Valentine's Day Weekend

About 10 days before Valentine's Day, Mom offered to watch Dallin so Austin and I could go on a little get-a-away. We scrambled and found a hotel in Bainbridge but then decided to change our plans and do a weekend in Portland instead so Dallin could see cousins as well.

The night before Valentine's Day, I put up some hearts on the door and kitchen walls. Nothing fancy but we tried. Austin made yummy pancakes in the morning. We took it easy but got on the road at a good time and made it early afternoon to Gresham.

Austin and I headed out a couple hours later with lots of yummy treats and Dad's old 1998 max ticket just in case. We figured we could pay $2.50 for the ticket but thought it was hilarious about my parent's and their deals on stuff. Since there wasn't a way to validate it, we decided to give it back and hang it on their wall as a memento.

We ordered pizza the night before so after we checked in at the Hotel Deluxe, we got pizza (so yummy but I loved the added jalapeno sauce on top #spicelady) We came back and watched some tv then headed to Tartberry for fro-yo. All Portland weekend, we basically went from one eatery to the next. It was pretty quiet considering it was Valentine's weekend but it could be our location which was more north and it rained all of Saturday.

The next morning we had to stop by Ken's Artisan's Bakery because I've taken inspiration for my own artisan bread making as I've used his bread book these last few months. It's the cutest bakery/cafe! We got a raisin pecan but our mouth watered for all the macaroons and cakes and brownies on displayed. You felt like you stepped into a little French shop.

Of course we had to take a look at Powell's. And by take a look, meaning spend almost two hours in one room! We headed to the rose room which had all kids through teen books. We have a running list of books to check out from the library from the titles we saw there. It was probably a good idea we only had stuffed backpacks because we would have hoarded some books, particularly picture books. Having a kid makes me want to buy all the books!

We ate soup and bread at Whole Foods and two yummy vegan doughnuts (not healthy whatsoever but oh so good and a lot cheaper than most doughnut shops for sure) then we headed to see Little Women! I love love that movie. I don't think I will tire of seeing it. Many tears were shed from both of us.

By the afternoon we were ready to go see Dallin! We really missed that kid, especially as we were seeing all these kids in the stores. I'm so grateful for Mom and Dad and Viv who helped out. I feel bad that it was a rough night for all; Mom got pushed to the couch because Dad brought Dallin to sleep in their bed at 12:30AM, yikes!

Sunday night we spent time with the Vances and it's always fun to end our stay with dinner and laughter with everyone there.

 We were on the Frank Capra level and so we had to take pictures of two of our favorite Capra movies.