september favorites

Who else is ready for fall? Although I barely experienced a summer this year because the weather was so up and down, I'm still over it. This week, we had a few cloudy mornings and even one morning where it rained on my entire walk to work. I loved every second of it. I'll need to invest in a new umbrella though.  Here are a few new finds all from Abercrombie to get me ready for my favorite season. You guys, they have so much good stuff right now and I want it all. More sales please?!

a birthday well spent

Visiting Crater Lake has always been on my bucket list, and since my birthday fell on Labor Day this year, I thought what better way to spend the long weekend!? It was seriously the best birthday I think I've had, even though we were road tripping back home for the majority of my actual birthday. We set up tent at Diamond Lake which is about 20 minutes away from Crater, and let me tell you, the campsite views were just as grand. We were surrounded by trees the whole weekend and could see the entire night sky at night. This is definitely a weekend I'll always remember and I can't wait to plan the next birthday destination.

Those clear blue waters though.

Us girls conquered another National Park together! We took on the Grand Canyon together as well.

My babe, the captain.

Rooney was happy too.

So the wind wasn't our favorite, and neither were the freezing nights.

Those tree views!

If I thought Crater Lake couldn't get any better, it did. Steph, Megan and I headed back to watch the sunset, and I'm sure happy we did. 

hey there, dahlia

I discovered one of the best things last week--there is a dahlia festival not far south of Portland! I'm not sure how it has gone unnoticed considering it is a must see for any flower lover. The photos from the day do not do it any justice. We spent over an hour wandering through the 30 acres of color, but we could have stayed all day. 

of course we each picked out a few bunches

^ I love this just because of the tutti fruiti sign

conservatories

Can we all just agree that there needs to be more conservatories? Check out this beaut! I headed to Seattle just for the day last weekend to check out the Volunteer Park Conservatory, among other things. I'm so lucky my dad agreed to hang out with me for the day so that I didn't have to venture around the city alone. The $4 fee to get in and wander was well worth the views:

please note that my dad is the ultimate "dad" check out that dad outfit

spontaneity

I usually wouldn't consider myself the spontaneous type, as I am more of a planner. However, this weekend that may have all changed. As the Portland heat crept in and hit the 100's this past weekend, I needed an escape. We were sitting in houses without air conditioning throughout the day and slowly soaking through our clothes. I couldn't even pretend sitting on the couch was satisfying. Then I mentioned the beach to Erik as he quickly shut me down. Understandable considering it was 3 in the afternoon. I sulked on the hardwood floor. About half an hour later in a moment of silence, he murmured "the beach house is available." I jumped for joy as he informed me I had 10 minutes to grab my things. I'm not sure I would have survived this weekend if we hadn't headed west. As we drove back into town on Sunday and slowly watched the thermometer rise, all we wanted to do was turn around. Thank you for being spontaneous with me, Erik.