Beach Trip

So since Brent and I have been in Portland we have been so good about not spending money on food or other things (mainly because mom and dad have been so supportive), but we did decided that we needed a little break before I get no breaks for the rest of the summer. So we decided to head out for a day at Pacific City Oregon.

While there we found the rock that Ariel (from the Little Mermaid) sang on while day dreaming about her Prince.

WE also found this neat little cave. Man I look so tired and I didn't even realize it! Brent looks amazing as always!

All of these pictures were taken on my new camera, which Brent's Parents got me for graduation so this picture took us about 5 minutes to take because we were attempting to figure out the timer! It worked and I love this camera. It is amazing!

We got there just before the tidal pools were beginning to fill so we hurried and look around? How many Starfish can you find!?!?!?! They were all over the place and unlike seaside you can get really close to these guys without people yelling at you!

Brent posing on top of the rocks!

Next to all the tidal pools was this mountain bluff thingy with an Oasis looking thing on the top. I am pretty sure we weren't suppose to be up there but we climbed it anyway! Brent was such a better climber than I am. His legs get tired and I just don't breath well, but his legs can hold out til the top... my lungs just can't!

Look at this cool Panoramic setting that my camera has. I love how it works. You take one picture, and then line up the edge of the first picture to get the second frame, and do the same for the third. You can see the little Oasis Bluff we climbed to, it is the one closet to the Ocean!

Well ever since last summer I have wanted to play in the Ocean and I finally got to! The whole plan was to go boogie boarding but only had one board and Blair's short wetsuit. Well we went to the surf shop to get Brent a wet suit and a boogie board. The package for Brent was $25 dollars for a wetsuit, boots and the board for four hours... Well the lady was so worried about me she gave me a wet suit and boots for $5.00. She was so nice and I would highly recommend her if anyone is going to Pacific City any time soon! I was so mad because I couldn't wait to tell everyone about the great deal, but I never got a chance! Brent told EVERYONE before I even got a chance!

Well for anyone who placed bets I was by far the superior Boogie Boarder! It took me a couple tries to remember what I was doing and the waves weren't amazing but it was a lot of fun! It reminded me that I will always be a mermaid at heart and that I was really always intended to be in the water.

The best part is while I was heading back out after riding a wave I saw a seal (full grown) only 25 yards away from us! His head was just poking out of the water and he was looking around. I started freaking out and yelling to Brent to look but without his glasses and enough notice he missed him. Luckily Freddie made a second appearance and Brent got a good look!

We saw so many different animals from fish, Starfish, a seal, a rabbit, pelicans, hawks, and all sorts of other stuff! We finished out our day by eating at a little Dinner called Fat Freddies Diner. We thought it looked like a dive and would be inexpensive but a meal was $9.00 and a milkshake was $5.25! It was more expensive then we thought it really needed to be but it was good either way. I made sure to get some really good Clam Chowder which I think is a must whenever visiting the Coast!

Overall we had such a great time, and remember how much we really enjoy spending time together besides sitting at home after a long day at work! It was a nice refresher and all the pictures revealed how exhausted I looked so I have to start taking better care of myself!

Grand Floral Parade

Last Saturday was my first Saturday off since coming to Portland (which I am very grateful for the chance to actually work) Brent and I were excited to go watch Kalen perform in the Grand Floral Parade. After Dad wandered around Portland for a good twenty minutes or so we finally found a paring place only a few blocks away from the parade route. Here is Brent and I getting ready to make the hike to the parade.

Aren't we cute?!?!

Mom and Dad watching the Parade

The floats were not as impressive as I once remember them being but I did thing this is one of the more fun floats that I saw.

This is the One More Time around Band. Basically it is for people who did not want to give up their music after high school or college. Dad joked as they were coming around the corner that they always play one song, Louie Louie. well when they were coming around the bend they WERE NOT playing a Louie Louie. Dad looked heart broken, and as soon as we gave up the memory of an easier simpler time they struck up another cord and it was... you guessed it...
LOUIE LOUIE! It was awesome and fun to watch all the musicians dance around and play it up for the crowd.

I know some little girls dream about a horse drawn carriage but I am suggesting an alternative, a Llama drawn carriage. It was surprising how majestic the animals looked! One of them was named Dahli as in the Dahli Llama ( ha ha ha ha). They were very beautiful.

After the Llamas another beautiful creature came by. These horses were absolutely gorgeous! They were all black and had roses woven in their mains and tails! I made the comment that I think these horses are more beautiful then I was on my wedding day!

Then Oregon City began to represent! This is the OC Trolley! Brent was surprised to know that OC had a trolley at all! He wants to go ride it!

