Cavities, BBQing, & Hiking Adventures

HI GUYS!

What a Monday. A may or may not be writing you all with most of my face numb 😂It’s great. I’ll get to why that is in just a second.

Anywho, it has been a while… and as usual, I don’t even know where to begin… so I will begin by recapping my day today thus far AND then quickly run through the past few weeks. So buckle your seatbelts folks, were about to blast through a few weeks worth of life happenings.

Facing My Fears – aka visiting the Dentist

This morning started off by my alarm going off and me reluctantly rolling over to check my calendar for the day. Half awake, I stared at my calendar and read “Cavities, Yay!” on my calendar. What. Was it already time to get my cavities taken care of??

Unamused, I hopped over to my computer, let Winston out, and began working before getting ready for my dreaded dentist appointment. If you guys could not already tell, I hate going to the dentist. Like, I really hate it. Needles terrify me, so getting a cavity filled is my least favorite thing. I don’t know why, but the needles they use for numbing your mouth always seem to hurt way more than regular shots. Maybe because it is in your mouth and not on a fleshy part of your arm? Who knows.

Anyway, I made my way over to the dentist. After procrastinating on getting my cavities taken care of for just around one year now (I know, I am awful), I finally had them filled. 6 shots later, my teeth are in tip top shape! Yay!

Unfortunately, putting off getting my cavities taken care of for a year meant that my cavities were a little deeper than usual. Thankfully not root canal deep, but as my dentist put it, “uncomfortably deep”. At the end of my appointment, my dentist prescribed prescription strength ibuprofen and recommended that I took it as soon as possible. So, I decided to head over to a Nektar Juice Bar nearby to take with my ibuprofen.

Seeing that I needed to pick up the ibuprofen from a pharmacy and quickly get back to work, grabbing a smoothie was definitely ideal. The only frustrating part? Struggling to drink the smoothie. Who knew that drinking out of a straw when your lips are numb could be such a difficult task?!

After running to the pharmacy, grabbing groceries while waiting for my prescription, and battling Portland traffic, I managed to get home and finish my remaining work for the day AND get started writing on here! As for the rest of my evening, I plan on relaxing, waiting for this numbness to go away, and binge watching Grace & Frankie – a new tv show Ian and I have been enjoying!

Ok, so now on to what I have been up to for the past few weeks!

New York City

With one of my projects currently in the process of wrapping up, I headed over to my client’s HQ to review or project’s state.

While the trip was absolutely exhausting, I still enjoyed taking in NYC and the food for a day.

Unfortunately I did not have enough energy to explore much – thanks to a 6 hour flight there and back.. and only being there for a total of 2 days (plus time zone changes). However, I did have the chance to walk around a little and see the gorgeous architecture in NYC.

Engagement Party in Rockaway Beach

After flying back from NYC, I unpacked my suitcase and then repacked it for our engagement party in Rockaway Beach, Oregon. My brother was to land 7 or so hours after I landed, so I quickly ran errands with Ian to prep for our party. We then picked up both of our brothers and headed back to our apartment to get some sleep before driving to the coast that next morning. I was absolutely exhausted.

The Airbnb we got was absolute incredible. The weather was not awesome during our stay at the coast but the view was insane. I will definitely be returning to this Airbnb in the future.

Once at the Airbnb, we got everything ready before all of our friends arrived. Later that night when everyone got in, we spent time catching up and hanging out in the Airbnb’s hot tub. It was awesome!

That next morning we headed out to Cannon Beach for some beach time. Most of my friends had never been to the Oregon coast, so I wanted to show them around one of my favorite coastal towns.

We also took lots of photos 😁

Although I was exhausted from travelling to NYC and having a somewhat stressful meeting  before going to the coast, it felt so good to be able to see my friends again. I hadn’t been able to spend in person time with my friends since Ian and I moved from Santa Clara up to Portland.

What a time! You bet I went to bed early every night that following week AND consumed lots and lots of coffee 😉

Park City, Utah

After Memorial Day weekend, my entire company headed to Park City for our yearly company conference. We were there for almost 4 days and boy was it a blast. I got to meet my coworkers from all over the U.S that I had never previously met in person – which was a very neat experience. We also had lots of activities planned such as a scavenger hunt, company TED Talks, dinners, horseback riding, you name it!

