Monday, May 4, 2009

Girls Weekend ++++

A couple weeks ago I boarded a plane headed to Portland. My sweet friend Sarah picked me up at the airport with a cup of joe waiting for me. How'd she know!??! Chloe and Evan had grown so much in the four months since I'd seen them, they were pretty excited to see me which of course melted my heart. We headed down to Lora's to see baby Alayna and my first "stop" for the weekend.

Isn't she beautiful? Little Alayna Beth made her appearance a few weeks early so I missed being there for her debut. However she was still pretty tiny at a week old and I just love that itty bitty baby stage. She's perfectly precious.


I love love love baby feet.


Big sister Shylah needed some camera action. :) The boys weren't too into posing.


After a night of baby holding, catching up with my awesome friend Lora and her family I met up with my dad (who broke his leg in two places and can't drive much) and his buddy who took me to get a rental car and pick up dads fiance Brenda ( more affectionately known as "bean") :) who was flying in from Montana. Meeting Bean was a highlight of the trip for sure. Dad is getting married in June and we've been wanting to meet for months. Long distance kept that from happening until now. Thank goodness for free long distance, email, facebook, and snail mail! I felt like I'd known her for years and it was a blessing to finally meet. She makes my dad so incredibly happy which of course thrills our hearts. We'll be up to Oregon for the wedding and the kids can't wait to meet nani-bean! :)

Off to meet Christy for a girls night out on the town! You can read about how I "met" Christy here and our real life meeting at very bottom of this post. Christy and I hit the ground running so we could fit in as many stores as possible. :) Some Anthropologie, Mac, and a few other stops before we hit up California Pizza Kitchen for some dinner. It was wonderful just sitting and talking in peace, I'm just amazed at how God brought our families together and how much we have in common. I'm so blessed to call Christy my friend. She's an encourager, a listener, and really helped me relax on this trip. Laughter is definately good medicine! Thank you sweet friend.


Saturday Christy and I headed out for a day of shopping the outlets and hanging with Bethany and Leul. Bethany and I met during our adoption process and became fast friends. She's an amazing woman and it has been a pleasure watching her develop some mean mama skills. Jeff and Bethany are amazing parents and little Leul is just precious. We hung a bit and talked adoption, Ethiopia, orphans, doing more, and just enjoyed the commradery. Of course I loved some Leul time too. Love that kid!


Love this boy!!


Aren't they just gorgeous? Check out
this post to see a similar picture a year ago. Hasn't Leul changed SO much?



Christy and I shopped the outlets, went to lunch, and back to her house to freshen up before I headed up to the Couv for my dads engagement party. Dad and Brenda are getting married in June so Dads siblings threw a little party in their honor. It was great to see everyone and spend some time together.


Uncle Dave's pooch, not a huge fan of dogs but he's pretty cute.

Dad, Bean, and I.

Me, Bean, and Aunt Marcia.
Uncle Dave and his mean grillin' skilz.
Dad and Bean.
Ahhh.
My bro, cousin Andrea, me.

A whirlwind weekend and back home I flew. It was great to get away but I missed my kids and hubby. Thanks babe for sending me away to be refreshed. Love you!

11 comments:

Christy. said...

Great post! I loved all the pictures and the links, can you teach me how to do all that?!?

Soooo glad God brought us together, He knew we needed each other!

Can't wait for Round 2, Girl's Weekend with you in a couple of weeks. We are such blessed traveling mommas!!

By the way, I am sitting in the front room on my computer waiting for the mailman, I know, I am a bit obsessive today! lol

Nicholas said...

What a fun update! Great pictures too! Jealous you got to be w/Bethany and Leul! :) xoxo

I'm anxious to hear more details about your move.

Sarah said...

A time of refreshment is truly a precious gift. Funny, now that I'm a missionary mommy, I just hate to travel. Keep travelin' for all of us!

Hugs from Costa Rica,
Sarah Dawn

J Gutwein said...

Hi Erica.. I just saw in your last post that you are moving to Tampa Bay FL soon. We live in Gainesville FL. We have Luca (2 years old) & have been on the waitlist for 1 1/2 mos. for baby from ET. Let me know when you move & if you would like to get together. Love, J (http://web.mac.com/lgutwein)

Eryn said...

Oh, Vancouver? That's where I live! I wish I would have "known" you then. Oh well, maybe when you come to portland again, we can all have a girls nite!

Bethany said...

Hey there, Thanks for finding my blog! And you are right - what a SMALL world :) I recognize you from the Yahoo AZ group for Ethiopian adopters! Sounds like you guys are heading to Florida? Wow, what a change! Hopefully we can stay in touch via "blogville" now that we have connected.

Sarah said...

Can't wait for you to come back!!!

Gwen Oatsvall said...

what fun and i am sure very relaxing to just get away and visit those you love ...

i didn't get an email ??? try again ... i will check my spam ... w/ Amazima stuff now things tend to go there when my inbox is full ...

Mom to many said...

What a great time! Sounds so fun!

Unknown said...

how ya doin' girl? love ya!!

Keisha Suzanne said...

What a time you seem to have had... I hope God was able to fill you up so you can over flow in the lives of your family after a refreshing time away.
Blessing to each of you..