Raising money for breast cancer research

Sorry for our lack of posts lately...we've both been really busy with work. I traveled to South Dakota last week (Watertown) while Brad has been on call...so our life has been fairly uneventful the last few weeks. But now we're headed out of town to see Karen, Walid, and kids in Beirut, Lebanon and a short visit to Cairo, Egypt. We are taking off in 5.5 hours with a long layover in NYC...definitely a needed vacation with our work schedules!

Tonight, we attended and helped volunteer at a Charity Golf Tournament and Dinner sponsored by KATU Channel 2 and the Northwestern University Club of Portland. The turnout was phenomenal - we sold out of the golf portion of the event with about 150 players and the dinner had about 300 people in attendance. This event took months to plan with just a small committee of really 7 members, but it was worth it in the end. It was a stressful night of running around, but we were able to raise $55,000 for the Susan G. Komen Foundation. Our goal was to raise $50,000, and we surpassed it. What a great feeling. Below are the pictures from the event. We had 175 auction items ranging from private pilates lessons to a private jet to take you and your friends to play golf, to a round of golf at some exclusive golf course in Scotland.

What made this event really mean something to me was as we were planning the event, I found out that my aunt was diagnosed with Stage III breast cancer. She's currently going through chemo treatments. From this experience, I've learned that what I really want to strive to do in life is make a difference in this world and in the lives of others.



A few weeks ago, we had another party at our house, which we're hoping to make an annual shindig. We called it the 1st Annual Fjord Fest in honor of (Brad) making the trip along the Oregon Trail and now us living on Oregon Trail Lane. If you all recall the old school game of Oregon Trail, there were times when one had to fjord the river in their wagon. Well...we don't necessarily have a wagon now, but who knows when you may need to hunt for oxen or when your family may suffer from dysentery or typhoid.

Life in suburbia

Now that we're mostly unpacked, we're getting used to life in suburbia. It's a lot quieter than in the city and we have to drive everywhere now instead of walking. But I'll admit... suburbia isn't as bad as I thought it'd be (maybe it's a sign that we're getting old and settling down...). We're within 3 miles to 3 major grocery stores, we found a place that serves Pho for $5 everyday, a bakery that sells darn good sandwiches for $2-4, and we're only about a 5 min. walk to Nike's headquarters, which has a 1.5 mile track around the campus. We're also only a 5 min. walk to this massive Recreation Complex that has a pool, approx. 4 soccer fields, 5 baseball fields, a couple basketball courts, some tennis courts, and a workout facility. And membership will only cost $200 for both Brad and I for a whole year! But I digress. Now...on to the more fun stuff - pictures!.

Brad and I finally checked out The China Town. It's a restaurant probably 1/2 a mile from our house that serves Dim Sum!! And they serve Dim Sum all day! We went on a Sunday at prime time (around 11:30am) and got seated within 3 min. Much shorter than the lines we're used to waiting in Chicago's Chinatown... The Dim Sum was good too...not the best we've ever had, but still very good (and I would definitely consider myself a Dim Sum connisseur).
The Northwestern University alumni group here in Portland hosted a free picnic for fellow alums. We actually had about 25 alums come out for the event. The day was gorgeous and the food and company were good. If you've been following our blog, you probably already know that Brad and I are very active with the NU alumni group in the area. It was actually a great source for some of our new friends in the area.
Here's a pic of our cat, Jas, laying out in the backyard. She loves it back there! We can leave her out there for hours, and she's fine. Every morning before leaving for work, she's always pawing at the door to go outside and play.
The next couple of pictures are of our flowers in our backyard. The yellow rose developed all by itself, it was a surprise flower that Brad and I didn't know about!
Roses grow like mad out here in the Pacific Northwest. No wonder Portland is called the City of Roses.
I love our hydrangea bushes! This purple one is actually right outside the window by our kitchen bench seat (see last post).
We have some white hydrangeas (or maybe they're going to turn pink?) starting to develop as well. Right next to it we have pink hydrangeas.
And finally, we have daisies. These daisies are actually by our driveway out front.

