Our Portland Tour with Mama Zelle…or so we thought

(Warning: Some material discussed may not be suitable for children)

Oft times in our daily travels, the world in which we live in and the world of which we can only fantasize miraculously blend into one. Our line between fact and fiction has suddenly vanished and we are now again attempting to get a grasp on reality.

In this case, the tour started with a phone call. Papa Jon and I had a friendly chat on the phone in which we discussed surprising Lynette with a visit from Mama Zelle.

Against all odds, with much distress and manipulation, I kept the surprise a secret. Lynette’s ability to sense the future is and forever will trump all my understanding of time and space, but that is another story.

Let’s start here, Mama Zelle arrives in Portland, here is Lynette’s reaction. It’s a good one. I hope you enjoy the primetime perspective on this occasion, I am quite sure the view is the only one of its kind. All others where impaired by a man standing in the way with a camera. 

After dinner at our favorite restaurant Gustav's (German Food), a late night of lovely conversation, and some fun time reliving the tour of the apartment, we all went to sleep so that we would be well rested for the upcoming events. One notable difference is that 4 ft. Christmas Brush that attempts to be a tree sitting in our living room, still vacant of any material gifts, but full of Christmas Charm.  

Once awake, the tour continues to a once in a lifetime experience of going to church. 

Then, we would obey the local custom of "keeping the sabbath day holy," in which we refrained from any unnecessary and otherwise deemed "unworthy" activity. It was quite a wonderful and restful day.

After starting the tour with a day of rest, we decided to take the tour to the city and give it everything we got. 

First we went to the Lloyd Center.

Then to the Portland Carts for Lunch. We enjoyed delicious Vietnamese Sandwiches. :)

Next, we were off to ride the Sky Rail and get a new view on Portland. 

Then we went to Tryon Creek State Park for a little taste of the "jungles of O-ray-gahn"(From the Movie Overboard).

After much heated debate, we enjoyed our next meal at Olive Garden.  Just as I was arriving to the conclusion that I ate too much, we were on the move again. It should be a sin to move so soon after having placed so much food in ones stomach, but I pressed onwards anyways. 

We enjoyed a wonderful early gift from Grandma Wade and promptly positioned in on our tree.

It truly was a wonderful day.

Everything was going perfectly as I said my goodbyes the next morning to Mama Zelle and thanked her for all of the good conversations and wonderful company. I then took off to work as if everything was usual. 

As I came home that evening, I opened my door to find, under our Christmas Tree, piles of presents that were not there before Mama Zelle had arrived. I quickly searched to find insight as to the origins of such great gifts, and to my great wonder, they seem to have come from Santa. 

The question is now, did Santa come disguised as Mama Zelle, or is Mama Zelle actually Santa?! The implications are astonishing and perhaps outlandish, but Lynette has reported noticing the same pattern throughout her childhood. As I said before, our line between fact and fiction has been blurred and we are eager to come to the truth. Were we touring with Mama Zelle, or Santa,… or both?

New Blog Name?

Lynette and I have been wanting to come up with a fun theme for our blog and we think we've got it. After the pleasant responses to the tour of our lovely home, we have decided to write our blogs as if we are taking tours or guiding tours in hope to make them as fun and enjoyable as possible.

As for the name change... its an Acronym for MARTIN that also expresses the great influence our tours have had on our life and sleeping style.

M - Marvelous
A - Amazing
R - Rifely
T - Tours
I - Inducing
N - Narcolepsy

A wonderful coincidence I agree.

Now LET THE TOURS BEGIN!

"What is going on with the Trees?"

"Whoa, Babe holy cow, it is BEAUTIFUL! Look at all those colors! Where did that come from?" Lynette exclaimed with excitement.
"What do you mean? You mean the leaves? Yeah, the leaves go green to red/pink to yellow then fall. Its what happens when Fall is here." Jeff replied. To him it was just another Fall Season. Don't misunderstand, he loves Fall and thinks its Beautiful. But it is what happens every year.

Yet Lynette was looking out the window just dying to go walk around and look at all the beauty like it was something so unreal to her. So he asked " Have you never seen Fall? Do you want to go walk around?"
Lynette felt slightly silly and replied, " Well of course, just not a Fall like this. With so many trees and all of the colors changing slowly. I am used to them just practically taking 1 or 2 nights to change colors. But can we please go walk around?!?!"
Jeff, excited to experience another new thing with his wife excitedly drove around and took Lynette to see all the beautiful areas and get out and even take some pictures.
Well i am sure most of you may not know this, but until about 4 years ago i finally understood or could remember what Fall was. I honestly was absent for the days that they taught about seasons or something, and with growing up in AZ you really don't see a whole lot of the "seasons". It goes from Summer, to you waking up the next day and all of the sudden their are leaves all over the ground, now its "Fall", to its freezing for about a week, now "Winter", to waking up and there being leaves on the trees "hello Spring". So i never could grasp the true seasons and them changing other then Summer and Winter.

So i decided to show you just a taste of my very "First Fall". Can you believe it, Red, yellow, pink and green Ivy....??

Something i have always thought was so gorgeous, is drops of water on leaves. No matter where its been i love it. and fortunately i see it quite often here.

Now doesn't my husband look handsome with all the natural beauty!!

Me and the amazing fall colors behind me. Just in case you couldn't tell! Isn't it amazing!

