the one where we went to portland.

hi friends!

 2 weekends ago we packed up our little silver car, and drove the 3 hours south to our favorite vacation spot. nick and i spent our one year wedding anniversary in portland, and then we took maggie last year when she was 6 months old, & decided to go again this year. its like a memorial day tradition. we love, love, love portland {enough to move there if the Lord asked us to.} i'll warn you now, this post will be full of a lot of photographs - and if you follow us on instagram then they will all be repeats. we instagramed {is that a word? if not, it will be soon. weird.}  the entire trip. 

the pearl decided that she was going to stay awake the entire day. no sleeping on the ride there - but we borrowed a dvd player so she got to watch elmo and we got to drive without a screaming overtired toddler. also - she is adorable. 

while she listened to elmo sing the abc's - nick and i got our dance on. we love to dance in the car. i'll show you a video sometime.

so, we never plan anything when we go to portland. we just drive there, priceline a hotel and then do whatever. when we showed up to the hotel that we got, there was a man screaming at the top of his lungs walking around the street. nick went inside to check in and then came out to get our bags {and us!} and the cops pulled in and yelled for the man to get his hands where they could see them and lie on the pavement. nick jumped in the car and we watched them pull tons of junk out of his pockets, including needles and stayed in the car becuase we were blocked by 2 cop cars, an ambulance. it felt like we were on an episode of COPS. there is never a dull moment with us when we go on vacation. 

so, just in case that night was not fun enough, we couldnt get maggie to sleep in the hotel. at all. maybe for like 2 hours. but she did get so grumpy at me, that she scratched me in the face & i had blood all over my cheek, while nick and i sleepily tried to get her to sleep. it was miserable. but the second night, the GLORIOUS second night, she fell asleep, and slept until after 8 in the morning. vacation with a little one is not always easy. 

most of our photos are of food. which is clearly our favorite part of taking a vacation. we ate well, and stayed caffinated. we thrifted a little, and went to crafty wonderland, powells,and a park, and drove around looking at all the houses while i dreamed about moving into them. *sigh*

the best place that we ate was on sunday morning for breakfast. it is called slappy cakes. basically you make your pancakes at your table on a griddle. it was AMAZING. maggie loved it, we loved it and it was so worth the 45 min wait. we will go there every single time we go to portland now. if you are going, you should make sure to stop there and eat. 

we are already really looking forward to next year! {although i am pretty sure i'll be making a little trip by myself for a blogger meet up in the fall! eeek! } 

the post about disneyland that took me 3 days to write.

i know friends. i promised blog posts. i promised pictures. i promised stories. and i think i even promised recipes. what i didnt know was that our car was going to break down - and that being at home with a crazy toddler was going to prevent me from blogging, not to mention i have been so tired from all the emotional stuff that has gone on with me since our fun little disneyland trip. 


i'll start by saying that our trip started off really awesome, but a little bit stressful. i guess flying makes me nervous - well not really the flying part, but the getting through security part. once that was over we were having so much fun just being with each other - on our first non pregnant non baby trip since our honeymoon almost 3 years ago. 


our plane boarded and we settled into our seats, waved goodbye to the rain in seattle and headed out on our adventure. 

we have family that lives less than 30 mins away from disneyland, adn they were so super gracious to pick us up at the airport, let us stay in their room in their house, and made it possible for us to use one of their cars. it was a HUGE blessing. we woke up on sunday morning, packed our things from their house, and headed to church - it was so fun to check out mars hill orange county! i wanted to take more pictures but it was so dark in the theater that i couldnt - plus i didnt want look awkward. so this is all i got. 

its a sad little photo. i know. moving on.
we went straight from church to disneyland. and we got into a silly little argument over where to eat and when to eat. {so dumb - and so my fault} SO we ate lunch and were in way better moods when we reached the front gate. i seriously almost cried. i was so excited to be crossing this off our list, so excited to be in my favorite place ever, and so excited to be on vacation with my husband - alone, not pregnant and baby free for the first time since our honeymoon nearly 3 years ago. it was glorious. 

i love this.

beautiful, wonderful castle.

one happy lady {checking in on facebook. ha ha}

his very first time at disneyland!

this boy's hair was too incredible to not take a photo of.  am i right?

best roller coaster ever

happily ever after.

the worst part of our entire trip. {and i am not just saying that cuz my face looks awesome.} oh.my.

my favorite place.

my strong husband.

you have to kiss at disneyland - especially when its decorated for valentines day.

my favorite person, my favorite place, my favorite holiday.

take a moment to look at my husband who is making the best face ever. and not on purpose. HA HA.

what a catch, that man of mine.

