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House and Dog Sitting

This past weekend Cody and I got the opportunity to dog sit Cody's new baby brother Sage. Cody's family went out of town for his sister Cheley's birthday and so we gladly volunteered to make sure the puppy was well fed and well played with while they were gone. We spent the night on Friday and Sunday and lucked out on both being gorgeous days. Cody's house is kind of like a mini-resort complete with hot tub, swimming pool and a fantastic view of our area (you can even see all the way to Portland).

There's a reason we nicknamed Cody's house Pemberley (Mr. Darcy's estate) back in high school
(Portland is back in that bluish area just right of the middle of the picture at night you can see the city lights)

  I definitely miss having a pet around (Cody and I are working out a plan for a kitten in the near by future) so it was so much fun to have a puppy for the weekend. Sage is such a well mannered puppy that really just wants some lovin' and attention. He's an outside dog so we tried to spend as much time as possible with him mostly playing fetch and on a rope swing he liked to tug on.

 

the little bug found my empty soda glass and tipped it over to get at the ice-cubes

 It's hillarious to watch his run because his legs are just a little long and floppy so he has to run sideways when going full speed and he still has a tumble every now and then. He's getting good at his basic tricks (sit, lay down, stay and bringing his toys back to the garage when he's done playing with them).

But he's such a little kid and still tries to get away with things he knows he's not allowed to do (like walking inside every time you open the door like he always goes inside when he's not allowed inside at all). But one thing all puppies have going for them is there cute little face with those lovable eyes that you can't say no to or be mad at for more than a second.

i mean, come on, just look at that face

In lieu of Connor and Katie's recent addiction to ornithology I thought I'd try out a couple of Cody's dad's awesome camera lenses to capture some wee little birds. I like this one with the tree of dead leaves that sticks out so much from all the green surrounding it. And also it seems like a picture of a bird at a bird feeder is just cheating.

Saturday Markets

This last weekend I got a rare Saturday off so I made sure to take full advantage of it. At first we just planned on going to the Portland Saturday Market. But Cody had a house showing at 1:00 and we didn't want to be stressed out about traffic so it looked like we were just going to go afterwards (the market closes @ 5pm). But then I had the genius idea of heading over the Vancouver Farmer's Market in downtown Vancouver before Cody's showing! I like going to these kind of markets earlier in the morning. The crowd seems cheerier and it just feels more like a morning activity to do. The farmer's market is always filled with yummy looking produce (especially the strawberries and the giant sugar snap peas). I love that everyone brings their dogs too. There are so many sizes and shapes and it just such a fun community to mingle in. There are also some booths with handmade goods but this one is mostly produce and flowers and food stands of course! There's a really good award winning jambalaya stand that I ate at last year but we just settled for a strawberry covered funnel cake since we had something better in store for later.

Vancouver Farmer's Market

After we'd seen everything @ the Vancouver Market and with a Rosemary and Olive Oil loaf of bread, a cheap bunch of kale and a couple healthy looking zucchinis in tow we headed to Battle Ground. We stopped and chatted with Cody grandma for a bit and she showed us around her always impressive garden. 

Then we headed over to Cody's appointment. I couldn't just sit in the car so we had to figure out somewhere close by that Cody could drop me off. So I decided to get an impromptu hair cut at a hair/nail/day spa in Brush Prairie and had the happiest and funniest asian guy give me one of the best hair cuts I've had in a long time. 

Then Cody picked me up and we headed out to Portland. That morning I wasn't sure if it was going to be a pants/sweater day or a shorts day but by 2pm it was definitely a shorts day. The clouds had burned off and we got some solid hot weather. 

I love the Portland Saturday Market. I try and at least go once a year. It's located right along the river at the Waterfront Park, half of it being underneath the Burnside  Bridge which gives it a really neat backdrop. The handmade and some of the food vendors are alongside the river and then across the street there's more of the commercially made booths. If you ever want to get a good feel of "Portland" and the weird that exists in the city you just need to go here. There are all kinds of people you can imagine. I just love seeing all the different handmade goodies. One of my favorite were soap truffles. They look like colorful chocolate truffles but were actually soap and lotion bars! Last year I got Cody a handmade travel size cribbage board made out of a lighter and really red wood for Christmas.

You'll always run across a bucket drummer in Portland

Burnside Bridge

I'm not going to lie one of the biggest magnets that pulls me across the river to the market is this little beauty that Megan, Rusty and I discovered last year. Brought to you by Angelina's Greek is literally the best gyro you will ever taste.  They had two legs of lamb on a vertical spit that they shave the meat off of so you get it really thin (not those chunky lamb patties that you can get sometimes). They have an amazing tzatziki sauce with an optional jalepeno spicy sauce that Cody loved. And their pitas are really thin and buttery. It's just a whole different level of gyro.

 

Cody doesn't really like these scenes but he was such a trooper and knew that it would make his wife so happy to go with her (and he got a yummy gryo out of it). It's definitely one of the places you've got to put on your Experience Portland Checklist. It was a good Saturday away from work and a good start to what seems like a fabulous summer together.