Housewarming Party

Most of you know already, but Brad and I just bought our first house! It was an exciting and surprisingly easy process. It was great working with sellers who were very willing to work with us to make it a nice smooth transaction. I think this house was meant to be ours - when we first came to look at the house, there was a little turtle statue by the path to the front door (b/c of the turtle from our engagement) and because the street we live on is called Oregon Trail Lane! So I guess this means we don't have to change our blog name ;) BTW, our new address is:

14877 SW Oregon Trail Lane
Beaverton, OR 97006

When we first started house hunting, we were originally looking at townhomes/condos in downtown Portland because we wanted to be close to the city. When we realized the size of place we'd get in the city for our price range, we started expanding our search to outside of Portland. We also later decided that we wanted a backyard, so that moved us a little further outside the city. We ended up finding a house in Beaverton, a western suburb of Portland, about 6 miles outside the city. What a great time to buy too...we got a good price on the house, almost all of our closing costs paid, a 4.875% 30 year fixed interest rate, and the $8,000 tax credit! We closed within 45 days and we moved in the weekend of July 4th. It was a stressful move since we literally packed all of our boxes within 1 week of moving. But we made it here! After moving in, we were up until 12:30am every night unpacking boxes so that we could have a little housewarming party this weekend. We just invited some of our closest friends in Portland since we didn't want to have a big shindig just yet. Below are some pics of us finally settled into the house and our housewarming party.

A pic of the backyard with all of our new deck furniture and new grill =) Brad has been loving all the yard work lately...we'll see how long that lasts!
Our cat, Jasmine, enjoying the backyard. She's out there everyday for hours! It's hard to get her back into the house. The entire backyard is gated, so even if we did leave her out there overnight, she wouldn't be able to get out. If you look at the top right hand corner of this picture, you'll find our strawberry patch. Fresh strawberries (yum!).
What's a lawn without the lawn games? We bought a bocce set and a cornhole set - we had to represent Northwestern University! Good thing just about all of our friends here have some tie to Northwestern so no one was offended by our set.
A pic of our kitchen all cleaned up. The flowers in the picture are from our hydrangea bushes outside our house - there's 3 large hydrangea bushes with white, blue/purple, and pink hydrangeas. There's constantly flowers growing in the backyard (we have roses, wisteria, lavender, daisies, and so many others we're not sure what they are yet!).
A pic of our bench seat in the kitchen. The big bush behind the window is the hydrangea bush.
A pic of the living room - the chess set is made of obsidian and onyx. We actually got it when we were in Cozumel, Mexico (the same vacation we got engaged at). We have unpacked most of the boxes, but we still haven't hung pictures up yet, as you'll see since the painting is still sitting on the fireplace. This painting was painted by our friend Joanna, if you look at it up close the picture is actually a bunch of pixels.
A picture from our housewarming party...everyone just chilling on the back deck. Actually, some of the group may be playing cornhole or bocce.
Brad's co-workers brought their 2 daughters with them...here's Eva playing a little cornhole with Matt and Kristina. We're trying to put a little midwest into her!
Everyone enjoying some grub!
Here's a pic of the other daughter, Anna. They're cuties! That's it for now with the pics, we'll show more house pics as we get pictures hung up.

Random pics to tie you over

It's been a little while since we blogged...mainly because we were scrambling the last 2 weeks to get packed up and now we're taking some time to get settled into the new house! We have had requests to see pics of the new house (well...maybe just one from Kristy), so we will get pics uploaded in the next week or so after we get more unpacking done. We will be having our first little party/BBQ this weekend full of bags (a.k.a. cornhole) and bocce, so we'll make sure to get some pics at the party to share on the blog.

In the meantime, I have some random pics that I've been meaning to put up on the blog the last 2 weeks. My work put together a staff outing out to see the Triple A league baseball team out here in Portland...the Portland Beavers. We got to bring family as well, so it was a perfect night out of socializing and eating stadium food (I think we lost the game...). I think people mostly go to the games to party rather than actually watch baseball.


The next 2 pics are from my last run in the city before our move. This is the riverfront (which was only a block away from our apartment.) It has a great running path and great views with lots of bridges running across the river. During this run, there were a few sailboats making their way down the river, so I got to see all of the bridges opened up to let the boats through. I thought it was pretty awesome to see the different types of bridges and how they open up.

1st trip back to Chicago!

After 9 months in Portland, we finally made a much overdue trip back to Chicago. Our excuse was to go for my graduation, however, we spent most of the weekend visiting with friends and family (and skipped 2 out of 3 graduation ceremonies).
I finished my PhD and defended my thesis way back in September, however, Northwestern only has the graduation ceremony once a year in June, so I had to wait to walk in the ceremony.

