10 years!

"Love is knowing you will spend every day, of every week, of every month, of every season, of every year, for the rest of your life with this person and thinking 'This is exactly what I want'" I have been so blessed to be married to my best friend for 10 years and it has flown by. We have had so many fun times as well as difficult times, but what's important is that we've gotten through them together and are stronger for them. We've traveled the world together, bought houses, made career changes, raised two children and made a wonderful life for us. I couldn't have done it without him! We're celebrating our anniversary by treating ourselves to a trip to New Zealand in March, but on our actual anniversary in Sept, we took a weekend away in Bend just the two of us. The best part of the weekend was feeling like nothing had changed in the last 10 years, we're still able to laugh and enjoy each others company without the kids, able to have great conversation, and come back feeling refreshed and in love :) We rode bikes into town, had coffee, checked out Octoberfest going on in Bend and ended the night with a romantic dinner downtown. We had always talked about riding from 7th Mtn up to Bachelor, but didn't want to take the kids, so we saw this weekend as the perfect opportunity to make it happen. It was a hard ride straight up, but having accomplished it was a great feeling! It felt like a lot of times in our relationship when things got difficult, one of us was always there to help the other through it with encouragement and compromise!

Seabrook 2014

This was our 3rd year at Seabrook and we tried something new. There are so many great houses, so we wanted to check out a new one and ended up stayed at Rainbow's End instead of Ocean's Five. I really liked the house! Of course we had tons of room for everyone, but we also had a carriage house, fire pit and hot tub in the back yard. We roasted marshmallows (Brian made homemade one's!) and the adults and kids had fun in the hot tub! We had gorgeous weather all weekend, so we got out for lots of walks on the nature trails, bike rides through the neighborhood and more walks on the beach. There was a little alley behind the house, which was perfect for Isaiah to ride up and down on his bike. We split up meals again, all gluten free and delicious (so sweet for everyone to accommodate us!) and had such a great time.

Ashley, Reese, Isaiah and Ellie playing one morning in their pajamas.

Isaiah riding his bike in the alley behind the house

Ashley and Sawyer

Ashley and Nathan heading to the park

Ashley 6, Nathan 5, Isaiah 4, Sawyer 3, Ellie 2, Reese almost 1!

Day at the beach

Cool fort on the beach

 

flying kites

snuggling by the fire

fun in the hot tub!

 

Pre-School

Isaiah started pre-school in the beginning of Sept. He's still at the daycare he's been going to, but in the Cubs class now, same as Ashley when she was in pre-school. It's the same teacher and the kids love her! It's also fun for them to talk about class and what's going on because Ashley remembers it all so well and loves to tell her brother what to look forward to! He's motivated to do his "homework" assignments and gets stickers and gummy bears for doing his work. He's getting much better with his handwriting and has found that he really likes math. He's been asking for simple addition problems that he can figure out on his hands and likes to play a dice game where they add the two that are thrown. He's a smart kid, now we just have to keep him focused and teach him how to handle frustration and silliness!

1st Grader!

Has anyone figured out how to make time stop!? Ashley was sooo excited to start 1st grade this year. She wasn't at all nervous about riding the bus, going to a new school or meeting new friends. In fact I had to go to the school the first day to fill out paperwork so I asked if she wanted me to drive her, she said "no, I would rather ride the bus". So, I sent her on the bus, fighting back tears (luckily the neighbors were there to distracted me). She made it to her class with the help of her friend Ashlee and got settled. I met her in the classroom and she was as happy as a clam. She got the teacher she wanted and has seen neighbors and old friends from daycare throughout her day. I put a note in her lunch box on the first day and the principle read if for her joking that it said "not listen to anyone, to misbehave, etc" of course she thought that was funny. Then at the end of the week they had an assembly and she got picked to go in front of the whole school and present a gift to a teacher. She has tremendous confidence and is such a sweetheart, she stands out. I know she's going to have a great year.

Isaiah, Emmy, Ashlee, Ashley, and Peter

Mrs. Whitaker's class

Trillium Lake

What a beautiful lake, I can't believe we haven't been until now! Dan told us about it, so we went on Labor Day. We did the walk around the lake, which was perfect for the kids, and set ourselves up on the beach to have lunch and do a little fishing (nothing caught but still fun!) I hope to go back in the winter to do some snowshoeing! We also checked out Frog Lake which is up the road. That's another great place to spend the day.

Oaks Park

The kids received discounted bracelets to Oaks Park for finishing the summer reading program at the library. I was really impressed with how brave they were to try new rides, they haven't really been on many. They even went on a roller coaster by themselves. Isaiah loved it Ashley not so much!

Little Kids Big Shoes

I guess they were easier to slip on than their own!