seattle shenanigans

One of my besties graduated law school this weekend, so Bradley and I headed up to Seattle to celebrate with her slash have a mini reunion with the old college roomies. There were plenty of shenanigans to be had!  

We were very excited to be at Rachel's graduation. Naturally, the thumbs up came out. 

Too bad she didn't have her graduation cap on still. It looked gooooood. 

Saturday night we celebrated at a place called 95 Slide up on Capital Hill. Did not see Macklemore. Very interesting set up. Half dance area, half sports bar.

Straight murdered the club. NOT. a of all) it was not a club. b of all) we did the opposite of murder it. c of all) none of us can dance, but it didn't stop us from pretending. You saw a lot of token white girl moves.  

On Sunday Rachel's mom hosted an adorable party where people came throughout the day to celebrate how smart Rachel is. 

Roomies reunited and it feels so good!  The rain even held off which was extra nice. 

Ps. Notice my swollen right ankle?! Rolled it pretty good on Saturday morning while Bradley and I were on a run through the cute Queen Anne neighborhood.  Might have been too busy looking at cute houses and rolled it on the edge of the sidewalk.  struggle street, literally. 

And there you have it! What did you do with your weekend?!

<3 BB

my mom's cooler than your mom

Let me tell you about my mother.

She is more or less amazing. Not to get all corny on you, actually I don't even care if it's corny, but she is one of the people I look up to most. She's a fantastic mother, sister, daughter, wife, elementary school teacher, pretty much one of those people Oprah would have on her show and let me tell you why...

You see, you wouldn't ever know it, but my mom had a super rare brain tumor removed when I was in college.  She rocked the surgery, but did lose her equilibrium and hearing in her right ear.  After lots of physical therapy she retaught her self how to do basic things like walk and deal with life without her balance and hearing loss.  Think of it as like having vertigo every day, but on a larger scale. She has to work twice as hard as the rest of us to overcome challenges that came post surgery; but she's still here and doesn't complain. She just does it and that my friends, is a beautiful thing.

Basically, she's stronger, more determined, and cooler than you. It's something I came to terms with a long time ago, you will too  :)

I was super excited to get to celebrate Mother's Day with her and the rest of my family this weekend. Sadly, my dad and other brother couldn't make it up to Portland to celebrate, but my other siblings and I did our best to celebrate for all of us.

Evidently, we thought celebrating Mother's Day could only be done in matching colors. 

It was totally unplanned.

We celebrated Mother's Day with a BBQ at my Aunt's house. She and my cousin Kyndra hosted a great party and had the cutest decorations.

Yeah, those are cupcakes.

nom, nom, nom.

All sorts of Pinteresty at the party.

Grandma got spoiled the most on Mother's Day, like she should :)

We also celebrated my cousin's birthday too. Kyndra got all cute again and decorated his cake like a basketball.

How did you celebrate Mother's Day?!


Cheers to Moms!

<3 BB

 

shenanigans at uptown

Oh Monday, go home. I am not ready for you yet. Instead, let's recap my weekend shall we?! 

Friday and Saturday: 

Yay for sunburns out at the track!! Actually, I didn't even get that burned, I was a good girl and wore sun block both Friday and Saturday (go me!) Super proud of all my athletes and the team this weekend.  Both the men's and women's teams took second place at the Northwest Conference Track and Field Championships and I would like to take full credit for all their success, obvi.  Kidding, the athletes rocked it. I was just there to remind them to relax and compete.  It is always fun to be a part of a person's success and being out at the track always makes me missing competing. 

After the meet on Saturday evening, I met up with the boy and our friends Tyler and Cory at our favorite spot, Uptown Market for their campaign party. They are currently raising funds to launch a brewery. 

The place was hopping. Live music, food carts, beverages, and a lot people.

Oh! and Cornhole (or bags if you're into calling it that) they're my favorite!

You should ask the boys who won.....Hint: my team!!!

This is the point in the evening where things start to go downhill quickly.

Sunday:
Now, I do not consider myself a big drinker and I have many reasons for not being a huge fan of alcohol. I probably don't even need to be discussing this on the blog, since my Mom, Grandma, and Aunts are my biggest readers, but this girl gets hungover bad, like real bad. I am just not good at it, which honestly isn't a bad thing. I don't even have to drink a lot to be a struggle.  This was the case Saturday. I think I had a total of 4 drinks and I was down for the count all day Sunday. We are talking throwing up for a solid 12 hours.

Don't let the popsicle form fool you. That there folks is Pedialyte and I couldn't even keep that down. It was like demons were leaving my body - taunting me for my sins or something. Not to mention the migraine that came with.  Jeez, I get it, I shouldn't drink. What did I do to make you so mad at me, God?!

