House Guests

We've just finished our first round of summer house guests. Thank you for waiting until the heatwave was over. We had the rare pleasure of hosting our friend Kandi Lou all the way from Australia. It's been a short 19 years since I saw her. I was just entering high school when she was finishing up her exchange program. Thanks to Facebook, we've been in touch and she planned a stop in Portland to see us and Thom and Steph when visiting the states this time around. Dalia loved saying her name. We had such a fun time with her!


Halfway through her visit, Oralea arrived so she could look at possible wedding sites. We had a slumber party here at Hotel Vermeys for a night. But then we said goodbye to Kandi Lou. Dalia and I loved driving around the Gorge with Oralea (or as Dalia calls her, "Orlo"). She had her first ice cream cone at Multnomah Falls (which she didn't spill at all - she used this little spoon to scoop it out. I don't think she had any idea she could eat the cone until I started stealing bites from it.)







While we were driving in the Gorge my car started to suffer (again) and the next day the check engine light came on for the 60000th time. It was driving pretty poorly for a few days and yesterday when I left for yoga in the morning, the car really just wouldn't go. So, rather than dealing with fixing it again, we decided to find a new car. We did some online research and found (to our surprise and excitement) a used Prius. We went and test drove it and loved it, so here we are with our very own hybrid! We are so excited to have been able to trade in our old car (which did not qualify for the cash for clunkers program - too bad it isn't cash for lemons) for a hybrid. Amazing to think we won't have to get gas for a couple of months now. Dalia is very excited about our "new car".


Now we await our friends from Chicago who arrive on Wednesday. . .