Holiday Weekend: Sunriver

Our friends, Jen and Rich, were kind enough to let us use their house over in Sunriver this weekend!  It made for the perfect holiday weekend away.

We got out of town after work (and school) on Friday and rolled into Sunriver about 9:30pm.  It's a long drive, and getting stuck behind snow plows going over the pass slowed us down a lot!  So we had a pretty lazy Saturday morning and then went into the Village to meet our friends Mindy and Mark (who live in Bend) for lunch here and some ice skating.

Sunday we went up to Mt. Bachelor and Levi took his first skiing lesson.
He did a great job!  Maybe now that Mt. Hood has some snow we'll try to get up there before spring break and let him try it again.  He said he had fun and wants to try it again.  His one complaint was how uncomfortable the boots were.  I've never skied (snowboard boots are pretty comfy) so I don't know if they were too small or just a different feel and something he'll have to get use to.

We made a lunch (and beer) stop in Bend on our way home and here we are...not really ready to start the work week again.
(Oh...and my proof of love on Valentine's day was to stop after work to get Gabe his favorite bourbon. That is one way to may husband's heart.)

SNOW DAY!

Gotta love a good snow day!
We sure got it today.

Levi and I played this morning and went for a walk.  The snow is way too dry to make into snow balls or make a snow man, so Levi made up a game called "Go Go Crazy In The Snow".  Basically it means we roll around in the snow and throw it up in the air.  Not my favorite game...but he loves it!  He also loved "sledding" down one of the rocks in our front yard.  I guess anything that requires him to get snow up his sleeves, up his shirt, in his eyes, or down his pants is a good time.  I certainly don't agree!

After our adventures in the snow we made oatmeal raisin cookies and watched some of the winter Olympics we recorded last night.  This kid loves to watch those crazy snowboarders and skiers.  He told me to skip the figure skating!  I couldn't agree more!

Gabe came home around lunch time, right before the second wave of snow started.  We went to the park to sled down the hill.  Gabe made a sweet jump that was the envy of all the neighborhood kids!
We've had our warm cocoa and played board games.  We'll probably end our snow day with more Olympics...or a movie.
What an awesome day!

Looks like it's going to stay cold so the snow will be sticking around for a while.  Should be a great weekend!

Happiness: February

This month's happiness project resolution will be centered around....you guessed it....LOVE.  And more specifically...the man I love!

The goals this month will be to:
*Quit Nagging
*Give Proofs of Love

It's pretty incredible how happy a person feels when they're making other people happy.

Since the above mentioned man reads what I write here, I won't be saying anything further until the month is over.
But we do have some fun activities planned this month so I'll be back to share those from time to time.

Declutter/Organize and Re-energize

This month the decluttering/organizing included:
*Going through our coat closet and taking a bag to Goodwill of coats we haven't worn in the last two years.
*Filing the huge pile of papers on the desk that haven't actually made it the last foot into the file cabinet yet.  The paperwork from the purchase of our trailer (over a year ago) was at the bottom of the pile.
*Recycling the pile of magazines on Gabe's nightstand.  (Rolling Stone and Wired issues from the last 2 years.)  And he reads his magazines digitally now anyway!
*"Disappearing" and reorganizing some of Levi's toys.
*Sorting through 2 big boxes of cords, plugs, wires and other miscellaneous electronic items.  Was able to get Gabe to cut the collection by 3/4!  (10 years ago I had no idea Gabe was such a pack rat.)  I will get him in the garage to declutter...but it probably won't happen this month!
*While sorting through boxes of miscellaneous electronic items, we found quite a collection of old cell phones.  (Including both of our first phones!  Those original cell phones logged hours of our first conversations and flirtations.  Is it weird that I should feel sentimental about a cell phone?)  They'll all be recycled tomorrow!
*Total clean-out of my car.  Including vacuuming out sand from beach trips in August.  Now we need to take it through the car wash and get the outside to match the inside.  We took Gabe's RS through the car wash today, which was awesome because it hasn't been washed outside in 4+ years!
*Creating a chore chart for Levi.  He's ready to help out around here and earn an allowance of course!

