All the way from PA

 Of course I was having such a good time that I didn't take many pictures. Luckily I got a few when we went to see the swifts one night. September tradition!

 I think one of my favorite moments of Kenz's time here was when she thought a recycling/deposit center was an outdoor laundromat.

Whenever Kenz and Tyler come for a visit, it seems like we are welcoming them back home. And after about 10 minutes it feels like they have always been around. Luckily for us, we married husbands that are alike enough to handle all the time we need together. Because when twins are married the attitude is--"we need to go make up shopping, talking at rapid speed about random stuff for two hours. Have fun, guys!" It would be horrible to be married to people who didn't have that much in common--not that it would take away from us spending time together, of course--they would just have a lot of awkward time together in their future. I think they actually enjoy commiserating and comparing our shared foibles and (lovable) quirks, which are many.

It was so great to have them here for a whole week, because we got to do just about everything we planned--food places and fabric thrift stores and everything in between. If we would have put Kenz on the plane with a Taco Time crisp bean burrito, the trip would have been complete. We ate so much, it took me about a half hour to come up with the complete list later. Kenz did a great compilation of everything we ate on her blog. We visited a lot of old favorites, but found some new favorites too. Needless to say, it was one of the best weeks of the summer.  Theo loved loved loved having them around, especially with Uncle Tyler's love of scaring kids, and Theo's love of being scared. It was a perfect match. And I even found some great thrifting scores. Heaven! I hope they come back as soon as possible. Once I work the extra pounds off.

A Few Days of Summer

Call me weird, but I like Portland weather. Oftentimes you will hear people whine for months on end that the winter wasn't snowy enough, it was too snowy, too wet, too cold, too cloudy, summer came for a week, summer isn't a billion degrees, summer didn't let me build that awesome tan, etc. And although I just sounded like I never complain, even I (yes, me!) can get bored and wish things were different.
And while my pale, non-tan self enjoyed our mild, comfortable summer, I was looking forward to our Oceanside trip with Jon's family. I wanted to sit in the sun, get even slightly uncomfortably hot, and read a magazine by the pool. I am only human. Plus my hair needed some natural lightening.

Turns out, Theo loves the ocean and the waves. He got dirty, but never too dirty. Which is perfect I think. The water was at its warmest and I even got in long enough for a remedial boogie boarding 101 lesson from Jon. We sat in the sun, drenched in SPF 110 so we got all the warmth, and none of the skin damage (best of both worlds! FYI we use half a bottle of sunblock as a family in ONE application. I'm not exaggerating). I also beat Jon in ping pong, an epic feat in which I invented a new victory dance. I think I called it "the rewind." You may see me perform it sometime in the future when I achieve athletic greatness.

Things were going so well. Then the blackout hit. (I thought it was national news--it wasn't. It was a blackout from San Diego into Mexico and Arizona. Huge.) I've never been in a blackout before, but I can assume when you are vacationing it is that much worse. The power was out Thursday afternoon, and word on the street was that maybe we would have power again by Friday night, but that was tentative. Being in a city with no power was strange. Luckily there was a street festival thing that basically fed the whole city dinner that night on generators and propane, but people kept talking about "wait until tonight, there will be crazy crime," and people were buying ice like they had a cryogenics lab in their garage or something. After dinner I was anxious to get home before dark, as if zombies were going to come out. I saw one house in the neighborhood with a generator running, fence padlocked in front to prevent an attack from the under prepared. (Or more zombies? My fears get really irrational at times.) Add in a little general paranoia and my father in law talking about the end of times, I was working full time trying to keep a full fledged panic attack at bay. Then, the power came back on. I was so relieved. Vacation saved! So in summary, an exciting trip.