After the Trolley there came in the distance!!! THE OREGON CITY FLAG TEAM! Can you Find Kalen!??!
There she is in the back waving her flag all over the place! All of the other Flag teams wore awful outfits that were dated and had no personality! NOT THIS TEAM!! Their outfits had spunk and had make-up to match! They weren't really performing when they passed our spot so Mom made us chase her three blocks to make sure we caught at least one routine!

Overall it was a very fun way to spend Sunday morning! It just reminded me how much I love spending time with my Husband in non work and home related days! He is such a wonderful man and he is working so hard at his job, which makes me miss him at home a lot!

Stay tuned! Tomorrow is a blog about our day trip to the beach! It is going to be a lot of fun since we had an absolute blast at the beach!

Some Catching Up!

Well, today Brent and I took our first personal day since moving to Oregon and went to the beach... but you will have to wait to see that post because I am two posts behind! First I have to tell everyone about our Memorial Day! It was a ton of fun and I can't believe I have put off telling about it for this long!

Well, on Memorial (which was the day after my birthday dinner!) we all wanted to do something fun, but didn't want to drive very far. The solution? Heading to Kmart and purchasing food for a killer BBQ and a Badminton set. There was talk of a croquet set but I poo pooed that idea immediately. Here are the results:

Audrey and I quickly became the team to beat. Our technique was flawless, game plan unsinkable and overall teamwork was something only the gold medalists USA women's sand volleyball team know about!

Audrey was our designated server because her wicked birdie spike was only able to be returned if the opponent had stored blessings from above.

Kalen and Dad were our main opponents and they were not to be taken lightly. The solution was easy... a little bit of smack talk! I got in Kalen's head pretty good! I was walking around in there and touching EVERYTHING!!!! She simply could not handle it! They put up a good fight and we appreciate their good team spirit!

Ahhh... Do you see the eye of the tiger within me! I am preparing to strike! This is the moment right before miracles happen!

While we were playing some 'mitten mom was in diligently preparing an amazing macaroni salad! As always she out does herself! Doesn't her long hair look cute! I can't believe she is thing about cutting it! Stay strong momma bear!

Brent was also helping out with the cooking area! His burger cooking technique is so famed that mom and dad couldn't help but assign him the task! They turned out amazing! Well this is just one more reason I married him! Brent's vision is also fading a little so he is wearing his glasses more and more but that is OK because I really like the way they look!
It was such a fun day! A lot of great memories! Audrey and I were the most undefeated team although Toren and Brent may argue that they won a couple of times, but it is really of no concern! Brent and I did play mom and dad, which was really fun. The younger team was victorious, but I think the match was what was really so much fun!

Stay tuned because I will be doing 1 post a day for the next two days!

Birthday Dinner Day

So we did it... we moved back to oregon city. Brent is working in the Kerr law offices and I am working for the school district and at the Shari's in West Linn. We are both having a great time. I thought I would really struggle with waitressing but I am finding that I am a born natural, although I have had my fair share of screw ups! We have been super busy and haven't had a lot of time for really fun jobs, but this weekend we did have time for some great relaxing family time!

As many of you know it is my birthday this wednesday May 27 and I am turning the big 22. Well if you are home my mom cooks you a birthday dinner and a cake (all of your choice) . Well I didn't really care what we had for dinner but I knew I wanted the wonderful double chocolate cake with whip cream and rasberries (YUM YUM!!!). We ended up have sausage, egg cassarole and berry crepes, all of which were amazing! After everyone took a nap and ate some cake we went for a sunday evening walk down at the Oregon City promenade.

We found a grassy knoll up at the top of the hill, and baxter and frisbee had a ton of fun running around.

Brent found a snake and Kalen was daring enough to pick it up... She thinks it peed on her!

At the end of the hike we ended up at the John Mcloughlin house and I decided to ride the random canon that is in the bake yard!

Through out the Hike everyone was showing the love!
Toren and Audrey with little Bax showing off his better side...

Brent and I showing our love while experience the beauty of nature...

And Mom and Dad showed there love... more than anyone wanted to see!

It was a really fun and relaxing day! Brent had a lot of fun taking pictures of the falls and of the fam! What a good Birthday Dinner Day! Stay tuned because I have pictures of our memorial day fun and soon there will be pictures of my fun Brithday!

Boise Pitstop

Well as many of you know we are headed to oregon! Well I was not very excited for the twelve hour journey with my beloved little kitty Caliah... We planned to stop through Boise for a few days to say hello the fam and spend a little time catching up with friends. We got in pretty late friday night and just relaxed but the next day we were off and going...

We had planned on playing volleyball all day saturday but because of the rain we went out to frozen yougurt with Jason Christina and their two boys Hayden and Landon... we were suppose to watch the soccor game but it was cancelled due to lightning...

