Mother's Day weekend

As you can tell, I'm behind in my blogging. I think my April blogmania tired me out! Mother's Day weekend now seems like ages ago...but if I don't chronicle it in my blog, I swear I will forget it! That's what aging's all about.

The highlight of the weekend was a night away with my wonderful mom and sister, which, alas, went by far too quickly. We spent the night at the Marriott on the waterfront and had dinner on Friday night at Mother's Bistro.

Mom eating her chicken and dumplings (her guilty pleasure!)

Nadine with red snapper and grapefruit sauce

I had wild salmon pot pie--yum!

Of course, we were all too full to have dessert--but we had a highly entertaining, flamboyant waiter who joked with us about the scientologists congregating outside of the restaurant at the new scientology center in Portland. He prefaced his comments by asking if any of us were scientologists! :) He also is, apparently, a martini glass collector. (This came up because it was very hot in the restaurant and he told us that he's not allowed to wear short sleeves at dinner because he had a tattoo of a martini glass on his arm!)

Mothers at Mother's!

 We had a lovely walk back to the hotel along the river--it was a gorgeous night and lovely walk!

Love my city!

I felt mighty lazy when we got back to our room. We drank coconut-lemongrass sake and hung out...the views from our river view room were stunning!

As they were in the morning! Nadine stepped out on the balcony and got heart palpitations. I don't remember her being afraid of heights when we were younger!

Dragon boats practicing in the river

After we checked out, we headed to Isabel Pearl in the Pearl District for a lovely brunch, and then we poked around the Pearl for a bit.

Brunch at Isabel Pearl

Even though Mike, Mom, Nadine, and I had decided to make donations to the Fistula Foundation in lieu of Mother's Day gifts, I arrived home on Saturday to a clean house. That was the best possible Mother's Day gift!! My husband rocks anyway...because he took charge of the kids while I had THREE GIRLS' NIGHT WEEKENDS IN A ROW! Seriously, he is a complete saint.

That afternoon, we went off to the Barefoot Quilt Festival at the Jenkins Estate, which was named after a dear family friend, Clara Barefoot Sehorn. After my parents retired, Clara taught them how to quilt. She especially delighted in teaching my dad, who had never picked up a sewing needle beforehand. We had our wedding reception at Jenkins Estate, so it's always fun to go back.

With my maid of honor, Nadine, and Mike
 at our wedding reception at the Jenkins Estate (1990)

Visiting a quilt show always makes me want to take up quilting...but it's not gonna happen!

Multnomah Falls quilt

I'm always drawn to the Asian quilts--the panels on this quilt actually opened up

Another Japanese one

Love these fabrics!

This was made by a friend of my mom's for her granddaughter

Of course, the highlight was chatting with Clara! Nicholas showed her how he could do the Pledge of Allegiance in sign language:

Family with Clara

Clara showing us a ceramic bell she'd made, with a quilt

 

With Mom and Nadine at the Jenkins Estate

On Sunday, Mother's Day, I gave a talk at both services at church, honoring a matriarch of our community who died a few months ago. In the afternoon, Kieran had a performance of "Hillbilly Heaven," so a few of us went off to watch him.

Posing with his cousins and their puppy Ella after the show

Then we came back to our house to finish off our Mother's Day celebrations. It was a fun weekend!