The one With the Big SEVEN

September 22, 2013 Eric and I celebrated our seventh anniversary.

Time for the seventh inning stretch, or the seven year itch, or something of the sort, right?

 

Well it just so happened that the second to last wedding, the final getaway wedding, we had over the summer was Eric's cousin Cody's wedding in Portland and it was the day before our anniversary.

We decided to take a week off of work and head up to Portland. We drove up on Wednesday morning and stayed in Portland Thursday and Friday with the kiddos, going to the park, feeding ducks, and relaxing at Grammy and Papa Dentist's house.

 

Everything in Portland is infinitely more beautiful than everything in Idaho. You can be in the all out ghetto of downtown Portland and it is still beautiful because of the trees and water. This park that we fed ducks at was beyond beautiful, we were there for at least three hours just walking around, eating a picnic, and feeding ducks.

 

Denny and Kelly also live right next to a HUGE grade school and super middle school that have  a great playground and backs up right next to a nature reserve with gorgeous walking paths so we spent plenty of time at the school walking around too.

 

 

 

 

 

Saturday morning Eric and I got up, packed, and drove out to the Portland Temple to his cousin Cody's wedding. Once again, camera-less. Sad really because it was a beautiful day and I had never been to the Portland temple before - the grounds are breathtaking.

 

After the wedding we loaded up in our car and made the two hour drive to the coast to stay at the Salishan Golf Resort just outside of Lincoln City.  On the way out we stopped and got sushi. This is kind of our little tradition - we load up on sushi whenever we can.

My last trip to the coast was right before Paxton was born in 2011, the trip when I found out my dad had been in a bad accident back in Idaho and was bleeding internally, so it wasn't the best trip and my mind was justifiably preoccupied so I didn't really get to appreciate my surroundings.This time was different. There was nothing weighing on my mind (with the exception of homework), no kids, who although I love them to pieces, require so much energy, attention and advanced planning. It was just Eric and I from Saturday through Tuesday. We had been watching the weather report for a few weeks before and in true Oregon Coast fashion it was supposed to rain all weekend and there was actually a "severe weather advisory" in affect for the surrounding area.

Saturday when we got into town though it was gorgeous so we took advantage of the time to walk around the Salishan shops and even picked up a puzzle to do since we believed we'd be stuck in our beautiful suite the whole time. We knew we had an "ocean view" but that doesn't even do the view from our balcony justice, it was beautiful and we got to watch the tide come in and out every day.

Later Saturday night I asked Eric to go for a run on the beach with me. Our room was right next to a path that walked you right onto the beach. It was the most beautiful setting for an evening run I ever could think of.

We woke up Sunday morning and did the same thing. Morning run along the beach. Only this time we saw Santa Claus.

It's sad that I already don't really remember the course of events for our trip. I do know that Sunday we ran on the beach, took our time getting up and ready for the day, went to Tillamook and then came back and got cleaned up for put put golf right before our anniversary dinner reservations. You know that weather advisory we had? Never an issue for us! I'm not going to say it didn't rain, but it never rained when we wanted to be outside. I'd like to think Mother Nature was being good to us but I'm sure it was just good luck. The only time it was pouring rain when we would have been okay with it not was when we had to run from he parking lot into the Tillmook factory, and you know what, we had umbrellas so it was okay. And rain makes it green!

 

 

We had our anniversary dinner at the super nice restaurant inside of Salishan. It was beautiful. And one of those dinners that no matter how good it is you only can do it on special occasions because it costs that much! The only picture we took was of our appetizer shrimp cocktail for some reason but I do remember that I had chicken crab oscar and Eric had halibut and it was probably the best thing I have ever eaten.

 

Monday morning we got up and went on a quest to find WHOLE crab. It's insane to me that being right on the coast it was so hard to find crab. I mean there's crab in everything there. Crab cakes, crab sandwiches, crab salad, eggs benedict with crab on them (which I ate every morning and it was so delicious), but finding a whole crab or even just crab legs was the most ridiculously hard task ever.

 

We ended up driving thirty minutes to Newport Beach where we heard whispers of restaurants that fed you whole crab. I have never wanted to move to the coast so bad in my entire life. I cannot even explain it. What a perfect little coastal town. We parked on the pier and walked everywhere. Ended up in adorable little coast-side shops where we actually talked to a real-estate agent about moving, and walked along docks looking at sea lions and the gorgeous site of a harbor full of boats.

 And yes we even ended up finding at the Fish Peddler's Market - whole crab and it was delicious!!!

 

That night we went back to Salishan, ate Pizza in The Attic Lounge and finished our puzzle. Tuesday morning we got up and made the drive home to Portland. It was a beautiful trip, all that I ever could have asked for plus some. It's important to me to spend time being husband and wife outside of the daily grind and everything we have to do. We came back stronger together and as better parents ready to tackle the world and whatever comes our way!

The One with Thursday Bowling

On Eric's relief shift he has Tuesday and Thursday off. It didn't give us much of a weekend since the two days didn't really happen one right after the other. In fact really the only thing it was good for was giving us a day to do stuff as a family and run errands when everyone else was at work. After our wedding weekend getaway to McCall over Labor Day Eric and I really wanted to spend some time with our kiddos that we had missed while we were gone so that Thursday we took them bowling.

 

Those that know the story of how Eric and I met know that bowling has a somewhat comical place in our hearts. We'd like to share that hilarity with our children.

The funniest part of the whole day was that Parker actually beat both me and Eric - by getting four strikes in one game!

Bowling in real life is so much harder than bowling on the Wii.

