the house before everyone started showing up. Throughout the rest of the night, our group of 21 arrived and we just hung at the rental, which ended up being perfect for everyone. Luckily the rain had stopped also and we got awesome weather all day Friday and Saturday.

[[ brewfest day 2: live art. custom mustache mugs. the biggest moth ever. we're awesome. ]]

Saturday was Pat's actual birthday (Happy Birthday babe!!!) so we all rolled to Brewfest day 3 with the most ridiculous set up ever. We seriously established a compound with our own corn hole set, lawn chairs, blankets, hydroflasks filled with ice water, and even a quick shade. It was awesome. We were in the amphitheater almost until closing playing games, tasting everything we could get our hands on, and sampling some food cart goodness. Finally we gathered everyone and cabbed it back to the house for the night. When we got back me and Megan put our cupcake plan in to action and presented Pat with some pretty sweet superhero cupcakes (if I do say so myself), and then, as you can imagine, the rest of the evening was a blur of Cards Against Humanity, hot tubbing, drinks, etc. before we all went to bed. I had also made Pat a sweet bday shirt (as requested by him) for Saturday that said "It's My Birthday Pour Big" and I was told it actually worked a few times! 

[[ brewfest day 3: pat & his bday shirt! corn hole. bros. bff. group shot attempts. a weird selfie of the random guys taking the pictures for us. group shot wins minus a few people. epic superhero cupcakes! ]]

On Sunday we all packed up/cleaned up and then headed to breakfast before most of the group split for home. We had a few stragglers so we decided to go float the Deschutes and then had a BBQ at our place while the sun set. Sunday night there was a massive storm over Bend and I stood outside for about an hour filming the sky to catch some sweet lightening shots. I got a ton, but the one below was definitely the best! Thanks to Alex for standing outside and staring at a blank sky with me for so long.

[[ floating with friends. yes, i wore this pirate hat ALL DAY LONG. ]]

And check out the sweet video below of the lightening storm!!! If you turn up your volume you can hear the thunder roar in too. So pumped I caught this one as it snaked across the sky. I shot this from our driveway.

a little sneak peak of our engagement session

Last Sunday me and Pat spent the evening with our fabulous photograher Haley Lovett wandering around Smith Rock in entirely inappropriate hiking clothing, and pretending to like each other.

It was so much fun! At first we were both a little bit like, "um... where do we put our hands!?" but then with commands like "ok, grab his butt" and "pretend like you are whispering something in his ear", which lead to inappropriate whisperings and tons of laughter, we definitely started getting the hang of things. Despite the mid 90's heat and the wind making my hair completely out of control (I think at one point I even said "that's it, I'm buzzing it.") we are confident that Haley got some amazing shots. But then again, with the dessert scenery and canyons in the background, how could she not?!

Below are a few of the previews we have received so far. Based on these four I am SO excited to see what else she has for us!!

[[ some preview photos from our engagement shoot. ]]

location scouting at smith

Last Saturday me and Pat spent a little bit of time at Smith Rock scouting for possible shooting locations for our engagement pics which took place on Sunday. 

First of all... yea, yea, yea, we have been engaged for three years already, but who doesn't want a photoshoot still?! Second, the reason scouting was important is because every time we go to Smith we go for the purpose of hiking Misery Ridge, and although the views at the top are beautiful, that was not exactly something we were willing to attempt in 95 degree weather while we were all dressed up. 

We explored some new areas that were absolutely stunning and now we totally want to go back and hike some of the other trails! I had no idea there were even so many. The scouting ended up being a great idea as we used many of the locations and I am so so so excited to see our photos... but more on that later. I will have some previews for you next week. :)

[[ location scouting at smith rock. ]]

my week in pictures 64

monday 8/4 - sunday 8/10

This was an unusual week since we the first half in Portland, and came home in time for the weekend. A little backwards compared to usual, but it was really fun and a nice change of pace! I will post my best pictures from Portland on here, and then do another post with our Saturday adventures at Smith.

Pat had to go to Portland on Tuesday to work on stands for the MLS All Star game (which took place Wednesday), so I decided to tag along with him. I went to work in the morning, and then headed home and we immediately left for PDX. The drive was a total pain for some reason. Seriously, no idea why there were so many people on the road on a Tuesday afternoon. Once we finally made it in to town we checked in to the Hotel Deluxe, which I had always wanted to check out. It was really cute and our room was quite spacious. We settled in and then walked to Providence Park to meet up with the Timbers team (who would be running the MLS event) and get our credentials for the next day. The amount of branding all over Portland for the event was pretty incredible too. Signage everywhere you looked, including on the sidewalk!

[[ the hotel. mls branding everywhere! ]]

Before leaving for Portland I had gotten in touch with my friend Megan's boyfriend to try and set up a little surprise meeting since I missed her birthday the week before, so after we were done we headed downtown to surprise her. We went to The Yardhouse where they were already having drinks (sneaky, sneaky) and I sort of just slid into the booth next to her without her knowing it was me. She was so excited that she cried, and told me she hated me for surprisingly her, naturally. I loved it! We spent some time with the two of them before some of our other friends came out for dinner. Afterwards we headed back to the hotel and checked out the Driftwood Room, which is the hotel lounge specializing in classic cocktails. I don't remember exactly what I got, but it was "from the garden" and amazing. Then we walked the few feet to the elevator and went up to bed.

[[ surprising megan, followed by silly pictures. ]]

The next morning we both worked from the hotel room before checking out and grabbing some breakfast at Kornblatt's (bagels and lox, obviously). After eating we went to the stadium and I wandered around for a while before hopping on the Max to meet up with my friend Francisco at his sweet new workspace. It was pretty amazing, and I am definitely jealous of their set up! He gave me the tour and then we went a grabbed a coffee for a bit before he had to get back to work and I had to get back downtown for the game, so we said our goodbyes and I hopped back on the Max.

[[ jewish breakfast. portland views from the mac. ]]

Once I got downtown again it was madness all around the stadium. Doors weren't for another hour or two but there were people already lining up everywhere. Lucky for me, I had my credentials, so I got right in and got to spend a little time exploring with Pat before everything was on total lock down.

Since I had actually watched a ton of World Cup this year (thanks to Pat) I was kind of excited to see a bunch of the key US and German players in the match. During the game Pat was running around working, so I posted up in a corner with a good vantage point (since I didn't have a real ticket) and took a ton of pictures. In the end MLS won and my feet were killing me.

[[ at the mls all star game: fireworks over providence park. presentation. my vantage point. gooooaaaallll. ]]

After the game we met a few people at Lompoc Brewery, including Megan and Dion, and then headed to my mom's place where we worked the next day. Thursday evening I finished up my work and drove over to the retirement home where my grandparents now live to visit with my Grandpa. It was really great to see him and have some one on one time after letting way too much time go past. After a while my mom came by, and then the three of us went in to the Memory Care portion of the home to see my Grandma. One day in the nearish future I will actually devote a post to this subject, but the specifics do not belong in a "My Week" post, so I will leave it at that for now.

When we were finished visiting, me and my mom met the boys at a BBQ joint for dinner and then me and Pat headed back over the pass for home.

Over the weekend we tried to take it pretty easy in anticipation of our engagement photos, which we took on Sunday evening. We stayed in and relaxed Friday night since we were both tired from the trip to Portland. On Saturday we went to Smith Rock to scope out locations for the shoot, and then ran a bunch of errands before Pat's parents came over for dinner. Sunday we spent getting ready and then at Smith getting our pictures taken. I will post much more on this later, as well as some of the images from our location scouting trip Saturday.

[[ scouting for shooting locations at smith. ]]