Two Weekends of Emily's Twenty First

Beth's sister Emily turned 21 recently and Beth and I had only been looking forward to it for like 4 years. Emily is rad and we were excited to finally be able to take her out in Hood River. On the weekend after her birthday (which was on a Tuesday) I rented a house in Hood River with the whole Runnels family (Beth, Emily, Brother Neil, Mom & Dad Runnels). I bought decorations on Amazon, ordered customized beer koozys and the house was party-central for the weekend, complete with a hot tub.

^^View from the house + personalized koozy^^

^^Birthday girl, personalized koozy, gold wall, rental house magic^^

^^Saturday morning yoga at the rental house^^

On Friday after Emily's birthday we planned a bar crawl complete with clues (for which bar we were going to next) that the bartenders had waiting. We went from the Trillium to Double Mountain to Brian's Pourhouse for dinner, then to the Pub before finally ending up at River City where more friends were waiting. We then ended the night walking up a million stairs back to the rental house and we were all sore the next morning hah. It was a fun night, even if it wasn't a total surprise because Emily had seen the Facebook invite open when her boyfriend was browsing Facebook one day, ha!

 ^^Emily and I at Trillium, stop one on her 21 run^^

^^Brother Neil and I at Emily's Bday Dinner^^

That Saturday was the Double Mountain Anniversary Party which was super fun. We day drank beers in the sunshine, and then night drank beers under a tent, ate pizza, chatted with our favorite people, listened to live music and eventually ended up at the Pub when the party shut down. We ended the night by walking up the million flights of stairs to our rental house and kept the party going (just 4 of us at this point, Beth, Emily, Emily's BF Kelly and me) in the hot tub with PBRs. Breakfast the next morning followed by the 4 hour drive back to Seattle was in a word, rough.

^^Me and the entire Runnels Family at the DM Anniversary Party^^ 

 ^^Gaby, Emily and I at the DM Anniversary Party^^

^^Take 2!^^

The one thing that was missing from Emily's 21st birthday weekend though, was Jack's. Jack's is magical and it was closed for an entire month starting on her birthday. They reopened the weekend after I got back from Mexico, so Beth and I met once again in Hood River to take Emily to Jack's for the first time. Can I say success? SHE LOVED IT! We had some beers at double mountain, followed by dinner at Henni's and then a dance party at Emily and Kelly's apartment. Eventually we made our way to the Pub to wait until the appropriate time (Jack's O-Clock) to head down to Hood River's most magical bar. We obviously purchased scorpion bowls and an appetizer platter (fried Chinese food, yes!). After our snacks and drinks we danced and danced and at one point on the dance floor Emily shouted "CAN WE COME BACK TOMORROW?!" Lol. So good.

^^Day beers on the patio at Double Mountain are the best beers^^ 

^^Shout out to Phinny for the multiple shots^^ 

^^Emily's first ever Scorpion Bowl^^

The next day we went to Hood River Cider Fest and then out to dinner and then I called it an early night because I can't party like that two nights in a row.

Celebrating Emily and going on 2 21st birthday extravaganzas was super fun and made me feel kind of old, but also kind of proud that I was able to hang! Happy 21st Emily, we love you!

end of break

and now I'm back up at Seattle after winter break. it's snowing here. boo. but I have my own room now that Erin is in Italy for the quarter (I am sad she's gone) which I'm pretty excited about.

last night I went out in hood river for Sarah's going away party (she's going to Japan to snowboard and teach lessons and stuff for three months) and it was amazing. I had so much fun. it made me not want to leave (ha). we started out at the british pub then moved on to Jack's where we "danced the night away" haha. I want to go back to the HR.

let's see if school is canceled tomorrow....?

Me, Emma and Heather at Jack's


Scorpion Bowls:


Sarah drinking from the ultimate straw Joel made!


Me and Emma:


Asian wannabes:

Hood River for Marissa's Birthday

 

Two weekends ago I drove back to Hood River to celebrate Marissa's birthday. I missed it last year because I was studying for the bar/living at the law library/generally hating my life, and I promised her then that I would be there to celebrate this year.

