A few lately's

I have spent mornings with this little guy, aka, best baby in THE world. We play, go for walks, read books, sleep, well he sleeps & I watch TLC/read. 

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I surprised my amazingly awesome and hard working husband with a picnic in the park, New Seasons style. We.LOVE.New Seasons. And we are so excited because one is due to open up literally right in our back yard in a few weeks. Yum! 

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Drew and I made a quick trip over to the Hawthorne Street fair. We made a stop for some iced coffee and then spent the afternoon walking around to the various booths and trying to decide where to eat ;)  We He decided with Nicks's Famous Coney Island. 

Drew ordered the original Coney Island 

And I just ordered a cup of chili. Both were delicious.

We saw a few (or maybe a lot) of interesting things. One being this skunk tail.

 Afterwards we visited a lovely park and talked about our dreams & future... one of our favorite things to do! 

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I got to see this sweet girl and help celebrate her 23rd birthday in Corvallis. She is now living in Reno and I miss her SO much. 

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And lastly, I will finally have a consistent work schedule & won't be bouncing around through the agency anymore, hoooo-ray. Monday's & Wednesday's I will be watching two little boys.  Both are being potty trained, help me Lord.
And then on Tuesday's and Thursday's I will be with an adorable little 2 month old baby girl.

So Monday's & Wednesdays will look like this:

And Tuesday's & Thursday's will look like this:

Best of both worlds, I suppose. 

Annnnd, no work on Fridays! 

mt. thielsen

Saturday morning we woke up at 5am, packed the car and headed east with the family to conquer the infamous Mt. Thielsen. My dad, being the avid hunter/hiker/anything outdoorsmen type of guy he is, warned us of what was to come, but we didn't really listen. It was a 10 mile hike round trip. And we had no idea of what we were getting ourselves into...

Bright eyed and bushy tailed @ approx. 5:30 in the am.

It was a B-e-a-utiful hike! (and we took lots of pics!)

Tippy-top = 9200 feet and yes, that is where we were headed

                                                                                     

Our Perfect water advertisement... ;]

It was 4.9 miles to the top. Drew, Molly and I decided to stop at about 8600 feet... We dubbed it Common Sense Point. ;) It was insanely scary up there! Like holding-onto-rocks-in-order-not-to-fall-off-the-mountain scary! But the rest of the crew went to the TOP! And almost all of them said it was the first and last time they would be doing that... just a tad bit sketchy up there. 

See?!?! 

Hi dad! Aye yi yi... 

Those are people up there, and these pictures do not even do it justice.

Hmm, let's see, I said about 19 prayers while I watched the unexperienced mountain climbers that are my family grasp rocks for their dear life. Started feeling a little better about the situation... and then enter two insane hikers (the real deal, with hiking sticks and all) who decided to tell us that this mountain is dangerous, especially with the amount of people we had in our group. Well, thanks lady... back to praying I go...

We waited for about an hour for the rest of them to climb the last 600 feet to the top. Then back down the mountain we all went... mainly sliding down on our behinds. Going downhill was surprisingly worse than going uphill, and it took so much longer. We look like we know what we are doing in this pic, but about every 2 minutes someone was either on their behind or grabbing the person in the front or back of them and trying to catch their balance. It was hilarious, and I have no idea how I am related to my father.

Me = 23 year old, uncoordinated, fell 3 times on my bum kind of hiker...
Dad = 46 year old, conquer anything, help my daughter down the side of the mountain kind of hiker...

It took us almost 8 hours round trip and we finished off the with some pizza at Diamond Lake.

Minus the yucky blisters, scratches (on our bums & hands from falling!) and horrible sunburns it was a great time with the family! For our next "hike", we are shooting for something a little less traumatizing ;) 

a love letter from mr. edwards

to the most amazing woman in the world,

i am so thankful to have you in my life and to have been blessed to spend the last 7+ years with you. it is so hard to believe that for 365 days we have been mr. and mrs. somehow, you've found a way to make me fall in love with you more every single day that we're together. you make me smile, make me laugh, encourage me, humble me, inspire me, push me, amaze me and, most importantly, love me.

this last year has been a whirlwind that has surprised us, shocked us, let us down, exceeded expectations, lifted us up, threw curveballs, the list goes on and on. however, and i believe the best part of this last year, is that it showed us how exciting and amazing our future will be. if year one was only the beginning i can't even imagine what the future has in store for us.

i still remember the vows you made to me, to us and to god. you have lived up to them every day since and i thank you from the bottom of my heart for that. my only hope is that i've been as good a husband as you have been a wife to me. you deserve the absolute best and i'm going to fight every day to make sure that happens. 

you are the greatest thing in my life and i'm so very lucky and blessed to have you.

happy one year anniversary.

to the end of the universe,

-andrew james

one year

July 24, 2010

Today is a happy day. One year ago today I was getting ready to marry my best friend, high school sweet heart and the person that I have been with since I was 17 years old.

Andrew and I both decided that we wanted to plan our wedding. We vowed that we were not going to stress or get worried because this special time was only going to happen once... annnnd that lasted about two days. We were both getting ready to graduate from college. Andrew had his thesis due (and a job lined up at the time that depended on it) and I was running around, by way of caffeine, trying to finish all of my last projects/classes/papers. It was hectic. I remember staying up two nights in a row together. We were zombies. But once the second week of June hit, we.were.DONE. Forever! After graduation it was wedding crunch time! Although at times it was hectic, it was so much fun to plan our special day together. We were blessed by so many friends and family that wanted to help too!

I have cried at 99% of the weddings that I have been to... even the ones where I barely know the bride & groom. So, naturally, I thought I was going to be a mess. The part I always loose it on is when the bride is walking down the aisle and looking to the groom to see his reaction. Nope! Not at my wedding! Not one tear... My handsome husband was up there waiting for me... (he must have gotten something in his eye ;)...) and I was completely composed! Not one tear. Not even the feeling you get in your stomach or throat when you think you are about to mayyybe tear up. Nothing. 

I was just soo excited. So so sooo grateful and excited. I couldn't wait to get down the aisle and stand next to him! 

The bridal party

The whole weekend was a.ma.zing. I serrriously wouldn't mind getting married again! To the same groom, of course. ;)  

There are a million things I love about marriage. But my favorite thing is living with my best friend. Andrew and I didn't live together before we got married so this first year has been quite a fun adventure! He is the best roommate! :)

Can't wait for many more years of love to come! <3

he makes me SO happy

Last Friday was a looong day! From 11am-1am I was taking care of a sick baby and his super sweet, but extremely hyper four year old sister. Sick lethargic baby + crazy hyper four year old = not a good combo. It was hectic. And long. And I know I shouldn't complain because I am so thankful that I have  a job, but I was soo excited to come home and relax with my favorite person.

Annnd...
I walked into the house to find sweet little notes he had left on each step all the way up the stairs.

He just keeps on getting sweeter--I hope he keeps this up... forever! ;)

Wine, flowers and chocolate at the top :) 

<3<3

Most of the notes were so cute and sweet and made me want to cry! BUT he decided to get a little creative on a few... (He promised me in his vows that he would let me pinch his ears, so there's no getting out of that one, mister!)

I love him.