um, boo?

Whoa, it's the Roaming Gnome! Totally scary, right?! Well, maybe try this face, this is kind of scary. Yeah, he wasn't so into the belt.

For Halloween this year, the Pup declared the Roaming Gnome to be the coolness. So I made him a costume so he could be all gnome-y. The hat is, clearly, the best part. If you are interested in how this costume came together, read this post here-recapping seems too redundant.

While Papa and I don't normally get all jolly over the ghoulish delights of Halloween, the Pup's excitement for it sort of won us over and we did (most of) the things parents who are raising main stream kids are supposed to do for Halloween. Like carving pumpkins.

Dressing up and going trick or treating (twice, no less).

And making festive cupcakes for cadets (or whoever you want, I realize that not everyone has a captive audience for culinary attempts at their beck and call) for the purpose of making them smile.
And, yes, let's not forget the costumery. I am particularly proud of that. So is the kid.

Happy Halloween, or if you are being politically correct, Happy Orange and Black Day!

As you can imagine, there are tons of photos sitting in flickr just waiting for your ghoulish perusal.

to portland; or, why we love southwest airlines

We wandered to the great northwest over the weekend, specifically, Oregon. This was how Anders felt about another cross country flight after getting back from Hawaii less than a week before:

obviously über excited.

We were all excited about the pup having his own seat on the longer (5 hours) legs of the journey--thank you Southwest Airlines, we love you. We love your pre-boarding policies for families traveling with lap children, and we really love your passengers "select-a-seat" philosophy. Because really, who is going to select a seat near a couple with a kid for 5 hours? No one, that's who; and, that is just the way we like it.
Portland, Oregon is a fun city. Our motivation for going traveling again so soon after our big trip to Hawaii was the birthday of a very good friend. She was getting a surprise party, we wanted to join in on the fun.

After partying it up, we did a little exploring. We visited the International Rose Test Garden on the most popular day to get married (07.07.07) and saw more brides than you could shake a stick at. The Test Garden is great for many reasons. 1) There are roses (lots of them), 2) it's pretty, and 3) it's free. Free fun rates pretty high in our book. Aside from bridal parties, there was a young girl getting photographs for her Quinceañera, Anders liked the uniforms of her escorts(?).

In direct contrast to the hustle and bustle of the Rose Test Garden was the nearby Japanese Garden. It was peaceful, relaxing and truly incredible.

At the suggestion of one of the surprise party attendees, we made a trip to Cannon Beach.
This was a beach that even the Mama Seal could love.
But the pup loved the beach the most.

Aside from beach time fun, Cannon Beach is a great town to walk around, shop and, of course, eat.
Our lunch time destination was Cranky Sue's, because it's the home of great crab cakes. Truly.

It was the best meal we have had in quite some time (well, since Indigo in Hawaii).

And since we can't go anywhere without the Mama Seal going to a yarn shop, we stopped at the best one in the city.

And of course, we had to go to Powell's Books, because you have to do that when you go to Portland, Oregon.

It was a great trip. And we can not wait to go back some time!