I drove down on Saturday morning, which, by the way, is far less traffic-y than driving down on a Friday night. I would highly recommend it. When I got into town it was absolutely beautiful outside, so I decided to play third wheel and I tagged along with Josh and Sarah (and Kiva and Lala) on a min-adventure to Mosier to visit Josh's dad.

 Sarah and I in Mosier

 

 LaLa and I (OMG I made friends with a dog!)

 

After Mosier, the three of us headed back into Hood River, blasting some old school Nelly #sogood. We grabbed a quick bite to eat from Colby at Hajukin Cuisine (also #sogood) then headed to Dog River for a little birthday prefunk with the crew.

 

From back left: Tonya, Caroline, Marissa, Rachel, Florian, Phoebe, Josh S, Me, Sarah, Tall Paul and Dave (front and center)



 

Marissa wearing my birthday gift to her: JORTERALLS! I'm sort of obsessed and want some for myself now. #OOTD

 

The rest of the nigh included drinks at the pub, a dance party at Jack's (my favorite) where I successfully requested both "Hot in Here" (because I just couldn't get enough) and "Blurred Lines" and got to share a scorpion bowl with my friends.  

 

Caroline, Abby, Huggie, Beth and Florian sharing some Scorpion bowl at Jack's 

 

Then, to top it all off, after the bars closed, Huggie convinced a cab driver to take a van full of us through the Taco Bell Drive through, after which we devoured $36 worth of cheap tacos around the TREW house coffee table before Beth and I walked back to her place to sleep for a  few hours.

 

The next day a few of us did breakfast then Beth and I decided to go into Portland for a few hours of walking around NW 23rd St, shopping and some really delicious mac and cheese before I drove back to Seattle. 

 

It was a really quick, super fun Hood River trip and I can't wait to go back for the 4th of July!

Scenes from the Weekend: Hood River Style (yes, again)

On Thursday I headed down to Hood River to soak up a little more Hood River Summer goodness. Surprised? Didn't think so. Anyway, let's get on with this.

When I got to town I met Beth and we went to Lampoei's, which is this really amazing Thai Food truck, to grab some (of the best) Thai Food and take it down to the river to enjoy while we dipped our toes in the cold water and read for a little bit.

After the river, we met our friends Sarah and Launa and headed to White Salmon to Henni's Kitchen for an amazing, leisurely dinner complete with lots of small plates, wine, and amazing main courses. We sat outside, chatted and watched the sun go down, which made girls night extra amazing. After dinner we grabbed a quick beer at Double Mountain before calling it a night.

Friday morning I woke up early, walked downtown to Ground for some breakfast. On my walk I ran into Dustin's parents which was a fun surprise. After breakfast I walked across the street to the TREW gnaRV (pop-up-shop), said hi to a few of my guy friends who were working the morning shift and bought myself a new sweatshirt which I can't wait to wear all the time when the weather gets a little cooler.

I spent the rest of the morning and afternoon working alongside Beth and Marissa at Dog River. After work I met up with Josh and Sarah, who made me a delicious dinner (chicken with chanterelles and an awesome organic salad). I also got to spend some quality time with my favorite dog, Kiva, during dinner. She's the sweetest ever.

After dinner we met up with friends at Double Mountain and then sat outside at the Pub for the rest of the night.

Saturday morning Beth and I met up with our friend Abby at River Daze Café for breakfast sandwiches on their homemade English muffins (YUM). After which we walked around, visited the TREW pop-up-shop so Abby could get a sweater, got juice from the Juice truck and then ran into our friend Ashley. She suggested we make an impromptu trip down to the river for an hour and we obliged. We ended up swimming in our bras and underwear and drinking PBRs for a little while before heading back into town. It was really spontaneously fun.

