My friend Heidi is so cool!!

I just returned from a fabulous long weekend in Portland. I planned the trip to be able to surprise my pregnant friend Amy at her baby shower, but I also just got to spend a lot of quality time hanging out with a few good friends.

During my time with Heidi, she showed me her newest creative outlet. She "upcycles" used baby clothes by adding her own creative, hand sewn designs. They are awesome and super cute!! She just opened up an on-line site to sell them. If you need a unique baby gift, you should definitely check her out!

I spent three days and two nights hanging out with Heidi and the rest of the Rush family. I got to see their new house and spend time with the kids. I played dinosaurs with Ellie and spent time crawling around on the floor with Shiloh. Mostly, though, I got to step into Heidi's life for a while. Usually when we get together it's because of some special event or because we have some activity or task to do. For these few days, though, it was nice just to BE together, doing what she does in her day to day life. She's amazing! I don't know how moms do it!

The shower was on Saturday and, boy, was Amy surprised! I was so happy to be able to be there because I miss so many of the regular get-togethers. It was also fun to see all of these different parts of Amy's life represented by all of the different people at the shower. It was also fun to see Amy pregnant. She looks like she stuffed a basketball under her shirt. You can't even tell she's pregnant unless you look at her from the side!

On Saturday night, Amy, Anya and I went out for Mexican food. We thought we'd try out a new restaurant, but when we got there it was a little too fancy for us. At first we thought we'd just get drinks and guacamole with chips and then go somewhere else for dinner, but it turned out that they didn't have chips. No chips?! How is that possible in a Mexican restaurant? At this point we did something I've never done before...we left two bucks on the table and ran.

Anyway, the next few days were spent hanging out with Amy. It was fun to step into her life for awhile. We also snuck in a good chick-flick (Brian appreciates that he never needs to watch Julie and Julia!) and Thai food (yum!).

Long story short, I had a great trip out West. But, I also have to say that I was very happy to get home. I missed Brian a ton! This was our longest time apart since we got married. Brian picked me up at the airport and he thoughtfully brought a thermos filled with hot water and a washcloth for me to clean up after the long flight. He also brought a big bottle of ice water to help me rehydrate. What a thoughtful husband I have!!!