What should have been on my list: Spencer's Butte

I made a list on a post a few months back of places that I wanted to visit in Oregon in 2012.  You can see the list HERE.  I should have added Spencer's Butte to that list.  While our friends Nick and Brandi (A.K.A. Nick Nick and Aunt B) were here from Alabama, we decided to explore something new in Oregon. None of us had ever been here before and I can not wait to go back.  We started off with a nice stroll through the woods.

Holleigh and Alec

Our family. Notice we are using the carrier for Journey.  Best Thrift Store investment yet! $14.99!

 It actually turned out to be a pretty good hike.  We took the easy hike since we had the kids but it still was quite a hike.  It was only a little over a mile but it got pretty steep towards the end. (The other path was 1/2 a mile but straight up.)

 Q and Deci, mainly Deci, decided to take the road less traveled and this is where I called for Alec to take Journey off my back.   When I got up and saw this view I got a little dizzy...plus my legs were like jello at this point from carrying the 25(ish) pounds on my back.

Holleigh

Deci, Q and Luis

 

 We made it to the top and this was our view!

3 Sisters

 Journey was exhausted.

Alec carried Journey back down.  He said at one point her head hit his head. He didn't know what was going on until Brandi told him that Journey had fallen asleep. So funny.  With her Raisin's in her hand. :)

I can not wait to post about the rest of the week with Nick Nick and Aunt B.  (So check back in tomorrow! :)  They are already back in Alabama now and WE MISS THEM SO MUCH!! I can't wait until they come visit again.  I hope you enjoyed pictures of Spencer's Butte and if you ever come visit this will probably be a place we take you.  I completely agree with Q, "One of the 10 top views I've seen in my life!" BEAUTIFUL!

Marriage Letters: Opposites Attract

Join me and Q, along with Amber from The Run a Muck by writing  Marriage Letters every Monday.

Q,
  Those words couldn't be more true for us.  Opposites Attract.  In some ways more than others.  I'm sure of it, that you're the one who has to compromise the most.  I'm pretty stubborn and you are more laid back (for the most part).  I say for the most part because just the other day we were trying to plan a one day road trip to the Redwoods.  It's 4 1/2 hours there and 4 1/2 back.  I said, "Lets do this!" and you said, "Audrey, that's 9 hours for the girls to be in the car in one day."  Oh, yeah...that could be a problem.  I seem to jump into things when you are the one to really think things through.  I'm so glad you are the one who thinks straight.  I'm sure I could have talked you into the adventure (because you love a good adventure) and then we would have been 4 hours away from home with 2 really fussy girls.  At that point It would have hit me that maybe that wasn't a good idea.  I would have no solution and you would come in and save the day.  Thanks for thinking ahead, babe.  (But seriously, lets plan a 2 day trip to see the Redwoods soon!)

I'm pretty sure I'm the paranoid one.  Flying with our girls stresses me out more than anything in this world.  Ok, maybe it's not the actual flying.  It's more of taking that first step into the airport until we get on the plane.  I'm terrified of what might happen if I take my eyes off either of our girls at any point in time.  This tends to be a problem now that we have 2 kids.  Before I could be the parent that was latched onto the one kid.  Now, I stress you out by telling you not to take your eyes off the other kid. If she does take one step away from you SHE COULD BE ABDUCTED! ok, I'm VERY paranoid around a large crowd when it comes to our girls. You tend to bring us balance.

How about all the other little things like the fact that I would vacation at the beach EVERY single year when you prefer the mountains.  It's our hot/cold issue.  You are always 100 degrees and I'm always freezing.  You always want the air on and I always want the heater.  We really need one of those cars where we each can control our own temperature.

I'm glad I have you in my life to bring balance and stability.  You're calm and I lose my temper.  You're strong and I'm so weak.  You're thoughtful when I can be inconsiderate.  Thanks for being YOU!
                                                                   -A

Crossing number 8 off my list!

 I made a list (here) of places I want to go see in Oregon in 2012. Mount Pisgah was #8! 

(Picture Alert by the way!! Breanna has recently introduced me to Picnik.  My sister-in-law, Kerrie told me about it a while back but I just thought editing pictures took too long but I LOVE it now!!! I'm addicted! (I may have gone a little overboard here) If I remember correctly, these are the first pictures I've EVER edited!!  If you haven't checked out Picnik before you should! It's free...but the bad thing is that it will not longer be available after April 19th.)