^^Beth and Abby in the River^^ 

When we got back to town I had to go change and get ready for Katie and Josh's final wedding-related-party at Katie's mom's house. Katie told me I should bring a plus one since I likely wouldn't know many people there, so, since Beth was working, I invited my friend Greg to go with me. Apparently I did not adequately prepare him for the awesomeness of the wedding (I said it would be in White Salmon, it was in Mill-A; I said it was a wedding reception, there was no dancing or other traditional wedding-related-events; I didn't say anything (or know anything) about the chickens or totally legal-weed-grow-operation, or the people who would judge him for windsurfing etc.), but the food was awesome and there were drinks and it was fun to hang with Josh and Katie, so it was all good. Plus, now we both have a really good story and probably he will never go anywhere with me ever again ;) ha! I definitely deserve that.

 ^^Greg and I in front of the weed and the chickens, because, I mean, how could we not?^^

^^Josh and Katie^^ 

After the wedding we grabbed a drink at Celilo to re-class-it-up before the decline that went like: Waucoma Club, Pint Shack, Ladies dance party at Jack's, the coolest ever Chinese restaurant bar/dance club (I loveeee Jack's!). While at Celilo we saw some friends who joined us for a drink and the rest of the night I just kept running into more people which was so much fun!

Sunday there was breakfast at the Riverside Grill followed by Beth, Tonya and I heading to Rasmussen Farms and then to the Hood River Lavender Farm to pick flowers. Afterward I met Marissa and Zara for a few minutes, then headed to Stevenson to see Jessica, her husband and sweet baby before driving back to Seattle.

 

 ^^Rasmussen Farm's U-Pick flowers^^

^^Beth and Tonya with their lavender^^ 

^^The Columbia River Gorge as seen from the Bridge of the Gods on my way back to Seattle^^

 

I probably say that all of the weekends in Hood River are my favorite, but this one was definitely up there. It was so packed full of good people and fun times. I'm in love. Take me back? 

 

It should also be noted that I successfully spent 6 days in a row with Beth. She's moving to Boise in a week and a half and I hate hate HATE to see her go. I'm going to miss her so much (I mean obvi I'll still see her, but probably not AS often). It was good to get almost a whole week together, celebrate the end of summer and make lots of memories. I'll be back to the Gorge soon for her going away party and Hood River Hops Fest. I can't wait (minus the whole moving thing which I may be in denial about a little bit)! #ILOVEITTHERE



my hood river girl loves

Riding the train in Hood River was so, so good. But, that wasn’t the only good part of our trip last weekend. Dustin and I had such a great time being home. I loved seeing all of our friends and doing a little bar hopping!!

Friday night Dustin and I started out by meeting our friends at the British Pub before heading to Brian’s Basement Bar.


After that we headed to Trillium and then to Jack’s for some dancing.

We drank scorpion bowls at Jack’s and danced around to all of our jams (drop it low, obviously) and laughed at some crazy boys trying some crazy things on some of our friends! HA! But really, it was so much fun and by the end of the night I was exhausted! Dustin and Beth too. We had a little sleepover. So much love! 

But, I wasn’t so exhausted from Friday night that I couldn’t handle spending the whole night Saturday frolicking around with my lovelies round two.

I love it there.

I am exhausted from this week. So exhausted.

When can I go back?

I can’t wait to see these ladies again!!

friday night out in Hood River

met up with Daniel and some other friends at the Pub...

Me, Jessica and Daniel shared some really SPECIAL times :)
at the Pub, then Double Mountain, then Jack's then Brian's Underground, thennnn the Red Carpet....

and we had oyster shooters...

and a scorpion bowl
(but shhhhhhhh don't tell the people at Jack's that we shared with Daniel)

and then after receiving a phone call I decided it would be a REALLY good idea to go to the Red Carpet... but I freaking LOVE this kid! We shared some special conversation (which I vaguely remember, but that doesn't matter) and the later we watched a movie!


I LOVE Hood River Friday nights!
love love love
such a great night

an

new hair

Yesterday I drove from Seattle to Hood River. My first stop was at 5th Element Salon to see Kalyn and get my hair cut. I cut off like 6" of it! EEK! It was down to the small of my back and now it's about armpit length  I'm not going to lie and say I didn't feel any haircut regret after a few drinks last night, but for the most part I'm loving it!

