Carrie And Candice Adventuring

You may remember last August when we went to Oregon for

my dear friend Candice's wedding.  (If not, check here). Since that

time, Candice and I have been counting the days until our

return.  It's so hard to have a best friend live on a totally

different coast.  Every time I think about calling her...I

realize that she's not even off work yet! But, despite the

differences, we have been able to remain close (thanks to

snail mail, snapchat, Instagram, and the good ole telephone).

 
(ripped this pic of Facebook of the last time we
were together!)
 

So, with our impending trip to Oregon, we had been

texting about different things we could do...and my only

real instructions for the day were to Rob. It went something

like this, "Rob, this is my only day with my best friend,

so please don't call or expect me home at any certain time,

and only text me cute pictures of Max".  haha! I just

wanted to be able to give her my undivided attention

and love. Thankfully, even though it's been nearly a year,

we were able to pick right back up where we left off.

I'm so grateful for friendships that truly stand the

the passage of time (and time zones!).

(text messages leading up to our reunion!)

 

To begin the day, my crew (Grandpa Jim, Max, and Rob)

dropped me off in Wilsonville. This is actually very

convenient as the town where Grandpa Jim and

Grandma Sugar live is only about 15 minutes from there.

Candice came down to greet me and we had the biggest

hug!  Such a great feeling!  I got to meet their

new doggy, Cannon, who was the sweetest!!

We loved on him for a little while and then

headed out to buy dog food and visit the school where

she works.

 

I knew Candice loved her job in Oregon, but after

visiting the job site - I can totally see why.

The Early Childhood buildings at Mentor Graphics

were totally perfect.  The set up, journaling for parents,

pictures, quotes, furniture...you name it - they do

everything with their children in mind.

I loved all the natural things incorporated into their

classrooms and intentional time spent outdoors.

I got so many new ideas and was

completely inspired to go back to my own classroom

in Columbus!  It was also such a proud moment for me. 

Candice and I were introduced through her boyfriend (at the time)

and she worked alongside me in ZooKids for a long time.

So, to see her in her own space was sort of surreal. 

I know she's doing amazing things!

(in front of Candice's work place!)

 

From the school site, we popped over to see

Candice's mom Heather.  I got to know Heather

quickly during the wedding prep and we bonded

over prepping the Barn and making flower arrangements!

They have an adorable property (with potential land for

Candice and Taylor!) and her garden was

something I can only aspire too!

We ate lunch at an adorable little spot (Christa's Café)

and got the same exact things and headed off to

see Taylor! Taylor is managing one of the Columbia
stores that is part of a huge outlet mall. This outlet
mall was unreal - like huge and so nice.
Of course, I also had to do a little

shopping. Taylor was so kind to lend us his discount

on top of all of the other discounts that were happening.

I got some really cute stuff for all of us!

The real highlight of the day (other than seeing

my best friend!) was hitting up the Lavender Festival

in Newburg. The festival was full of really cute

vendors who were selling any kind of lavender

product you could possibly want. From lavender

wreaths, to soap, to bath salts, and lotion bars....

we saw it all!  The smell was just incredible!

The festival promised actual "nearby" lavender

fields though..so we adventured up the mountains.

I say adventured because I can barely read a map

and we were each running on less than 20% battery

for our phones so the using the GPS wasn't really an

option....I'm so glad we preserved though because

we landed at Wayward Farms!

And rows and rows of beautiful lavender!

Truly, the sight of all this lavender was really

just astounding. I have one lavender plant in my

yard and even though it's huge - this pales in

comparison. As you exit your car, you

can smell the fragrant lavender and

practically hear all the bees buzzing around

to pollinate it. We frolicked around and took

each other's pictures like a couple of weirdo's

but I didn't even care because LAVENDER

FIELDS AND BEST FRIENDS forever.

After nearly exhausting our camera battery

for all the pictures, we ventured through their

little festival and even went through the
"wish wagon".  It was as creepy as it sounds.

Though, the wish fairy had a super cool

bubble contraption that I hope Candice is able

to recreate for her classroom.

On our way back down the mountain - all of the

stars aligned again and we drove by a field

FULL OF LLAMAS.  Crazy, right?  Here we

are in the middle of Oregon and my recent obsession

with all things llama/alpaca related - and we happen

to just see about 50 (?) llamas just grazing in the field.

We pulled into this little market attached somehow to

llama farm - and even though they close at 5 and the

car clock reads 4:59, we hurry over to the fence.

A possibly drunk woman wanders out and just

pours (and pours) llama food into our hands and

we get to feed two of the most adorable llamas!

These two llamas (Pierre and Bonzi) were

so handsome and friendly!  As long as

we had food, they were happy to

nuzzle our hands over and over!

My life might just be complete.  I think

Candice did a great job capturing my complete

euphoria in this moment. Can you even top that?

I don't know?

We ended the evening with an Italian dinner and

frozen yogurt...all the while talking life, our husbands,

preschool, Max, her future children, possible move

to Oregon....and generally just being the bestest of

friends. I love that I was able to have this

day with you Candice (a faithful blog reader)...

and I can't for our Palm Springs trip :)

xoxo

p.s. stay tuned for the rest of our Oregon adventure to be blogged!