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!

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... 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! 

BGCA National Conference

It's been a while since I've mentioned how much I LOVE my job! The first week of May I was blessed to be able to go to San Francisco with three of my co-workers so that we could attend the Boys & Girls Clubs of America National Conference!

It. Was. AMAZING.

We had an afternoon to spend upon arrival so we walked down to the pier, had fresh crab and took lots and lots of pictures! I joked with the ladies that this would be their best document trip E V E R ... and it was!

Here is a slideshow of the pictures that I took and some of the experiences that we had ...

(Weird ... the video cuts out half way through ... I'll look into that ... for now, just enjoy the first part!)

Attending this conference and "drinking the kool-aid" was one of the best experiences that I have ever been blessed to do! The speakers were motivational, the classes were wonderful and I feel beyond blessed to be a part of the Boys & Girls Club Movement!

Random April Fun {2014}

April was a C R A Z Y month at our house - we had visitors, work events, and a lot of fun!

The month started out with this guy saving my behind at work by helping me purchase and set up a new computer after mine crashed weeks before our biggest event of the year! I'm so grateful to have a husband who not only knows computers, but is willing to spend  hours on his day off to help out his wife!!

We went on a date to our favorite Chinese restaurant and had some delicious, delicious food!

I got some new shoes that I just can't help but adore ...

We had a quiet, low key, beautiful Easter! We made blue pancakes for breakfast (because for some reason they sounded festive), colored Easter eggs and made Hawaiian Haystacks for dinner!

We had a surprise visit from an old friend, Jared, from High School! We drove to Medford to pick him up and we went out to dinner at a delicious Irish Pub! It was SO much fun to see him and catch up!!

I'll post more about our giant Special Event that we had for work another time, but the event was a very large scale Live Auction & Dinner. One of the items that was donated for the Auction was this awesome guitar - used and autographed by the band Styx! A picture was definitely needed ;)

Another SUPER exciting part of April was that we had a visit from our favorite Dutson family!! I'll post about that separately as well, but after they left I was happy that there were Fruit Loops left in the cupboard - they made a delicious breakfast for a few days!! AND, they brought us a jar of Weeks Raspberry Jam from Logan - my mouth waters just to think about it, and of course it didn't last long ...

And one last highlight of the month was that I was able to head out to the Dutch Bros. headquarters with two of my co-workers to tour their facilities, shop at the Dutch Bros. Store and have some yummy chocolate chai! This company does SO MUCH for the non-profit organizations in Southern Oregon (they were started in Grants Pass and are HUGE supporters of the Club) and it was fun to go out and talk to the owner and hear his thoughts about the Club and our community!

There's our crazy April in a nutshell!