Here I am getting hooded by my PhD advisor, Tom Meade. I decided only to attend the hooding ceremony, as this is the most memorable and important for grad students. The other ceremonies were outside, and the weather was prone to storms. Besides, I was ready to get out of this gown and go visit some friends and family.

My Mom and Dad always stressed the importance of education. I am not sure I fully appreciated this when I was growing up, but I sure do now. Thanks Mom and Dad for helping to teach me that education is the key to success.
(I dedicated my thesis to my Mom and Dad for this very reason.)

Coincidently, I got to attend Brandon's defense during the afternoon on Friday in between grad receptions, etc. It was good to stop by the labs and see some old cronies (sorry, forgot to take pics - but the love is out there!). While I was there, Em went out to her old company's new office space to check it out. Later that night, it was time for the real fun to begin this weekend. We met up with Pauline, her brother Brian, Amanda, and Christal for some good eats at Smoke Daddy's. Very, very good bbq in Wicker Park. Later we headed out for some celebratory drinks in honor of Pauline's birthday. I also met up with Ian, Evan, Etrana, and some other former NU buddies. Em and I crashed at Pauline's pad in Lincoln Park (she graciously donated her bed and took the couch herself....thank you generous host). The next morning, we met up with Em's former coworker Liz and her boyfriend Joe. We had brunch with them at our favorite brunch place in Lincoln Park, called Nookies Too.

This is why Nookies is our favorite brunch place in Chicago. I had the "trio", which consisted of (L to R): mango coconut pancakes, french toast with berries and yogurt, and peach almond pancakes with honey. They also have the freshest real squeezed orange juice. Yum.

Later that afternoon, we made the trek out to the suburbs to Batavia to visit Em's uncle Jack (JoJo) and Linda, and their son Nick. Also visiting JoJo's beautiful new home were Em's parents and brother Chris from St Louis and her Grandma from Toronto. It was really great getting to see everyone and spending time hanging out with the family!!

Everytime we visit JoJo's place, he fixes a feast which usually includes filet mignon, shrimp, and other goodies from the grill. This time was no exception. He treats us so well and we are always grateful for his amazing cooking! Thanks again!!

Mojitos and Mahjong. After dinner, we learned how to play Mahjong, a Chinese game sorta like a cross between dominoes and rummie. Em and I have had a Mahjong set for awhile, but struggled with learning the many complex rules. We got a little practice with some expert coaching from Em's Mom and Grandma. Linda kept us refreshed on this hot day with some homemade Mojitos. Life is good.

We spent the night at JoJo's then got up in the morning and reluctantly said our goodbyes to the family. We headed back in the city for brunch at our second favorite spot, Toast, in Lincoln Park.

Brunch at Toast with Christal, Matt, Amanda, and Pauline.

After brunch, we headed down to the South Side to hang out with Kristy and Pat and my Mom and Dad a little more before our flight. Their deck is always a nice place to relax and enjoy the summer breeze. Of course, more food was consumed.

After eating too much (again), we went for a walk around the neighborhood. There are some impressive houses in the Hyde Park area including many oversized brick Victorians and a few Frank Lloyd Wright designs. Of special note is the home of our current president, Obama. Yes, my sister lives only a few blocks from Obama's house!!

Here's Pat, Kristy, Em, and I outside Obama's house (in background). This is about as close as the security would let us get. Notice the cement barricades put up all around the block. Sorry, it's not a great pic of the house, but there are lot of trees and even more police to obstruct the view. Kristy is about a week or two from delivering their first child, so we were hoping that it might come while we were in town. She is still waiting.....and so are we to welcome our 9th niece/nephew. We are anticipating her call any day now.

Well, the weekend seemed to fly by and we only wish we could've had more time to spend with everyone. We would like to thank everyone for their hospitality (Kristy and Pat even let us use their car all weekend) and taking time out of their busy schedules to visit with us while we were in town. We welcome all of you to Portland....and we will try to get back to Chicago before another 9 months passes! -Love, Brad and Em

