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 2

June: We started off June with another visit from Q's dad, Rick and his wife Hilde. She is originally from Washington so it works out that they get to come out for a visit more often than most. It just so happens that we found a house about 5 minutes outside Eugene so we moved while they were here. Convenient huh? We loved having the extra help moving! Pictured above is Deci playing on our sidewalk! We've always lived in the country so Deci has never had sidewalk to draw on and she is loving it!

Also in June, Q's best friend from High school, Jason and his wife Brittany came out for Q's birthday. We loved having these guys here. If you can't tell we LOVE having visitors! It makes us less homesick.

July: We took the girls camping for their first time and they loved it, especially Deci. She is such a tomboy for the most part...

Towards the end of July we flew home to sweet home Alabama! One of my best friends from high school was getting married and asked me to be in her wedding. I was so excited and jumped at the opportunity to get to fly home. Q got a new Job at the Eugene Mission this month so he could only stay for one week, but the girls and I stayed two weeks. There were so many pictures I wanted to post for our trip home. We crammed in so much in those two weeks. Deci loved getting to hold her chicken Sarah.

We also played in the water a lot!

It was such a fun trip back for so many reason. We got to see family. We got to celebrate with our friend getting married and saw our high school friends. We had grandparents to babysit so we got to go out on dates with friends to Huntsville and stay up way too late. We visited our home church, Lifepoint and saw our friends who's support and prayers for us are unbelievable. Life would be so much harder here without their support.

August: We flew back home to Oregon August 2nd and Breanna flew back with me and the girls to stay with us! We are so blessed to have her with us. She came out to be a part of our Crash team here but she also is the best babysitter in the world and we are so thankful that she is here to help us. The girls love her so much. Journey calls her "Nana." :)

Journey's had her first birthday August 31st. Here is a picture when she was about a week old. Look at all that DARK hair!! I thought she was going to be the child who would look like me but over the year it has lightened up so much. She is so much fun! Who knew having two kids could be this fun? She is so spunky and dances with her shoulders, which I love. She takes life slow. She LOVES her sister. I can't believe it's been a year!

Q's Mom and her husband Alan got to come out a week for Journey's birthday. We loved having them here to celebrate with us and also for the great Southern food she cooked for us all week! One night she cooked enough for a Thanksgiving meal and we invited the Crash team and our neighbors over.

September: Q's Dad and Hilde got to come back for another visit! Yes again and we LOVE it! (Have I said that we LOVE having visitors!!) They took us to Florence to ride the dune buggies on the sand dunes. This was SO much fun!

We went camping again. This time it was a little bit colder, but most of our Crash team got to come out. We celebrated Derrick's birthday.

October: Deci turned 4 this month! I honestly can't believe I have a 4-year-old. This girl keeps me going...honestly she never slows down. I love her so much and she has taught me so much about being a mom. She is little miss independent. She is so much like her dad it's not even funny. God has truly blessed us with her!

Halloween!

November: I think November passed without me realizing it...I'm not sure much happened in this month. I guess we rested most of this month. Of course we spent many Saturday's watching football.

We had a few pretty days and we took a walk to the park.

And we spent Thanksgiving with some friends here. My wonderful husband made the chicken and dressing which neither one of us realized how much his mom did to make....seriously, homemade biscuits, corn bread, toast and all sorts of goodness.... we are slowly learning to appreciate how much our family (mostly moms) did to make the holidays happen!

Whew, that was long...That pretty much gets you caught up to December.