Livin' the good life...for 11 years!

I can hardly believe that it has been 11 years since I married my best friend. Life couldn't be any better and I have felt like that for the past 11 years. Eric is appreciative, complimentary, affectionate, loyal, and a million other things that make him the perfect man for me. I love you like crazy.

Par for the course with Eric...he planned us a little romantic get-a-way. It was sooo perfect. We left on Thursday after Eric got done with work and made it to the temple for the 8:00pm session. Then we headed a little further north to our Bed and Breakfast. It was a very nice place and the owners did a fantastic job. We ate a yummy breakfast and then headed out to see the tulips.

It was just sooo much fun and so fantastic to be with Eric for the weekend!

On our way home we stopped by Pikes Place Market to pick some fresh tuna for a little a sushi rolling shin-dig we were having on Sunday...

Then it was home again. We had a 3:00 showing of "Walking with the Dinosaurs" to go to with the older kids.

What a weekend with the love of my life!

Ski Season 2009

Eric was able to get quite a bit of skiing in this season. There were some Friday ski trips with Tyler, taking Gabe out of school for a day, and a couple more Saturday trips with the kids. I even decided to try it out (I haven't been skiing since before we were married).

Eric-- rippin' it up.

Gabe and Eric skipping out on school and work. Way to set your priorities!

I thought I was going to be a good sport but I enjoyed it so much that we went up again 2 weeks later and I purchased my own season pass! Crazy.

1st day ever for some, 1st day in a looong time for others

Jan. 17th, 2009

Eric was really excited this year to start up skiing again after a long hiatus. He bought himself some gear and hit the slopes with some friends. I think he had been skiing once in our almost 11 years of marriage. He loved it and went a ton this season.

Eric decided that ski school would be the best way to get the kids good at skiing.

They loved it...especially the hot chocolate the ski school provided.

Eric really wants the kids to love skiing so for the first trip out he was shooting for a non miserable experience...he just wants them to WANT to try it again.

Using that criteria the ski trip was a smashing success.

Climbing Mt Hood

Eric hiked Mt Hood on Friday night/Saturday morning with Evan, Ryan (friends from high school) and Evan's uncle Steve.

They started at midnight so the snow is harder and there are less people. Here they are after putting on crampons.

Sunrise.


This is halfway up the "hogsback", you can see steam on the right from the fumaroles and the parking lot on the far left of Timberline ski resort where they started.


Posing at the top looking northward. Mt St. Helens is to the left of Eric, Rainier nearest his axe and Mt Adams to the right.


Going back down. There was a couple feet of new powder so it was slow going, especially up. Overall a fantastic climb with perfect weather.

Meg's walking

On Easter Sunday Meg decided it was time to try out her legs. She has been pulling her self up for a long time and she has even been letting go and just standing there for a while but would only walk when she was supported by something. But no longer...

I know this clip doesn't show too much. Those were some of her very first steps! Way to show off for Grandma and Grandpa. She has taken about 5 or 6 steps together, so when I say "Meg's Walking" that doesn't mean all over, it means in short little bursts with lots of encouragement. She still prefers crawling, but it is an exciting milestone.

Easter Weekend

We were so lucky this year to have my Mom and Dad come and stay with us over Easter. They arrived in just before the kids got home from school and as soon as they got home we colored easter eggs.

We got a baby sitter for that evening and we took them out for a night on the town. We went out to eat at a nice place and went to see "The Curious Savage". We had a great time and really enjoyed the show. (I highly recommend seeing it...it is playing the next two weekends!)

Saturday was filled with more fun. The Easter bunny visited our house Friday night so the kids were up really early to find their baskets. Then we made a fun breakfast with "Easter egg" pancakes (basically just putting food coloring in the batter and pouring it in the shape of an egg--notice we didn't make Easter bunny pancakes!)

At 9am went to an Easter egg hunt at a friends house. It was so fun to see Elijah enjoying the egg hunt.

After the Easter egg hunt, we headed home to do some planting...

After most of the planting was done we headed off to Gabe and Isaac's last soccer game of the season...YIPPEE! They played really well and Grandma was a great cheerleader! It was really handy that the soccer Games were both at 1 pm and the fields were right by each other. We basically had to turn around to see the other field. It worked out very nicely, if only all our soccer games were that well coordinated.

After that we went to the Arbor Festival at the Arboretum. There was only a 1/2 hour left by the time we got there, but it was nice to see it. That was our first trip to the arboretum.

We had dinner at home and played Ticket to Ride with the kids, they loved it.

Sunday morning my kids got to wear their new Sunday Easter outfits, probably more exciting for me than for them.

We weren't quite able to get the perfect group shot...

After church we did another Easter egg hunt that Grandma and Grandpa brought. More fun and more candy!