After yesterday, this girl won't be touching the demon liquid for quite some time (or maybe just nurse one drink the entire evening) and I am quite ok with that.


What kind of Shenanigans did you get yourself into this weekend?!

weekend roundup

These weekends are just flying by and I don't like it.  Let me clarify: I like my weekends, I don't like how fast they leave me.

Friday after worked Brad and I attempted the CrossFit Open 13.5 workout:

It was hard, but I got more reps finished than Brad did so there's that :) Granted, his weight for the thrusters was more, but no one needs to know that. 

The most annoying part of the workout was the fact that my lungs wanted to explode we do not belong to a Crossfit Box (aka gym) and so we have to make do with what is available at our local LA Fitness.  We ended up having to wait like 15 mins after our warm up for the squat rack / pull-up bar which was really annoying.  Almost annoying enough to want to bag the workout... almost.  Nevertheless, we got it done and I finished with a total of 75 reps or 2 full rounds of the 15 thrusters and 15 pull-ups and then another 15 thrusters before the 4 mins was up.  Let me tell ya, my body was sore on Saturday.

Speaking of Saturday, it was spent at Willamette's track, where it rained pretty much all day. I'm talking downpour, didn't stop, sideways at times, annoying rain.  I was there from 9am till almost 7pm and it definitely poured for over half of that time.  I looked like I had just gotten out of the shower by the end of the meet. Needless to say by the time I got back to Portland a hot bath and bed were calling my name.  Brad had gone to the Timbers game with a friend since I couldn't go and he might have found me sitting up in bed, asleep, with the light on, iPad in hand when he got home. Long hair, don't care. 

Don't I look so official with my clip board?! Image from here. 

My tiredness crept into Sunday, because I woke up at 7:30 wandered out to the couch where Brad was playing FIFA and fell back asleep until 9. It was awesome, until I woke up hungry and we had no food.  After a quick trip to the grocery store we made a breakfast hash. It was glorious.

Can I just say that my sweet potato / yam concoctions are really starting to hit their stride:

{what you need:} 

::1 diced yam

::6 pieces of turkey bacon

::1 avocado

::4 over-easy eggs

::1/2 a green pepper

::1/4 of a red onion

::dash of cinnamon

::dash of garlic powder

::Red pepper flakes

::Black pepper

::finish it off with tapatio hot sauce.

{what you do} 

::Chop up all the veggies and turkey bacon

::Sprinkle with cinnamon, garlic powder, and the red and black pep

::Cook until the yams are soft and the bacon is sizzlin'

::In a separate pan, fry the eggs until they are over-easy (keep those yokes nice and runny)

::Throw the fried eggs on top and break the yokes so all the goodness oozes into the hash.

::Then nom away :)

After a lazy morning, I finally pretended to get my life together and cleaned the apartment, which had been neglected for the past few days.  Speaking of cleaning, does anyone know what makes the Mr. Clean - Magic Erasers so magical?! Do they have cocaine in them or something?! These things don't stop. They are awesome. 

While cleaning, I came to the conclusion that Brad and I have a Nike problem. This photo only represents a portion of our shoe collection.  We need to find a better storage option instead of right in right of the door or get a place with a second bedroom to just store our shoes.... hmm, decisions, decisions. 

Speaking of running shoes, after we cleaned Brad and I met up with my sister for a circuit workout on the track, but I'll share the details of that one later in the week (I know you can't wait!).... 

So yeah, that was more or less my weekend.... how was yours?! 

<3 BB 

Couples Retreat...

And I am not talking about this kind of Couples Retreat: 

Ok, so actually it wasn't a couples retreat at all. More just a group of friends that happened to head to the beach in pairs for the weekend. I promised I would have photos of our weekend at Cape Meares and here they are! 

The small group included me and Bradley, my brother and his girlfriend Rachael, and our friends Tyler and Justine. 

We stayed at Tyler's parents' beach house and it was wonderful. The house does not have wifi or cable, which I really enjoyed.  Instead we got our Jenga on, read, played cards, and just had plain ol', good conversation.  And laughing, there was a lot of laughing.

That has to be record height, no?!

We even shot a music video for the next up and coming Boy Band: Beach Boyz 4eva. Might have made that part up.

We got to enjoy experience pretty much every type of weather from fog, wind, rain, sun, and even hail throughout the weekend. So, basically, your typical Oregon day. We tried to sneak in walks when it was calm, but definitely got stuck in a downpour during one of our outings.

There were multiple logs along the bank that had random paintings on them like the one above.

So pritay.

This weather def made me realize Hunters are in my future.

A hint of sun after rain is always my favorite.