Here are the boys being boys (notice landons soccor uniform)

After we got done with frozen yoguret then dinner (yes we had dessert before dinner! what lucky nephews I have!) we went out with friends. After catching up we all went out to meet up with a friend downtown (ya downtown Boise is a rough part of town) We had our first run in with the melting pot... a very expensive resturant

We haven't seen Derek and Vera in forever and luckily we just caught them before they headed down to San Fran for a few days of relaxation...

On Sunday we headed out to Weiser (or just past) to visit Chriti and all the kids. They recently moved up to the country and are loving it! Brent was so excited because we got to watch the mariners baseball game... all 9 innings and all 6 extra innings, luckily the mariners won! Christi also gave me an early birthday present, a sidekick (the phone!) , It is really neat but I am remembering how terribly technology and I get along!

Tyler and I took a couple of pictures and her eyes refused to stay open! Look at all that land, and it was all theirs!This is micheal! He is such a little scamp... he would refuse to put on shoes and then sneak out of the house! This is when it started raining so you can rest assured his white socks did not stay white for long!
Since they have so much land (and chicks, geese, a horse and a rooster) you can bet that we had WAY to much fun riding around on these!!! We are definatley the favorite aunt and uncle! We go fast and jumpt off of things, what more could any kid want? This is micheal and william on their way up from the chicken coop... it was raining if you can't tell!Well Brent and I couldn't resist, so we dropped of the kids (from above) and went out and had some fun of our own! Well this is what happened?

Luckily it cleared up after a couple of hours and we were back out exploring! Brent and William are having a blast!

I was out with Landon, who wanted to jump anything and everything! We had a blast!

Boise was such a fun time, we could not even believe how much of a good time we had! If only we could have streched it out into forever but our reality came to soon... and we headed out.

Caliah was so annoying in the car, she meowed meowed meowed and meowed... but there is more to that in the next blog!

While I was suppose to be at graduation...

I was sitting in a chair hoping that the dentist would just be done already... Well I finally got my wisdom teeth out and it was miserable to say the least. I opted for the nitrous oxide on top of the local numbing stuff. The Nitrous Oxide smelled really good... like cotton candy, and it made me a little high but when he started sawing I heard it all, and luckily felt very very little of it. I had two teeth that were so hard to get out... The other two only took about 5 minutes at most. I was shaky the entire time. The pressure wasn't the worst but all the sounds were pretty bad and I forgot my ipod, which Maren suggested, and I should have listened.
The nurse felt pretty bad because she said they going to be easy and then they turned out to be pretty difficult. She said that one of the top roots was over three inches long. The dentist said that I should make sure all of my kids get there teeth out when they are 15 or 16 and not wait as long as I did...
Ok, so on the way home I had gauze in but I kept bleeding through and had nothing to stop the bleeding. It got everywhere! So I posted a couple of pictures to show how it got everywhere. I am sorry I look terrible and swollen already... please forgive me...

See all those spots and mark on my shirt? Yup, my friend that is blood mixed with spit. It is disgusting, I am still pretty numb so I couldn't feel it when blood started coming out of my mouth.

Here is up close. I am trying to smile, and it isn't working for anyone. I would save these to your personal computer because they are definatly black mail quality. I am already so swollen and it has only been about an hour. I am currently sitting on the couch with frozen peas on my cheek.

Ok, so I am doing fine and I took the pain pills about twenty minutes ago so I am kinda starting to loose it a little. I will call everyone as soon and I am numb and ok...

What The...!?!?!?

Well Apparently it has been Spring for a couple weeks now, but When We looked out the Window what did we see...??? Not popcorn popping on the Apricot tree but a good 6 inches of snow! This is crazy! I mean we are in the week of finals and although it has been stormy all of last week, a snow blizzard is completely uncalled for! But we did not suffer the most, there was someone who suffered a lot more than Brent or I and I would like to show what her snow experience has been like all winter long!

This is what our front yard looked like when Brent and I were getting ready for school... Brent had to change out of his shorts and flip flops into some winter appropriate clothing

Caliah, like most days, jumped out of bed when my alarm went off and ran to with window, but today was a little different than most of the other 70 degree weather days we have been experiencing... When she looked out the window and saw all the snow....

She had to turn away out of disgust! She was very upset by all the snow on the ground, and she knew immediately what that meant for her day...

So instead of going outside to chase birds or play with friends she went over to her favorite spot and quickly resumed sleeping. I like this picture because you can tell she is not happy about being inside and more importantly about being "forced" to go back to bed.

But a Kitty can only sleep so long and eventually she had to occupy herself with something else... Luckily Brent brought home a new toy for Caliah and I left out some fun toys for her to play with to occupy the time... go ahead and watch!

Luckily ALL OF THE SNOW was gone the next day, I mean talk about crazy Utah weather but I am glad it was only a day long fluke! Hope everyone else is having beautiful weather, and hope that it gets more beautiful before we leave so we can have a bonfire before we go!