Random May Fun - Catching Up 2014

Wow! All the way back to May? Is there really a point in playing catch up? Probably not to anyone else, but my OCD brain will go crazy if I just skip to now AND someday, I'm going to print this blog to a book and how will it look if several months are just missing? ;)

So, all the way back to May we go ...

If you recall, May was the month that I took my big trip to San Francisco for the BGCA National Conference! While I was gone, Nate did A LOT of this:

We grew our first of two strawberries ... the rest didn't grow so well - the plant was crazy huge, we just didn't get any berries on it ... maybe next year ... this one, however, was DELISH!

 Condoleeaza Rice spoke at our National Conference and she was A M A Z I N G! I purchased this book at the Conference with every intention of reading it ... several months later I'll admit that I'm still only a few chapters in ... but I maintain that I'm SUPER busy ... so that's okay!

I spent some time at my favorite park taking some pictures for a friend ... this was intended as an Instagram "I'm lucky I get to spend my morning here" post ... I'm not sure that it ever made it ...

At work I've been mentoring 3 kiddos, to girls and one sweet, sweet boy - who wrote me this note:

I discovered Babes Bakery. One one particularly frustrating day at work I decided to treat myself to lunch. I drove and drove deciding where to go and remembered that we had been wanting to try out Babes - I gotta say, it was a wonderful decision. The Plain Jane sandwich was divine, as was the German Chocolate Cupcake that I had that day ... it is now one of our favorite places to grab lunch!!

We had Mentor/Mentee night at the Club and played a little Hide & Go Seek. My hiding spot wasn't very creative, but it had the most beautiful view!

There is our May in a nut shell. I'm sure that other things happened, I just don't remember what. I do remember getting home from the conference and being so exhausted but SO, SO happy to be with Nate. I sure do love that guy a lot!

... Alive ...

This blog has definitely taken a back seat in this crazy thing called life! We've had A LOT going on the last few months and my every intention is to keep this blog alive and going, but it might be a few months more before I get all caught up.

In case you haven't heard (if you know us, you've heard), we have become Foster Parents to a beautiful 9 year old girl! She is giving us a run for our money, but we are surviving! If we're not at work our time is centered around what is happening at home. The only reason I'm able to think about this blog tonight is because I took a few blessed days off of work in the middle of the week so that I could focus on some other things that have been neglected (like sleep, a pedicure, paying bills and apparently this blog)!

Anyway, we're still alive - just in case you were wondering! Hopefully soon I'll get caught up because we had a visit from our BFF's in August and we just had the best time ever!!

Oregon Coast & Seattle Trip - 2014

Earlier this month, Nate & I traveled over to the Coast to stay a wonderful night in Newport, then we drove up the gorgeous Oregon Coast and over to Seattle to stay with his parents for several days! We had a WONDERFUL time on our trip and took, of course, hundreds of pictures! I made this book through Shutterfly (which I LOVE, by the way) and thought that I'd just share it with you instead of doing a long, long blog post ... I may post some of our pictures on my photo blog later, but for now, here's the fun we had on our trip!

Click here to view this photo book larger

Start your own Shutterfly Photo Book today.

... life happens ...

wow! is it really already july? we have been SO busy with different things and it's crazy to me that this year is half over. it is really, really hot here in grants pass. like in the 100's hot ... it's really disappointing to me how little rain we get during the summer - but i suppose that the "winter" here is perfect (just rain, not a lot of snow) so that makes up for the heat ...

it has been a big couple of months for us. we both had birthdays, we went on a fantastic trip to visit nate's parents in seattle, we drove up the coast, we moved to a new house, we started foster care certification classes (more than that in another post).

life has just been happening. it has been busy, but it has also been really great. i don't mind so much that it seems to be going fast - it means that we are doing things that are worthwhile (although today, i'm being totally lazy - my first lazy day in WEEKS - and it feels great).  i've got so many blog posts to catch up - more for record keeping than anything, although if there is anyone out there who still looks at our blog, that's cool.

i kind of think that blogs are out now that facebook is in, but i don't really care! blogging, for me, is SO much easier than scrapbooking! some of you may remember my scrapbooking days - hours and hours and dollars and dollars spent on making the perfect page ... now those books sit at the top of my closet only to be looked at once a year - if even that. it's weird to make a scrapbook, or a blog, or keep a journal when you don't have kids ... i remember once wondering what would happen to all of our 'memorabilia' when we move on from this life and i don't really have an answer to that. maybe one of our nephews or nieces will be interested in it, maybe we'll adopt a child or two through the foster care system and they'll want it, maybe it will sit at the top of someone else's closet until generations have passed and no one really knew who they belonged to ...

anyway - that's not meant to be a morbid or disturbing or a sad thought process ... just something that comes to my mind every once in a while when i am working on preserving our memories ...

we are really excited for the next couple of weeks - our foster care certification classes have been amazing and we are SO excited for a visit from our favorite wilkie family at the end of the month ... hopefully by their visit i'll have our blog updated ... maybe that will be my goal.

anyway - that's it! i'll post about all of our awesome stuff as i get caught up, but just know that we are doing great and we have a lot to look forward to.

