Saturday's Events

I was so excited on Saturday to get to go to Portland and meet one of my friends from Memphis! Shauna came to Oregon to visit with her sister in Redmond (about 5 hours from us) and we decided to meet in Portland cuz it's in the middle(ish) between our 2 towns. Also, Portland is a decent-sized city and has some great malls and other things to do.

We met at 10 at the Temple (good place to meet, right?!) and after hugs and introductions headed toward the Clackamus Town Center. This is a big, two-story mall in town with lots of great shops - not to mention See's Candies. Oh, how I missed See's Candies!!! They came to the mall near us in Memphis ONE Christmas season while I lived there and I bought 2 boxes of chocolate hoping it would last me awhile. It didn't. :( I was so excited about See's that I had to go in and buy a custom box of chocolates for myself. Sorry, kids, this is NOT for you!

We shopped around for awhile and all three of us got great purses (ok - Shauna's sister got 3 and I'm super jealous!) and then headed outside the mall to Macaroni Grill for lunch. YUM! Shauna bought my lunch as a belated birthday gift. Thanks, Shauna!!!

We shopped some more after that and then decided to call it a day as we all had long drives back home. I had such a great time with them and loved getting to see my "long-lost friend" and meet her super fun sister! Here are a couple pix: Shauna and me with the Portland LDS Temple in the background.
A closer shot. Shauna may look like she's flashing a gang sign, but actually she's just trying to get Randi to take the picture. However, as you can see, Randi was already taking the picture! :)

While I was having my fun in Portland, David and the girls went to Long Beach (just a few blocks past his office there, actually) to enjoy the Sandcastle Contest they were having this weekend. Pretty much everything was free: admission, hot dogs, entertainment. Our kind of event! They had a great time and saw some fabulous creations. Unfortunately, there was a mix up between us about the cameras (I accidentally took the wrong one) so he didn't have a memory card in the one he had. That meant he could only take 9 pictures! DUMB! He did get some good ones, though, and I'll share them with you now! Enjoy, Ruth This was the best one he got pictures of and keep in mind that he could only take 9 pictures, so he chose wisely! This is The Hard Sand Cafe group from Seattle working on their tribute to Indiana Jones. The picture is small, I know, but look at the snake's face. He has Indy's hat on and a rope around his neck. They used kelp for a whip! Pretty clever, right Lora?! :)
Pretty amazing, huh?! That skeleton is depicting Indy inside the snake! AHHHH!
There. On the right side mid-picture you can see the head of the snake that swallowed Indy and now it's wearing his hat! The nerve of reptiles these days! ;o)
A lot of people brought kites to fly that day. I'm excited to go to the kite festival next month. I'll be sure I have a memory card in my camera!
And our cutie-patootie girls making their own sandcastles. Aren't you impressed by the skill and determination. Ok, maybe just the determination! Then, David took them all home and threw them in the tub!