The return of Lily...

It’s been 9 mos. since she drove away on I-84 without looking back… but thanks to Lani and her companion passes… Lily finally made it back!! J That’s right… Andee and I had house guests!! Lil worked it all out between classes & work and made it to Portland for a week, the first part of October. Lani also came out with her, which was awesome, but she was only able to stay for a day (well… 2 days, thanks to full flights) due to that thing we all love… WORK! Anyway, it was a week PACKED with friends, happy hours, more friends and more happy hours!!

They flew in late on Monday… which meant we were up chatting until 2am. Cuz really, who needs sleep anyway!? And then not only did Lil steal my bed… but she also stole my car and cell phone for the week!! hehe!! So she traveled around they city, visiting with folks while I worked, then we would meet up at 5pm, usually for food and conversation with various friends!!

Tuesday night we hooked up Kate & her bro, Mark, and Vickie, Avel & Leilani, along with Stacey, Andee & Nina for some yummy mexican food.

Wednesday evening, we met up with Pickles and Alexis and had a little cell group reunion!! Although, the only picture was a self-portrait of Lani, Lil & I!!


But Thursday was the night I had been waiting for… the Mat Kearney concert!!! Lil and I met up with Andee & Stacey for happy hour and then Violet joined us shortly before the concert!! I was in HEAVEN!! I had all my girls with me… and got to see my boyfriend perform again… sigh. Hehe… okay, so he’s not my boyfriend… but I sure wouldn’t mind if he was!! I haven’t taken his CD out of my stereo since the first time Violet & I saw him back in May!!! Let's just say... I *heart* him!!! Anyway, the audience was split into 2 sides and Violet managed to wiggle us all the way to the front of our side by the end of the concert and although my pictures (w/ no flash) still suck… I got some great video!!!

Went to her car to get her debit card... came back with 1 chocolate covered strawberry... hmm...

They stapled her change to the receipt... nice!

my boyfriend is singing...

See!! He's looking at me!

Now he's dreaming about me...

I've got a thumb problem... and apparently it's contagious, cuz I passed it on to Lil!! Hehe!!

Cheers!!

We were trying to get Mr. Kearney in the background... didn't work out so well!

After the concert, Andee & Stace jetted... but Lil, Violet and I went to Henry's
to hit up the late night happy hour!! :-)

I just wanted to be in a picture...

Hmm... wonder what they're up to?!

Then there was Friday… I took the afternoon off and met up with Lily over at Violet’s. We chowed down on some pizza, then headed to Mia’s school to watch her “Fun Run”. Somehow, I ended up running around the building several times with Mia… not sure how that happened (VIOLET!!) But I was lovin’ every minute of it, of course!!

Miss Cannon looking cute as can be!

Then Lil and I rushed home for a shower then ended up at the same place as Thursday’s happy hour with some of Lily’s old co-workers. Andee & Nina O. picked us up there and we headed to a Thai restaurant downtown, where we also met up with Ginean and Nina!! The whole Mt. O crew together again, minus Stacey G. It was so much fun… just sitting there laughing, reminiscing, and of course, clownin’ on each other!! After dinner, several of us headed towards the Hilton where met up with yet another friend to listen to some jazz music. Fun times!!

Saturday was a lazy day of sleeping in and hanging out downtown… shopping at the U of O store, hanging out at Starbucks, walking EVERYWHERE b/c some fool laid down in front of the Max and shut the whole transit system down… fool. Anyway, after our walking adventure back to our car, we headed home for a quick shower and made our grand entrance (an hour late… whoops) into the Zambo team dinner. We were a little disruptive, but hey… everyone loves Lily, so it was all good!!! We chilled there for a bit while folks finished up their dinner and then some of us moved on to another little club for drinks, and then when the younger cats were ready to dance… us older folk headed home. We were averaging 4 hrs. of sleep each night, so by the end of the week… we were feeling it!! Plus 7:45 service in the morning would come super early!!


Sunday we headed off to church and then grabbed 1 more quick Starbucks before I rushed back to church to teach my class, and Andee took Lil to the airport. Well, after class I had quite a few messages and guess who they were from… LILY!! Her flight was full and she was downtown shopping!! No complaints here!! I drove down there and picked her up and actually... the week couldn’t have ended more perfectly. The whole week we were rushing around, meeting these people here, and these people there… and we never had a chance to just chill, and now we were able to!! We had one of our famous Lil & KS nights… a blockbuster movie and a frozen pizza!!! Then it was off to the airport once again to drop her off on her red-eye flight back to SLC. Pretty sure there wasn’t any lookin’ back on this trip either… my guess is that her eyes were shut the minute she hit her seat!! It was SO fabulous having her back for a week... and shhh... rumor has it... she might come back around the holidays!!! Yippee!!!