It was awesome to see what the community has done along the beach from building forts like this to community fire pits (where we tried to make one, but it was raining and it ended up being an epic fail, because all the logs were soaked, but that's neither here, nor there.).

The BB4Eva in all their glory.

It was a tad windy and cold, but we braved the beach anyway.

The house in the middle is the one we stayed at and and I loved it...but I am hoping the one next to it goes on the market soon so Bradley can buy it for me ;) I wish. 

Beautiful sunset on Saturday evening.

Get excited for Cheese Factory photos tomorrow!


Cheers to the beach!

,<3 BB

Beach Time

I am writing wrote this post while I sat at my friend's beach house just outside of Tillamook, sipping on a glass of wine in the window nook with an amazing view of the ocean and setting sun after a downpour ... It was quite..... perfect

I needed this weekend:

To Unwind
To Recharge
To Slow Down

There was:

No TV
No Internet
No Facebook
No Instagram (ok, there might have been a tiny bit of insta, but it was taking forever to load - so I stopped)

Instead there was:

Great Conversation
Card Playing
The Happiness Project
Good Music
Good Food
And many walks on the beach between the storms.

There were also lots of photos taken with a real camera, but that would have involved me uploading them last night and I just didn't have the energy. Forgive me, but I was still on beach time.  

Happy Monday! 

<3 BB 

Where Did My Weekend Go?!

But no really, now that track is in full swing, my free time will be quite limited on the weekends.  Pretty much every Saturday until May is full of track - good news is being out on the track is still one of my favorite places, even if it does make me miss competing! (I will just have to live vicariously through the athletes now).  Add in a high school State Playoff game and a Sunday full of Timber's Soccer and my weekend was gone.  Fun, but gone.

On Saturday Bradley was a trooper and found out how much work it takes for a Willamette Track meet to be successful. I might have signed him up to help out at the meet. He even got to catch chase down javelins.  I am slowly teaching Brad all there is to know when it comes to track and field, which is a nice trade off, since I have the pleasure of learning all there is to know about soccer from him. After we were done in Salem we rushed back to Beaverton to watch my sister's team is their second State Playoff game.  They ended up losing to Westview, but overall had a good season. I know this year has been hard for my sister who tore her ACL right before the start of the season, but I am super proud of her for still being so involved.  Now Brad and I get to be her trainers during the off season and will have her in great shape for her senior year.

She even got to go through warm-ups with them this game. #Progress! 

Sunday started out kind of early. It's almost comical what a person will do for a good seat at the Timbers games when your season tickets are in the Timbers Army - General Admission section.  We knew it would be a packed stadium with it being the season opener, so we wandered down to the stadium around 10:45 and waited in line for a bit to get early entry wristbands.  Wristbands are given out to the first 1,200 people that show up game day morning and gives you a set number in line to get into the stadium later in the day. Plus, they open a gate for people with a wristband a half an hour earlier than the rest of the crowd, so you get first choice in seating. Overall, it was definitely worth showing up early for this game since it was packed, but I am not sure we will be getting wristbands for every game.  

We did get a quick workout in between wristband pickup and the start of the game, which I needed.  Plus, we tried out the downtown LA Fitness which was nice to have a change of scenery for our workout.

{15 rounds}
::5 pull-ups
::10 push-ups
::15 leg exercise (I split mine up between: squats, lunges, box jumps, and spit jumps)

Took me just under 30 mins to finish the 15 rounds and then cooled down with a little cardio after. Quick shower and we were back to the stadium.


Here is the MLS recap of the game last night.  It was goals on goals on goals. The Timbers struggled a bit in the first half, but then came back to end the game in a 3-3 tie.  I am still learning a lot when it comes to soccer since it was never a sport I played - but from what I have taken away from the Timbers in the two games I have watched so far this season is, they are going to score a lot of fun, exciting goals.  We just need to play better defense.  Shoot.. I could even coach soccer at this rate. 

Team Selfie why we wait?! obvi

The sun wanted to be out! 

I want to look bad ass with an axe. 

We also got to sit right behind Alexi Lalas, who used to play professional soccer and now is a ginger broadcaster for ESPN and ABC Sports. 

I stole these last three pictures from the Timbers Facebook page, but they were too awesome not to include. 

This tifo was pretty legit and interactive!  It played off of rainy Portland.  There was a sign that said 'Rain or Shine since 1975' and then there were umbrellas in the first section and our section played the vital role of the rain and we got to throw blue streamers.

Timber Joey is such a boss.  I also think he has lost a little weight since last year. Have you been working out, Joey?! 

Bird's eye view of the crowd that was rocking until long after the match was over.

So yeah, now it's Monday and I am trying to figure out where my weekend went, but won't really have time to find it since this week and weekend are just as busy...


Cheers!

<3 BB