Pocket Change

What will it look like? What will the food be like? Can you imagine the streets of gold? Do you think we'll be able to travel the earth? Will earth look different? Will I be able to have relationships and conversations with my husband, friends and family? What will we do with our time? Will we know what time is? What age will I look like? Will everyone be the age that they died? What will I, I, I, we, we, we ... What about God? What about dwelling with Christ?

"If you can imagine heaven as wonderful and fantastic and God does not come into view, than chances are, you are not going there." -John Piper

My selfish nature, the true sinner that I am, thinks more about heaven as this great place that I will live eternally, rather than the fact that I will dwell, I will stand face to face with God, forever. That I will finally be able to thank Him for what He did with a true heart that is not of dirty rags. I will officially be Holy and that bringing Him glory will not be this washed up crap that I deem "bringing God glory" here on earth.

For the most part my thoughts of heaven are selfish. (Do I think I am not going because of my selfishness? No, I have Christ.)

My thoughts and MY TIME are the same, they are selfish. What do I spend all my time doing through out the day? Sleeping, eating, watching TV, working, playing on Facebook, blogging, and on and on the list will go. It is everything that I want to do, me, me, me. I hardly think about the gospel and what it has done for me. I never think about it in the way that I should. I forget to ask myself "How does God want me to spend my time? What does God want me to do?"

God wants me to live in the Gospel, God wants me to live out the Gospel.

Memorize the Gospel. Pray the Gospel. Praise God for the Gospel. Review how the Gospel has changed me. Study the Gospel.

And then, when I fail to live out the Gospel, when I fail to do what God's desire- I just remember the gospel. (What a beautiful full circle it makes!)

I can't do it. I am Israel. I will always "worship the golden calf." I will never perfectly live out the gospel here on earth. But Because Jesus took my place on that cross and clothed me in His righteousness, one day I will dwell with my Gracious God in heaven. The Gospel. I will sing praises to Him. I will stand face to face with Jesus and kiss His feet. I will glory in the Gospel.

The feast, the golden streets and the mansion- are all pocket change after that.

My eyes were opened today. (They usually are on Sundays.) I needed to hear that quote from John Piper. I needed to ask myself some questions.

Home

There is nothing like a good fall night. In Portland that means it's dry, but not sunny. There is a nice breeze that smells of wet leaves. At the end of a good city night life you can expect a down pour that ends in a slow pitter-patter of rain droplets. It's amazing if you are outside to experience the sound.

Portland- where I found what a good beer should taste like and where good Pinot Noirs are made. Where great musicians come to play in small theatres and they announce to the crowd that they want to move here one day. Where I found the greatest black lab ever, the love of my earthly life and the keeper of my eternal life. Portland- where you love the aroma of a fresh brewed cup of coffee and grow to love the nuance of constant rain.

I will always be a Hoosier at Heart, but I will always support our infamous "logo" of the Oregon state and a green heart.

My home away from home. Or, I guess, after four years, just... home.

The Price of Happiness

So I was just randomly thinking of a few of my favorite things and what they cost. Why? I don't know, maybe it's my new financial plan to put our debt out on the curb. Maybe I just wanted to share the small things that brighten my day- but everything comes with a dollar tag, so I thought I would post that too. Please don't confuse this stuff as my actual happiness, my satisfaction lies in something more deeper and grand than mascara and recipes. Whatever the reason, here are a few of my favorite things: ("...Snowflakes that stay on your nose and eyelashes...")

Do you ever notice that "The Oldies" are always fun and up beat and fun to sing along with? I have always been a fan of the older hits- but usually that comes in the form of Classic Rock and hippie music. The oldies station in Portland plays a lot of good hits, great to sing along to while having a quick trip in the car. It reminds me of the good ol' days, the 60's and 70's... where I wasn't even a thought in my parents brain- they weren't even married. Okay, it doesn't remind me of anything, I am an 80's child, unfortunately. Still- it's fun to turn it on once in a while and sing a tune or two.

Price: Free! (If you have a radio)

Mint.com is a great financial tool. I recently organized our finances and put us on a different route to pay off bills and debt. Mint is helping me focus on our budget and reminds me of when the lovely bills are due. Not to mention- there's an iPhone app for that!

Price: Free! (If you have the Internet)

Ray LaMontagne's voice. It's different, soft and scruffy. I love it. I am sure you could buy his albums, or you could just pick out songs that you like on iTunes.