After that I headed to Parts+Labor which is a super cute clothing store where my friend Marissa works. My friend Sean's band was playing an acoustic show there for First Friday and the ladies at Parts + Labor were serving up some delicious free blueberry vodka drinks (can't say no to live music and free booze, right?). I was super excited to see Sean, he moved from Hood River about the time I started law school and I haven't seen him since, so it was good to reconnect with an old friend. 

Later that night we decided to stop back by Parts + Labor for a free pre-funk drink with Marissa's co-worker, who was just finishing up her closing duties, and a photo opp before heading to the pub (which was crazy packed with all my favorite people - and Sean's band playing more music). 

We had a few drinks at the Pub and chatted with everyone who was out and about. It was even nice enough for us to sit outside, which is always awesome! I love Friday nights in Hood River during the Summer. They are seriously the best. 

Then around 12:30 we decided it was time to head to Jack's for some classy dance time. NOTE: for those of you who don't know, Jack's is a Chinese restaurant turned sketchy dance club on weekend nights. It's very dive and seedy and it's the place you go at the end of the night to dance until they turn on the lights at 2am. I'm not going to lie, we were definitely there when they turned on the lights last night. Ha. It was SO much fun though, we danced it up! 

Nights out with Beth and Marissa are always so much fun! Tonight we're going to do round two for Marissa's birthday! She's having a black-and-white theme party that's going to start with dinner at Brian's Pourhouse. I'm so excited! It should be a good time. But now I think it's time to get outside and enjoy a little of this sunny 80degree weather (SO excited) and give my little Fluffy some lovin'.

CHS Class of 2005 10 Year Reunion Weekend

This past Saturday, July 18th, 2105, was my 10 year high school reunion. As most of you know, I planned it after I discovered our class president wasn’t going to do it, and it was a lot more work than I expected. To my delight though, it was totally worth it.

I took a 1/2 day on Friday and at noon I left work and headed to Katie’s house to pick her up before heading down to Hood River. Katie helped me SO much with reunion planning stuff and I literally could not have done it without her. She is the best.

^^Katie and I at a gas station/rest stop about 1/2 way to Hood River^^

When we got to town we stopped by Katie’s hotel so she could check in and then we headed to the British Pub for a Radler in the blazing hot sun (hah). After we chatted with our favorite bartender, confirming our time and drink special with them for our bar crawl the following night, we headed down to Sushi Okalani to put our name in for a table. While we waited we had a drink & some fries upstairs at Celilo.  Sarah, Launa and Josh joined us for a drink too!

 
^^Cracking up at being “gifted” the ugliest butterfly dress by Sarah at Celilo^^

At sushi we entrusted Josh with the ordering and we ended up having a really huge, delicious sushi feast complete with the most amazing Uni Shooters that included Uni, a raw quail egg, Ponzu sauce and a drop of Tabasco. Mmm! I will entrust Josh with my sushi ordering 4eva.

After dinner we all headed back to the British Pub for a nightcap and to wait for Katie’s husband, Josh, to get to town.

^^My fav couple to third wheel with: Josh & Sarah^^

^^Katie and I after our Sushi feast!^^

The next morning I hung out with Josh and Sara, drank coffee, got a bagel with lox + smoothie, and headed up to my parents’ house to hang with my dad and fluffy before I had to go to the reunion. I sat with my dad and painted my nails and chatted and he got me some burger toppings from the garden while I showered and put on makeup. I also aksed Brother Jim if he would be my date to the reunion (Dustin was in Chicago for a bachelor party of sorts) and he LOLd at me and said no and called me weird. Whatever, brother. A few hours later I headed down to the Hood River Waterfront Park to meet Katie and Josh and get the park shelter ready for the reunion.

