A Summer Break

Last weekend we were able to go up to Idaho/Oregon to visit family and friends.    This was most likely to be our last visit by ourselves!  

We had a wonderful time, but unfortunately I didn't do a good job at pictures.  Half the time because I forgot and the other half because I just didn't feel like it!    The weather was gorgeous while we were there and I spent A LOT of time outside on back porches!  

One of my old roommates, Kaila, and her family let us stay the night at their house Wednesday when we got in late and entertained us for most of the day Thursday.   Kaila, her two girls and I all went to Aunt Kathy's school for haircuts.  I can't visit Boise without getting my free haircut!

The trip made me remember how wonderful my family and friends are.  Besides Kaila's family letting us crash at her house, another old roommate and friend, Mary picked us up and drove us all the way to Ontario, even though she had to turn around and drive right back!   She did it just so she could see us!    She was able to join us with my parents for Dinner at my favorite Chinese restaurant, Shanghai.  Oh YUM!!!   My Aunt Darlene joined us as well and it was good to see her!

On Friday we relaxed for most of the Morning and then I was able to meet up with two of my best high school friends, Annie and Margo for Ranch Hands at Burger West!  Again, YUM!!!   I am so sad I didn't get a picture of us there!  I even had my camera with me!  I am blaming pregnancy brain on that one.

My Grandparents Returned Friday afternoon from a week of Camping and Fishing.  Grandma had caught a rather large trout that we grilled up for dinner, it was SOOOO good!

On Saturday my wonderful family threw me a baby shower!  It was great to be able to see everyone and even have a few friends from high school come.   I managed to get exactly one picture!  

   This is my friend Annie and I, both pregnant!  She is about a trimester ahead of me, though I swear I am just about as big as she is!!   In case you can't tell, my shirt says "Future Broncos" and yes I made it!  I mean what's a pregnant girl supposed to do to show her Bronco Pride?

Saturday night tons of family piled into Grandma and Grandpa's living room to watch the BSU-UGA game.  It was sooo great!  Lots of good food, company and of course a Bronco victory!  The only thing that could have been better would have been if Utah State could have held the victory over Auburn, giving both my Alma Mater's wins over SEC teams.   Oh well, at least with USU and BSU in different conferences, I don't have to pick who to cheer for anymore!

We left Sunday, but did manage to get a few pictures before leaving.

Is it just me or does the shadow in these pictures make me look like my hair continues right into a beard??  What the heck!

The week before we also escaped the heat for a few days and headed to Flagstaff.  Again, I didnt' get too many pictures, but we did manage to get a few at the Cardinals training camp.

 Hi Larry!

It was pretty fun to be able to be that close and see how a practice went.  It was a walk through with no pads, but still interesting!

Dana Point

In November, we did a little vacation getaway to Dana Point, Ca.   It was a much needed vacation full of rest, relaxing and delicious food!

One of the places we visited was the Mission San Juan Capistrano.     It was fascinating!   So much history and the architectural detail was amazing!

No Visit to CA would be complete without a meal at Rockin Baja Lobster!!   Bucket full of shrimp, lobster, carne asada and chicken.  Oh help I need some more now!!!

 And my absolute favorite thing about visiting the coast, is well the coast!!!  

We took a walk on the beach at least 2x a day every day we were there; day and night!

Anyone have tips on how to make your husband smile 'normal' for the camera?  This is the best one we could get.   I guess I will just keep posting the awkward ones until he cooperates!

Oregon Coast

Last week Adam and I spent the week on the Oregon Coast with my parents. It was a WONDERFUL getaway, and much needed! It was very relaxing and we had a great time. Here are some highlights:

We flew into Eugene and stayed the night there and had my parents pick us up on the way in the morning. Our room was of course very nice. Adam still has Diamond, or Platinum or whatever status with Hilton, so we almost always get upgraded. That night was no exception. They put us in a Suite on one of the floors that you have to use your key to get access to. I had no idea that these "special" floors have complimentary snacks at night and breakfast in the morning! Here's the view from the Hotel where you can see University of Oregon Stadium in the background. Adam had never been to Eugene, so in the morning we took a walk to the campus while we waited for my parents.

One of our activities was going to the Aquarium in Eugene. It was raining that morning so I didn't even try to get any pictures outside and most of the inside is too dark for pictures. However, Adam did find his way into the divers helmet! Scary!

We rented a beach house that was less than a quarter mile from the beach. We had a view from our house to the beach (I don't know why I never took a picture! Maybe it was because the view was partially blocked by the Casino! HAHA!). If you ever want to take a trip to the Oregon Coast, I highly recommend the beach houses. The price was great and we actually could have had several more people staying there. Ours was two stories, three bedrooms, hot tub, full kitchen and it also had a foosball table and air hockey in the garage. One of the great things was right out our back doors there were tons of blackberry bushes so one morning we picked a bunch and had blackberry pancakes with blackberry syrup. YUM!!!!

One of my favorite things (besides the beach of course) to do on the Oregon Coast is to go to the Tillamoock Cheese Factory! LOVE IT! You get samples of all sorts of cheeses, I think we had cheese curds, mozzarella, pepperjack, some jalapeno spread, horseradish something or other and my favorite, extra sharp white Cheddar. YUMM! And you can't go to the cheese factory without getting ice cream! Each of us got a sampler so we tried lots of flavors, I think my favorite of all time is Chocolate Peanut Butter, its soooo tasty! Here Adam and I play the farmer and the Cow.. I had to be the Cow since he is tall...