Price: $.99

I change my shower gel as often as I change my hair cut. I usually go for whatever is on sale. Sometimes it's Dove, sometimes it's Caress. My last soap stop I purchased Softsoap...and I fell in love. Their Pomegranate & Mango is the BEST smelling soap I have ever used. It wakes me up in the morning and I look forward to getting into the shower just so I can smell it. The good news is that Softsoap doesn't even have to be on sale, it's always cheap.

Price: $1.99

I have found the best Ice Cream that you can buy at the grocery store, and it's not Tillamook. It still is a NW favorite though. Umpqua's Chocolate Peanut Butter is awesome. Especially if you let it melt just a tad. It is so creamy and delicious, it has gooey bites of peanut butter mixed in with the velvety chocolate. Yumm! I wait until I see it on sale at the grocery store and then stock up.

Price: Depending on the sale- it could be $2.99 and up.

Do you read magazines that have all these great recipes within in the pages? And then some how you throw out the magazine (or hopefully you recycled it) and then try to remember exactly how much lemon zest was needed for those dessert tartlets? Well I have decided to use one of my empty binders as my own "Magazine Cook Book." I am ripping out all the recipes and three-hole-punching them into a binder for keeps. Of course I really only buy (or get) two different magazines- "Real Simple" and "Adventure" from National Geographic. Adventure is definitely lacking in recipes, unless you need to know what type of instant meals you can have while backpacking. So basically I will have a Real Simple cook book.

Price: Real Simple Magazine, $4.99 an issue (unless you have a subscription)

My new favorite restaurant is the smallest little Greek restaurant that just happens to be right down the street from my house. The gyros, Greek fries and Greek salad are to die for! You can get all three with their Gyro Special for just $8.95. The "Mad Greek Deli" also has a great selection of wines and they have live music every Saturday night.

I got really tired of my mascara always clumping and drying out and tearing out my eyelashes. Okay, maybe that was me with my gunked-up eyelash curler. But seriously, what does a girl have to pay to get normal looking eyelashes. Well, I LOVE Aveda products. I am spoiled rotten because every year my Aunt Lori buys me the huge pump containers of Aveda's shampoo and conditioner. I was going to put them on my list, but decided it wasn't fair because I don't pay for it. However I have purchased three other things from the lovely, all natural, Aveda store. 1. Mouse. 2. Tinted Lip Balm. 3. Mascara. I can vouch for all three products, I love them. Especially the Tinted Lip Balm (it's addicting) and definitely the mascara. The secret to their mascara is that they don't use tar. Ya- I've been coating tar to my eyelashes this whole time.

Price: $12.00... and well worth it.

While David was out of town I went ahead and rented a few chic flicks. I saw 27 dresses in the movie theatre...by myself I might add. I don't know why but I love going to see chic flicks by myself. I mean really, going to the movies by

yourself makes more sense anyway. Do you talk during the movie? No, so why is it necessary to have a buddie? Plus, you get to see whatever you want, not what everyone could agree on. Anyway, I rented the movie again because it was so cute. It was even cuter the second time around, especially the "Benny & the Jets" scene. :)

Price: $12.99 at Target (or you can rent it for $1)

I never would have guessed that I would go from the free Samsung flip phone to the infamous iPhone. But I did, and now I love it. I know, I know it's just a phone. And honestly I could live with out it. I could go back to the flipper and be just fine. But, I do enjoy my Mac based phone. Let's put it this way, I never got on my parent's computer to check my email, facebook, google something or map quest something. I would rather tink around on my Mac-Phone than mess with a PC. Gosh, I am such a Mac Snob! :)

Price: $99 with a new contract. Ya, there is an app for that.

In the beginning of this blog I wrote that my true happiness lies in something deeper and more satisfying than all this stuff. My favorite Bible verse at the moment is Romans 5:8-9. I painted a cross and that verse on top and it sits in my office window where I see it every day. What does it say? "But God demonstrates His love towards us, in that while we were yet still sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him." Where does my happiness and satisfaction start and end? It starts with me needing a Savior and ends with the greatest gift of love.

Price: Absolutely, 100% taken care of, Free, with out debt- Jesus paid it all.

THE CHASE

I am listening to the first sermon on our "Chasing the Wind" series, as Dave and I were out of town and missed the first two weeks. So I am trying to catch up on our study through Ecclesiastes. I love Pastor's introduction to the series, which you can find on GTBC's home page.

http://www.gtbc.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=404&Itemid=24

I was thinking about the little adventure I went on in order to come up with an image for the series. I just thought it would be fun to share the photos and some thoughts.

