A Father’s Day competition

 We got up at 6:30 this morning and walked over to the convention center at 7:30. One of the Maryland leads told us that Frankie had to check in with her group and they all stayed together while they read their speeches, but it turns out that wasn’t right. They weren’t even ready to check people in yet when we arrived, and then when they were ready they told us their 8:00 wasn’t there yet and asked if Frankie would like to be the first competitor of the day. 

She was like, yes please! I asked if I could watch because I knew Frankie wanted me to and even though you’re not technically supposed to, they let me. 🤗

So it was 2 judges, Frankie, and me. I was able to motion for her to smile and slow down. She did a good job! Could have been better, but her speech is really good and she made eye contact and had a good, if short, answer to their follow up question. 

We grabbed brekkie at a cute Portland fav and went back to our room for a bit. 

Frankie had a luncheon and I wanted to go to church at 10, so I took a bus to an institute building branch that was v unfriendly. It was unclear if Sunday school was in the chapel or not, and no one came up to me. I’m not exactly afraid to talk to people, but everyone was deeply engrossed in other conversations are bustling about. Finally a cute missionary introduced himself. It’s always a good reminder to be friendly. 

I spent the afternoon reading and napping. S’wonderful. Frankie came back for a bit and we watched a movie. She went with friends back to the conference center for karaoke which she reported was very fun. 

I went for a swim and grabbed some dinner. 

We’re on the 7th floor and they have this teeny tiny balcony thing right near our room. 

And the view from our room. 

I worked on some communications stuff and planned some activities for tomorrow and am waiting for mt little karaoke singer to make it home. 

#55

Getting to the temple was a lot of work. Worth it, but a lot. After I dropped Frankie I came to the hotel to charge my phone for a bit since using maps drains my battery.

Then I took a light rail, bus, and then walked a mile and a half. I could have ridden another bus and only walked .8 miles, but I would have had to wait for the bus and it was a lovely day. 

I crossed over I-5 a couple times. 

First sighting!

Portland is a super unique temple! Entering the  celestial room was unlike anything I’ve ever seen, and then the celestial room had an upstairs! Another first was the mini arboretum near the welcome desk. 

It’s a beautiful temple!

I walked about half mile to deseret book and got some new garments, then grabbed dinner at Chick-fil-A, which is lame but it’s what sounded good. 🤷‍♀️

My phone battery was precariously low again (I only charged it to 80%) and I was nervous, so I’d map it, take pictures, and then turn the map off. So it had me walked like a mile and a half after the bookstore, which, fine.

But then After walking when i re-mapped to check my work, it had me going a different way and needing to walk another almost 2 miles. I was tired and sweaty when I finally got on the bus.

Moroni! 👇🏻 

A closer look. 

It took me over 2 hours to get back. So I got back and maybe 20 minutes later Frankie did. Mine was a long outing. 

Anyway, Frankie had fun and traded a bunch of pins, even her Maryland one. 🤷‍♀️

She met up with some kids down at the pool, went back to their room, and made it home within a one hour period. We both showered and she practiced her speech which will be early tomorrow. 

Educators Rising

We woke up on our own this morning at 7 (10 our time) and got ready for the day. Ms. Wynkoop said we needed to pick up Frankie’s  registration packet, so we headed to the convention center.

Quick and easy 10 minute walk. It’s a little more chilly than I thought it would be, but mostly just beautiful day. 

Everyone at the conference is so friendly! Though 2 different people tried to get us to pay $5 for a picture with them, so maybe that’s a Portland thing? 🤷‍♀️🤣

We got her registration packet, which we had to get in line based on her school’s name, which was trickier than one might think. We were like Dr. James A. Forrest Tech Center? D for doctor? J for james? Or Forrest, which is what it is mostly called? Turns out it was D for dr. 

We had bought her a goody bag bundle, so that was fun to look through. 

Ed Rising 26!

With her conference registration she got a $100 gift card for food, so she got herself an Apple danish and Italian soda. 

There were just small groups milling around, so we chatted with some people that were very helpful and we got some good information about the conference. One lady even said she’d come see Frankie’s competition with her teacher trainees. We found the room she’ll give her speech in, just to be all ready for tomorrow morning. 

They are hosting a college information room that doesn’t open till 1, but we walked through and talked to some people and a lady from our native land of Hawaii told us about the Farmers Market that is only held on Saturdays. We were getting pretty bored waiting around the convention center; so we boarded the light rail and headed to Portland University. 

It was cute!

I meant to get a picture of the market, but it was huge - tons of fruit stands - we bought the best rainier cherries, honey, lots of coffee and other random things we don’t partake of. We got a sampler polish platter and enjoyed some pierogies and a giant sausage. This picture is funny because the sausage is so prominent. 🤣

We also enjoyed a horchata and raspberry lemonade. We called all around and people watched and I’m happy to say Portland is still keeping it weird. 

