Pumkin Time

I love pumpkins! They bring a smile to my face and apparently to Jack's too. He LOVED the pumpkins. I think because they served "fairly" well as a prop to stand up on. I say fairly because as you can imagine, most pumpkins are not that sturdy and they tumbled over several times. But Jack just laughed as he fell over. He thought it was funny.
Sunday, Marta (our Spanish exchange student) and Jack and I ventured off to Smith Berry Farm to pick out pumpkins. We had hot apple cider, sampled many different kinds of apples and bought fresh chestnuts which we roasted tonight while we carved our pumpkins. I love this time of year. So festive. I'm curious if anyone has any fun Halloween traditions they have started with their little ones? ** By the way you can enlarge this collage by clicking on it. (for the record, we do not let Jack drink Jack Daniels but he absolutely is obsessed with putting the end of any bottle in his mouth and we store our empty glass on the kitchen floor where he can get to it. **Maybe I should rethink that? NO, what does it hurt.)

Time at SunRiver

We just returned from a much needed trip away in Sunriver. Mike had not been to central Oregon and I hadn't been since high school. We stayed in a great house (kid friendly, with a crib, high chair and toys) what a blessing. And...a hot tub and wonderful fireplace. Good thing too, cause it was cold.
Now, I grew up in the out shirts of Sandy, Oregon so deer outside my window is no special occasion. But this was exceptional. We had a mama doe with her two babies lounging right outside our front window.

And 4 very feisty adolescent bucks sparing on the other side of the house. Now sure what that was about? But they were everywhere and practically house broken.

Unlike most people, we didn't bike in Sunriver, instead we strolled with coffee in hand and never got more than 1/2 mile from our house. But the stroller was great for Jack since he could be snuggled up and still see everything.




This little wintery outfit was perfect considering that in the morning it was 40 degrees out. Felt like Christmas.

Sometimes you could not see much of him. :)
We ate a scrumptious lunch at the lodge overlooking the golf course but other than that, Mike cooked some delicious meals in our little kitchen. He was going to go fishing and catch us some trout for dinner on Friday but alas he spent 2 hours trying to get his never before used pool rigged up and finally gave up. So Fred Meyer provided some nice rainbow trout so we could still feel like we were eating a local catch.

We did a little light hiking with Jack to a waterfall. Jack got to suck on some dried banana, yum yum.

And on the way home we stopped to chill by the Dechutes River.
It was a georgous sunny day, probably 70 degrees and the fall leaves where perfectly turning red and yellow. Ahh...want to go back there.

I don't know what we would do without our little Jackson Bear. He was such a trooper all weekend, we were such a cohesive happy crew. Jack loved being outside and inside and with US.

M + J = 5 YEARS **XOXO**

i can hardly believe it but today mike and i are celebrating our 5 year anniversary. since we eloped on 10.8.05 our wedding photos are not exactly professionally taken. the story goes that on a monday mike asked me "do you want to get married this weekend?" and i said, "sure" *not knowing that he was serious. on tuesday he asked "are you going to marry me this weekend?" and I said "of course i am". mike asked me each day if i was going to marry him until on thurday he said "you're serious right? cause i've made plans for us to elope. we were a little crazy (**crazy in love that is).
friday morning mike called me at work and explained that he place he planned to take me was outdoors and since it was suppose to rain he said "we should get married tonight instead" and i said, "you better make it special" and he did! we went to youghberg hill vineyard which was all set up for a wedding the next day. we met our friends and pastor. the place was empty since the wedding party using the place the next day was at their rehersal dinner. it was pitch black out so the guys found the pug for the twinkle lights and just like that the whole tent overlooking wallamette valley wine country was lit up with little twinkle lights. it was brillant. we said our vows which we completely made up right then. our pastor prayed over us and we were offical! we went to the joel palmer house for a wonderful dinner (years later mike did his culinary internship there) and then we spend the weekend at a b&b in wine country. and that was 5 years ago today.
right as we were tying the knot. ***mike, i love you so much and i am so glad that you asked me to marry you THAT NIGHT!

what an amazing memory - relived!!