WOOT for the saturday market!

**Warning***: super long post ahead..you may read and fall asleep at your own risk!!!

Here in Portland..they have a HUGE Saturday market. It is downtown by the waterfront. It literally is HUGE. I love taking people here that visit us from out of town because it is soo fun. NOt only do the WEIRDEST people come out of the wood works, (which makes people watching a blast)....,they have the yummiest food, and really awesome little booths for you to go and look at stuff. It is kinda like pikes place up in Seattle except there is not fresh fish and fish tossing. There are all sorts of little trinkets people can buy. They have anything from duct tape wallets, cool art work, hats, jewelry, knick knacks, bongs(hahaha)J/k(except they really do), cool hippy outerwear,awesome Portland Tee's including Tye dye clothes and just all sorts of Stuff... I would say they have a little bit of everything for anybody!

This past week J's little brother and sister were here visiting us for their spring break. We had a blast. We shopped until we dropped(literally)...... we played rockband every night..we all got the best new hair do's ..thank you again alex. We just had a blast hanging out with these two. I am soo glad they got to come up.

On saturday we decided to take them on the trax to downtown, and let them experience the saturday market for themselves. It was awesome. As we entered the trax area i hear this really horrible singing. And it was soo loud. It was comming from a dude on his bike waiting for the trax too. He was literally singing at the top of his lungs...just for the heck of it...It wasnt that he was singing..it was just it sounded horrible and he was super annoying to listen to. He couldnt hold a tune at all.. so it just made me laugh at how many "crazy" people live in this state! ..Welcome to Portland alex and james..you have no idea what you are in for..especially when we get to the saturday market:)

The boys getting all ready for the Choo Choo!

conner getting his inner crazy on!



I love taking the tracks into town..it makes the whole experience better! There are always the most bizarre people to see. There are your usual thugs that u never make eye contact with, the homeless, the freaks who sing crazy songs while they wait, the cute old couple who just sit and take it all in, the teenage girls who all huddle together and try to pick up boys..and then of course our family! hehehe! We fit right in... especially with my new red stripes in my hair..i was getting all sorts of looks! Especially since i used red hair gel for my boys hair that day! they got all sorts of looks too! hahahaha

We make it downtown safely. I am amazed at the outpouring of "crazy hippies" everywhere! It was sooo awesome! What a good day to go!
We were walking around and you see alot of these people.

Here are some examples...

We called this guy the "pirate". My kids really did think he was one, and by the way he smelled i am sure he was! The dude REAKED SOOO BAD! really..i tried to go up and take a decent picture but my eyes would start to burn..literally..and it felt like my nose hairs were on fire..i just felt bad for his poor furry companion who looked soo forlorn that he had to sit through yet another performance with his smelly owner. I am sure the dog smelt better..really...i am sure of it! I just felt bad. The guy was awesome at what he was doing, but because of the stench he didnt have a crowd of people watching! Next time, i think i will bring him some AXE body spray! I think that may help him!


This next guy was another"pirate" according to my kids..but at least he didnt smell as bad. He was freakin amazing at his little ukulele. He had quite the crowd around him and his ukulele box overflowed with cash from his supporters.


Whats even better, is there are people all over like this, and it always seizes to amaze me what we will see. There were a group of well..lets say "interesting women" carrying signs that said "free hugs". I laughed because... really...here??.... you want people like this(look at pics above) hugging you! ewwwwww! Really...that is just gross! Really gross!

We walked around all the booths to see all the cool stuff they were selling! My boys espeically like this little booth..it was full of "spinning tops". they let conner and gavin try it out and they had a blast.


We walked down every isle looking at all the things being sold..I especially love the booth where they sell Duct tape wallets. They are actually really cool little wallets and they have a billion of different designs you can get. I especially loved when i asked conner if he were to get one which one he would get, he looked at all of them really carefully..and came acroos one that had a picture of Jesus. He said he would pick that one. I laughed..because he meant it soo sweetly. He loves anything to do with Church..but Really?..this..on a wallet...I dont think so!

We make our way over to the delicious food. They always have amazing food. This is another way good reason to come visit us. I love eating here. And the elephant ears are the best ones i have ever eaten! For those who have never had an elephant ear..let me know cause you are seriously missing out.

here are some pics of us enjoying our lunch!


poor gav was not feeling well so he didnt enjoy his lunch!sad!:(


And i just love these pictures..so i had to add them




Before we left we wanted to try to get a group picture. Poor gavin was tired and not feeling great and we had were all pretty tired and ready to go. As we sat for our picture for our awesome camera man(aka jesse) i notice these two girls. I notice they were standing off to the side watching us take this picture. After the picture, one of the girl's approached me. She looked at bit nervous to talk to me..but i also could tell she wanted to say something. I was shocked when i saw her up close. She looked maybe 10.. She was soo young to be out here on the streets by herself. She had shaved all of her hair all but except her bangs, and i could tell by the look in her eyes that she has had a rough life. It was sad to see. Well, she came up to me and said, "maam(shoot i dont look that old do I),maam.. i just wanted to tell you that your baby is the Greatest thing that ever happened on this earth." It was pretty wierd, but apparently she loved that gavin had a mowhawk and that i had colored it with red gel that day. She then, ran off with her friend..and i just knew she was homeless and most likely a runaway. The saturday market is not that far from a homeless shelter and the way she looked, I knew that she was living on the streets. As i watched her run off it made my heart sad. She was way too young to be homeless and it made my heart ache for her family who probably have no idea their daughter had turned to the streets.


The trax then pulled up and we all loaded in for our journey back to the car.

We definantly wore everyone out!



All in all we had BLAST! I am soo happy that the portland saturday market is open again! I have missed it! For those of you who have never heard or been to this...i highly recommend an oregon trip! It is awesome!

now...it you made it this far through this post..go slap some water on your face and wake up!I also apologize for all the spelling and grammer errors. My spell check was not working and i suck at spelling and grammer!!