Not quite as good of a photographer, but you get the idea... Jeff Trying to show off the colors, but i kinda messed it up. But it still looks good, and of course Jeff makes it look AMAZING!!

I am completely loving Oregon! It is such a fun adventure! The differences are so beautiful and super exciting to experience and learn. Everything is beautiful, everyone needs to come see all that God has created in the wonderful state of Oregon. (Don't worry i still love and miss AZ. But i am enjoying my life and this beauty).

The long awaited update :)

We are going to do this as if you have just arrived after the 22 hr drive up here from Arizona. First, you would rush through our living room. You'd be lucky if you saw it in such great detail...

Then you would most quickly arrive here. Yes, the bathroom. And, you'd probably see this in greater detail than you see here. There is something powerful about the real experience.

This is what you would see as you stood up in front of the toilet. Don't know why you'd do that though.

Then we'd usher you back for a snack and some drink to quench your thirst. Our lovely little kitchen. Notice the Bouquet from our wedding on your left. And Mama Zelle's Recipe for How to Preserve a Husband on the wall nearby. This very important feature is key to our successful venture's while in the kitchen.

We would then ask you to take a seat and enjoy your snack in our cozy Dining Room. If you're lucky, we'll pull out the board games.

Then, for display only, we would show you our cherished bed. Please, no touching. The quilt was hand-made by My Aunt Anne as a wedding gift. Simply...Amazing.  We are enjoying the challenge of figuring out what to do with Lynette's Baptism Blanket hence it's artistic placement in this photo.

Now a quick glance towards the paradox we call Jeff's Library. 

And thus we see, that the first shall be last and the last shall be first. We would leave our fine sleeping quarters and settle down in the living room to carry on as civilized folk do.

We hope you enjoy the tour and decide to come experience the real thing soon. 

Warm Regards,

Jeff and Lynette

Huge News.....We're finally getting our own place!

We found a place not too far away. It's perfect for now. We promise many pictures to come!

The Fourth

We had an eventful day on the fourth of July. I spent the morning visiting the people i home teach who have now become good friends, went to visit and elderly lady in the ward, and then came home and prepared a bbq with some friends. We then hopped on the Max Train and watched Oregon's largest firework show at the waterfront park in Portland. It was a very rewarding day on all levels and we'll never forget it. Here are a few pics.

The Legendary Pink Chair Arrives!

Uncle Ron and Aunt Judy were sweet enough to bring up my favorite antique chair in the world. Other than the antique couch in the Curtis home parlor we had our first kiss on of coarse. Sadly, we forgot our camera and didn't get pictures with Uncle Ron and Aunt Judy.

Later, as we unpacked it, Jeff ran outside and returned with a light yellow rose and posed on my chair.

2nd day of Jeff's Bday weekend!!

Good morning!! Wow what a truly incredible view to wake up to. This is what our view was from our "room"!!

This is me when i just woke up.

Jeff just woke up and was ready to start the day!

Jeff ran to the car to grab a few extra things that we didn't get the day before. He came back with something a little extra... can you guess what it is?

If you guessed kite you are correct! As he was walking back he found a kite! And from what he can remember he has never flown one before, so it made it even more exciting! He caught on quickly and had so much fun!

Here is the kite!

This is me watching him have fun with the kite and enjoying seeing my husband so happy!!

Doesn't he look like such a pro?!?!

So pro he can do it with his foot!

We packed everything up and i took one last picture! He is such a handsome mountain man!!

We were on our way home, and almost home but then we saw some signs... so naturally... we stopped at some garage sales...and well as you can see we got a little carried away. We found 2 bowling balls and shoes for 15 dollars (originally one bowling ball can be a couple hundred, shoes are pretty spendy as well). We found a towel warming rack, brand new never used, for 28 (originally 280). And of course many other treasures.

The next morning i woke up early and made him waffles with the batter Mama Zelle and Papa Jon sent to us for his Birthday, thanks again it totally brightened our day!!!

Jeff's Birthday weekend!!!

So I know you all have been wondering what we did for Jeff's Birthday! Well Iwill finally tell you. So the day before Jeff's birthday I gave his presents, I gave him the new ipod nano, because i wanted him to be able to put songs on it before work the next day. Hence the day before. Ialso gave him a wrist band that holds the ipod so that it looks like a watch, along with a littleportable speaker he can use at work. Sorry i dont have any pictures at this time of any of those. Ok now for his actual bday. We both woke up and went to work. We got off a little early so we were able to go on a birthday camp out. Jeff has been dying to go and i wanted to surprise him, but with me still learning good places and the ones he likes the most i decided to let him choose where to go.This is us on our way to the beach.

Isn't the drive beautiful?!?! The drive alone was incredible!!!

We finally arrived at the beach and thanks to a good buddy, David, we found an incrediblespot!!

This is a panorama of where our actual tent/campsite was. Jeff was able to make a wonderful fire for us and we stayed warm while watching the incrediblesunset. Because of the fire we ate a wonderful gourmet meal, a can of soup and chips. Jeff was also able to set up our tent in the most amazing spot... as you can see. If you look closely there is a hole in the brush and tree's, we had to climb up some roots to get to our tent. But it made it very exclusive and perfect for us so that we had TONS of privacy. And of cours the best view in the world!