Holiday Fun

This year Thanksgiving was spent with the Parry family in Washington. Instead of a white Christmas (seeing as how Christmas was on the beach in Hermosa with the Bells) we had a white Thanksgiving. As much fun as that was to play in and build an enormous snowman, it ruined football. So instead, we pulled out Henry's black powder gun and had some fun with that. Kyren and his sillyness also kept us entertained (yes, that green blur in that blurry motion shot is a flying Kyren, Jordan and Eldon had fun throwing him across the room, and he loved it too).

In December we headed south to California to enjoy a sunny Christmas. There we made gingerbread houses (the purple Dots and toothpick contraption in our driveway is the car Eldon made), put together puzzles, played games and read our favorite Christmas books with the whole family, visited Fraizer park to take Jered to the snow for his first time, and of course, had our Murder Mystery dinner. Just like Kyren entertained us for Thanksgiving, Jered stepped up and kept us laughing through Christmas and New Years.

Kimi just got tougher

As you all know, we recently got Kimi a handgun; a H&K P30 9mm. Here are a few pictures.

One Year

Wow, one year goes by so fast. Neither one of us can believe we have already been married for one year. Sorry I didn't post this sooner but I think that within a couple of weeks is good for me. So here are pictures of our trip up to Seattle to celebrate our First Anniversary.
 
This was our ferry ride to Bainebridge Island where we had lunch, walked around the old downtown area and went in different shops. It was super windy on the boat and did a number on my hair.

This was the huge rock fish that Eldon got for dinner- they said it was a whole fish but we didn't realize it would be so big...and sitting up looking at us- Gross

Here are a few shots from dinner at the restaurant at the top of the Space Needle- It rotated so I took a picture every few minutes and got a shot from all angles... unfortunately we forgot the camera in the car at the hotel so they were taken on my phone. We were there at the perfect time to catch a beautiful sunset, and everyone knows that sunsets over the ocean are my favorite thing ever.

Seattle City Center and Pike's Market

Here's the Latest

So I apologize for not keeping up with the blog, I'm a horrible slacker and don't even have a good reason for falling so far behind. Maybe it's because there hasn't been a whole lot going on. Eldon and I still like Hillsboro and think it's a great place to live. Eldon, however, is now in Arizona for the next six months on work assignment. They needed him to teach the new software to the employees in Phoenix. So he is melting out there in the desert, but says he is enjoying it. He found a nice apartment and is renting furniture for it. It's a bummer not having him around but with the amazing technology we have now, we can Skype and see each other while we talk. So it's not too bad, we are surviving.

I, on the other hand, have started classes at Washington State University Vancouver. I'm a Cougar too now! I had to change my major from Math Education to K-8 Education which is kinda lame 'cause now, since elementary school teachers have to teach ALL subjects, I have to go back and learn ALL the subjects. I have to take 3 more sciences, a geography class, music, history etc. So my graduation date has been pushed back but think of all the extra stuff I get to learn. I will also be starting classes on Sept. 20 at the local community college, Portland Community College to get some extra credits outta the way. At WSU I am taking Anthropology and World Civilization and at PCC I will be taking Fundamentals of Music and Geography. I am pretty excited to be back in school and on my way to getting my degree!

My Beehives are awesome! They are a ton of fun and I love them. Last Saturday we kidnapped the new beehives and had a big breakfast with all the Young Woman. It was pretty fun and the girls had a good time. We also all went out on the lake last week. We had a boat and a Sea-Doo to play with. That was my first time on a Sea-Doo and I loved it, they are so much fun. One girl didn't think I could make her fly off..... needless to say she doesn't doubt me anymore. On the down side, the Sea-Doo did run out of gas while we were out there. Luckily 12 year old girls are loud enough to catch the attention of...well everyone around but most importantly the driver of the boat that was with us. They were able to tow us back to the dock. The two girls that were on the Sea-Doo with me had a big laugh out of it.

Other than that, not too much is going on. I'll try to be better at adding posts and keeping ya up to date.

The Newest Oregonians

A month in Oregon and we're not running away yet. So far we are loving it here in Hillsboro. We are just about 20 minutes west of Downtown Portland so we get all the advantages of the city without actually being in it. Besides, we have everything we could possible want surrounding us just blocks away so it's not like we need to go into Portland for things, just entertainment purposes. Our home is comfy and fits us well. We both love having the garage downstairs and can't wait to save up enough money to start a miniature workshop in it. We have one bedroom upstairs with the bathroom and -one of my favorite parts- the washer and dryer. Eldon is still loving his work and enjoys every second of it. He is excited to be learning new things and meeting new people (the other day he even went to lunch "with the fellas"). I am working only four hours a day as a math tutor for two of our Bishop's kids. It's fun and good practice for when I start teaching so I'm enjoying it.

We had the chance to go see the Oregon coast, about an hour away from where we live. Below are some pictures of the fun we had in Astoria (the place where the Goonies was filmed). However like most days in Oregon, it was dreary and wet, but we still had a great time. We went up to an old lighthouse called The Astoria Column -at the top of which was VERY windy-, and to the Columbia Maritime Museum all about the ships that have to cross the Bar (which is apparently where the Columbia River meets the Ocean and when the two bodies of water meet, it gets pretty gnarly. Crazy rough waters and winds and huge waves. Just to cross you have to have a special captain trained in crossing the Bar.) We had a fun day and are excited to see more of what Oregon has to offer (I've been told there is pretty decent surf, I'm just not sure I'm willing to freeze to experience it).

Our ward is the Rock Creek Ward and it's pretty big, yet Bishop was able to find us after only a week or so and give us callings. I am the Beehive's adviser in Young Women and Eldon is the Decon's adviser in Young Mens. We start going to mutual this Tuesday so we'll see how that goes, but we both really excited- we keep coming up with fun things and ideas to teach or do with our youth.

So....so far so good here in Oregon.

Here is our day at the coast...