My husband,David, came up with the idea of photographing the kite boarders in the Gorge. They literally are chasing the wind. I was psyched to photograph this intriguing sport, so I rented a 400mm lens and headed out to the Gorge. I got some great shots.

Well- the shots we're FUN! And that was the problem. "Chasing the Wind" is about chasing after anything and everything in the world for satisfaction, and never finding it. Obviously with the point that our true satisfaction is in Christ. As my Pastor just said in his sermon... "Stuff never delivers what it promises, does it?" So the FUN photographs did not work.

I looked up some ideas on Chasing the Wind. I came across a photo- a guy was all alone, it looked kind of out of focus or blurry. I wanted to get that same idea. I also wanted to get someone actually running- with the idea of chasing after nothing. So this time I headed to the coast to photograph again.

I couldn't find anyone running...so I decided to be the runner. I can only imagine the people combing the beach at 6:30 in the morning what they thought when they saw this girl hit her shutter, run, run back and hit the shutter again. I ran in loops until I was tired and unsatisfied with the photographs. How ironic- here I am running around, chasing after this image I want to capture and I just can't seem to be satisfied. Extremely similar to our "Chasing the Wind" study.

I finally felt like I got something that might work. So I went home, edited the images and tossed on some words to see what it would like.

All those images worked, but they did not portray the loneliness or the chasing after nothing concept. So finally, we decided on an image and Josh did the wording and font. And we came up with our series image:

I still don't feel 100% satisfied with the image. Every time I see it I think of how it could have been better, or how I could have shared, visually, the concept of Chasing the Wind in a stronger way than I did.

My chase after this image is the perfect example of life and this endless chase we are on. We chase after everything- careers, money, relationships, pride, education, houses, perfect children, technologies, clothes, cameras, drugs, alcohol, sex, love and the list could go on and on. I know that in my own life, my career -my photography- I am chasing after it. I want my business to BOOM! I want to succeed and I want to be a great photographer. But I don't want this to become an idol, I don't want to chase after it so much that I lose my purpose in life. I don't want to find my ultimate satisfaction in my photography- and believe me, I am already of guilty doing so. Instead I want to find my ultimate satisfaction in God, Christ, my Creator and my Savior! I want my purpose in life to be His beacon of light, to live out a life that says- yes, I love photography and I am BLESSED to have this gift, but I love Jesus more!

"For most of us the issue is not that we have bad stuff in our lives. 'Watch out for bad stuff' is not our motto. If it is, we will come across as arrogant and blind to our own logs in our eyes. No-it's not that we have bad stuff in our lives, but that we have let good stuff become idols. And we live out or lives as if that is all there is. The gods we are serving can never deliver what they promise and cannot fill our void. 'Those who cling to worthless idols forfeit the grace that could be theirs.' Jonah 2:8. Through the very gospel that redeemes us- God is at work to redeem us from the "stuff" or idols of our lives. So that the stuff- marriage, control, relationships, pleasure- no longer serves as a replacement for God but a means in which God is relished like never before."

- Paraphrased from Pastor Mike during the first sermon of "Chasing the Wind."

What do you perceive my life is all about? What is my life centered on? In your estimation- what am I all about?

What do I need to take out from under the SUN and place under the SON?

I pray that my photography is a means by which God is satisfied and glorified and that I am satisfied first in Christ and His work on the cross.

Polka Dots and 25 other Random Thoughts

1. I love lists. I love making lists; to do lists, music lists, etc. (I also love scratching things off my list.) My favorite list though- are random lists, like this one.

2. What if I emailed in list format?

1. Hello.

2. How are you?

3. I am writing to see if you got my email on Polar Bears?

4. Lord Bless

5. Aubrie

3. I love Polar Bears! I am hoping to save enough money to go photograph them in their natural territory (not the zoo.)

4. I want to make a list of all the restaurants I have enjoyed in the greater Portland area. And then make a list of all the restaurants that I would like to visit.

5. I decided a few weeks ago that I needed to make David's lunches more exciting. I mean- a turkey sandwich, grapes and pudding can only go so far every day, right? Well I found this great little insert in a magazine that just happened to be on creative sandwiches.

