Sisters in Portland

This past weekend, my sisters came to Portland for a weekend visit!  I was so excited to finally show Emily and Sarah around my city (let's just say that I emailed them their weekend itinerary within hours of them booking their flight to PDX).  We crammed so much into 48 hours... we ate at food carts (which are way better than the hot dog stand they were expecting), toured my house, stopped in at my workplace, shopped at Trader Joe's, got pedicures, had a nice dinner in the Pearl with Alan, walked through Powells, ate at Voodoo Donut, went to the Portland Farmer's Market (amazing!), went to the Portland Saturday Market (a little weird), visited with the Moores, ate lots of food, went shopping, had a progressive dinner (The Bagdad McMenamins, The Montage, Papa Hydens) with several of my friends, went to Imago Dei, ate some more, and shopped some more.

I can't remember the last time we Carter girls spent that much time together - just us, no kids, no other family, just hanging out.  There was lots of girl talk and lots of quality time together - it was great!!

Emily and Sarah: thank you SOOOO much for making the trip all the way up to Portland to visit me.  Y'all are the best!  Shoooooot...

Emily and I with our crepes at the food carts on Hawthorne

Friday night outside of Powell's (in the Portland rain)

Saturday morning at the farmer's market

by the waterfront near Saturday Market with Drew

with the Moores at Saturday Market

the whole crew outside of The Montage after dinner Saturday night

There's No One Like a Sister

"Sister is probably the most competitive relationship within the family, but once the sisters are grown, it becomes the strongest relationship."

- Margaret Mead

"Having a sister is like having a best friend you can't get rid of.  You know whatever you do, they'll still be there."

- Amy Li

"If you don't understand how a woman could both love her sister dearly and want to wring her neck at the same time, then you were probably an only child."

- Linda Sunshine

"Whatever you do they will love you; even if they don't love you they are connected to you till you die.  You can be boring and tedious with sisters, whereas you have to put on a good face with friends."

- Deborah Moggach

Uganda Adventure 2011

I returned on Sunday from two weeks in Uganda with my mom, aunt Judy and cousin Claire.  It was an amazing trip... and quite an adventure.  This was my third trip to visit my Aunt Janice and Uncle Tim at Restoration Gateway in Northern Uganda but the first for the rest of the crew.  Another family friend and her two daughters joined us for past of the time as well... it was quite the "mother-daughter" trip.  I loved having this experience with my family.

There were hundreds of memorable moments in this trip, but I will share some of my favorites and then let the pictures speak for themselves:
- going to sleep when it got dark and waking with the sunrise
- sitting on the porch of Mama Grace's house playing with little David, Christopher and Santo
- Santo appearing out of nowhere all the time
- playing frisbee with the kindergarden class
- observing my mom teaching the children how to read and write
- sitting under a tree sipping a cold Coca Cola and discussing Ugandan culture with Joseph
- walking through Karuma village and running into Ugandan friends from past trips
- biking to Karuma and back with Claire
- Claire screaming as she rode a boke with no brakes or shocks down the bumpy road
- playing dominoes by headlamp
- spending the night in the container with Janice and chatting in bed
- helping Mitch calculate and pay the worker's salaries
- climbing the water tower to watch the sunrise over the Nile River
- fishing in the Nile with Mitch
- sitting by the fire listening to Joel tell how he was captured by the LRA
- nearly getting attached by a 10-foot crocodile on the boat safari
- eating dinner at Acholi Inn where the LRA used to stake out during the war

Little David singing the "Allelujah Amen song" over and over

... it never got old