 

 Mount Pisgah is just a place to hike. There are lots of trails.  We hiked probably 3 miles or so but most of it had gravel.  Deci hiked the whole way.  I was so proud of her.  The view was beautiful!

    

 Check out the moss on this tree!

My favorite picture and favorite edit: 1960's! :)

This was such a fun day! I can't wait to take Alabama visitors here.

Date Day

Since my mom has been in town, Q and I took a whole day to go on a date. We started the day by touring a church then we went to lunch at Agate Alley Bistro which was so YUMMY! Then we went to eat frozen yogurt. Next we went to the movies to watch "We Bought a Zoo." Which was so good! One of my favorite movies I've seen in a while.  It has just encouraged me and Q both to make sure we are having adventures with our family.  We decided we needed a little adventure of our own that day so went out in the rain and mud and "hiked" Skinners Butte. I say hike but it wasn't much of a hike... but what is considered a hike after all?? A walk in the woods? well, we did that. Is there a number of miles you must go? Well, we didn't go far and it didn't feel much like a hike but we were in the woods. We went a little overboard on our date but we had to take advantage while we had someone that wouldn't care to keep the kids all day. It's been nice having my mom here to help with the girls. Especially so Q and I can go out.  We have people here that help us with the girls but it feels less like a sacrifice when it's the grandparents keeping them.  Here are a few pictures of our "adventure".

Skinner's Butte

Eugene, Oregon

U of O Autzen Stadium

Oregon: These are a few of my favorite things, 2011.

I've been dreaming up this post for quite some time now and I thought New Years Eve would be the perfect time to write about my favorite things about Oregon. So.... Here goes.

Top 10 Favorite Things:

1. The Oregon Coast! This by far is my most favorite thing about Oregon. 

We've lived here for a year and I think we've been to the coast 6...or 7 times... hey, it's just an hour away so why not! 

2. The Sand Dunes in Florence, Or.  This is practically the coast also but it deserves it's own number because it's by far the most entertaining thing I've done this year. 

This picture doesn't even do the dunes justice by the way.  They were huge and our driver was CRAZY! I thought we were going to flip several times but he assured us that he has never flipped one.

3. Camping! We took the girls camping for the first time and they loved it.  We went to Cottage Grove. Baker Bay... but Camping anywhere is FUN!

4.  Learning to Knit.  Ok, so I know this isn't a place but it's definitely something that I am SO thankful that I was taught how to do.

 

5.  Multnomah Falls. Just because it's BEAUTIFUL (and I love waterfalls!). 

6.  Lowell, Or.  This was our first hometown when we moved to Oregon.  I still take people here when they come to visit. Lowell is on Dexter Lake and has a cover bridge. It's a small town of 1,000. You can drive up to the dam (a mile from our house at the time) and on a clear day see Diamond Peak.

7.  Sweet Cheeks Winery. For mine and Q's anniversary we went here for wine tasting.

There are 2 or 3 other vineyards close to this one that I want to check out in 2012.

8.  Saturday Market, Eugene, Or.  This is only in the Summer and it's downtown Eugene. It's a place where locals can sell things that they make or grow. 

9.  PARKS! Lots and Lots of parks in Oregon. I've never in my life seen so many parks and so many playgrounds! 

10. Oregon Country Fair. This was quite an experience. We were warned not to take the kids...and if we had to take the kids we should go as early as possible on Sunday. Luckily our friends Richie and Sharee got Q tickets for his birthday so we could go in early. We did see a few nudest but the girls didn't seem to notice.

Deci dancing with the Hippies! She fits in so well. :)

10 +...ok so one more.. Thrift Stores!!! I counted today and I could think of 12 thrift stores within 10ish miles from my house. Here is a picture of one of my favorites:

In the summer the huge blue garage door is open. This is the store where we got our Couch. Our house is full of thrift store things and I LOVE IT! 

(By the way, if my husband had a say he would have added Sisters, Oregon)

Check back in tomorrow where I'll add a list of places we hope to visit 2012!