Oh, and Gabe did a little project this afternoon too.  He ran some new networking wires to make our network run faster.  I'm glad it makes him happy.

Re-energizing included:

The purchase of new running shoes!  And lots of runs after school.
And new pillows for Gabe and me.  The new shoes are awesome.  New pillows...too firm for me but Gabe loves them and is happy with them!  I will have to try again.

I also signed Gabe and myself up for 4 runs this spring/summer.  Portland parks has these $5 5K runs and we're excited to give them a try.  I also signed Levi up to run the kids 1k in May and September.  We had a huge conversation last week about how he really wants to win a trophy.  In discussing the idea more during dinner, he decided (of his own accord) that he wanted to win the trophy by racing.  I don't think they'll give out trophies to the kids.  Anyone have any old trophies they'd be willing to part with...I'm sure we could modify them to please our little runner.

One way I thought we might make this a year of happiness for Levi is to let him have more choice in what we do during our family time on the weekend.  So today we gave him a choice of three activities to do this morning:
1. "Hike" in Tryon Creek park (and coffee/warm cocoa afterward since it was 25 degrees at 8am.)
2. Swimming at the community center
3. Bowling
Guess what he chose?

Pretty hard to believe that January is almost over already!

Cape Lookout & Pacific City

We packed up the trailer and headed out of town on Friday evening!
This was an awesome way to wake up and spend Saturday morning.

We did quite a bit of "treasure" hunting.  Levi's favorite finds were all the little jelly fish he picked up with the razor sharp shell he found.  Here's the crab shell he was pretty excited to find too.

You should have seen how excited Gabe was to find a whole sand dollar.  He swears he's never found one before!

We decided to head into Pacific City for lunch.  Gabe really wanted to try the food and beer at Pelican Pub.  Before a tasty lunch and drinks, Levi wanted to climb up the big sand dune.  I sent Gabe and Levi up and stayed with the sand toys.  Gabe and I were pretty impressed at how far this kid made it!
(You can just barely see them in this photo I took from the beach.  Levi has a red shirt on and Gabe is starting back down carrying all of Levi's peeled off layers...and boots!)

To make a great weekend even better, we made a quick stop in Tillamook at the cheese factory for lunch, ice cream and cheese curds on our way home.  Sure wish we could spend every weekend like this!

Happiness: January

While focusing on happiness in 2014, I've decided to start a journal again.  Old school journal.  Like with a nice notebook and pen.  I kept a journal all through high school and college.  I found it a useful way to process making decisions and sorting through my emotions.  So I decided to keep a journal this year.  My journal this year will be a "one-sentence" journal where I can record and remember the happy moments I might normally forget.  After all, "the days are long but the years are short"!

For the month of January, I've decided to focus my happiness project around two things:
1. Declutter and Organize
2. Re-Energize
(I've already started up my runs after school this week.  Seems to be my running injury from September has healed up well.  Although I have been taking it easy and started with intervals.  After I get some new shoes this weekend, I think I'll be ready to quickly work my way back to full jogging.)

I was also able to get some real things out of Gabe about what might increase his happiness in 2014.
What makes Gabe happy is:
+Projects.  "Doing them well...making something."
He even has a couple of ideas about projects he'd like to tackle this year.  First up, will be a fermentation chamber to be constructed in the garage.  Second, will be an espaliered fence to grow an apple tree in our front yard.
+Little adventures with me and Levi.
+Becoming skilled at something new.  Gabe said if I'm going to be his assistant brewer in 2014, he wants to be my bakers assistant.  Specifically, Gabe wants to take on the challenge of making homemade bread.  Love it when our passions/interests align!

I decided to ask Levi again tonight about what makes him happy.  So when I finished reading books, and we were snuggling in his bed, I asked him, "Levi...When do you feel happy?"
His answer?
"I feel happy right now."  Melt my heart!  I love this kid!
But I decided to see if I could get any other information from him and he said: "I feel happy when I'm playing angry birds on Daddy's phone."  Yes...that's the kid I love too!

