Night in Portland

Friday, Peter came home a bit early from work and we took off for Portland.  PJ Mathai, one of the missionaries we support from India, was in town on furlough, and we wanted to get together to catch up with him and hear more about his ministry.

It was a brief visit, but it was really good to hear updates from him and share what has gone on in each of our lives during the past 6 years.  Peter and I first met him when we gave him a ride to a church in Idaho while Peter and I were still dating.  I can't believe 6 years had already gone by since then!

We decided to see if we could priceline a cheap hotel and stay in Portland for the night, and we found a great deal!  We stayed at the Hilton Garden Inn and it was really nice and cozy.  Before we got to the hotel, we split a burger at Fuddruckers and then decided to take Benjamin for a late night (8pm) swim!

Despite it being a bit past his bedtime, Benjamin loved the water as always.  I only wish it would have been a little bit warmer so we could have kept him in longer.  After his swim and quick shower, Benjamin was out!  Mommy and Daddy stayed up watching a bit of HGTV and relaxing in their king size bed (love them!) and went to bed around 11.  Benjamin woke up at 4:15 to eat...not so bad right?  It wouldn't have been if he didn't decide to TALK and TALK and TALK until 5:15 or so.  Then wake up at 6:15...go back to sleep.  Then wake up at 7:15 and refuse to go back to sleep until he gets to come into bed with mom and dad.  Benjamin apparently likes king size beds as much as his mama :-)  He then decided to wake up at 8:15 and would sleep no more.  OH FUN.  It's hard to be too mad at him though when he's so stinkin cute.

This little guy is very serious about his tv.  He not only took over mommy's bed but took her remote too!  I think it's kind of funny that Peter doesn't even get the remote when I'm not watching....his son does :-)

In the morning we hit up a few garage sales and didn't really buy much....just a few things for 50 cents a piece.  We got a Cinnamon Crunch bagel from Panera bread for breakfast, SO good.

Benjamin really needed to take a nap so we drove around for a bit and decided to go to IKEA.

We got a new toy storage shelf for our bonus room and a pack of tealight candles.  Here's Peter trying to work his magic to get the shelf into our car with our overnight bags, stroller, etc.

Of course, Benjamin didn't nap at all so we went and browsed Home Depot and the Habitat for Humanity Re-store.  No nap yet.  So finally after all that he crashed in the car.

We decided that while he was sleeping, we'd go enjoy my early birthday dinner at The Cheesecake Factory.  We ate far too much and still ended up taking half of it home for leftovers.

We then headed for home and we were all just exhausted.  We put Benjamin down a little after 7 since he napped maybe an hour all day and now we are about to enjoy this.....

Chris's Outrageous Chocolate Cake may or may not have found its way into the bag of leftovers we took home from The Cheesecake Factory....now how did that happen???

Then, we're probably going to call it an early night.  Oh yeah, and I forgot to mention that it was absolutely GORGEOUS today.  About 77 degrees and perfectly blue skies......such wonderful medicine for a girl who had kind of a dreary week.