Flowers, Hawaiian Lunch and a Flip

Look what greeted me when I arose this morning?  BOING.. hello!  Kristi was out shopping this morning and she and Hayden picked out this bouquet for me!  Isn't this the prettiest flower?  And a dozen golden yellow roses to boot!  Flower Joy!!  

Talk about an uplifting arrangement of flowers and to celebrate the first day of Autumn to boot!  

Happy happy, joy joy.  :-)

Can there be too many photos of a flower?  You decide.  :-)

The roses are perfection, too.

OK.. rewind to yesterday.  I had lunch plans with my 2 sisters and adopted sister Shirley.  (My best friend since 7th grade).  Denise, the younger sis took us to "Bamboo Garden", a Hawaiian cafe.  Here is what we all ordered, Kahlua Pork and Teriyaki chicken with sticky rice and macaroni salad.  I know it's not that attractive to look at, but it sure tasted good!

We celebrated my sister Roberta's (left) 73rd birthday, Denise on the right.

We also celebrated Shirley's 66th birthday, too!  I cropped myself out as I looked awful.. lol.. and it's my blog so I get to crop myself out when I want to.  :-)

It was a fun place and took me back to when I lived in Hawaii right after I graduated from high school when I was 18.  Shirley came to visit me there and we reminisced about the fun things we did together when she came.  

Then we followed Denise a few miles away to see the house that she and her husband Steve bought to remodel and sell.  It's called "flipping" here and they've sold one of the houses he's fixed up and he will be done in a week with this one.  You should have seen the before photos!  This is the living room and it's huge with original oak wood floors.  All the walls have fresh light grey paint, it's gorgeous!

From the deck off the living room you can see Mt. Saint Helens - the volcano to the north of us.  This is a hazy photo, can you see it?

The kitchen is gorgeous, everything new and clean.  

Here is the front of the house - you can imagine the views from the deck and big picture windows.

On my way home I quickly snapped this photo of downtown Portland while on the top level of the Markham Bridge - I was stopped in traffic so this was quite safe.  The Willamette River passes through downtown on it's way to empty into the mighty Columbia River and then flows into the Pacific Ocean.

After driving through downtown Portland, it's always a pleasure that just 20 minutes later I'm driving up the Sandy River just 8 minutes from our little farm.  I love how wild it is, the sun sparkling on the river.. 

Sparkles.

This morning honey and I are watching the news and this is my view.. 

Soon I will pack my swim bag and head to the pool.. Gracie and I will swim back and forth for an hour and catch up on each other's news.  Tomorrow I will volunteer at Multnomah Falls with my sister Denise - and my brother and sister and their spouses will be meeting us there to celebrate the twins 73rd birthday over lunch in the Falls Room!  On Saturday we're going to the Oregon Flock and Fiber Festival.. that should be fun.  We might be meeting two other bloggers there.  I hope you have a nice weekend planned.  ((hugs)), Teresa :-)