The Moto

So for the finale of Mike's birthday he got a motorcycle from his girl. If you know Mike you know that he has wanted this since the last motorcycle he owned – 9 years ago. So getting the Honda VFR Interceptor was a big deal last week. Now all he needs is his license and off we go. Or why wait to be legal to drive it...Vroom vroom…!!!



























We also went up to the Columbia Valley on Sunday for a little wine tasting at Hood River Vineyards. On the way we stopped to see my grandpa and some wonderful Oregon sites. This was April's first time wine tasting in the states. So of course it was a fun new experience for her.

BEEs

My little Japanese Pea tree is blooming and I was outside today noticing all the bees on my flowers. It was amazing how relaxing it can be to just sit and watch the bees. Granted it took at a half an hour to get the photograph I wanted but it was worth it. Summer is coming and things are buzzing!

A day at the vineyards

A few more of the wine trip






We took a day long limo guided wine tasting trip on Saturday, followed by a BBQ with good friends!

Mike's Birth"day"

Mike turned 31 yesterday! WHOOOAA. There will be lots more to come in the way of surprises but since the birth"day" fell on a Wednesday we are celebrating all week. And Mike is OK with that. =) Good cake and campfire paired with oPorto and White Russian coffees. All Mike's favorites.

Mother's Day Weekend

We are gathering less and less frequently these days. Megan and Jason are now living in Tacoma, Josh is going to school, and my parents live in Sandy, which is an hour away. Well, you know how life can be...busy! But we managed to gather to celebrate Mom by going to our beach house in Lincoln City – all together. Again, it has been awhile since Mike and I have been there.
And the weekend consisted of the usual wonderful, beach pastimes: walking on the beach hand in hand with whomever, playing all sorts of board games, (Heather & Scott randomly joined us Saturday for a wonderful surprise), long nights of ping-pong, and Jellyfish (but this time the real live ones at the Aquarium in Newport). All in all it was a blast and everyone had a good fun time of fellowship.

A & E

Good friends...Allen and Eryn at their casa Monday night. These 2 are special people and I mean gifted. Eryn works with special needs kids at Glencoe High School and is amazing at it. She has the most beautiful heart for helping those who have hard home situations, low self esteem, you name it. Allen's pretty cool too. He is one of those friends who you just love.
























And A& E have cute dogs Sampson and Siffe. Sampson is a terror and Siffe is like a ballerina dog - dainty and light footed. Together they make a dangerous pair.

April

April is our exchange student who's been with us for just 2 weeks now. Here are a couple of photos from April's Birthday this week, celebrated with some of our favorites, Ozzy and Kelly and Daisy too.

Tzu-Hsuan also goes by April just moved in with us this past weekend. She is a 32 year old exchange student from Tawain who is going to school at PSU to study English. In Tawain April works for an electronics company that produces headsets for Motorola, Nokia etc. She came to the US to take a vacation from her job and study English. She also wants to meet fun Americans and learn about the culture in the US. Her birthday is coming up April 30th! Before April moved in with us she was living with her sister who was here working for Nike as a footwear developer. April likes to travel (obviously), watch movies, play tennis and gardening. She is very sweet and we hope at some point while she is staying with us, you get to meet her.