I'll be recording my progress (and our happy adventures) at least a few times a month throughout the year.  Again...it will help me with remembering the moments since "the days are long but the years are short".

New Year Staycation

Since Gabe ran out of vacation time (or used up all his vacation time) in 2013, he was stuck going to work the day after Christmas and New Year's Eve while Levi and I got to play at home.  Therefore, Gabe decided to start off the year using some vacation while Levi and I are also on vacation!
Here's what we've been up to while on staycation in 2014.

Gabe is very happy to be "brewing" (or should I say fermenting?) again.  We started a batch of mead on Thursday!

Apparently Levi giggled like crazy all the way down the big blue slide at the pool.  Next time he wants to go down on his own and have Daddy wait at the bottom to catch him!

2014 is off to a great start!

2014: Happiness

I spend a lot of time in the month of December thinking about, and reflecting on, the year that is about to conclude.  As many of you know, I like to set (and achieve) goals.  I like to see myself growing and experiencing things in new and interesting ways.  As the end of 2013 approached, I wasn't sure what direction I wanted to go in 2014.  Gabe and I have spent the last few years making healthier choices.  We completed projects and are enjoying the results.  We enjoy taking time to do family things.  I was sorta coming up empty on ideas to keep us focused on improvement and change in 2014.  Interestingly, the pick made in my book club for December was The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin.  As I was reading it, I kept thinking about the basic question she explores: Can I become happier by making small changes in my ordinary life?  Of course the answer for all of us is...YES.

To start, I asked Levi what makes him happy.
His answer?
"My Toys"
Then I decided to try asking Gabe.
His answer?
"Fast cars and loose women".  HA HA!
Guess I'm on my own in this more happiness adventure.

I started on Wednesday by making a list of things that make me feel good.  These are activities that I find fun, satisfying or energizing.
*Cooking/Baking
*Camping with my boys
*Traveling to new places
*Having friends over
*New plants in my yard
*Taking pictures
*Preserving memories (Scrapbooking)
*Reading
*Painting (pictures...not walls)
*Planning events
*Exercise/Running
*Completing home improvement projects
*Relaxing in the hot tub

Now my goal will be to think of some very specific changes I can make to do these things more often.

Yesterday, I made a list of all the things that make me feel bad.  Or things that are sources of anger, irritation, boredom, frustration, or anxiety in my life.
-a messy house
-the overwhelming expectations of my job.  I feel like I can never be (or do) enough with the time and resources I have.
-having to ask for help with household work.  (Don't get me wrong, Gabe is an amazing partner.  But he just doesn't see what needs to be done and do it.  I have to see it and ask him to help.  Which makes me feel like a constant nag!)
-financial debt
-people who don't put time and energy into nurturing relationships.
-"wasting time" AKA-watching TV (I came to this discovery in 2012 when I started to exercise regularly.  Gabe and I had a very sedentary routine of television viewing and snacking.  It's very hard for me to sit and watch television anymore.  I'd rather be doing so many things!)

Now my goal will be to think of some very specific changes I can make to shift my attitude or change my behavior around these things.

Highlights of 2013

Thought I'd share (in photos) the highlights of our 2013!
Some of these I shared on the blog.  But there are several candid shots that didn't make it on here since my blogging was lacking in 2013.

It was a great year!

Gabe and I achieved our goal of running our first 5K.

And our informal goal to take lots of weekend trips in our trailer was also achieved.  We took 8 trips...the goal was one every month, but the last few months have been so busy.

I'll be back later this week to share our hopes, and goals, for 2014.

We are happy to welcome a new year!

The Celebration of Christmas

Our 2013 Christmas celebration started with the traditional visit to Christmas at Dairyville.

Levi still had no interest in visiting Santa, and telling him what present to bring.  (I can't say it makes me very sad.  I'd rather not wait in line for hours.)  But Levi was pretty thrilled when Santa waved at us through the window.  Although, this kid does love to spend hours watching the model trains go around and around and around and around...(maybe it just feels like hours).

