Memorial Weekend

To continue the trend of my friends visiting moi in Portland, Dominique came up for the long weekend and we took full advantage of our time with her, participating in everything from dinners to farmers markets to wine tasting to church.  

It felt like she never left!

(Also, notice Brooke's squint?  She's four days out from lasik and chucking her glasses foreva!)

A Weekend with Elise and Tarah!

Elise visited from England!  

To celebrate, Tarah flew in from Utah and a few of us headed to our favorite beach house in Lincoln City to relax, catch up, and feel a bit of home.

 We pretty much spent the entire weekend shopping, walking on the beach, lounging around and catching up on life.

 And we took advantage of Brooke's membership status at Sokol Blosser to enjoy some complimentary wine tastings on the way back to Portland.

 Elise couldn't have a trip to Portland without a hike in The Gorge.  I think she used to spend more time on the weekends out here than she did at her house.

 It was the perfect day to hike, we had a ball.

And a Brit's trip the US wouldn't be complete without stocking up at Target!  

The whole thing was far too short, but it was fantastic getting to spend a weekend catching up with my girls!

Mitzi, Kirsti, and Mindy

In celebration of Arbor Day, I cashed in the balance of my United Airlines miles and flew down to the Bay Area to take out one of my besties, Dominique.

 We pretty much spent the entire weekend zipping around in her convertible (Mitzi), wine tasting, and catching up on episodes of The Mindy Project. 

(Also, I had a thorough freak-out moment after we accidentally ran into Kristi Yamaguchi, who was at the Ritz in Moon Bay promoting her new yoga line.  I kept my cool while in front of her, but Dominique got the full spaz-out once we were out of earshot.)  

It was the perfect California weekend.

A Shell-Raiser Weekend

When Shelly's come to town for a weekend, we don't mess around.

We go all out on alcoholic breakfast drinks.

 We indulge our cultured side with tours of art and fashion design.

 We get hopped up on Stumptown coffee all day long.

 We partake in spa services.

And we take in the marvelous Portland sites.

Vancouver, BC!

At the end of February, in beautiful, sunny, 50 degree weather, Brendan, Jen, Dean and I took the train up to Vancouver, BC, to play in the city.

We brunched, we rented bikes, we toured Stanley Park and Granville Island.

We had a fabulous time!  

And the whole thing went by way too quickly. 

Lex and John Get Married!

On Saturday, Feb 21, 2015, Alexis Crowell married the love of her life, John Helzer (woot, woot!)

 Naturally, we kicked of the wedding festivities with manis and pedis with the bridesmaids the day before she became Mrs. Helzer.

 Then we headed to rehearsal at the World Trade Center, follow by the Rehearsal Dinner at Paragon. 

Did I mention my brother performed the ceremony?  Or that my sis-in-law took the pics?  Both nailed it.

After dinner a few of us hit up Departure for Lex's last night out as a singleton. 

Then the big day!

 If you know anything about Lex, you know at least 20% of today is all about the shoes:

 The hot bridesmaids!

 And the most stunning bride!

Next was pics by my SIL, Jess, and her partner in photography crime, Quinn.

 (Maybe more like 30%...)

 Before we knew it, the wedding march began!

After these crazy kids said "I do," with was time to par-tay!

(My super hot date, SCB) 

This wedding...

 was absolutely...

 zero fun.

 Zilch.

 Nada.

 (Lex's crazy fun family: Steve, Jane, John (whoohoo!), Lex, Jim and Katie)

 (My crazy fun family, SIL and Bugs)

 Finally, after food and drinks and cake and toasts and dancing and laughing, they were off.  

Married!