Tuesday, September 18, 2012

God is so GREAT!!

Things have been moving and shaking here in Oregon. Thats why we haven't posted in a while.  First, out of nowhere Chris lost his job and we really just handled it. We didn't stress and put it all in God's hands. And He, as usual, has delivered us. Chris has been hired at the Servpro in Beaverton and started yesterday. So far he really likes it! I also found a job. I started today at Joann's fabric and I love my job too! Everyone is really nice and super helpful. What a blessing these jobs have been!
In the meantime, Chris and I have been exploring the area around where we live and so far WE LOVE IT! We are so happy here! We have really tried to take pictures of everything here are some examples.
This is the Oregon State Capital in Salem, OR

In the courtyard of the capital they had this huge tree.


AND... they had all 50 states flags. Here is the Great State of Oklahoma!


We went to Sauvie Island. It was absolutely gorgeous!


Here was a lovely home on Sauvie Island. 


This is one of the most beautiful fields of flowers below.


They grew different flowers all over the island. I thought this was particularly gorgeous.


We also visited a wildlife place  on Nancy Lake (which is on Sauvie Island). This was one of the birdhouses we found in the woods.





We have visited downtown Portland and have found a really neat district called the Pearl District. It is really artsy and really hip.













We also went to visit Mt. Larch. We did hiked 8.5 miles all over this mountain and it was really gorgeous. 






We are missing our family and friends in Oklahoma but we are LOVING Portland! 
I hope to post really soon!
~Chris & Sarah

Thursday, August 23, 2012

Only in Portland


There has been so much going on lately and I have, once again, fallen behind on our blog. lol I think that is a good thing. Chris and I have been exploring the fabulous city of Portland. There are so many unique eccentricities to this city and I want to share them with those we love. 
First I wanted to do a comparison of Portland and Oklahoma City
The population of Portland is 583,776 and the population of OKC is 110, 925. The area of Portland is 133.42 square miles and OKC is 178.76 square miles. That means that there are 4,375.2 people per square mile in Portland compared to only 620.5 people per square mile in OKC.  The percentage of Native Americans in Portland is 1% and OKC and 4.7%. OKC has a higher percentage of educated people by 3% (41.1% v. 44.0%) the median household income is $3,600 higher in Portland ($48,831 v $45,209) and the poverty level is only .4% higher in Oklahoma City.  It is so neat to look at the differences between these two cities. 
This is one of my most favorite pictures of Portland, so far. I wanted to show how there are 9 bridges in Portland. It is absolutely lovely and really unique. Each bridge is completely different. Some are double layered. One of the highways here is called 405 (which is really ironic). Last week the city of Portland closed the 405 double-layered bridge for a HUGE bicycle race. Chris and I were headed to Seattle to see his mother when we got stuck in 45 minutes of traffic before we could even get out of Portland. We had no idea! We took the picture below. I'm not sure if you all will be able to see all of the cyclers on the other side of the highway but it was really neat to see. Terrible traffic but neat to see lol

Portland is also known as the city of roses. This is another irony not lost on me. There are lovely roses all over the city. For those of you who may not know my middle name is rose and roses are my most favorite flower. This is an even neater coincidence. 

This is a famous sign in Portland and probably one of my most favorite attractions in this city.

The only big land mark I can even kind of use for directions is Mt. Hood. This was really the only clear picture I could use. On most streets you can't really see any landmarks because of the trees so I spend most of my days lost lol. Chris is trying to teach me but I still only can get to a handful of places without help from him or the GPS. I think he secretly likes it. lol


Here are they first few pictures Chris sent me of our apartment:







The pictures below are how the rooms look now. I am so stinking excited to finally be settled in. The apartment looks great and we are finally getting into a pretty steady routine. 









There is so much to say but I am so exhausted. I will post again very soon. We hope you enjoyed our post and hope to talk to you very soon. 
 Chris and Sarah








Tuesday, August 7, 2012

Portland, Oregon

Hello Everyone! 
It has taken me entirely too long to post and I am sorry. I am currently sitting in our apartment looking outside at the lovely cloudy day. There weather has been pretty good since i've been here. It hasn't rained at all but its been a little warm. For all of you who are in Oklahoma, i'm sure you just rolled your eyes lol but the difference is there is NO air conditioning here. Very few places have air conditioners so people have fans and open windows. Even window units are not really seen here. 

Before leaving for Oregon I was lucky to spend time with the people I love. A few included my nephews. Jackson was cracking me up.

I also got to spend time with my small group. I miss them already and can't wait to hear how they continue to grow! It was a great surprise to have a GREAT afternoon together. God has truly blessed us!




Finally, Dad, Stephanie, and I hit the road early Friday morning. We made it about 19 hours the first day all the way into Idaho. Boy, where we exhausted! But we got up early the next morning and continued the last 9 hours into Portland. Surprisingly, Idaho was absolutely gorgeous and Oregon has proven to be equally as breathtaking. In Bakers, Oregon we made our first stop for gas on Saturday at this little hole in the wall. It was our first experience with not be able to pump our own gas. Weird! But we were able to grab a really yummy breakfast!


As we were almost there this is the view we saw. This is Mt. Hood. and it's absolutely gorgeous. 


After 28 hours, 2000 miles, and seven states this was the face waiting for us. lol 


While Dad and Stephanie were here we decided to travel the state and see what we could see. Below are some of the places we went. 


This is Cannon Beach along the coast. It was a beautiful surprise. Before we left for Oregon, Stephanie put a picture she had seen on Pinterest of Cannon Beach on Facebook and we just happened to find it on our drive. 


There are tunnels EVERYWHERE! There are several in Portland alone. I'm not particularly sure why but I LOVE TUNNELS. lol

This was also along highway 101. The highway 101 is the coastal/scenic highway. There are too many beautiful places to count. 

This picture is probably my most favorite. I am so glad to have shared this experience with my Dad.  Many of the places we have gone my dad had been there before but not Idaho, Oregon, or Washington.  These we got to share together. 

This was another "viewpoint" we saw on our way from Seaside to Tillamook. 

I really love this picture so I figured I would share it. lol

I can't remember what little town this was in but we thought it was beautiful so we took a picture.

This was in Tillamook at the Tillamook Cheese Factory. Oh my goodness Tillamook cheese is my new favorite! It is sold everywhere is REALLY good! So Dad, Stephanie, Chris and I chose some really yummy cheeses and had a picnic on the Tillamook beach.



I'm not sure if you can really see all the drift wood along the beach but it was really lovely.

And this was the sunset we watched as we snacked on our cheese and walked along the beach.



We also visited Seattle, Washington with Dad and Stephanie. An interesting side note: Stephanie was born in Seattle and had not been back since she was born so it was really neat to get to be there and experience it with her.




We went to the Pikes Market in Seattle and it was so neat. Full of life... So many people.... so many things to see..... Probably one of my most favorite places. There were flowers EVERYWHERE so Chris got some flowers for me. They were so beautiful.

Once we were back in Portland we decided to walk around downtown and explore. One of the weirdest/neatest places we found was a place called VooDoo donuts. It was featured on some food network show so we decided to try it. They donuts were really good but the names were a little vulgar. 


                                       
Chris got the double chocolate penetration, I believe. 


And I got the Tex-ass, not realizing that the donut was GIMUNGOUS! lol

On Dad and Stephanie's last day we went to Multnomah Falls which is about 35 minutes from the house. You can't really see the falls behind them but it was really pretty.

I think my next post will be some fun facts about Portland, Oregon.



or maybe some of the interesting things we see here. lol


Until next time, stay cool! 
~Sarah