Wooden Shoe Tulip Festival

We had such a fun adventure this week.  We had the opportunity to go to the Wooden Shoe Tulip Festival in Woodburn, Oregon.  It is toward the end of the season/festival so according to the daily field report 'only' 70% of the 40 acre field was in bloom.  It was incredible.  JD and I compliment each other in a lot of ways an example includes our photography, normally when we get home from our trips all of my photos are big landscapes and portraits.  JD's photos are always zoomed in photos of flowers, bugs, birds, leaves, etc.   Needless to say this setting was perfect for us.  We had taken over 200 photos before we left. 

We had a great time taking pictures, walking around the fields, looking at the huge variety of tulips, and people watching.  We were both happy to have made it down before it was over, we were also glad we got there early because it was nuts when we were leaving. 

Tulips Panoramas

Pittock Place

We went for a nice walk around different parts of forest above Portland today.  We verified that there are no roses in the International Rose Test Garden and that it was recently pruned.  We then went up to Pittock Mansion and took in the view from there.  I was also excited because the parking lot was also a trailhead for Forest Park, so I finally can say that I was in Forest Park today.  Forest Park is a 40 mile loop system that is right down town and because it is so big, it connects many different parts of the city.  It is huge and there are a ton of maps and trailheads and suggestions and I have always been a little overwhelmed in making that our destination, but now we will have to get back up there again soon.

Adidas Employee Store

 
 
My work provides an Employee Store Pass each April to get into the Adidas and Columbia Employee Stores (they used to do Nike as well but not anymore).  JD and I were able to make the trip to North Portland this morning to check out the Adidas Campus and store and it was definitely interesting.  It was super busy and there were people all over the place trying on shoes, clothes, etc.  I ended up with socks and  a jacket, though I think it would be more fun to go if we actually had more money we could spend, because with 50% off it really is a pretty good deal on most items.  I really enjoyed the giant sneakers they had in front of one of their buildings so we got to take a quick detour past the campus soccer field and basketball court/gym/weightroom (blue circular building in the top picture) to check them out.

Infographics

Annual Scrapbooking Adventure

I enjoy scrapbooking but I don't do it very often, nor do I do very much of it when I do.  Typically I will do an annual summary of pages each year in November/December.  Problem is this year between flying home for Christmas and work obligations, I never did get to putting together the pages.  This Conference weekend seemed like a great opportunity to mess up the living room and get these pages done.  I do a set for my family (which is then color copied for the Clarke and Hewlett Grandparent books), and I do the full year summary in addition to the summary pages for myself and JD for the Speths, finally I do our own personal set.  I use the same pictures for each set though each one has a different amount of space allowed and arrangements to be figured out.  I really enjoyed doing this before, in between, and after sessions in addition to during the musical numbers of Conference.  It was fun to have a reminder of what happened last year and see the different things that my family has accomplished.  I am super excited to give the Speth's their pages in May when they come to visit, better late than never.

Getting Excited