Our visit to Portland

Ahh, Portland the weekend before Thanksgiving.. this was supposed to be our first stab at Christmas shopping (tax free) and a testing ground for Greg to prepare a tasty bird a week before we'd be sitting down for Thanksgiving dinner --in a week he'd be doing his famous pressure cooked bird for the masses of extended family at my parents.

Liam had been sick with the stomach flu (aka 'tummy caw-caw's) for a few days prior to our visit. Friday morning he was deemed stable, and we headed out. We sailed through Friday without problems. We had a delicious Thanksgiving meal that night, watched a B movie, went to bed happy and full.

Saturday had a good day! As you can see in the pictures, we got out on the town, saw Vanessa and Greg's new office space, grabbed some beers, and even did a little shopping. Liam got some binoculars at Eddie Bauer.

That night we put Liam to bed early so we could drink some wine and look at pictures of their trip to France, and so I asked if they minded if Liam just sleep in their bed until we took him upstairs with us later in the night. Note: V&G have no children. V&G have a bed fit for a king could actually be in a renaissance castle. About an hour after Liam falls asleep, of course he implodes. I won't share anything further but it wasn't pretty. Ivan and I are on fast clean up patrol, we'd had 4 days experience already with this detail work, and besides their dogs trying to 'get in' on the action we got it cleaned up without too much fuss. At that point we call it a night I take Liam to bed, and he's fine all night. Phew!

We make it to Sunday morning- Ivan gets a haircut and a beer (miller lite $13 for both at 11am) and my sis and I get to shopping. Our Portland gift to ourselves was a refurbished big daddy instant espresso maker. Press of a button perfect coffee. I recommend this to anyone trapped in a Starbucks world. I am buying Ivan paper to-go cups for Xmas so he can always feel like he just paid $4.10 (+tip) for this incredible beverage.

Ok so we head back to Seattle that afternoon. Liam is delightful company. Seems like it's all over, and just a fluke he got sick again that night.. finally peace!

Until Monday morning. It was 3 a.m. I had work looming and couldn't sleep since I was feeling sick. So I got up at 4a when the NY system goes live, logged on to the computer and being the dedicated employee I am, I finished my Lowes buys, (did a really bad job on them) and then camped in the bathroom for the next 3 hours. I had about the worst 48 hours of my adult life besides giving birth. It was an extremely unpleasant virus. And sadly we left it in Portland as well.. Greg went down for the count Tuesday. There was no Thanksgiving pressure cooked bird this year. Vanessa is still in waiting...