Back From Portland

I love my cousins! Ali, Tara, Susan and Me - I love these girls. They are the sweetest girls on the planet. But they are all a size zero and make me look extra chubby. I mean, they are sweet and all but could we get these chicks some freakin chocolate?



Bella Mafia - The Godmother (my grammie Bea in pink), the consiglierie (my auntie lori - middle in white jacket), the baby (my auntie jayni - in back behind my grams), the bride (my cousin susan - the cute young one in the front. "you commah to my grandaughter's shower to ah ask me a favah." ) and the family hammer (my mom - in the black shirt on the right).






My Auntie Lori and Susan - mother of bride and bride - so -oh beautiful!






Suze - me - grams - mom - I picked out gram's outfit. She looked so cute!


I love Portland. It is truly one of my favorite cities. Especially in the summer which is so mild compared to the sweltering heat of California. I especially love three things about Portland. The green landscape, the food of the Pacific Northwest (berries and salmon) and the people that live there...my Auntie Lori, Uncle Terry and my cousin Susan. I found myself in Portland this time to celebrate Susan's bridal shower. She is going to be the most beautiful bride in the known universe and history of brides. And she is nicer and kinder than she is pretty. She's one of those kind of people that you just love to love because she is loving, thoughtful, sincere without being pretentious or superficial. She has awesome style, loves girl things and is just neurotic enough to be real and relatable. She's one of my favorite people in all the world. And the guy she's marrying is her perfect match and is also friendly and kind. And you know how you can tell people are totally in love and crazy about each other without them being cheesy and disgusting and mauling each other in public? There's just a quiet gentleness and care that they have between each other. That's something Mike and I have never mastered. We're more of a squabbly, sarcastic and joking sort of twosome and it puts people off at first. Some stick around and get used to our rhythm and find deep love and friendship behind all the jokes and squabbles. And we fight big. Not often but when we fight it's better to get out of the way or risk getting run over. But we love big too. And this post isn't about us. I was just giving a contrast to Susan and Kevin and how we wish we had that quiet click between us where people know without a shadow of a doubt that we are a team and that we are totally in love. That's how you feel when you are around this young couple.

So back to Portland. The shower was beautiful and Susan was so kind and gracious as she got the coolest gifts I've ever seen. And playing with my cousin Jeff and Ali's little girl was the best. She is two and funny, sweet, smart and so fun to play with.

The only bad thing that happened was my Grams fell on the stairs. We are lucky that it wasn't more serious. She hit her head and really wrenched her shoulder. But she had a CAT scan and Xrays and nothing is broken and there doesn't seem to be any head damage. She is staying in Portland for a few days then will go up to Seattle to stay with my other Aunt and will come home as soon as she can and then my Mom and I will have her stay with us. We should be settled into our new house by then and I'll have an actual guest room ready for her. I love my Grams so much and I am so sad she's hurting but I'm so glad she will heal.

So all in all it was a great weekend with that one setback. I love my family so much and it was a blast to get to share in their happiness.