We spent Christmas Eve-Eve and the morning of Christmas Eve baking.  Definitely a favorite holiday tradition around here!

Christmas Eve we spent with the Girard family.  Lots of food and gifts.

And of course time with cousin Elijah on his first Christmas!

Levi and Grandma G made a gift for Mommy and Daddy.  Levi could not wait for us to open it and wanted to take a picture of us while we opened it!  I forgot to look at his camera to see how his picture turned out.

When we got home from Grandpa and Grandma G's house we had some treats to get together before getting into bed.

Reindeer treats for Rudolf and the gang.

And of course treats for the big man in red!

I think there might be something wrong with our camera lens.  It seems to only want to focus on the background in photos.  Pretty sure it's  not user error because I've tried a lot of things to resolve the issue.

I love Christmas morning with this kid!

Everything is so exciting!

We finished the week by seeing friends who are in town visiting for the holidays.  And having Christmas #2 with Grandma Winnie.

It was a very happy holiday.

Holiday Spirit

It has been a busy week with lots of fun holiday activities.
Levi and Daddy made a gingerbread house!

I made it very clear to Levi that the house is just for decoration, but he still (almost every day) makes sure to tell me how much he wishes he could eat it anyway.

We had our 10th annual cocktail party this weekend.
It was fun, but we might be getting to old.  My legs still hurt from wearing high heals for hours and Gabe had a really difficult Sunday morning.
Here are a few shots.

Not sure why Gabe is not standing up straight in this picture.  Too much bourbon already?  He looks pretty nice in his vest and bow tie doesn't he?!

And the dancing started after midnight.  Another reason why I might be getting to old for year 11.

On Sunday (after clean up and recovery from the party was complete) we went out to PIR to see the lights at the Winter Wonderland.  It was fun.  But really busy.  I think it took us almost an hour to get around the track.

Apparently the flash on the camera is really bright in the dark car!

This evening Levi and I read Christmas books, drank warm cocoa and had a few cookies.

It's hard to believe Christmas is NEXT WEEK!

Oh, Christmas Tree

We braved the frigid temperatures this weekend to go and get our Christmas tree.  Levi and I were sure pressured by Dad to pick a tree quickly because he was "cold".  Actually, we all had pretty red frozen noses.

Thought I'd put this little collage together to show Levi and Daddy's tradition of putting the star on the top of the tree together.
It's hard to believe how quickly our boy has grown.  I don't think Gabe will be able to lift him next year.  We might have to get the ladder out and let Levi do the job solo.

Levi sure is excited about everything Christmas.  He will not leave the tree and ornaments alone.  All day he keeps going over and touching them...it's worse than when he was a baby/toddler.  I'm considering a rule that he has to maintain a two foot radius from the tree.  But he's so happy and excited!  I just hope he doesn't break any ornaments because I know he'll feel really badly.
More holiday festivities and celebrations to come!

Thankful

We spent a very nice Thanksgiving with Gabe's family in Oakridge.
Thank you Uncle Kirby and Aunt JoAnn for a wonderful feast!  (Times two...they invited us back for leftovers on Friday.)

Other than food, highlights of the holiday weekend included:
feeding trout at the fish hatchery

and a walk in the woods.

Since we are now starting the month of December (and the countdown to Christmas) Levi pulled his first activity from his advent calendar.
Ice skating for the first time.  Levi did a great job and was really proud of himself.  It was really fun and we'll try and get Daddy on the ice next year!

November Update

Apparently, I'm just going to finish the year giving monthly updates.
Even though we may not be sharing on the blog, November has brought us many blessings!

This month we spent our first Saturday morning, since June 1st, just hanging out at home.  It felt so great to not have something to do, or somewhere to go, I had to check my calendar to see when the last time we had a lazy Saturday was.  It was so lazy that Levi didn't even get out of his pajamas until late afternoon!
We've also raked up beautiful red leaves from our maple tree twice and cleaned the gutters that can be reached with our little ladder.  (We definitely need to invest in an extension ladder of our own!)  Pretty sure we'll have to do one more leaf pick up after our neighbor's ginkgo tree finishes dropping all of it's beautiful yellow leaves.

