Sunday Funday: Fall, Fashion, Frapps

Sunday mornings in pdx in the fall - breathtaking. For the past 5 or 6 Sunday mornings Travis and I have a class we have been going to through our church and it is in downtown Portland. Driving through downtown Portland on a Sunday morning is one of the most peaceful things to do on the weekend. It is so quiet, all the businesses are waiting to open up shop for the day and everyone is in scarves and boots. Love it. We took a few moments to capture our Sunday fashion and of course make a stop at Starbucks before heading home.

bomber jacket + jeans: macy's, plaid shirt: old navy, yellow polka dot scarf: anthropologie, slouchy boots: dsw.

nails: smoke and mirrors by sonia kashuk, drink: grande non-fat chai.

polo: old navy, jacket: macy's, jeans: levi's, shoes: nike outlet.

 I am in need of a new drink at Starbucks.. they are changing up the chai latte in a way that is a bit.. watery. When ordering my simple drink, a barista said to me "how much water do you want?" and I looked a little confused and she said "we're changing the way we make them with a little more hot water and less milk." Ew. The final product was not that great, now I know to have waaay less water and more milk, but why change something if it's perfectly okay to begin with? 

What is your drink of choice at your fav coffee shop? I would LOVE to have any suggestions. My only rules being: no whip cream, needs to be non-fat and no espresso.. if I drink any espresso I could totally keep up with the 7 year olds in a ball pit at Chuck-e-Cheese. 

Time to clean up the apartment and maybe tackle the re-organization of my closet.. or maybe just steam some milk, fix up my latte and sit outside with my favorites.

 <3

Some Wine Taste, We Apple Taste

I think we can all agree this past weekend was an absolutely gorgeous Oregon fall weekend. Leave are falling in our neighborhood and I love to walk along the leafy path just to hear the crunchy sound. You know you do it too. Yesterday we checked out the Apple Tasting in southeast Portland. This was so cool! I had heard about it from a co-worker and we thought it could be a fun new fall time tradition to try out. 

Walking in the Portland Nursery area was full of hay bales (hay bills if you say it like moi), pumpkins, fresh cider and LOTS of apples. One of the first activities you came up to was a booth area of a few folks throwing apples into a big barrel machine to prep them to be squeezed for fresh cider. Like so...

 There was apple cider tasting going on with all different types of orchards represented.. given the choice though we opted to do the apple tasting (quicker to get through), bonus: it was free (the apples, not the cider).

I had zero idea what to expect for an "apple tasting" event. These folks take it seriously and make it a cool experience. You selected a line to go through (all the lines had the same apples).

And they also had directions of how to have proper apple tasting etiquette.

Watch as Travis will attempt to demonstrate the poke, pull and pop.. (their words not mine). :)

 

This was such a fun fall afternoon date. It is something that we would probably do again next year and probably go for the cider next time. Only downfall - I have been on the hunt for apple cider donuts. They are no where to be found in the Portland area. I would LOVE to know where some may be. They are so delicious and perfect with a cup of tea.
There were lots of bins of all the different apples that were available to have a taste and we came home with a good bag full of different types (my fav - the Honey Crisp). I am excited to make an apple pie again this Thanksgiving and may try out an apple crisp with a few of these guys.

Here we are with our favorites and heading home.

He's totally the apple of my eye.

Prayin for Portland!

Check out the video below and learn a bit about something super amazing going on in our city: Portland.

Seven Promo from JP Watson on Vimeo.

Pretty cool huh? We have been steadily attending Solid Rock (Sunday mornings back in Beaverton when we lived there this past winter/spring time) and have been going to their downtown location on Saturday nights the last 4-6 weeks. John Mark who was in that video is one of the Pastors at Solid Rock and we love listening to him speak. What's even cooler? He's my husband's age! Which leads me to another cool thing: About three quarters of the church community there is between 18-35 years old. We feel like we fit in and have found a cool cause to be involved with. It's called Seven. Just like what was mentioned in the video (or if you couldn't load the video..) for 7 weeks on Wednesdays, there are gatherings at a different church each evening (on top of the early 6:30am crew and noon group) at 7pm that get together to pray and talk about how we would love to see Portland grow and build a terrific community of believers and also just ways to strengthen what is already here too. We went to the first night (last night) and it was incredible! Take a look at the photo below..

via original photo on Solid Rock's Facebook page

Plus there was an over flow of more people behind this camera person in the large foyer area too. The whole church was packed! (I would estimate over 1,000 people easily.) It was so cool to be among other believers and really amazing to be with SO many people in our age group! I totally encourage friends to come and enjoy the event on Wednesdays or even take time at home during that 7pm hour and think of ways that Portland could use prayer. I'm a newbie with prayer and half the time speak in bullet points of thoughts and ideas, but it's all good God loves any way that you can communicate with Him. :)

It felt great to pray for colleagues, community leaders, restoration of our lives, neighborhoods, families, marriages, teachers and even the local economy. But that was just our small group of 5 people, imagine what over 1,000 people were adding to that list!

I love Portland and I am learning how prayer can change things or help us understand why God has things happen the way He does. I have loved learning so much through the teachings at church and we are excited for next weeks gathering too. I will close this blog entry with a photo of Travis becoming baptized and a member at our previous church a few years ago. This was truly the beginning of 'our' walk as a couple and was quite a beautiful moment indeed.