March- Trip To Idaho

 Shortly after Josie left, I flew to Idaho.  Since Heidi couldn't get away to come see me, I brought myself to her! hahaha
We went shopping shopping shopping

Crocs jelly shoes- YIKES

How many licks does it take to get to the
center of a Tootsie Roll tootsie pop?

Does this mask make my nose look big?

IT'S SO FLUFFY!!!!!!

we let Ayla tag along shopping one evening.
She was trying on hats :)

Rachel and the girls came over in the evenings and we had lots of fun looking at old photo albums and laughing.  Love my sisters!

beautiful Rachel

I put celery in Maddie's flavored water

Lexi modeling silly nerd glasses

We were trying to see how many malt balls we could fit
into our mouths.
Clearly Josie is the winner!

Took Ayla to JumpStart one day.  Josie colored with
her while we waited for it to start.

Ayla loved dragging my carry-on bag around

Had to go visit Gus!

It was a wonderful visit!  Had so much fun with my sisters.  Love them all so much!

Catching Up Part 2: End of February

I have to share/brag about some of Skott's latest projects.
First:
We have a good friend who is English, so he LOVES his football (soccer).  His favorite hometown team is West Brom.  He is also very cheap and we always tease him about needing new footwear.  Skott came up with a great idea for his birthday:  custom painted Vans

started out rubbing the outline on from a traced logo

the bird

starting the lettering

Finished Project.  1878 is the year the team was founded.

back view

It was a fun project and we're really happy with the outcome!  Skott did a great job and Ginge LOVED them!
Then, Skott took an old drawer from a salvaged piece he got in Wisconsin, and made this tray for his niece for her college graduation. He did beach stone handles, since she graduated with a degree in Geology.

The last part of February, Josie came to visit!  Her boyfriend Dustin drove (yay, no car fires this time!) and she brought 9 month old Dozer (Great Dane/St. Bernard Mix).  The first day, it was sunny and beautiful.  Then, in typical Josie-visiting fashion, it was rainy and nasty the entire rest of the week they were here!

This is how he sits in your lap

I was too late getting my spot reserved in bed
(see the blurry tail wag?)

Second night, came home from work and completely lost my spot!

he LOVES Skott

and Bella LOVED him!

Barry and Teresa came down from Tacoma.  We had fun hanging out with them.  Went to the Tillamook Cheese Factory on Sunday: 

(it was raining)

Dozer found a dead starfish- YUCK

watching Skott cook

Newport

Some Strongbow Hard Cider  may or may not have been involved
in the circumstances behind this picture

Skott and Dozer Aug. 2013

Skott and Dozer 6 months later

Had a blast!  Love my sister!  Loved spending time with Barry, Teresa, and Dustin.

Catching Up: February

Preeettttty bad when you are so far behind on your blog that you have to catch up in monthly increments! Yikes!
With all that has been going on, I just had to give up some things.
Obviously, blogging was one of them.  (So was exercising and eating right but hey, we wont talk about that right now!).
So, picking up where I left off.....

First signs of spring:
crocus along the driveway

We found a new favorite restaurant in Newport:  The Noodle Cafe (every time I say that, in my head it's the voice of Mr Ping in Kung Fu Panda haha).  Anyways, a quaint little cafe with the best noodles:

Skott got the red curry noodles

I got some kind of seafood medley

drinks at Nana's afterwards

Cheers!

For a slightly belated Valentines Day, we went to Astoria, OR (about 2 1/2 hours north).  This is where I spent the summer as an intern in 2008.  I was eager to show Skott the town and all the places I explored.
We stayed at a fabulous old bed and breakfast up on the hill with a great view of the town.

There were deer in this lawn one morning

One morning we went up to the Astoria Column.

We hiked up these stairs:

They were spiraled so tight that we literally felt a little nauseous by the time we got to the top.

We went for a short hike after climbing the tower to calm our stomachs.  The light and moss and green colors were amazing!

a raindrop hit my eye at that exact moment

 Astoria is a very old town.  The majority of the town was destroyed by fire in the early 1900's, but there are some amazing buildings still!

all the garbage cans are vintage-like labels

Our favorite place was Fort George brewery, which was conveniently located about 5 blocks from where we were staying.  We were a few days late for their big "Dark Arts Festival" where they had something like 64 different stout beers on tap.  They still had a great selection left and we enjoyed sampling all the different ones.  Our favorite was one brewed with Mexican spices called Viva la Stout.

Did I mention it rained almost the entire time we were there?
This is us, bundling up before heading out into the downpour to walk back to B&B

One of the highlights of the trip was catching opening day for this new brewery:

 They are building in an old fish cannery/warehouse.  They have done AMAZING renovations, with more expanding continuing.  We were SO EXCITED to find these:

Yes, DEEP FRIED WISCONSIN CHEESE CURDS!  We haven't had deep fried cheese curds since we left Wisconsin.  Despite the fact that they cooked them too long and lots of the cheese had exploded out, we thoroughly enjoyed them!

It was a wonderful visit, despite the rain.  We had a great time exploring.  We had never stayed at a B&B before but this was a good experience.  We were the only ones there the first day, and the second day we shared breakfast with a fun couple from Portland.  We sat and chatted for almost two hours!  She is a special effects artist for "Portlandia" and "Grimm" so we had plenty of good conversation.  It was so refreshing to have real conversation, instead of the fluffy chit-chat we have at our jobs.

Already planning our next trip...... probably this fall.