I love how the Oregon Coast is so different from the typical beaches people think of. Its so neat to be able to be on the beach on minute and in the forest the next. Our beach house attracted several woodland creatures. We came home from a walk on the beach one night and found these guys waiting for us:

But perhaps the most fun were these guys we found on our back porch one night. My mom kept saying how she wanted to see a raccoon, and sure enough they showed up!

It started with just one that my dad fed a bag of popcorn, he even tried to open the door and come in! He momentarily left but brought back 4 of his friends! We fed them our leftovers since we were leaving the next day... I am pretty sure we probably shouldn't have done that!
Hopefully the next guests at the house will enjoy them too.

On our way back from Tillamoock, Adam saw a sign for some waterfalls, so we followed the sign down a road, not knowing how far we would have to go or what we would see when we got there. Turns out it was worth it! We found these pretty falls, they weren't particularly large, but they were pretty and it was nice to get in a little hike.

My mom and I in the woods by the falls, turns out its the only good picture I have of my mom from the whole trip! And sadly all the ones of my dad are super blurry.

Do you think Adam would actually follow the directions of this sign?

NOPE

And of course we spend plenty of time doing this:

Enjoying the beach. This was the first night we arrived. It had rained on our drive up but stopped when we got there. I was so excited to have blue skies and nice weather. If you have ever been to the Oregon Coast, you know your lucky to get clear skies! But it didn't stop that night. The ENTIRE next day was clear. No clouds at all and highs in the 70's! There wasn't even any wind! I was able to go for a run on the beach in the morning which was awesome and we even had fun playing in the water.

This is a picture of my parents and Adam seeing if they could make it out to a rock before the tide came in... I think they eventually got there!

See that NO CLOUDS!!!! AMAZING!!!!

Thanks for a great trip Mom and Papa! We had a wonderful time!

Where have we been?

Yes I know its been a LONG time since I've really posted about us. We are still down a personal computer, but I've hooked our camera up to Adam's computer so I can get some pictures off of it.. sorry no picture editing capabilities so all you get is my raw pictures! So here goes a whole multitude of our recent adventures!

Central Oregon

First off, we spent the first weekend in May in Central Oregon with my parents. It was beautiful and relaxing. We checked out a fish hatchery and spent a lot of time relaxing - here are some pictures from the weekend:

Northern AZ/ Grand Canyon

We spent Memorial Day Weekend on a Ranch in Northern AZ. It was fun to get away from the heat; it actually rained on us nearly the whole weekend. We had a lot of fun with Adam's family; we played lots of games, did some shooting and went to the Grand Canyon.

Here are some pictures from our drive up, we stopped in Sedona and some other lookouts along the way. It was so pretty!

We had to stop at the Alien Shoppe! I had no idea that Sedona was a huge UFO hot spot

The Grand Canyon was Amazing! It was my first time there and I always knew it was huge, but it really is something you can't imagine till you see it!

It rained off and on the whole time we were there, but Brycen sure didn't mind! He had the hookup!

Shooting!

So there you go! We've been here and there! Whats next? A super sweet post of my recent crafty projects! WOOHOO!

Vegas Vacation

This past weekend Adam and I spent the weekend in Las Vegas. Adam won the trip through a contest at work so we got treated in STYLE! The pictures below are from the amazing suite at the Palazzo (part of the Venetian). It was absolutely gorgeous and it was amazing the attention to detail was in the rooms. This is a view from up near the bed. The room had a recessed "living" room with a flat screen TV, a work table, dining table and big plush couch. The curtains were even controlled with a remote!

This is looking from the "living room" up to the rest of the room. The Bedroom area also had a flat screen TV. There were lights everywhere so you could adjust the amount of lighting.

This was the nice big bed. I loved the headboard and the clean white bedding.

I decided I wanted this bathroom in my house. It was loaded with mirrors and all sorts of lights everywhere. It even had another flat screen so you could watch TV while you got ready. Oh and it had big double doors opening into it. This was probably my favorite part of the bathroom. A little vanity area with a plush little seat. It was perfect for putting on makeup!These next pictures are from the Bellagio. On Friday night we went to the O Show and had dinner with Adam's best Friend Dave and his wife Flor. The Bellagio has this sweet Atrium with fresh flowers that they change out regularly. That night it was covered in Tulips - my favorites! There were also plenty of lilacs for a lovely fragrance.

Dave and Flor Adam and I

Lots of flowers!

Saturday afternoon we drove over to the Vegas Temple. It was beautiful. This was our attempt at taking our picture.. yeah, it never does work to well does it?

While we were there we of course saw lots of Brides, but we also ran across this craziness:

We couldn't believe this dress. It was HUGE. We are pretty sure it was a prom or quinceanera dress because they looked REALLY young. It was pretty entertaining watching the mom yell at the Photographer. It was pretty amazing all the details that go into the hotels in Vegas. There is no way I could take enough pictures to show them all, but here was one of my favorite things from the Palazzo - UMBRELLAS! These were hanging in a few different places and were just colorful and fun.