Nikki for Prez

Most of you know that I'm a HUGE alternative and indie music fan. My radio station is 94.7 fm, which plays my favorites, like Death Cab For Cutie, Pearl Jam, Nirvana, U2, The Strokes, Coldpay, The Shins, Silversun Pickups, Better Than Ezra, Dave Matthews Band, Collective Soul, etc. etc. etc. I've even been on the air a couple of times playing music of my choosing and chatting with a DJ I've been listening to for probably about 13 years (Gustav), and I also got to interview one of the DJs in studio for an article in the magazine (Tara). Anyway, the station is doing a promotion right now, searching for a "President of the 94.7 Nation" who would help in choosing songs to play on the air for their HD station, go on the air, blog on their website, and win tickets for tons of shows for the upcoming year. I nominated myself a few days ago on a whim, and yesterday I was listening to the radio and heard my name on the air as a Top 7 finalist! Now they're putting it to a vote. You can vote here: http://www.947.fm/pages/3803672.php

Portland International Auto Show

On Thursday we went to the Portland International Auto Show at the Oregon Convention Center. We went to this last year so it's becoming kind of a tradition, even though the kids get bored relatively quickly. They do have fun stuff for kids there, though, so it was actually really fun. We parked several blocks away because the weather was dry enough to have a pleasant stroll through the city. The craziest thing was, we saw my cousin Josh stopped at a stop light while we were walking downtown. He yelled, "Nikki! JR!" and we talked for a sec until his light turned green. Fun coincidence!

Outside the Convention Center there's a beautiful statue of Martin Luther King, Jr. (because the building is on MLK Blvd). It was fun for the kids to see because we had been talking a lot about Dr. King around his birthday a couple weeks ago.

Madison is so stinkin' photogenic!

In the kids area there was a huge bouncy slide and awesome face painting by an acquaintance of mine named Naomi, of Time Honored Designs. She's incredible. Here's what she did on Madison's face:

And here's what she did on Chloe's face:

A little over the top, I know, but how often do the girls get to get all dolled up?

A couple more pictures:

Funny story: The country station 98.7 KUPL had a booth where you could win prizes, so Madison tried her hand at rolling the dice and, through some help from the super sweet guys at the booth, got to choose one prize from the table. Out of all the options, she chose a dinky notepad when there was a brand new Rascal Flatts CD she could have had. JR and I gently tried to persuade her that she may like a CD better than a notepad, but nope. So we laughed as we walked away from a free CD. Hahaha, oh well.