I LOVE the fall...

Erica and I went on a date last Saturday. I want to tell you about it.

Our day started off going to Sassy Onion. We were able to catch Miranda on her break and take a quick picture. The food was amazing but Erica and I ate fast; we were anxious to go to the zoo. The traffic was horrid but we eventually made it to the zoo. Once there we found that the parking lot was full. I gazed into Ericas eyes and said, "Aint nothing gonna break our stride. Nobodys gonna slow us down. Oh-no, we gotta keep on moving." We were determined, we drove to Portland for the zoo and by golly, we were going to go to the zoo! We saw signs which led us to an another parking lot where they would shuttle us to the zoo and so we went.
We parked our car and ran to get in the line. The line was huge. We weren't able to see the end and so Erica decided that she would go find the front of the line. She came back really excited, she told me that there were two lines and that the other one was really short. We chose the wrong line, ours was huge. So we decide to be sneaky and leave our line and go to the other line. After a long walk we found the end of the other line and we could see the shuttle. We were almost there, and we were so excited and then everything went wrong...

You see that lady carrying the sign? Trust us, she's no lady. She saw that we went to the other line and she had a cow! She started screaming and yelling at us to go back to the other line. I don't think she had a very good childhood. Erica and I decided that we were too good for the zoo anyways though, so we initiated plan "B".

Derek Dating Tip: Always have a plan B. It doesn't hurt to have a plan C,D or even E either.

Plan B: We were going to go to the mall and play around there. We weren't quite sure how to get there but didn't think it would be too hard, we would just follow the signs...

We followed the signs straight to Washington. We got off on the last exit before leaving Oregon and we turned around. Once we knew we were heading back in the right direction we found the mall with no problem. First thing we did was go ice skating.

I know this picture is dark. We had others taken but they're sideways and I'm too lazy to make them right side up right now. I'll do that later.

Ok...funny story. So Erica and I were skating and having fun and we got really tired. We go to the edge and look at a pirate shop and wait to catch our breath. Before we know it we're surrounded by little kids. There was a train of kids walking around the edge of the ice arena and Erica and I were in there way. All the little kids successfully made it around us and we decided we needed to get a picture, so Erica positions herself in front of the kids again while I went to a vantage point to take pictures.

Erica is in the yellow on the left.

Erica is in the yellow engulfed by the blanket of kids.

P.S. If you look closely, you can notice that Erica is whistling.

P.S.S. I think someone knew what were we doing and didn't approve. I got an ice ball thrown at me from behind while taking this picture...

After playing with the kids, Erica and I showed everyone our ice skating skills.

Lunch was next. We had a picnic in her car.

Oh ya! We also went to ROSS. Erica purchased a lovely jacket. It was a bargain! It was only $9.99 and she looks amazing in it!

After lunch we went and saw Fame. The choices were Fame or Ponyo. I hadn't really seen previews for Fame but I had for Ponyo and I didn't have much of a desire to go see it. I really enjoyed Fame though. It's definitaly worth seeing. I'm pretty sure Erica liked it as well.

This is me doing a Fame pose.

After the movie got out, Erica and I walked over to the railing where we could look down over the Ice Arena. The zamboni had just smoothed the surface and it still appeared wet. All at once though a mass of kids come bolting onto the ice. Everyone was falling. We hurried and got my camera out and were able to take a picture of two kids who had fallen. Erica and I really aren't bad people, but we had alot of fun with the kids ice skating.
We then went to Mrs. Fields. I never had their cookies before. They were soooooooo good. The double chocolate ones were our favorites.

While we were in Portland we stopped by the temple on our way home. The grounds were closed so we walked around the outside of the fence. We were surprised to see one of our friends from Salem also. Alden Papritz made his appearance into our date. We chatted for a little bit and then headed home.

This concluded our evening. However we have many more dates to look forward to this fall. We already have planned to attend the pumpkin patch, attend a blazer game, go and see twilight, run a marathon and so much more. Life is treating me really well right now. :-)