Adventure in New Jersey

The first week of March I received notice that I needed to go to Princeton, New Jersey for a 3-day conference for my company. I tried to see if I could telecommute since Ryan is young, but no luck. So with 2 weeks to spare, I got us a plane ticket and started stressing about all the details, the biggest one being: who would take care of Ryan during the conference? My Mom couldn't go as she was already going to be in San Francisco part of that time. I didn't want Mike to come and leave Jake with no parent around. In desperation, I called Guthrie in NYC to see if he knew anyone who could be a nanny for 3 days. By a stroke of luck, his otherwise very busy schedule happened to be open those 3 days in the middle of March, and he was game to try his hand at taking care of a baby!

So off we went!

At the Portland airport, waiting for our flight to Newark.
Ryan and I arrived Monday night and got settled in our room. Guthrie arrived via train Tuesday morning, about 80 minutes before the conference was to begin. We quickly went over details. Prior to the conference, my Mom and Mike had both tried working on getting Ryan to take a bottle, with not much luck. So that was nerve-racking.

I went to the conference, which luckily was in the hotel. Guthrie and Ryan quickly got off to a great start. Ryan really only cried/screamed for me once on the first day prior to the first break, I think he was unsure that his mama was coming back. I was able to see him within 5 minutes of that starting. The rest of the time he was busy...

Out for one of their daily walks.

Playing on one of the pool chairs -- it was warm inside the pool area!

Water fun!
It all went so well! I had a break/lunch every hour and a half in the conference (except for the very end of the day, when we went 3 hours without a break). Ryan was able to wait and was hungry exactly at each of my breaks! The last part of the day I simply took a break to go feed Ryan when he needed it. The rest of the time he was either sleeping or happily entertained by Guthrie, who quickly realized how much energy this took and took naps with Ryan!

Ryan was a great traveler. However, the time zone difference was not easy -- Ryan would not go to sleep prior to 10:30 each night!!

Bedtime story with Mama.
Finally asleep.

Before the conference I was worried about the headaches that I always get from long meetings/conferences. So I worked with my naturopathic doctor to come up with a plan to reduce/prevent headaches. Her plan worked so well, but one part of it was no chocolate 2 weeks prior to and during the conference. So after the last day of the conference was over, I ordered a chocolate cake to share with Guthrie. I was so happy!

Mama gets chocolate!!
The aftermath. (Yes, we were silly. It was 11pm and I was giddy from it being over and having gone so well.)
Ryan's awesome manny and my wonderful friend.
On the plane back to Portland.

Good company

Our friend Guthrie has been staying with us for almost 4 weeks now, visiting on an extended break from NYC. It's really been nice having a good chunk of time with him, and has been especially helpful with my parents being out of town on a trip. He's been able to do the heavy lifting for boxes and such when Mike is not around, and another person for Jake to play with while I relax on the couch. Now we're just hoping the baby arrives before he leaves!

Happy New Year 2010!

Our New Year's Eve party...
All of us... Sara, Corky, Guthrie, Lee, Jake, and Mike.

Theo decided to join the festivities.
This boy LOVES tacos.
And ice cream cookie sandwiches. Then Jake went off to bed.
And we got silly.
Some of this helped. (Quite a long way from the wine coolers of college days...)
Makin' tacos.
Yum.
Then it was time for our raw, vegan, chocolate truffle tasting. There were 6 different-flavored truffles from Enchanted Florist in Ashland. We cut each up into 6 pieces.
First, the sniff test...
Sniff, sniff. I smell... citrus, lavender, almond, pistachio, coconut, and dark chocolate.
Well chocolate IS know to be aphrodisiac.
Yup.
And then for ice cream cookie sandwiches -- double dark chocolate cookies with mint coconut ice cream from Robots Love Cupcakes. They were fabulous!!!
Post-food relaxation and chatting.
Then onto a game of Cranium!
Fun night! We celebrated both NYC 2010 and Portland 2010 time :)

Snow

We got one of those rare snows in Portland! Guthrie, Jake, and I took a walk to the bakery for bread for our soup. Took these pictures when we got back -- you can see that the top of Jake's hat is white.
Eating organic Oregon snow. Ha!
Snow was still coming down heavily. Pretty!
With the flash off, you can't see the snowflakes.
This one learned from Guthrie how to make snow angels!
Happy!
Meanwhile... Mike had gone to the coast of Oregon to work for the day. He got totally stuck coming back -- had to take an alternate route and then creeped along highway 26 towards home. I had to go pick him up at a meeting point since there was no way the prius was going to get him home. I have never been so thankful for AWD and snow tires -- my car performed beautifully, while there were lots of cars parked all over the roads. Finally got him home at 10:30pm, after a 6 hour commute. The joys and perils of snow in the northwest!!

Lee Goes to NYC!

As a birthday present, I got a plane ticket to NYC. I was delighted to go and spend a long weekend with my sister, Amy. The last time I was in the city was September of 2005, so it was definitely time to go back.

Arrived on Friday night and it seems I brought the cloudy weather and rain with me from Portland...
Walking to the market Saturday morning.
Farmer's market in Union Square. We brought goods for Sunday night's dinner.
Here I am! Union Square.
Saturday afternoon Amy and I started walking around and shopping. We decided to go inside Grace Church, which is just blocks from Amy's apartment but she's never been inside. It was beautiful, like being in a church in Europe!



After shopping and finally finding a pair of shoes I liked after checking out about 8 shoe shops, we stopped for a break.
Mint iced tea.
Decaf mocha. (It was pouring on and off, and a hot drink felt good. By the time we returned to the apartment from walking around and shopping, our shoes and bottom of our pants were pretty soaked.)
Then we got all dolled up and ready for an evening out.
After dinner we went to friend Gina's apartment for a party! I felt like I was back in college days... totally fun and weird at the same time. We had a great time and didn't leave until 1am. Oy.
There were 5 St. Mary's Academy alum at the party -- all of them the class of 2001 except for me, class of 1995 :) (And yes, some people were wearing Halloween costumes. Just to clarify.)
Sunday... after sleeping in and meeting friend Guthrie for brunch, we went to the flea market on 78th street.
I loved this guy's collection of old-time toasters.
And had fun watching him demo them for the little girl.
The trees were in the peak of changing colors while I was there. So glad the rain abated and it was sunny and beautiful for my second day.
With Guthrie in front of the American Museum of Natural History, where we were meeting Amy and Tyler.
A quick stop inside the museum for the restroom... couldn't resist taking pictures of the dinosaurs in the front lobby to show Jake...

Then a lovely walk through Central Park!


A stop at a cafe for some refreshments. This was a tiny little cafe and we went up this really tiny spiral staircase to a little loft area where we sat.
Subway to MOMA. Except we ended up taking a cab the second half of the trip because the train we needed wasn't running that day.
MOMA! We saw some of Monet's works, which were beautiful. Then I sought out the Van Gogh, which I love.
I also love this one by Klimt, which made me emotional. A beautiful pregnant woman.
We returned from MOMA via the bus down 5th Avenue. Cooked dinner and the skyline from Amy and Tyler's apartment window was spectacular during that time.
We watched a French movie called "The Class" that evening, which was really interesting. The next day, Monday, Amy and I walked to the subway together in the pre-dawn darkness and she headed off to work and me to the airport.

In the meantime, Mike and Jake stayed home and enjoyed a father-son weekend. Jake also got to spend time with the grandparents, during which he ate some Mexican food, visited a toy store, and had sorbeto ice cream on a cone.

Stay tuned for part 2, what I ate in NYC!