SO - we ate yummy food, had such fun, laughed and then something kinda awful happened. i convinced my husband to go on splash mountain with me {even though he didnt want to go for many different reasons..} and while we were on that wonderful ride, a gallon of water came rushing into our log boat, soaking me and filling up my purse. which would not have been a problem if my brand new video camera and my cell phone would not have been in there. :( it kind of put a hold on all the fun - but we did have a good time, even though all those things happened. i have so much more to share - i have so much more to talk about, but it has taken me nearly 3 days to write this silly post, blogger would not upload my photos. so i am going to post this , and write more about our disneyland trip when i feel a little more shiny and happy. maybe tomorrow. maybe this weekend. but soon. i promise. 

back from vacation

hello friends! 

i am {sort of} back from vacation. it was a really great time away- even though a lot of things happened that we kinda a bummer {more on that later this week}. getting away with my husband was amazing. it was so wonderful to just hang out and not have to really think of anything but having fun together. 

and dont think that i forgot about the fact that my favorite holiday was this past week -  although it was on the day that we got home so we didnt really do much celebrating this year- except last night us ladies took nick out on a date {and it was awesome and more on that later too} 

this week we also learned that maggie loves smoothies - and will drink anything if its blended. so send your favorite smoothie recipes my way!

so basically, this post is just to say hello & that i will be back next week with lots of pictures, stories, and some new recipes that we have tried. and maybe a {just maybe} a DIY post. i have like 3 that i want to share, but i am really awful at taking photos soo, we will see. i am not going to promise - but i will try. 

have a lovely weekend!! 

the flu bug 2 macewen's 1 {lets keep that way mmmkay.}

so, remember what i said about puking in my last post?
well, tuesday night the flu bug hit me. and it hit hard.

i was S I C K. 
& nick was so great to take care of me.
& he stayed up with me all night long. {best husband ever!}
then he went to work the next morning. and my mama came to take
care of me. {best mama ever} until my brother got hit with the bug. :( 


& our whole week was filled with puke, toliets, laundry, gatorade, and trying to get back on our feet. 
nick is the only one that has not been barfing his guts out. 
and i hope it stays that way because 

tomorrow we fly to disneyland!!! 

 yep. at 6:30pm i'll be soaring through the air to the happiest place on earth. {i am trying to focus on all the exciting things, and not on the fact that i wont get to snuggle my baby girl for 4 whole days!} this will be the longest we have been away from the pearl and baby free since FOREVER. okay, so since 15 months ago. but really, this will be our first non pregnant, baby free trip since our honeymoon - I AM SO EXCITED. 

so, things will be a little quiet over here next week. and i am not even going to let it bother me that i didnt do anything relating to valentines day on this blog. okay, okay, it bothers me a little since it is my favorite holiday, but i am letting go.. right now. 

i hope you all have a lovely weekend and i'll be back on wednesday with photos and stories from the happiest place on earth! 

 

wanna know something?

we have been sick for days. 

but i wanted to pop in and say hello! 

& that we are headed here in just about a month. 

Source: google.com via Anna on Pinterest

oh yeah, i am so excited, i can hardly stand it. 

i'll be back - as soon as i am done going through boxes of tissues. 

portland {in photos}

alright, so this might be a photo overload, & i am sorry, but we had so much fun this past weekend in portland! maggie was an angel, & loved traveling & slept amazing in the hotel & loved walking around the city so much. it was a huge blessing to spend this time with my little family!

cupcake jones. vanilla pearl cupcake.

crafty wonderland. basically an etsy store on a street corner, next to the best toy store. ever.

pooped from our long day of walking.

swoon. he is so handsome.

baby maggie's first time on a swing. she completely loved it.

maggie loves vacation

my dream plate from anthro.

maggie & daddy hanging out

goodnight maggie

family photo

we ate at a wings place called, fire on the mountain & it was SO yummy!

for breakfast we ate at a place called, the original & i had fruitloop pancakes. healthy? nope. delicious? yes.

maragaret pearl loves the city.

love.

strolling through the park

one of our favorite parts of portland.

i will post more about all the wonderful places that we ate, the things that we saw & more details of our time later this week {in different posts..} but i just was anxious to post some of our photos from our spur of the moment adventure! 

what did you do this weekend?