Booms, bangs, and birthdays

So I really have been meaning to post smaller posts and do it more often. I'm just bad at it.

So when I was housesitting, I found some of my new favorite plants. Aren't these cool?

This one's leaves start hot pink and turn green. Weird, but freakin rad.

This one looks like a weapon. :)

4th of July:

Awww...we're cute...

Jason, his brother and a neighbor spent TONS on fireworks. Like, a lot. A whole lot. So our day was full of fun. Early in the day we were entertained by them making dry ice bombs (put dry ice and water in a plastic bottle - it bursts. Hilarity).

You can see a video of it at this link (if anyone knows how to embed these, enlighten me. It's not working for me.) :(
http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v739/beckyhpictures/Fireworks/?action=view&current=P1020352.flv

And here's a video of about 30 seconds of the 3 hours of fireworks the boys put on for us. RAD.
http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v739/beckyhpictures/Fireworks/?action=view&current=P1020380.flv

On Thursday morning we left for Portland, Or. Yes, the wonder that is Oregon. Good times.
We stayed at the Hotel Monaco - it was fun but I got irritated with the front desk clerk (which, I am usually very forgiving of since I used to be one but this guy was an a-hole.) but it was okay. The hotel is fun and funky, so that's interesting.

We went to dinner at RINGSIDE - which...yum. So good. I wanted VERY badly to take pictures of the food (it looked amazing and tasted even better) but the place is DARK. And flash just seemed like more attention than we wanted. But it was very good. Visualize in your head. Good job.

We went back to the hotel and changed clothes, then went to a bar:

When we got back to the hotel (I had lots of fun at the bar. It was good times) Jason got to open his gifts - the boy made out like a bandit. I think his favorite thing was his new watch:
But he also got his XBOX 360 racing wheel, a racing game, new clothes, and some other fun stuff. It was fun seeing his excitement for the stuff he got. :)
When I was packing up to go the next morning, I found this "doodle" of Jason's - he didn't leave it out for me or anything, I just saw it. He's cute. :)

Friday we went and had breakfast and then set off to hang out with our friends that were dragracing at the strip about 1/2 hour south of Portland. It was nice and warm, but not HOT, so I was happy (I don't do well in the crazy heat. Just mildly warm as long as I'm prepared for it.) :)

We had a big barbecue and then stuck around for the GOLF CART NATIONALS! :) Tons of the drag racers have golf carts so this track decided the carts should race. They raise a lot of money for the booster club this way and it is LOTS of fun.

Jenn and Chewy were all excited to go:

We had lots (and lots) of competition:
Come to find out, you were supposed to have a human co-pilot, so I was recruited. It was fun! For our time-trial we got this whopping time (in seconds, going to the 1/8 mile mark):
Go speed racers!!!

We actually made it to the 3rd round of racing where we lost by .07 seconds. Sad. Oh well, it was great fun. See:

I'm a big fan of the shadow pictures lately, and Jason actually saw me trying to get one of us and did this (which we got mocked hardcore for. But he still loves me. Aww)
Then back home (I actually stayed awake most of the drive. That's amazing!)

Saturday was his family birthday party - we were excited that his brother and sister-in-law brought Jason's neice!! She's friggin adorable:

He really was excited. I promise.

There - that's better:

His brother got him a new Remote Controlled car - he LOOOOOVED it. Can you tell he's a car guy?

And just before my camera ran out of battery I got this. So cute. :)

THE END.