1. Deli Beef and Raspberry Mayo Sandwich

2. Turkey-Vegetable Pita

3. California Combo

4. Turkey and Vegetable Focaccia Sandwich

Deli Beef and Raspberry Mayo

6. All sandwiches were a success- except the pita, because I haven't made it yet. The Deli Beef Raspberry Mayo seemed to be the favorite.

7. I also have been making the greatest Chicken Salad! No credit to me, the secret is in my mother's zucchini relish. She mailed me two jars and now my Chicken Salad, is, well, better than yours! :)

My Mother's homemade Zucchini Relish!

8. Every day is the first day of the rest of your life. That's nice to know, I think.

9. Next time someone stops you on the street and asks where they "are?" (probably because they are lost or confused) answer- "Earth." See what their reaction is. ...Then of course tell them they are located in NW Portland on the corner of 13th and Hoyt. (If you truly are on 13th and Hoyt.)

10. It's time again for me to pack, I am going home to Indiana for a week. Packing for a week actually excites me because you basically get to pack all your favorite outfits. We all have those shirts and those outfits that are "fillers" in order to give the faves a rest, or maybe a wash. So when I pack I go through and I pick out only my favorite items to wear- I look forward to it.

11. What is Aubrie's favorite outfit? Well, I don't have one particular outfit, but I do have a favorite item. Skirts.

12. I have 16 skirts- is that too many? (I wear them ALL - on a regular basis- except the cute turquoise one with the weird print, because I need someone to fix it for me. Sewers?)

13. I also came to the realization that I love polka-dots. It never dawned on me that I was a polka-dot fan. I had to buy a new make-up bag today, because mine is gross! Anyway...

... It was a polka-dot pattern. And then I remembered that I had a polka-dot purse, coffee cozy, boots...

14. Some day I want to wear my polka-dot boots, caring a coffee with my cozy, purse on one arm, make-up bag in the other. ...And I will be wearing my red polka-dot dress.

...Okay, just kidding... about the dress, anyway.

15. Pandora is the greatest thing ever! www.pandora.com You type in a few artists- like MercyMe and Casting Crowns and then Pandora will just pick out songs that fit your theme. You can skip songs or tell Pandora that you like or dislike that song- it basically figures out the best radio station just for you.

16. I am going to make a new Christian Mix CD. Here is the list:

1. You Are God Alone

2. City on Our Knees

3. O' Praise Him

4. You Are Everything

5. Only Grace

6. God of this City

7. What Do I know of Holy

8. Better is One Day

9. Praise You in this Storm

10. The Beauty of Simplicity

11. All I have is Christ

12. Cry Out to Jesus

13. Before the Throne

14. Let Your Kingdom Come

15. Sound of Melodies

16. ...I don't know, I can't think of the song yet- but when I do- the mix will be completed.

17. I am so thankful for my private yoga lessons. Now I can do yoga at my house and I know what I am doing. It's awesome!

My Yoga Teacher. (No, I cannot do what she is doing lol.)

My yoga gear. :)

18. Acupuncture is also awesome.

19. Always keep a nail file handing when you are driving. It will come in handy when you are stuck in traffic.

20. I dumped water on my keyboard- and fried it. So I went to the Mac store and bought a new keyboard. It is so fun to type on- it makes me want to type more. I look forward to emails and blogs just so I can type on my new board.

21. I love the sound or rain. Okay- not Portland's typical rain, I mean like down pours, Midwest style. My new house though provides me with that pouring rain sound even when it's not coming down like cats and dogs. You see, I have a tin roof right below my bedroom window. So this winter (when it's not freezing) I will get to fall asleep to the wonderful sound of the rain.

22. I have recently found a few wines and one beer that are note worthy.

1. Avery Maharaja Imperial IPA

2. Thuja- Cedeargreen (Red Blended Wine)

3. Basalt Cellars- Perimeter Red

4. Eola Hills- La Creole Cab Reserve '05

23. I finally have jumped on board with everyone else (well, everyone that is smart) and started to use my public library. Although I will admit, I am not good at renting books from the library. I do rent CD's, DVD's and the greatest thing ever... Magazines!

24. I have always been intrigued by the magazine "Real Simple" because of it's title and design. (I love simplicity.) I rented two magazines from the Library- and the magazine is great. Definitely my pick. (Well, besides National Geographic Adventure- but I get that magazine.)