 



The One with Preslie's Eyebrows

For the first time in my entire life a few months back I actually purchased some expensive makeup.

I've always been fine with buying the stuff at drugstores, the stuff that is cheap but does it's job.

At the advice of a few friends, and with some birthday money, I actually went to Ulta and purchased some expensive foundation, eyeshadow, and mascara.

 

Imagine my pure happiness (please sense my extreme sarcasm) when two weeks later I went into my bedroom to find my daughter looking like this

In the picture you can see that my nice, new, expensive mascara has been used to perfectly line her eyebrows, but what you CAN'T see in the picture is that my nice, new, expensive foundation had also been used in its entirety to paint her legs and arms.

 

Unfortunately, when you get a picture and a story like this it is basically impossible to really get upset with her . . . although I was a little sad to lose out on that new makeup. 

The One With the HUGE Wedding

Anyone who follows me on Facebook realizes that this last summer was a summer of weddings for our little family. Between three different wedding receptions of people in our ward (families and brides that we felt close enough with to push us to go to receptions), Uncle Jeff's wedding, and two more that are yet to be written about on the blog, we had six weddings we attended this summer. SIX! I think I'm broke at this point, especially since three of them were destination weddings that required a significant amount of travel.

Kidding.

But only kind of.

 

The second destination wedding that Eric and I went to was for his friends Bryan and Lisa. It was also the most extravagant wedding I have ever been to. Eric and Lisa were both hired at University of Phoenix at the same time and went to the two week training in Denver together. Bryan already worked for University of Phoenix. I remember Eric coming home from work for MONTHS saying how much he thought that two of his co-workers, Bryan and Lisa, should date because they are "perfect for each other". Imagine his surprise a few months after that when he finally go the guts to say it to one of them and found out that they had been dating in secret for many months!

 

Bryan left University of Phoenix after two other co-workers referred him to a job at Simplot where they both had left to work. Bryan then referred Lisa to a job in HR at Simplot, and then ultimately he referred Eric to his packaging manager job at the Nampa Simplot plant as well. Eric and Bryan even got to work together for a few months.

 

Back to this wedding though.

We were ecstatic when these two got engaged.

I don't even know them as well as Eric does and I was beyond excited for the two of them. They really are the perfect example of a loving and doting couple.

Their wedding took place in McCall, Idaho where Lisa grew up.

I spent a good portion of summers up there growing up as well since that is where my grandparents lived (who incidentally also worked for Simplot). The wedding was more of a wedding "weekend", and gave Eric and I the perfect time to getaway.

 

We dropped the kids off at my parents Friday morning (who happened to be sick with the flu but that's a whole other story) and drove the two and a half hours to McCall. Friday night was the rehearsal dinner so after we got all checked into our hotel Eric and I walked around McCall enjoying the beautiful weather and inevitably ended up at My Father's Place for milkshakes - you can't go to McCall in the summer without doing this.

Then we got ready for the rehearsal dinner. The wedding was rehearsed in the lower pavilion of the Shore Lodge. The room literally has an entire wall made of windows that opens up and you are right on top of the lake. It is beautiful. The room in general is so gorgeous you don't even need to do any decorating to it.

After the rehearsal was the rehearsal dinner on a bridge that had been dedicated to Lisa's father after he died. It was a beautiful location on top of a river, and the sentiment behind the location was amazing.

After the rehearsal dinner - which actually stuffed us full - Eric and I were craving Sushi. So we ended the night at a sushi restaurant overlooking the lake and the city. It was gorgeous!

Saturday morning part of Eric's groomsmen duties was participating in a round of golf with Bryan, his dad, and all the other groomsmen. I chilled at the hotel taking my time to get ready (seriously what a novel idea) and watching cheesy chick flicks. When Eric got back we went and had hamburgers and of course milkshakes at my Father's Place. Then we returned to get ready at the hotel for the wedding . . . . and Eric decided to brush his teeth.

The actual wedding was gorgeous. I didn't think there was much of a way you could get that room to look any prettier than it already did but somehow Lisa did it. The wedding was beautiful. I wish I had taken my camera instead of just my Iphone so I could prove to everyone how gorgeous this wedding was. Every detail was covered, every person looked flawless, it was magical. Being a plus one at the wedding while my husband was actually part of the wedding meant I got to be all by myself during the ceremony. Those who know me know I'm pretty shy so I was a bit worried about this before, but I ended up next to the wives/girlfriends of all the other groomsmen (don't know why that thought hadn't occurred to me before) and we became great friends.

After the ceremony we all went upstairs to an even more gorgeously decorated room for dinner. You can only imagine my surprise when I got the invitation two months before and realized we were actually attending a wedding where you had dinner choices at all, let alone dinner choices that were filet mignon or salmon. Dinner was delicious. The toasts were amazing.

One portion I have to share that literally brought me to tears.

Lisa's father died a few years ago in a plane crash with two of her nephews. If there is ever a time a girl misses her father it is at her wedding. I actually started crying when I saw this gorgeous bride stand up for her father/daughter dance and her grandfather came to dance with her. He was interrupted by her other grandfather, two uncles, Bryan's father, and a couple very close friends. I can only imagine the smile this must have brought to her father's face as he looked down from heaven - to know that although he could no longer be there, his youngest daughter was surrounded by strong men to protect and love her.

As if the wedding itself wasn't enough Sunday morning brought a full brunch with all the guests before they started their journey home. It was a beautiful wedding and a perfect weekend for Eric and I. It had been years since we had been away from our children overnight and we had never done it for two nights. Sometimes it's nice to remember that in addition to being Mom and Dad you are also husband and wife.