A Year Update. Part 1

Last December we lived in Alabama still. We spent most of the month spending time with friends and family but for one week we got the opportunity to fly out to Oregon. This was my first time to visit Oregon. Q got to go a few times the months before this to check it out before the big move. In November Q got to meet a man named Jim who was in the process of planting a church in Springfield, OR. He is the one who invited us out to Oregon in December to stay at his home with him and his wife. Jim has a blog you can read about here. We also met a couple, Richie and Sharee Powell, who are some of the best friends we've made here that we still see at least once a week now. While we were in Oregon we also got the chance to visit our friends the McKinney's (Pictured above) in Albany Oregon. Neal and April lived in Alabama and helped start our Church in Albertville called Lifepoint. but moved to Oregon (3 or 4 years ago) to plant a church in Albany called The Shift.

January: We made the big move to Oregon in January. We have a team that moved out here with us. I'll post later more about them. Q and a large group drove the cars and a Pinske truck across the country while me, the girls and my mom got on an airplane. We all met up in Napa Valley, CA where my cousin Claire and her husband live. Their house is easily the coolest (for lack of a better word) house I've ever been in. The picture below was taken from their house.

Below is the group of people that helped make our move possible.

The house below is the house we moved into. Jim and his wife, Karla rented this house to us the first 5 months we lived in Oregon. I loved this house and so did Deci. She still talks about this house. This house was in a small town of 1000 people called Lowell. Lowell is what I picture when I think of Oregon. Our house was right beside the lake and we could see snow covered mountains 1 mile from our house. The only problem was that this house was about 25 or 30 minutes away from Eugene.

Dexter Lake, Lowell Oregon

Sometime either late January or early February, Q got a Job at a place called Jasper Mountain working with kids. Holleigh, who moved out with us and lived with us the first few months, worked at Jasper Mountain also. For the first month we also had 3 guys living with us in our den and storage room. It was a crazy month but looking back now it really was fun. I think it helped us grow together. Nothing like living in a house with 8 people with only one shower! (the upstairs bathroom just had a bathtub.)


February: a lot happened in this month. Journey started eating baby food for the first time. We got snow for the first time at our house and my brother AKA "Uncle Kyle" came to visit for a few weeks. The picture below cracks me up every time I look at it. We decided to drive up to the ski resort place to let Deci play in the snow. When we were almost there we started sliding all over the road. I got scared and decided we needed to turn around. We didn't have chains for the tires. We thought we could pull over and let the girls play in the snow but it was so cold all Deci could do was cry. Needless to say we got back in the car and drove home.

We also celebrated Holleigh's birthday this month by going out to eat at Papa's soul food kitchen to get some Southern food! Then had some friends over from Q and Holleigh's work and cooked them Southern food. (We must have really been missing Southern food at this point.)


March: Deci learned how to write her name. I started making my own baby food...which was actually a lot of fun. I started a new hobby: Knitting...but even after almost a year later I still don't know how to do anything that's not a square or rectangle. Quinton's Dad, his wife Hilde and her daughter Michelle came for a visit and we spent some time in Portland. Below are pictures from Multnomah, Falls.

April: We had to take Deci to the doctor for a weird smell in her nose. :/ Turns out she shoved paper in her nose and didn't tell us. After a few days it started to rot. The doctor pulled it out and the smell went away. Deci confessed after that she was putting a paper map in her nose. Also in April my dad and his wife, Debbie came to visit.

We spent our first major holiday away from Alabama in April, Easter. We went to a church service with some of the homeless in Eugene. Went to the church "The Branch" and spent the afternoon with our Crash Team at Richie and Sharee's house.


May: This was the busiest month so far. My birthday is in May so my mom, my brother and his girlfriend came out to visit. Me and Q were excited to have a babysitter to go out for my birthday. We also took them to the coast.

Also in May, Q's brother Wade and his wife Kerrie came to visit. We also took them to the coast. We have spent the first year here taking all of our guest to the coast because it's so beautiful. If it's not freezing and raining I could spend all day there...but most of the time it's cold and rainy... It's so different from the gulf coast. You can't lay out or swim at the beaches here. (which I miss a lot) Next year I guess we'll take all our guest to the Mountains.

Below is Breanna and the girls. We had a picnic. She also came out with Wade and Kerrie to decide if she wanted to move out to live with us. Find out later if she did. :)

I'll post again soon June-December 2011.