Tag Archives: portland

St John’s, Portland

Portland is a beautiful city. I love driving around and checking out the shops and restaurants, buildings and bridges. Our last visit took me across the St. John’s Bridge for the first time. Until Sunday I had only admired its gothic arches and pale green from afar.

Bryan has some friends that live on the East side, up in St John’s neighborhood, so I’ve heard about the great parks and cute shops in that area. (Stiles, if you’re reading this, we’re sorry we didn’t call.) It was a little removed from town, probably comparable to our West Seattle neighborhood. The houses were a mix of nicer to “need some love” and overall feeling was relaxed, chill.

There is a park around and under the base of the East end of the bridge, it’s beautiful and grassy and great for sledding in the winter, picnics in the summer, and general enjoyment of the outdoors.

Just another reason I continue to love Portland.

Babies Everywhere!

Bryan likes to group things together to make this phrase: ______, everywhere!

This last weekend, we gathered at Allyson and Kelly’s house for a baby shower in honor of Steph and Casey. A joint shower: the girls would drink champagne, snack on cucumber sandwiches, cheese and chocolates, while the boys went on a pub crawl. It was a very fitting way to mark the approaching addition to their life.

Every baby shower I have been to has some sort of contribution/gift to the expecting mother. For Stephanie, sister-in-law Allyson and her co-hostesses had asked each person attending the shower to submit a photo that would be added to a book for the to-be child. It was such a fun way to share friends and family with a child through storytelling.

Here is ours. We wanted to add more color than just a photo, so here is our rendition of “under the sea with the Ripkas”.

For a baby shower book gift

Under the Sea: a baby shower gift