25. My last thought of the night, the longest thought of the blog...

- I was listening to Janice, her sister and her niece talk about how God works through you when your heart is just not there. Actually, it seems like He is at work the most when everything else seems wrong- your heart, your thoughts, your doubt. I recalled my last ebbing period, which quite frankly has taken months for me to come out of. I was to a point where I didn't want to pray, I didn't want to listen to praise music, I didn't want to talk about it and I didn't want to go to church. (It's bad when you don't want to go to church.) My husband lightly pushed me out the door anyway. I remember the two Sunday's where I felt my lowest. I cried through both worships, I couldn't even sing. I cried through most of the sermon's too. Christ was pounding at my heart- even though I was emotional, and I knew He was at work, I still ignored Him. When I left- I went back into my rut. Slowly but surely (and with a few weak prayers from me- "Lord, I know you will pull me out of this, amen.") He brought me back. I look back at the timing, or the providence of God. Chad Asire's sermon spoke wonders to my problems I was dealing with. Stephen Brainine's helped a great deal too. Who knew that the past intern and the present intern could pull some random chic out of her misery with Christ. God does have perfect patience- He waits on his children. The prayers have increased- and increased with meaning and heart as well. My radio station (and my Pandora) plays a lot more praise music and of course, attending Church is no issue. He is persistent and loving, even when we are far, far away. I know I will always ebb and flow- I just hope that the ebbing is shorter and not so fierce as my last episode. I pray for the day that all ounce of doubt and fear and the need for answers to questions that I don't need to know will vanish. Until that day- I trust in my Lord and Savior to always rescue me. After all, He did rescue me from an eternity with out God.

And All God's people say- We, we love you Lord!

Lord Bless,

Aubrie

Random Thoughts from a Random Brain

It's weird how I always come up with snippets to write in my blog when I am driving- and then when I actually sit down to spill my mind, I can't think of anything I wanted to share. Most of it, if not all of it, was meaningless. Just random stuff that I thought of to pass the driving time. That happens sometimes, meaningless thoughts.

I do recall thinking about my few hours spent in North Portland today, Mississippi St. area. I thought about how much I love Portland. Only in Portland can you enjoy an awesome Vanilla Latte (with my own coffee cozy, saving a tree- one coffee cozy at a time), listen to a man ask for a cab and double check that it is okay that he has a cat, get stopped by the corner dude promoting Greenpeace and letting me know that buying Timberland shoes is now okay. Only in Portland can I stop into some odd/vintage gift shops, find a great deal at the Rebuilding Center (well, it's for my sister's birthday present, so I can't say on what), watch a hippie with dreads drive by with her ice cram cart and see an Arabic man deliver the U.S mail to the near by houses. Ah, yes, Portland. I finished my day with a ride across the Freemont bridge, which of course provides one of the best views of the great city and topped off the night with a visit to Bridgeport Brewery for a birthday party. I love my city. And even though it may seem like I live closer to Hillsboro, or even Beaverton- my address still reads NW Portland and my heart will be always be with her.

I ate at this little restaurant called "Gravy" today. I asked around to find the best place for a sandwich- I love sandwiches. (BLT's, Chicken Salad on Croissants, Fancy Grilled Cheeses, Clubs, Chicken-Bacon-Avocado, sandwiches with grilled Portobello mushrooms and of course my favorite- Monte Cristos). Someone told me to check out "Gravy's."

(...EXTREME Side Note. I always look to see if restaurants have Monte Cristos, they really are one of my favorite sandwiches. But, for the life of me I could not think of the name of that sandwich while writing this blog... so, of course, I googled it. During my search for the French sandwich I came across "Fluffernutter" sandwiches. I almost died laughing. I worked at a lovely camp during college (Camp Birch Hill in New Hampshire), in fact that is how I ended up moving to Portland, anyway at this lovely camp the kids were crazy about Fluffernutter sandwiches. It literally was two pieces of bread with marshmallow fluff and peanut butter stuff between the two slices! Can we all say- GROSS? I am not sure if I ever ate the infamous fluffernutter- but the memory was a fun walk down memory lane.)