Crater Lake

In early May Nate had a rare Sunday off! We decided to get out of the house and ended up going for a drive. We had heard about some falls that were on the way to Crater Lake, so we headed up that way in search of them!

We drove, and drove, and drove, and drove ... we didn't see the falls, but we saw a sign indicating that the turn off for Crater Lake was only 20 miles away ... we looked at each other and decided, "why the heck not, we are already here."

As we approached the turn off for Crater Lake, we saw the turn off for the falls - we debated which way to go but again decided to head up to the Lake ... it was a very wise decision!

We were definitely unprepared for all of the beautiful snow and had to stop off at the gift shop to get a long sleeve shirt so we wouldn't freeze. After getting to the top, the sun was so warm that the long sleeve shirt was rendered unnecessary after hiking around for a few minutes ... oh well!

We stopped at Beckie's Dinner on our way back down the mountain for some dinner and some DELICIOUS cherry pie!!

Anyway, as you can see, it was a beautiful, beautiful day and Crater Lake is absolutely amazing! We loved the stark contrast between the lake and the snow, we loved that there was still a layer of ice on part of the lake, we loved the green pines, we loved it all!

Perhaps one day we'll head to the falls ... or maybe we'll just go back to Crater Lake!

... the drive home was beautiful, as well, and I can't resist posting this picture ...

We had Visitors!!

This blog post is WAY overdue! In early April, we had a visit from our favorite Duts family! We were both able to get a few days off of work and to spend time showing them around GP and playing tourist with them! We laughed, we played cards, we toured, we relaxed, we talked, we hugged and we had such a wonderful time with them! A visit from their sweet family was JUST what we needed! Here are a few pictures of the fun things that we did!

Hanging out downtown! Historical Grants Pass is awesome! We spent an afternoon wandering around, going to the chocolate shop, and having a wonderful time!

The Glass Forge! We spent HOURS here and took SO many pictures! Brynn & I were able to make our own ornaments and the rest of the family had fun picking out ornaments to take home with them! As we arrived, they were working on a beautiful vase that I fell completely in love with and when we went back the day after to pick up our ornaments, we brought the vase home with us as well! I'm so fascinated by blown glass and can safely say that we'll be going back!

The Bear Hotel! Grants Pass is amazing ... I'm not sure if I've mentioned that yet! Evergreen Bank runs The Bear Hotel - a storage space for all of the bears that are put out around Grants Pass in the summer! Every year they change up the theme and let families tour the hotel and have a fun experience! We spent a few hours there and had a most enjoyable time!

Just being silly! There was a lot of time to relax and chat and catch up and take silly pictures - my favorite times with our friends!

Riverside & Reinhart! We also spent an afternoon hanging out at our favorite parks! We played soccer and Frisbee, walked along the bridge, took pictures at the river and played on the playground!

We are SO grateful that we were able to spend so much time with some of our most favorite people in the world! We love them so much and had just the best time!

Boatnik 2014

This year Nate actually had some time off during the Annual Boatnik weekend - we went together a couple of times and we had a great time - I love it when he gets time off during community events like these - we love getting out together!

So, Boatnik ... The day started with a parade down sixth street that I actually ended up walking in with the Club ... it was a lot of fun and the kiddos were all really excited ... I'm super grateful for comfortable running shoes, though - my feet really could have been hurting!

 

After the parade we went to the V.I.P. tent with my co-workers (it's kind of nice knowing people who know people) - we sat on the deck, had lunch & drinks and watched the boat exhibitions! 

 

The following day, Nate & I headed back over to the V.I.P. tent but instead of sitting up on the deck, we went and sat below it and had great, great seating for the Memorial Day celebration and the boat race that followed ...

   

 I absolutely love the Memorial Day traditions that they have here, which include the National Anthem while the American Flag is unfolded over the bridge, a moment of silent and a wreath that floats down the river while bagpipes play "Amazing Grace," gunshots from the local military branch and this year, we had an awesome flyover!

   

We had a wonderful weekend together!