... 13 Years ...

This post is a little belated, but earlier this month,

Nate & I celebrated our 13 year anniversary!!

Nate had to work, but we celebrated with a 

late night dinner at Blondies' Bistro!

We enjoyed a really tasty meal and reminisced about the last thirteen years!

It was a wonderful evening and I'm so grateful to be married

to such a wonderful man!!

First Friday

Have we mentioned yet how much we love Grants Pass?

There are so many things that the City does to make life pleasant,

and First Friday is another thing that we are adding to our Favorites list!!

Every First Friday of the month, the local artists come together

and put on an Art Walk downtown. There is food tasting, music,

and of course, amazing art! (By the way, there are also some

AMAZING building spaces here - my photographer eye

was drooling over some of the gallery spaces that we walked through!)

Anyway, Nate had they day off, so we decided to spend the day out

and about because it was GORGEOUS (high 60's - hello warm weather)!!

We grabbed some sandwiches at Luigi's and found our new favorite

sandwich shop!! Apparently, it's kind of a famous shop - people from all

over the world have visited the shop - but apparently we aren't the first

ones from Logan - there was already a pin in that spot!! :)

We headed down to Riverside Park to eat our lunch, enjoy watching

kiddos feeding the ducks, and play a little Frisbee! It was such a perfect afternoon!

That evening, we put on our walking shoes, headed downtown, and

joined the locals in admiring the amazing talents of those that live in the area!

We ended our evening with live music and light appetizers at Ma Mosa's,

another of our local favorites!!

Rascal enjoyed her First Friday too - she took a lot of naps!! :)

It was a perfect day and we can't wait for the next First Friday!!

... a Saturday ...

So it turns out there is a downside to having

an All Wheel Drive vehicle!

In replacing one tire, you must replace all.

Nate & I have been driving around with a

giant STAPLE sticking out of our front tire.

We tried pulling it out, but as soon as he

pulled it, air started whooshing, so we left it in

and took it to the tire shop!

Due to the placement of the staple, it couldn't be patched,

so we are now the proud owners of

four new, beautiful, deep treaded tires!

The upside of getting new tires?

We got to spend several hours wandering around

downtown a few Saturday's ago!!

I really just love downtown Grants Pass!!

We tried out another local restaurant, called

"The Laughing Clam" - it was good, Nate really enjoyed

his fish and chips. I didn't love my meal, but I'd go

back to try something different before writing it off as

a favorite! Plus, they have live bands, so I definitely

have to give it another chance!!

We stopped in at "Blind George's" to get some popcorn 

and ended up coming with with this GIANT bag because

they had a $5 minimum purchase when paying with a debit card ...

We made our way back to the tire shop and relaxed

for a bit (or played a lot of Words with Friends)

while waiting for the shop to finish up!!

 

Later that night, we took a walk down to our local market

to score some ice cream, and saw this beautiful sunset!

I really love it when Nate & I have weekends off together -

it doesn't happen often, but the simple act of doing mundane

things together makes them so much more fun and enjoyable

and I'm so grateful for such an awesome husband!!

Random February Fun {2013}

It's random photo time!!

Nate decided he wanted to attempt his own

homemade buffalo wings for the Superbowl!

As always, he rocked the kitchen! 

We were headed ... out ... one night -

I don't even remember where we were going,

but when I looked out my side mirror and saw the sunset

after a rainstorm, I couldn't resist a photo!

We rocked the kitchen again with these awesome gyros -

thank you Pinterest!!

And we had another beautiful sunset!!

We had a game night - we Battleshipped and Yahtzee'd

for quite a while - although we didn't keep score this time,

so I don't know who won ...

Nate grew his hair out!

This is one of my FAVORITE pictures of him,

I think he's so darn hot!! I mean, really, look at the guy,

how can you not love him?

And, we got our new fridge!!

(Hooray for tax returns!!)

When we moved into our apartment last Fall,

we hadn't noticed that a fridge was not included in our lease!

Given that we had just moved, we just ran to 

Home Depot and purchased the cheapest fridge we could find,

and it was tiny! We were super excited to get our big fridge -

who knew one could get so excited about that? 

Ooh - and now we get to keep ice in our freezer! Hooray!!

I branched out in the kitchen and made 

Sun Dried Tomato Pasta.

This is quite a feat for me, because I had not just

two pans, but three, cooking at once ...

I don't know how people handle more than one pan

on a regular basis - it just stresses me out!!

And here was my reward for making such a tasty dinner for 

my hot husband!! And yes, all of our spoons were 

running through the dishwasher when my need for chocolate hit,

so I used a measuring spoon ...

FYI - they are deep and hard to eat out of!! :)

We also celebrated Valentines Day, which I posted about

already, and we went out on the town a little bit - I'll post

about that next time!!  Anyway, as you can see,

our February was good and tasty!!

Gettin' Crafty: Split Pea Wreath

If there is any one thing that Nate & I disagree on

in this whole entire world - it is wreaths.

I love them. He hates them.

To offset this disagreement 

I attempt to find/make wreaths that

he only mildly disdains - I'm happy 

to stay away from those that he hates.

I'm pretty sure I helped him warm to

mild disdain on this wreath, because

when I saw THIS tutorial on Pinterest

I fell in LUHV!!

I hemmed and hawed for a few days about

whether or not to show it to him,

but the temptation was too great to resist!

So, without further adieu,

here is my new springy Split Pea Wreath!!

And here is a close up - please ignore the

gobs of and strings of dried glue - 

I'm trying to tell myself

that you can't really tell that they're there

and that the wreath is perfect just the way it is!!

 Anyway - I'm pretty happy with it!

If you end up making one, invest in LOTS of glue

for your gun (I probably used 100 sticks

for a mini glue gun) - oh - and

make sure you have LOTS of patience, too!!

Happy Spring!!