But November highlights have been the time we've spent with friends.  This month we've had some special times with friends.
Including a dinner gathering with little ones.

And one big kid's 36th birthday celebration.

Since I only took 4 pictures with our camera this month, I'll share one I took at the park on Veteran's day with Levi's camera.  I'd share some of the pictures he's taken with it, but they are mostly of his toys and are very blurry.  He hasn't mastered the important art of staying still while taking a photo.

I can't forget to mention that Gabe was able to give a "beautiful" blue Honda Accord a new home in just 2 hours of it being posted on Craig's list today!  Good to have a little cash in our pocket since Gabe's been dropping cash on important "necessary"(?) items to get his Subaru through DEQ.

Next up...THANKSGIVING!  We have so much to be thankful for!

Treats!

Trick-or-treating goal of 2013 was accomplished!
Levi said he wanted to "fill his bucket with treats".

A bucket full of treats makes Halloween Levi's favorite holiday.
(Although I think Mom and Dad have had more treats from it then he has!)

October Update

Here we are at the end of October!
The last few weeks have been so busy.  I've wanted to get on here and let everyone know what we've been up to but it's just easier (and faster) to do Facebook updates these days.  (The super old computer I have to edit pictures on also doesn't help.)

Let's see...what have we been doing this month?
Celebrating our 9th anniversary with a kid free weekend "camping" at Nehalem Bay.

(Yes...that is Gabe reading a BOOK!  He actually almost finished the whole book during the course of the weekend.)

Levi went on his pumpkin patch field trip with Grandma G and his class.
Levi has been taking swimming lessons 2 mornings a week.  Silly kid still hates to put his face in the water but can float on his back for 10 seconds!

When I asked Levi what he wanted to be for Halloween months ago, his response was "Something scary."
For awhile it was a ghost and he finally decided it doesn't get much scarier than a skeleton.
So here's our little scary skeleton dressed up at the zoo on Saturday.

And the elephants, including baby Lily sure were playful.
It was so much fun to watch them splash and wrestle in the pool!

We carved our pumpkins.
Levi and Daddy wanted to make their Jack-O-Lanterns "scary".  I decided mine needed to be happy.

As you can see, this kid is really excited about Halloween and being scary.  It's all he talks about these days!

Last but not least, we took Gabe's project car for a spin this weekend!  His smile might not show it in this picture, but Gabe is very thrilled to have it driving.  (I won't tell you what his top speed down Multnomah Blvd was...) Now to get it to pass DEQ and get the new tags, renewal and such.

We're looking at another crazy week around here but I'll try to be a little more prompt with pictures from trick-or-treating.

Pumpkins!

Not such a beautiful weekend to head to the pumpkin patch.  But since the month of October is turning out to be busier than we'd hoped, yesterday was about our only choice.  Foggy, drizzly weather and all.

We did manage to find some nice pumpkins.

Levi took a "quick" spin around the patch on the tractor barrel train.

He looked a little worried while the "train" was going but said it was fun when he got off!

Someone at our house is getting really excited about Halloween!  He was also not very happy when he was told he'd have to wait a few weeks to turn our 3 pumpkins into jack-o-lanterns.

Apples!

This weekend we've had the most amazingly beautiful fall weather.  I think it's been especially sweet since we had that crazy rain/wind storm last weekend!

Saturday we went east to Hood River to pick apples.

Like I said...BEAUTIFUL!

We picked some Jonagold and Gala apples for apple sauce.

We picked some Empire apples for baking.  (Currently there is a dutch apple pie cooling for dessert tonight.)

And of course we had to pick some Honeycrisp apples simply for eating! 

The sunshine has been a blessing since it also allowed us a chance to clean up the garden and yard in preparation for the next 6 months of rain!
We're hopeful for more fall weekends like this.