Arcadia Beach

We had a great beach day on Saturday! The weather was awesome the first two hours we were there. Then some light fog rolled in and it was less awesome:) But it burned off after an hour or so, and we were able to enjoy that beautiful sunshine again. We played for five hours and Maddox loved it! We all had a lot of fun walking the beach, digging in the sand, building sandcastles, laying out, playing paddle ball… the usual beach stuff.


Maddox entertaining himself during our drive out.

And Scott buried Maddox standing up. 

Scott was excited to break in his Hungry sunglasses
at the beach. His new steez from work.

Love this family of mine!

High Adventure

I was able to schedule some time off of work to go on a 3 night kayaking trip with the young men from our ward.  It was a lot of fun and I got to see some more of the NW that is still unfamiliar to me.  It would have been fun to share it with Trisha and Maddox so we'll have to do a similar family trip sometime.  We paddled around 15 miles every day (a little less the last day) to get us down the Columbia to the various islands where we would play and camp each night.  The weather cooperated nicely and we didn't lose anyone.  I hadn't ever camped from a kayak so I borrowed some gear from work and co-workers and I really enjoyed the new adventure with the right gear.  We seemed really small at times in the river and next to the container ships we'd pass but it was a pretty peaceful mellow trip while we were on the water.

Portland Food Marathon

6 different restaurants to celebrate our 6 years of marriage!

Our first stop was downtown at Tasty n Alder. We've eaten at their other two restaurants in town and have loved the menus, so we've been anxious to try their new spot. It did not disappoint! This was my favorite of the day.

Potatoes Bravas with over easy eggs and aioli.

Auntie Paula's French Toast with blackberry maple and whipped cream.

Next, we hit Olympic Provisions in the SE. Neither of us had eaten here, but we've been seeing some good reviews. This is the place to be for meat and cheese connoisseurs.

Hot Capicola and Wild Boar Bologna, white cheddar,
egg, aioli, on brioche kaiser bun.

Our first two stops had really fun spaces. Here you can see the
meat curing and some pickling happening up on the shelves.

Of course, besides eating, our next favorite thing is shoes! Continuing our tradition of a new pair for our anniversary.

And apparently we need to practice selfies because they all turned out blurry. So here are some singles of this happy couple on our special day.

I loved the exterior of Olympic Provisions.
And yes, sporting the baby bump:)

I've been hearing about The Waffle Window from some friends, so we decided to check that out for our brunch "dessert." They have both savory and sweet items on their menu. We tried one of their seasonal waffles, yum!

Summer Vibes with blueberry compote, fresh peaches,
blackberry, and whipped cream.

I know what you are thinking at this point… how did we pound so much food in one stretch?! We didn't:) We split up the fun between 2 days, and that made our tasting more enjoyable and the celebrating last longer. Win-win! Our first day we did brunch, second round was a lunch date.


We hit up Boke Bowl in the SE. Scott had eaten here with his team and wanted me to have a sampling of it. This is a really fun spot for ramen. Only chop sticks were allowed though, so I had to use the kiddie ones:)

Pork Dashi Ramen with house noodles, seasonal veggies,
and slow smoked pulled pork.

We walked next door to Bunk (and I was really self-conscious of people seeing us eating lunch twice, haha). They are known for their sandwiches, but our photo actually puts the fries in the limelight. Oops. The sandwich was tasty though, loved all that melted cheesy goodness!

Meatball Parmigiano Hero and fries.

And Ava Genes was our last stop. This was a really nice spot, and my favorite of day two. Dessert of course, delish!

Panna Cotta with peaches and blueberries.

Hazelnut Cruch Gelato with caramel.

We had so much fun! And as much as we love Maddox, it was really fun to spend this time alone celebrating the two of us. Loving every day of this beautiful life together!

And Then There Were Four...

We are excited to share the news that baby girl will be joining our family!

Party in the Park

Every Summer, there is a "party in the park" at one of the parks nearby. The event is geared toward families and all the activities are free. Our family spent a majority of our time at the car show, of course.

Maddox LOVES fire trucks so naturally he was drawn to the two old models at the show. The owner of one of them noticed his interest and was so kind and asked if our little guy would like to sit in it. Maddox was on cloud nine! The cute little puppy was the perfect co-pilot for him.

This car show savvy kid really impresses me with how well
he understands and obeys our instructions to not touch
others' cars. Living up to that Layton name!

Cheese!!

There were also some inflatable toys for the kiddos that we enjoyed. Maddox liked going down the shark slide with dad the best. Again?!

It was another beautiful day spent outside with my besties!