Portland

**So, this post is about a week late. I've been meaning to write it, but I haven't had a chance to. I have a very good excuse, and that is excuse is that I've been pretty lazy**

 A long time ago, in a small little Louisiana town called New Orleans, there lived a young boy named Grant. He went to a church, and several young couples invested in his life in youth group and Bible studies. And one by one, all of those couples moved away. And he was sad. One of those couples was Tim & Peggy Crane.

Years later, a delightful little thing called Facebook came into all of our lives, and Grant was reconnected with the Crane's. As years went on, Peggy and I had a Facebook friendship that we both knew was the "real deal" if only we could MEET EACH OTHER IN PERSON.

And they were all "Hey, we live in Oregon, you should come see us" and we were all "Hey, we've never been there, maybe we should go" and Grant was all like "It will be like 'A River Runs Through It"" and I was all like "I could wear my Ugg boots and not look stupid". (Note, I wore my Ugg boots. It wasn't that cold. I looked stupid)

So last weekend, we flew to Portland, Oregon (or OreGON as our flight attendant, Dwayne pronounced it) to see Grant's old friends and my new friends, the Crane's and their adorable 7 year old son, Elijah. 

This was taken from our window as the plane was coming in for a landing. 

On Friday, Grant and Tim went fishing. They did something call spear-heading (that may be totally wrong and I might have just made that up) and they had a wonderful time. 

Another photo from their fishing excursion.

During their fishing trip, I got to see downtown Portland with Peggy and eat lunch at a swanky little restaurant where we both had risotto.

Then we went and picked up Elijah from school. Let me tell you something about this child: He is SUPER smart, SUPER funny, and SUPER well behaved. We instantly became friends. And I'd like to think we instantly became friends due to more than just the fact that I brought him Star Wars legos.

Tim's family has a cabin near Mt. Hood that was built in 1929 and has been in the family ever since. It was BEAUTIFUL. Such a treat!! They took us there where we stayed for two nights.

Isn't it just heavenly?!

 This creek is in front of the cabin. You hear it rushing all day and all night. It was the perfect white noise. Such a wonderful time amongst God's creation!!

Another view of the cabin.

While there, we munched on yummy food, had great talks, played some really ridiculously competitive card games, and drank coffee by the fire. There was no television, no cell service, no internet. Honestly, it felt liberating. The vacation was short, but it felt so long because it was such a retreat from everything.

This is Grant and Elijah building Lego's in their pajamas on Saturday morning. Peggy's back there making pancakes from scratch :)

Here's Tim by the fire. They were such greats hosts!!

So, there are actually 2 other members of the Crane family: Piper and Sadie. Piper is my BFF. On the drive to the Gorge, Piper crawled up in my lap and stayed there. She is a sweet girl.

And Sadie is also so sweet and loves to be loved on. She is a bit older and for her to lay down and get back up is a 12 step process but we just encouraged her through it. :)

Saturday we went down to the Columbia river gorge and shopped and ate. Y'all know I love shopping and eating. The mountains still had snow on them so it was quite a change from the 95 degree weather we've been having in Houston.

After we each ate about 3 cupcakes, we drove to the Timberline Lodge on Mt. Hood.

Here is the mountain. It is bigger in person. Obviously.

And here we are in front of the mountain. We are also bigger in person.

Honestly, I can't imagine a more perfect getaway with better friends. Peggy taught me the all important game of Slap Poker and we also shared our love of the book "Bossy Pants". Grant got to be a mountain man for a few days and reconnect with old friends. And he got to build Legos with Elijah and I think he enjoyed it more than Elijah did.

Grant & Jen love the Crane's!!

They really are awesome :)

 Thanks for a wonderful trip!!