Pictures From Our Portland Trip

Here are some pictures from the weekend Art and I spent in Portland, OR/Vancouver, WA. Here's the link to a post I wrote about it, earlier this month.

This is where Art got his certification. H.E.L. stands for Human Evolution Labs. (See, it's funny because when you're working out, it feels like hell, but the more you work out, the more you "evolve" into a healthy, fit, strong person).


Art told me that when he drives on this bridge, he feels like he's in a rib cage. This is just one of the bridges that connects Washington to Oregon (specifically, Vancouver to Portland).


This was a little park near the bookstore where I spent the entirety of the second day. This was close to the entrance of the Chinatown portion of old Portland. Kind of random, but still cool-looking.


This was the entrance to Chinatown. I suppose it's a cool place, but not at 8:30am, when everything is closed, and you're all alone.


This is a plaque on the side of the entrance. You don't have to read it all, but I thought it was interesting that the names of all the donors were placed in a time capsule, buried beneath the entrance, and it's going to be opened in 2086. I don't know why, but that's what's going to happen.


"Okay, Jenene, what's so great about this? So there's a train station. Big deal."

I took this picture to remind myself of something I saw on the nearly-empty streets of old Portland, before 9:00am. On the street below this tower was parked car. The car was parked in the street. Not pulled over, just in the middle of the street. It was a really nice car. The engine was still running, and the trunk was open. On a strip of gravel at the edge of that street were parked a few old cars, and one of the old cars had an open trunk as well. And I saw a man. In a nice business suit. Pulling luggage (or something) from the trunk of the new car, and placing it in the trunk of the old, battered car.

I tell ya, the whole thing looked really suspicious. I'm sure you could provide for me all sorts of normal explanations, but I'd rather stick to my conspiracy theories. It's more intriguing. And like I said, I was there very early in the morning, and didn't see very many people, and most of the peolple I did see were homeless, and I didn't leave the bookstore once it opened, so this was basically the most exciting occurance of the entire day.

Good News and Bad News

The good news is that today is Art's 24th birthday!

The bad news is that we both have bad colds that don't seem to be getting any better. We've both been sick since Sunday. I woke up that day with a cough, and it hasn't changed in six days. It's weird.

Normally colds go through several phases: fever, aches, stuffy head, runny nose, sore throat, coughing, the end. And normally the cold sneaks up on you. But not this time. It went straight for my lungs, and wasn't very subtle about it.

So basically I've been coughing my butt off for six days straight. It sucks. On the upside, I'm starting to get rock-hard abs. Coughing is a pretty good ab workout.

Art isn't coughing as much, but his symptoms all point to one thing: he's starting to suspect that he has bronchitis, but we can't afford to got to the doctor to figure it out (and get treatment). Which is really too bad, because those antibiotics work FAST. I would know. I've had bronchitis before. Twice.

I looked up natural remedies online, and I saw a list for all sorts of teas that are supposed to help. It's great to know that there are natural remedies out there, but I don't know where to get them. I've never heard of honeysuckle tea before. Where does one get honeysuckle tea?

So if you feel so inclined, would you send up a prayer for us? We would definitely appreciate that.

Pictures From When My Family Visited

Hey guys. I was going to do two posts today: this one, and one about how miserable I feel (I have a really bad cold). But I feel so yucky that I just don't have the energy to type two posts. So here is my post about my terrible cold AND my post with the pictures. Enjoy! (Enjoy the pictures, that is. Don't enjoy my cold, please. That would just be mean).

Here are a few random pictures from the week of my mom's and Elleah's and Kiera's visit.


I'm really surprised she let us go this far. She doesn't like stuff on her head (including hats).


She loves Art.


Whenever we went out, we had to put adult mitts on her hands to keep her warm, because we didn't have any mitts her size. I thought it looked really comical.


We took Chuckanut Drive from Bellingham to Oak Harbor. It's the scenic route, and even though it takes a little longer, it's so worth it.


We drove through Oak Harbor on our way to Seattle. This is Deception Pass.


One of my favorite views in the whole world.


From Oak Harbor, we drove down the island to take the ferry to Seattle.




This is at Kerry Park.






The Space Needle.


Kiera thought this was funny, and so did I. (And that's me in my new jacket. I'm glad it makes me look so fat. Geez.)


Art doing his job.


The Peace Arch at the border. You can see border construction happening in the background for 2010 Olympics. I'm scared for how crazy it's going to be.




Kiera was super enthusiastic about this particular photo op. And you would think I had never seen the sun a day in my life! Pale skin much?


She would fall asleep with her face in her zipper, and wake up with these lines on her face.


Art took us to Whatcom Falls Park one day. It's not far from where we live, and yet, I had never been there before that day. It's really pretty.










Kiera really enjoyed it. (No seriously, she did). She liked being pushed along the bumpy trails.


We found a duck pond. And I took pictures of ducks for some reason. Like I've never seen a duck before.






This is in downtown Bellingham. This is the same place where Art and Joe did their CrossFit "Fight Gone Bad" workout.


Okay, I saw this tile and thought it was so romantic. Most of the bricks on the ground in Bellingham Square have various names on them (I'm assuming the names are of people who made donations to build Bellingham Square). And some guy out there decided to use that opportunity to propose instead! I love it.


Kiera in the little grocery cart at Haggen.



Most of these random pictures are mine, but I'll confess that I stole a few from Elleah as well. She takes such good pictures!

"Fight Gone Bad" Pictures

Do you remember last month when I blogged about CrossFit? And I linked to a video of Art doing a CrossFit workout for a good cause (here's the link to the post).

And now, here are some pictures of Art and his brother Joe doing the workout.


Art taking a rest.


Mid-air, on the box jump.


Joe struggling with the thrusters.


Art rocks the thrusters.






Art on the row machine.


You can see Joe in the background doing wall balls.


Joe working hard to do the sumo dead lift high pulls.





You should have seen these guys working out at the same time. They rested at the same time, in the same way. Same facial expressions and posture and everything. Do you think they're brothers?




Yay Joe! Full extension!



Fight Gone Bad III from Jogo Crossfit Bellingham on Vimeo.


Speaking of CrossFit, Art has his official coaching schedule at the CrossFit gym in Bellingham for the month of December. He is slowly but surely making his CrossFit dreams come true!