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.
Quinton's Brother Wade and his wife Kerrie flew into Oregon on Monday night and spent a few nights with us then we drove up to Seattle, WA to meet their dad and his wife Hilde for a little Christmas vacation. Q and I had never been to Washington before so this was an extra special trip for us. I have a silly dream of visiting all the states before I die. One more State checked off the list! I have quite a lot to go. We got into Seattle. Q drove and I hung my head out the window to take pictures. We got to our hotel, Edgewater, which was AMAZING! We were right on the water and within walking distance of everything downtown. The girls loved the room. Deci found this bear in the room that she loved along with a bear stool (that by the way was really cool) that cost $425! YIKES!