Anyway, my whole spiel on Gravy's... After I finished half of my HUGE club sandwich and fries I drove home. This is when I had all the random thoughts that I couldn't think of, but now that I am typing away some of the bizarre ideas are re-entering my brain. I was full. I had the other half of the HUGE sandwich and the rest of the fries in a to-go box. So I started to think... Here in America, we have three main issues at hand (okay, we have A LOT more than three, but I am sure you can relate to the three I will mention). One- the economy. Two- the environment. Three- obesity. So, I was thinking... Why do restaurants charge 11 bucks for a HUGE lunch, fill me up with an obviously over-sized portion, pack the rest of it up in a to-go box only so I can just add to the trash piling up in our landfills? If restaurants would create smaller portions- we wouldn't feel the need to eat so much (and if you were raised to FINISH your plate, you wouldn't feel guilty either), they could charge less, we would spend less- saving a buck or two and we wouldn't have to carry our huge lunch home in a to-go box. I mean, seriously- do you know how many to-go boxes I give away every day at Olive Garden? And the boxes are Styrofoam! We serve up ENDLESS soup or salad and bread sticks and then give ginormous portions of pasta and just about every guest at the table asks for a Styrofoam to-go box. Ironic, don't ya think?

...Gravy's did not use Styrofoam boxes. Their boxes were recycled and will be recycled again. Plus their food was local... but still... you get my point.

I want a bumper sticker. I don't want anything Political though- just something fun. I've always wanted "Hoosier at Heart" to be my bumper sticker... maybe I'll order one. Can you just order your own bumper stickers? Is their an APP for that? LOL!

Do you think the urge to go shopping when you don't have money is some sort of rebellious inner-mind game? I only have urges to shop when we are penny pinching. When I am rolling in cash (okay, I am never Rolling in it...) I don't have the urge to shop at all. Weird. I am trying to contain myself... I'll just go the Library and Goodwill or something- that should shake the shopping case.

Chad's sermon really helped my "ebbing" recently. I had a pretty bad spout- in fact I think I am still recovering from all the negative thoughts and doubt I placed in my head. God's Perfect Patience. It's quite amazing. His patience is the extreme opposite from my patience- which is practically non-existent. I've been thinking about it this week, I'll have to go over my notes and listen to the sermon again.

How about that hot weather? hahaha. I really need to edit a lot of photos, I have a list starring me in the face.

Peace out.

Links to things I mentioned...

http://www.rebuildingcenter.org/

http://www.yelp.com/biz/gravy-portland

http://www.atthemeadow.com/shop/index.php?main_page=page&id=7

http://www.marshmallowfluff.com/pages/fluffernutter.html

July Experiences

July is always a great month. Not only is it hot (which I prefer) but it hosts my favorite holiday, Independence Day and now it marks my wedding anniversary. So far my 09 July has not failed me- it's still my favorite month.

- I took a morning drive to Vancouver Lake. (Okay, I was really trying to get up into WA about 2 hours north to Dog Lake and surrounding areas but I didn't give myself enough time. So I ended up photographing Vancouver Lake for a brief moment.)

- David I drove up to Clear lake on Tuesday to check out some camping spots. I found some crazy looking tree stumps to photograph.

-We returned with our tent and smores on Thursday for a quick camp out. We found a cozy little spot right on the lake and our tent was surrounded by trees. It was a perfect little spot.

- I tried my first attempt at long exposure night photography. The moon was so bright that it didn't quite work out the way I wanted. So I set my alarm for 2:30 AM when the moon went down and tried again. My first attempt I did not have a long enough exposure and my second attempt was either too long or the light that started to appear from the sunrise ruined the shot. My slide show will give you a few of my attempts to peak at. I am hoping for another excursion this summer that I can perfect the star spinning shot.

- We fished all day on Friday. We caught three fish! Lukah was VERY excited...try not to laugh at the photo of him drooling over the freshly caught fish. We also tried to teach Lukah how to swim- we did not succeed. (video footage of that experience to come)

- I had to work a lunch shift on the 4th. It turned out to be a good shift because they phased all the servers except for like 5 or 6 of us, so I made good money. We took the cash and went downtown for dinner and fireworks. We ate at Henry's where I had the greatest IPA and hamburger ever. :)

- Portland fireworks are kind of lame compared to Vancouver's...but this year we didn't have a choice. I really wanted to photograph the light display so I hauled my camera down. I also really had to use the restroom- so we spent 90% of our time searching for a port-a-potty. By the time we did business we only had a few minutes to set up for the fireworks. Our spot was not the greatest, basically in between trees. (Sorry David!) I tried my best to get some interesting firework shots. .... Maybe next year.

Here is a quick slide show of some of my images from my July experiences. Enjoy.