13 women. 13 matching tank tops. 1 fifteen passenger van named She. 1 Beautiful city. Countless memories.
So, I’m not sure how it happened but somehow 12 of my friends from church all managed to take off work to celebrate the 4th of July…in Portland…together. ALL THIRTEEN OF US. Miraculous really. The Guinness Book of World Records should probably be contacted. Yep, the stars aligned as they probably never will again and 13 of us women headed off to the Northwest this past summer to explore the beauty of Oregon. The logistics were a feat alone, not to mention the beds/palettes on the floor and of course the lack of showering just to save time and water. What? It’s Portland…people respect the non-showering. It was all part of the adventure and adventure we did. This trip was in the ‘once in a lifetime’ category and I’ll never forget it! These women are some of the strongest, most Jesus loving, most encouraging, most fun and most adventurous women I know. I consider myself SO blessed to not only get to spend a week with them in the beautiful state of Oregon, driving around in ‘She’ and dancing like we don’t care, but even more to get to call them friends. God is too sweet to me in the community He has gifted to me.
Here is a little insight into our time in Portlandia! It was a wild and crazy time!
So, in the name of matching tank tops, vans named ‘She’ and 12 of the most amazing women,
I Say, Take Me Back!!!
(Now you may be wondering why I am JUST now posting my 4th of July plans…I have no excuse except that there are never enough days in the week!)
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Please notice that I am not in this picture. You might think that I am taking the picture but alas, I am not. No, I am somewhere else in the city on my bike taking it VERY slow. You see, the phrase ‘it’s like riding a bike’ doesn’t apply to me. We are not kindred spirits in that we definitely don’t just ‘pick up where we left off.’ Nope. I was exploring the city in the bike lane. A shout out to my friend, Angela, who is a Portland-ite and who hung with me!
4th of July in the park. We had some time to kill before fireworks so we entertained ourselves with the game, ‘Heads Up.’ Made for some great belly laughs and strange looks from other people.
You know, a little sass makes life fun. Who knows why I’m giving it though. Oh yeah, it’s because I get awkward in front of the camera…
Right before we white water rafted down the river. Yep, probably my highlight of the trip. I fell out 3 times. THREE! And it was cold.
Chaco pic. Duh.
This was the view outside of the house we stayed at. Talk about a great way to start and end your day!
Our hike to Angel’s Rest with matching tanks.
I might have gone a little crazy with the moss pics but hey, it was preeeeettttty.
We got asked pretty frequently if we were some kind of team. We finally just started telling people we were an elite archery team. Yep, we are master archers.
Love this girl! Been hanging out from coast to coast!
On top of the world.
We decided to take a trip to the Pacific Coast and well…it welcomed us with cold weather, misty rain and hazy views. We spent a total of 8.7 minutes on the beach before we ran inside.
Sunday brunch. It’s a staple.
Just a gorgeous view.
Kayli’s grandpa made the hike with us and it was awesome. For those of you that know, ‘By Anyway’ is my new favorite phrase.
I’ll close with this because it shows 12 women that I think are awesome and our 14th woman who made the whole trip possible. Special shout out to ‘She.’ We will miss you but you are forever in our hearts.