Here is what the park shelter looked like before:

^^Hood River is the prettiest, right?^^

And a few pictures with decorations/mid decorating before everyone arrived: ^^Yearbook, hashtag, gift bags for a game, name tags complete with our senior yearbook photo, and can koozies (designed with help of Sarah – thanks Sarah)!!^^ 

^^Extra pictures hung on poles, big poster boards with pictures and a bar for the food (buns, condiments, and a strawberry shortcake bar)^^ 

After everyone arrived we hung out, caught up, looked at pictures, listened to a sweet 2005-throwback Spotify mix complete with songs I asked people to suggest on FB, took pictures with a disposable camera (2005 throwback, amiright? can’t wait for those babies to come back) and played some lawn games (corn hole, giant bananagrams, and Katie made giant yhatzee). We had probably a few over 30 show up which was a few less than we were expecting (based on tickets purchased), but out of 67 in our graduating class I feel like that was a pretty great turn-out!

Kevin from our class brought 2 gas grills to the park shelter and he grilled for us which was so amazing (after some panic over what we were going to eat! Thanks for saving the day with that one, Kevin). We ate hamburgers, black bean burgers, hotdogs, chips, and strawberry shortcake. And because we only charged $15 for tickets, we told people that we wouldn’t be providing alcohol at the BBQ, but that they could bring their own because there is no open container law in Hood River and you can drink in the streets, Vegas style! It’s the best! So most people brought beer and we all drank a few of those which faciliated some extra #sociallubrication. Katie also organized a fun “game” with prizes we played toward the end of the BBQ. She asked questions like “who has the most kids? if you have 1 kid, raise your hand. Keep it up if you have 2…” etc. She did prizes for each category, like a lacy thong for “married the longest,” ear plugs and an eye mask for “traveled the furthest to get to the reunion” and a map for “lives closest to the high school” hahaha. I won “highest degree earned” and I won a notepad with funny sayings on each page (“shit I don’t want to do” for example), and everyone’s bag came with a mini-bottle of alcohol in addition to their prize. It went over really well.

 ^^Me, Jegar photo bombing, Alicia and Becky at the BBQ part of the reunion. Becky, Alicia and I use to be great friends growing up, it was so fun to see them again^^

^^A pretty early on pictures of most of the classmates at the reunion + 1 spouse and some kids^^ 

^^A blurry pic of me thanks to Alicia’s daughter^^

We were at the Waterfront Park from 4-8:30pm hanging out. Around 8 everyone chipped in and helped us pack up things and we all headed to the River City Saloon (including 2 of the 3 teachers we invited), which was the first stop on our post-BBQ bar crawl.

^^Me, Jegar and Mr. Miller taking a shot of Jagermeister at the River City Saloon^^

Before the reunion I contacted all the bars and asked if they would be willing to do a drink special for our group. The River City gave us $2 Rainers and Miller Highlifes. At 9:30pm we headed to the British Pub for $5 Rum Punch Special! Mmmm!

^^Alex sitting on the ground at the Pub along with Matt, Keith, Cayenne and Will in the background^^
 ^^Melissa and her husband, Will and Katie at the Pub^^

I spent most of the time at the Pub bullshitting with Mr. Kasenga which was so fun. I also got a little drunk and un-friended and blocked this girl on FB from our class (who didn’t even graduate with us!!!!!) who had given me a bunch of shit leading up to the reunion “it’s so expensive, are you going to be feeding us on diamond plates?” “Girl, I’m married, of course I’m bringing a date!” “Can I pay you there?” and who posts borderline offensive things like a million times a day. Reminds me of this. It was so satisfying to unfriend and block her IMMEDIATELY after the reunion was over and I had no obligation to ever talk to her again.

Our next stop was supposed to be at a Taco Truck down the street but as we were leaving the Pub I got wind that the taco truck wasn’t open. WHAT?! So, as the group leader, I shouted at everyone that there was a change of plans (good thing I’m loud, right?!) and we headed to the next scheduled bar which was the Trillium. Katie ordered a bunch of fried food for everyone because she is the best and I ordered a round of Jello-shots for the group. #partytimeUSA

^^Will and I at the Trillium. Will just finished his first year of law school at Northwestern and he’s living in Seattle for the summer doing an internship. It was so fun to see him and bond over how terrible 1L is haha!^^