Frankie finally got word that Maryland people had arrived at the convention center, so we headed back there. Ms. Wynkoop hooked her up with pins to trade and also gave her the coveted Mississippi pin with the fireflies that glow - it’s so cute! She found her a friend and directed him to introduce her to everyone. Frankie is so social and seeing everyone having fun in their big groups all yesterday on the plane and today, she was ready for some friend time. 

Now I’m making my slow way to the Portland temple. An hour on the bus and a 30 minute walk and I am happy as a clam!

To Portland we go

I dropped the girls off Friday morning and ran to the store to use a coupon. I picked up a water heater de-scaler from the Howell’s because both Matt and I had mostly cold water showers on Thursday and he thinks it’s the water heater. And then home to finish up getting ready to go. Adi headed to Carter’s grad party and Matt, Frankie, and I headed to BWI for our trip to Portland.

Unfortunately we had a 2 layover flight. Each flight was 2’ish hours - BWI - Memphis, Memphis - Denver, then Denver - Portland. It makes for a long day. We left at 11:30 and landed in Portland at 9:30, which is 12:30 our time. 

By the time we collected our bags, which they made us check because our flights were full, metro’d to our hotel, and walked there, it was midnight. That makes a lovely 16 hour travel day. 

We got to our hotel and were pretty wound up and awake, so we watched a movie and went to bed. And now we’re in Portland. 🤗

Just stuff

All week Frankie and I have been preparing for our trip. We bought snackies and did laundry and coordinated toiletries. 

We had the weirdest thing happen twice now. We’ve received a single can of chef boyardee addressed to “Modesty Cronin” at our exact address. Both from Amazon. I posted about it in our LG page and someone asked Claude who said it’s a scam to get good reviews on Amazon. I can’t explain it, but it’s not hurting us at all other than being super creepy. And chef boyardee is gross. 🤷‍♀️

Matt helped me with the annual freezer defrosting. It always looks so good and I wish it wouldn’t frost over, but it’s probably good to go through all that food and empty it out anyway. 

These cute boys went to see Toy Story 5 and I can’t wait to see it too! And don’t let Henry’s shoes fool you, boy still isn’t walking. 🤣

And finally cute video featuring our baby bug finishing up her week of intensive dance. It’s been a good and long week for her and she’s pooped!

Ok, actually finally one more pic from her recital. ❤️

Mulan

Tuesday was inklings at Kellyn’s house. I dropped the girls off at dance and ran some errands for Disney dinner Tuesday. 

We had a small inklings group and a nice discussion. Then Alecia and I walked since we hadn’t had a chance to catch up since the girls graduation craziness and they headed out of town. 

Adi offered to take Delaney to her afternoon appointment and finish off my grocery shopping for me and I was only too ready to let her. 

That night we had our last of the first Disney dinner cookbooks I bought. 

I love Mulan and it was a good one! 

I decided to go easier on myself and buy potstickers and I was glad I did. 

I thought everything was delicious but the girls didn’t enjoy the rice. And the dessert was cute but a little lame compared to some of the desserts we’ve had. Anyways, I’ve been singing mulan all week. 

And to keep it real - the aftermath in the kitchen. Disney dinners are fun, but there’s not a week that’s gone by that I’ve had every ingredient needed. I’m buying things that are not native to our household and that’s work, and then making the dinners is labor intensive and I’m a big fan of cleaning as you go, but I always hit a point where I need to rush and everything falls apart from there. 

We always leave the mess and then everyone pitches in after. 🤗

Gaylord

On Monday Delaney started her first summer dance intensive. Dancing with special instructors from 8-3, with 3 different classes. There are 2 other girls from our neighborhood going, so we worked out a nice carpool. 

I dropped them off and then headed up to the Gaylord to meet Elizabeth and Trish. We met up with our guide Olaf to talk the possibility of Women of Light 2028. 👀 

There is a grant available and also, elder Baxter asked if we might like to host the north east area women’s conference. A group recently hosted one in New York City, but it was the day after Adi graduated so there was no way I could go. 

The Gaylord would be *perfect* and we could open it up to everyone. Our conference and the NY one were limited to under 2000 sisters. It would be so amazing to host 5000. 

We toured all of their conference rooms and lunch spaces, then Olaf treated us to lunch at their fancy restaurant. We each ordered the salmon plate and talked specifics with him, and then he left us to enjoy our lunch and talk amongst ourselves. 

We would love to host this event again, and work with a counterpart that could then take over for the following conference. I’d hate to let all the lessons we learned go to waste. 

Olaf validated our parking for the day, so I spent an hour walking the harbor. National harbor is beautiful. 

I found a guy on instagram that talks about things to do with your teen that I’ve really been liking. He made a list of things to do with you’re teen this summer and one was to take a picture every week, so here we go!