Silver Falls State Park, OR

We had a Sunday with nothing to do, so we decided to drive down for some hiking in Silver Falls State Park. It's a little over an hour drive south of Portland, but well worth it. Along the way, we saw a strawberry farm so we stopped to pick a few (too many).
Let me start out by saying that, growing up in the Midwest, strawberries were OK. That's it, just OK. You had to cut them up and put sugar on them to make them good. The problem with most strawberries is that they are bred for shelf life and size (farmers are often paid by weight), not flavor. What you get is a large, watered down strawberry that is too firm, lacks flavor, and is actually white in the center.
However, if you come to Oregon, and try some of the local strawberries, you will be pleasantly surprised. Yes, they are smaller, but your first bite will tell you that these are extraordinarily great. They are sweet, deep red in color throughout, and full of delicious flavor. We first tried some at a local farmers market, and vowed to buy more when given the chance. Well, my friends, here was our chance. (My strawberry rant is over now). So we pulled over at a local strawberry farm where you can pick your own for only 75 cents a pound!!

Our bountiful harvest filled the trunk of the car....for only $16!!

"Strawberry Fields Forever"
Here we are, down on the farm, picking the best strawberries you will ever taste. The farmer even encouraged us to "sample" while picking the different varieties....sure!

OK, now that we were all fueled up on natural sugars, we headed to the main attraction....Silver Falls. We did the "Trail of Ten Falls" which is a 7 mile loop hike through lush forests. Along are the usual suspects: Matt, Kristina, Zoe, Em, and I. Here are some of our favorite falls on the hike:

South Falls - 177 ft. There is a trail that wraps behind the falls, you can see people walking behind the falls in this pic.

Lower South Falls - 93 ft, also with a trail behind the falls.

Em strikes a pose behind Lower South Falls

Lower North Falls - 30 ft.

Double Falls - 178 ft.

North Falls - 136 ft.
(see person at top for size comparison)

When the trails are this lush and the waterfalls are this plentiful, you tend to appreciate all the rain we get out here.

The view of North Falls from a clearing about a mile away.

After snacking on strawberries every day and every meal, we still had enough left to make 5 jars of homemade strawberry jam. If you are real nice, we might let you try some..... :)

May - beach weekend and South Dakota

It's been awhile since we've blogged, so we're playing catch-up again! This past weekend we were invited by our friends Tom and Alana to a weekend getaway at a beach house in Neskowin, OR. It was a great way to cap off a great week for me because I got a great review and a raise at work this week and I am officially slated to be Regional Director for the Northwestern Alumni Association for the Washington, Oregon, and Northern California region (which includes San Fran, Seattle, and Portland). I have heard that I am actually the youngest alum to ever be in a Regional Director position. So below I have included pics of our trip to Neskowin and also from my trip to South Dakota a week ago.

This is the view from the deck of the beach house. Just feet away from the driveway is the beach entrance, so needless to say we spent a good chunk of the weekend on the beach!
Brad and I posing for a pic on the path leading down to the beach. There were buoys lining the path, so that made it unique. So...you may be wondering why we're wearing jackets and pants? Well, the temps were a little chillier on the coast than they were in Portland. The coastal temps were in the 60s and in the 70s in the late afternoon. This past week in Portland, the temps have been in the 80s and sunny!
A shot of the beach in Pacific City. Oregon has expansive beaches and some great sand dunes. This beach was actually very popular with the surfing crowd.
Brad and I on Pacific Beach in front of this large rock in the middle of the ocean. If you analyze the picture really closely, you may be able to see some surfers. They were definitely wearing some 7mm full wetsuits (with hood) in the frigid waters!

So the next few pics are from my work trip last week to Pierre, South Dakota. Pierre is actually probably the smallest state capital in the country! I think about 12,000 people live in Pierre. It was an interesting flight there...we had 4 people on the flight and the airport has 1 gate. After Pierre, SD, we headed to Grand Forks, North Dakota for another client of ours. It was a bigger city than Pierre and is actually just coming off of the flooding that affected the area a few months ago (the flood that also hit Fargo, ND). Unfortunately, I didn't grab any shots from North Dakota.
The view from the Cattleman's Club. It was an amazing steak restaurant. Coming from Portland where seafood is predominant here, I was definitely craving some good 'ole steak only found in the midwest! What surprised me about South Dakota was how hilly it was in Pierre. I was expecting some flat land! I was pleasantly surprised...and I enjoyed the river as well.
Being in the capital of South Dakota, I convinced my co-workers to stop at the capital building with me. I didn't get a chance to go in like I did in Michigan's capital, but I got a great snapshot of the front of the building. Now I can officially mark South Dakota and North Dakota off my list of states that I haven't been to. I think there's about 14 more...