^^Melissa, Jegar photo bombing again, Will, Me and Katie at the Trillium^^

At one point at the Trillium one of our classmates fell asleep on the bar. To give him credit, he works the graveyard shift, had been up for like a million hours and has 3 kids. Wow! The bartender told me I had to get him out so we took him outside thinking he’d already called his wife to come get him. A little while later, he was in rough shape and we asked him to unlock his phone so that we could call his wife and see where she was. He couldn’t get it unlocked but a spouse of another classmate saw the shape he was trying to use to unlock the phone, took the phone, figured out the pass code after a few tries, looked at the call log, saw his wife hadn’t been called, called her from his phone and she came to get him. Not before he threw up on the sidewalk though. And then we got him to the street where he continued to throw up. Everyone in our class was so great, they helped hold him up and keep him awake, helped the bartenders clean up the mess and when our classmate’s wife got there we hugged him, got him in the car, gave him a plastic bag just in case and everyone was standing in the street waving bye to them when they drove off. Immediately after they pulled away I shouted, “Jack’s?!” and everyone was like “YES!” (lolz) and we all headed to the next bar. It was actually really nice how supportive and awesome everyone was. Warm fuzzies.

Our next stop was Jack’s which is a sweet Chinese restaurant bar turned dance club after midnight on the weekend. We got Scorpion Bowls for everyone to split and drank those before grabbing one more and heading to the dance floor. We danced HARD for about an hour which was such a blast. Katie also requested Nelly and Ja Rule which everyone in the bar loved.

^^This picture Cracks. Me. Up. I’m taking that Scorpion Bowl SO seriously with my devil eyes!^^
  ^^one more Scorpion Bowl shot^^

^^Ordering our last Scorpion Bowl and touching Will’s fancy moustache before heading to the dance floor^^

^^Me and the guys watching the dance floor action^^ 

^^Katie and I getting down on the stage haha^^ 

Right as the lights were about to turn on at Jack’s we ran out and headed back up to the Trillium where they basically told us before we left that they would serve us after hours. 2 classmates got in an argument, I tried to mitigate, we got some beers and hung out before they called last call and we decided that we NEEDED FOOD NOW. A few of us wanted to see if the taco truck was open so we headed down to the food truck pod. The taco truck was still closed (WTF) but a noodle truck was open. Me, Matt, Nick, Kevin, Alex and Katie ate noodles at 3am on the sidewalk. After our noodles we called our rides and were home by 4am. ASK ME HOW I STAYED OUT PARTYING HARD SO LATE?! I HAVE NO IDEA! Ha. It was seriously the most fun night I’ve had in a million years, though.

Katie and I split a cab, I dropped her off at her hotel and headed up to Josh and Sarah’s where I only slept for a few hours (#exhausteddddddd) before getting woken up by cries from the brand new puppy, Kobuk, who they picked up while I was at the reunion on Saturday. 

^^Kobuk the Malamute puppy^^

Kiva was NOT happy about her new puppy brother. They’re so cute next to each other though. Big Malamute, tiny Malamute! ^^Pissed Kiva means she came to snuggle with me on “my” bed^^

After spending a few hours in the yard with Josh, Sarah, Kiva and the new puppy, Brother Jim came to get me on his motorcycle which was the most terrifying thing ever, even though he promised me we didn’t go over 24MPH and we rode downtown to Bette’s Place for breakfast and so I could meet his new girlfriend who works there. We split a GIANT cinnamon roll (mistake, too much sugar too early), ate eggs and had a great time breakfasting.

Shortly after breakfast I embarked on the longest, sleepiest, traffickest drive back to Seattle. I then met Caroline for a little bit to drop off stuff Alex left in my car and ended up chatting with them both after he showed up at her apartment too. I had to pick up Dustin at the airport at 11 that night so I went home and unpacked for a bit before heading to get him. I was the sleepiest monkey on Monday. UGH!

It was so worth it, though. My reunion was the most fun 12 hours I’ve had in a really long time. I love CHS’s class of 2005! (except the people who live in town and decided not to go, they are dead to me) HA! All the stress of planning for 9 months was totally worth it! CHEERS TO 10 YEARS!