As for the city itself, it was absolutely gorgeous there. I can only imagine what it would be like visiting here in the winter time when everyone is vacationing and skiing.

All of the shops were absolutely adorable.

Unfortunately, since I was in Park City for business, I did not really have the opportunity to fully explore the city. We all walked around a bit for our scavenger hunt, but actually slowing down and taking everything in was definitely a challenge.

I also couldn’t get over how peaceful it was there!

Lilly’s B-day BBQ

The next weekend, Ian and I went to his parents’ house for his niece’s 6th birthday party.

The weather was absolutely GORGEOUS and the food was SOOO good. Nothing like a good BBQ on a nice summer day ☀️

It was so fun watching Lilly open her presents 🙂 She was so happy!!

Scandinavian Midsummer Festival

For those of you who did not already know, I am obsessed with Scandinavian culture. I am pretty sure than none of my ancestors are from Scandinavian countries.. but I do not care.

That being said, I saw that there would be a Scandinavian Festival in Sellwood, Oregon and just knew that I had to go!

And of course I dragged Ian along 🙂

The food at the festival was SO good. I absolutely love Scandinavian food, so I was in heaven.

There were live performances, such as dish juggling (like, what?!), and booths to explore full of art and gifts.

They also had a free flower crown making station! I was too lazy to make one though.. oops!

Overall, we had a blast!

Brunch @ Broders

And as if I hadn’t had enough Scandinavian food, Ian and I went out with one of my coworkers & her husband for brunch at Broder Café. For those of you in the Portland area reading this, I highly recommend trying this place out. The food is out of this world! Just be prepared to wait a while to be seated.

Isn’t this place just the cutest?!

Fortunately, Broder serves hot coffee outside to enjoy while waiting in line to be seated – so you bet Ian and I took full advantage of that!

Not only is it absolutely adorable on the outside, but it is so incredibly cozy inside Broder Café.

All of our dishes were incredible. We all were gaucking at how delicious everything turned out. Just writing this post is making me want to go back 😂

Healthy Eating & a Houseplant Class

I mentioned on here before that Ian and I are working on getting back into shape and eating right, and that still holds true! We have been treating ourselves to a nice meal out once a week but making sure to eat healthy the rest of the week.

That being said, we have been focusing on eating more fruits & vegetables aaaand from time to time, treating ourselves to a smoothie (not made by me).

After our smoothie run, capture in photos above, we headed over to our apartment’s “How to Houseplant” event which ended up turning out really cool!

The event was hosted by a popular nursery in Portland and man were there some cool plants for grabs! The best part? The event was totally free!

Not to mention, there were appetizers and drinks for people to enjoy as well!

After enjoying appetizers, wine, and the company of our fellow neighbors, we learned so much about houseplants and propagation. Ian and I both left the event with two new plants AND a plant that we are propagating!

Last but not least

This past weekend we treated ourselves to a date night at a restaurant that we have been dying to try out, called Atuala.

We had been talking about trying this place out for months now, but were always shied away from going there after looking at their prices BUT we decided to bite the bullet this last Friday and give it a shot. We had both had very successful weeks and wanted to celebrate our hardwork together.

We began our evening at Atuala with a drink and wow. I ordered their Sangria and was absolutely blown away. I think it was also extremely strong. Well, either that, or me not drinking very often made this drink feel stronger. Nevertheless, both of us were very impressed with their cocktails.

 

As for our food, we tried out a few of their tapas and were once again blown away. Their papas bravas? Out of this world.

As for the rest of our weekend, we spent our Saturday walking around Mississippi Ave and then at one of my coworker’s BBQs which was an absolute blast I may add!

Sunday morning I took Winston out for an early morning hike and then we were off to Ian’s parents’ house for some fun.

Overall, I would say the past few weeks have been absolute INSANE but an absolute blast. It is times like these that I am thankful for coffee, my mother who motivates me to work hard and have fun, Ian who is always there to remind me to slow down sometimes, and Winston for always being so darn cute.

Well friends, that is all for now! Hopefully I will be back on here soon so that I don’t need to write another novel of a post! HA!

A few questions for you:

~ What did you do this last weekend?

~ Have you ever tried propagating a houseplant? Or any plant for that matter?

~ What tv show are you currently into?