The Pumpkin Patch Post
So I realize this is probably the 45,087th post you've read about people going to the pumpkin patch, but you should read this one cause it has cute babies in it.
I don't really understand what is going on with pumpkin "patches" these days. It seems like every pumpkin patch I've seen over the last few years just has pumpkins that are cut from their vines and toted to a large area for you to search through. I don't know about you, but I prefer tromping out into the muddy fields and cutting the pumpkin off the vine like I did when I was little. I am determined to find one of these pumpkin patches for Bennett to visit next year!
Since we live in a high-rise downtown, we don't have anywhere to put pumpkins so we just ended up getting this cute little guy (thanks Cliffs!) who's home is on our kitchen counter:
We went the weekend before last and it couldn't have been a more perfect fall day:
Bro time:
Bennett with his lady friends Lucy and Avery:
Last year Bennett absolutely hated the pumpkin patch. It was the first time he had really been out in the sun plus he was trying to sleep so he was super fussy the whole time.
Case in point:
Speaking of last year, look at how teeny he was:
Doubled in size:
(that would be crazy if adults did this)
Chris being manly and wheelbarrowing (is that a word? I just made it one)
extremely heavy babies:
This baby cow was super cute but I think it was a little too relaxed and it didn't really feel like cleaning it's hindquarters, or getting up to "go" for that matter:
(if you enlarge the picture you can see that Bennett is pointing and the expression on his face says "sick mom I can't believe you're makingme take a picture with it)
This farm also had goats, chickens, cute baby chicks you could hold and these sweet baby piglets:
oh the things we make our babies do:
If you live in Portland and know of a real pumpkin patch let me know in the comments!
P.S. this is what the beginning of fall looks like from our living room window:
Umm yes please...
Why didn't I think of this?!
Another reason why Portland = awesome
Portland was voted the city with the best street food/carts in the WORLD! (see
here if you don't believe me). There are hundreds of food carts everywhere in Portland and you can probably find just about any type of food in a cart. For the most part they are randomly grouped together in 'pods' all around the city.
Chris and I had only been to a few carts but have always wanted to try out more of them. Friday night is date night for us and last friday night we invited some of our friends to join us at the carts on Hawthorne (which are open til 3am) but we are old balls and only lasted til 9:30.
We decided that no one can get the same thing and that we all had to share.
Excellent idea.
I was embarassing everyone by taking pictures but I insisted, though most are pretty dark.
None of us ordered crepes but by the looks of everyone else's I would eat them in a heartbeat.
Chris ordering fries from Potato Champion:
These hand-cut fries are amazing and you get to choose a dipping sauce from a list of about twenty different kinds! They were so good that there were only crumbs left when I remembered to take a picture.
Whiffies has little fried pies of amazingness!
They have lots of sweet flavors and a few savory ones. We tried the chicken pot pie, vegan bbq jackfruit (sounds weird but so good), peanut butter with chocolate chips and a peach pie. They all are served warm and they make them to order!
Chris tasting the super yummy chicken pot pie:
The Carters (our friends, duh) ordering pizza from Pyro Pizza which has a handmade wood pizza oven in the cart:
their Basil pizza: 
our carmelized onion, gorgonzola, pistachio and parmasean pizza:
(everything about this pizza was amazing and was probably the best pizza I've ever had!)
The Carter's tacos from the taco truck:
They looked super good and somehow we didn't get to taste them. Funny how that happens. The tacos looked identical to the ones we've had in Mexico, right down to the limes and radish.
The carts on Hawthorne also have an amusement area, or maybe it's just a tiny carousel from back in the day when fast food places had real playgrounds. I was excited about it and had to take a ride for old times sake!
By the end of our feast, we were so cold that we went right next door to Tiny's, a little coffee shop where I recognized our barista Douglas from Urban Weeds. He makes a mean hot chocolate.
After we hung out and chatted on Tiny's couch for a while, we went home to our babies with full bellies! If you are ever in Portland, try out the carts...I'm pretty sure they won't disappoint. If you need help finding them or narrowing your choices, head over to foodcartsportland.com.
Vintage chairs and apples
Last week Bennett and I went over to Hood River (45 mins east of Portland) with some friends to do to the 'fruit loop.' Hood River is in the Gorge between Washington and Oregon and is famous for it's orchards, especially the cherries and pears.
With three babies, we only ended up making it to one of the farms but it was the biggest and best one and they had a giant apple selection which is what we were going for.
They also had a row of super cute vintage lawn chairs and of course I had to get pictures of Bennett on them. Now that he can get up and go, he never wants to sit still anymore. When I was taking the pictures he decided to try diving head first off the chair. Mom fail! He was fine, but it scared him quite a bit until I distracted him with a funny little gourd then he was back to normal.
he thought the hay was a tasty treat:
his cankels always keep his skinny jeans from staying down:
more chair action:
one of the girls that went with us is a photographer and took this:
I'm always lured by the yummy farm treats. I got pumpkin butter and walla walla sweet onion mustard with roasted garlic. It's pretty much amazing.
I was in the mood to do some baking so I got 19lbs of apples and some really good asian pears:
and a buttload of applesauce:
I peeled and chopped 18 giant apples for 3.5 hours...ugh.
I love you dream kitchen
I've long thought about what my dream kitchen would look like...modern, vintage, rustic, white, stainless, concrete, wood, open shelving with pops of color.
It wasn't until I saw
this kitchen at Apartment Therapy's
the kitchn that I saw my dream kitchen embodied.
This family also lives in Portland and maybe one day they will sell their house and it will be all mine! (a girl can dream alright?!)
I could finally display my lovely latte
bowls on these:
love the West Elm pendant globe lights:
gone will be my days of electic burners:
concrete counters that overlay the sink...oh my:
I have to stop myself from staring at this Kenmore Pro fridge:
so simple and lovely:
so. much. counterspace. :
I love me a giant island:
Let's just pretend that's Bennett watching me get his snack ready ok? ok.
I know you've heard of AT's
ohdeedoh (which started out as
the nursery) but have you been to
the kitchn yet? check it out cause it's pretty awesome!
Six months in the making
We finally got our little family collage wall hung up! We have had all of the stuff for a while but have been too busy to actually put it together...as you might
remember, I surprised Chris with a
Nan Lawson custom family portrait for his birthday back in April.
We weren't sure where to hang it and we didn't have a frame so it just kind of sat until I won a giveaway from
The Love Shop and got to choose any print I wanted! I also wanted to hang up one of our family pictures and after three IKEA trips, we finally found the frames we wanted but ended up having to spray paint them white because the white ones were discontinued for some reason.
Anyways, I love how it turned out and I really like that all of our photobooth pictures on the side of the fridge are kind of incorporated in the collage!
My wedding ring is off getting fixed because it had a loose diamond and I feel pretty weird without it, especially with a baby I feel like people are judging me. Ok maybe I'm crazy but I still feel weird without it. I'm wearing a fake band I got at Macy's a few weeks before my wedding while my rings were off getting soldered. I have lost quite a bit of weight since then and it doesn't even fit the right finger anymore.
Since I miss mine, I somehow started looking at rings on etsy, and wanted to share this super cute one with you guys...
So cute and unique!
