…never been to Portland in June..

Kia and I just got back from a several day trip to Portland, Oregon, and I have to say that Portland is both a beautiful and inspiring city. Portland is full of artistic and creative people who have made their downtown (and I assume beyond) a wonderful place to visit and live.

We chose to travel to Portland for 2 reasons.

1. We needed a break.
2. We wanted to attend a conference by a writer we both liked.

Everyone needs to be refreshed.

The hardest thing to do as a small business owner is leave. We tend to think that the world cannot go on without us. The truth is that the world does go on without us, and in fact the real fear should be that we won’t go on without leaving a few times a year.

Kia and I have 4 children (all under the age of 12) that we love dearly. We spend gobs of time with them, and sacrifice a bit for them.

Kia and I run or help operate several businesses. We spend tons of time investing into those businesses, and have poured ourselves into making them successful.

I’m sure that you can relate to how we feel about our life. We work hard to make it what it is and what we hope it to be. If we don’t step back alone (together) and decompress we risk it all slowly slipping away.

So we visited Portland and its beautiful parks, unbelievable food, fun shopping, and unique experiences. Look below for a few shots I took with my phone during the trip.

We love to learn

The 2nd reason for the trip is that Kia and I both love to learn. And while we both love the photography industry and want to continue learning within it, we want to grow in lots of areas.

An author we love – Donald Miller – hosted this conference that I’ll share more with you in the upcoming days, but the general theme is learning to live and tell your story. We all have a story that we are in, and we can live story intentionally – how? This conference aimed to help us figure that out.

I can’t wait to share more!