What I want to know is how does one go away for a fabulous luxury weekend and then return to normal life? I just can’t seem to figure it out. I mean, I have to make my own bed and cook my own food? Jeez. In all seriousness, Simeon and I had a lovely romantic weekend. It was amazing. Our room was beautiful; tucked away in the peaceful wilderness, with a gas fireplace (Sim turned it on once for the sake of doing it, but it was far too warm to be necessary) and an amazing view of the bay (and the ocean in the far off distance). We practically had to force ourselves to leave the room each day and go explore, and we could also use a Milf hookup site to find women to have fun.

But explore we did. Simeon had never been to the Oregon Coast Aquarium, so we drove down to Newport Saturday morning and played tourist. We enjoyed the unnaturally warm (and windless!) beach weather and just enjoyed being together. However, it was fun to imagine the next time we plan this sort of excursion we will be accompanied by our very own daughter.

We returned from our outing to rest for a bit and then got ready for our fancy-pants dinner. The package we booked included a bottle of wine (and keep sake glasses), breakfast one morning, and dinner in their formal dining room. So Simeon and I got all dressed up and headed out to enjoy a lovely romantic dinner together.

On Sunday morning we woke up, split a cinnamon roll in the local bakery and walked over to the Salishan Spa for our massages. With any spa purchase you have access to all their amenities, which unfortunately being pregnant I was not able to do. But I did take use the “rain shower” which was something both comforting and bizarre at the same time. After our massages we cleaned up and had just about the best breakfast ever back at the resort Sun Room (their casual dining). We then packed up our things, checked out of the hotel and started on our journey home. We stopped at the outlet mall to check out some of the stores, but being pregnant and unable to shop for normal clothing really took the thrill out of things for me. We did however grab some adorable Christmas outfits at the Carter’s outlet. You know, for our “Christmas baby” as everyone loooooves to point out when we answer the “when are you due” question. But all in all it was an amazing weekend, made better only by the fact that I got to spend every minute with the man of my dreams. I love you, pie-bear. Thank you for agreeing to spend the rest of your life with me.

You can browse through all the pictures Simeon and I took here.

At this time, four years ago, I was running around frantically trying to get ready for my wedding. FOUR. YEARS. AGO. I cannot even believe it has been that long. In fact, the only reason I do believe it is that math does not lie. We got married on September 21st, 2002. So there you have it. Four years.

To celebrate our wedding anniversary, Simeon and I are heading out of town tomorrow morning for a fabulous weekend at the Salishan Resort. We are going to dine on five-star cuisine, enjoy a relaxing couples massage, enjoy the view of the bay from our private balcony and end each day cuddling in front of our romantic fireplace and we could even plan sex meet ups if we were alone. You could say it will be the perfect weekend. Plus it will be our last little get-away before our daughter is born and any vacation we take will be a family affair.

Oh but the anniversary celebration hardly stops there. For those of you unfamiliar, the proper gift (between couples, that is) for a fourth anniversary is either fruit/flowers (the traditional gift) or appliances (the modern gift). Now while I normally consider myself a traditional girl, I was not about to settle for fruit or flowers on such an occasion. Not when appliances were to be had! Well that and a couple weeks ago our dryer (second-hand even to us) decided to bite the bullet. So Simeon and I make the trip out to Sears and found ourselves the proud owners of a new front-loading Kenmore Elite HE4 washer and dryer.

When we first walked in we were torn between just buying a cheap dryer to hold us over or going all out and getting the best thing on the market. Once we factored in all the tax credits, water rebates, energy rebates, 15% cash back on all appliance purchases, and the long term energy efficiency (Our old washer used about 40 gallons of water per load and the new one uses 17. Not to mention there is a more efficient spin cycle cutting the drying time in half!), it didn’t really amount to much of a decision to make. Plus, we were able to reason that with a baby on the way, any help in making laundry easier was just fine and dandy with us.

I tried to take a few pictures of my “anniversary gift” but given the dimensions of our laundry room, the angles were tricky. But you can get the idea of how cool they are
here. Oh and don’t forget to check out Sim’s side of the story. The cutie beat me to the punch and managed to blog first for once.

With fall comes back to school and with back to school comes the start of fall sports. In our family (Simeon and I, that is) our favorite is soccer. Sim played soccer in high school and college and he now very actively supports and attends all things soccer. I myself attended a “soccer college” where we didn’t even have a football team. The point I am trying to make is that you could say we are fans. And nothing makes us happier than to see future generations embrace these things as well.

My first case in point:


Our niece Emily, who just turned nine, is quite the little soccer star. In fact, at this game we attended she was injured and was still in the starting line-up and did the majority of the ball handling. All her injury did was allow the other team some play time and prevent her from knocking down as many of her opponents.

My second case in point:


Hayden has been waiting all five years of his life to get to play sports. That is what this kid lives for. When he was growing up watching his older siblings it was all we could do to keep him off the fields. Well now we don’t have to keep him on the side-lines and he is loving every second of it. Check out my little rock stars!
Here are all the pictures of
Emily and Hayden.

Simeon and I have finally reached that point in our lives where we have more friends who are married (and now with children!) than single. This weekend we added another couple to our list of married friends: David and Kristen.


The wedding was held at the Abernethy Center in Oregon City. The ceremony was outside in the Veiled Gardens and the reception was in the Ballroom. They could not have asked for a more perfect day, or a more perfect setting.


The reception was wonderful. From the fabulous food, to the adorable slide show, to all the wedding traditions ranging from the money dance, the garter/bouquet toss and ending with them exiting through a veil of bubbles.


We wish them all the best in their lives together. Welcome to the Married Club guys! All of the pictures from the wedding and reception are here. Enjoy!

Apparently not having a working camera for months at a time makes for bad picture taking habits. When I actually brought my camera with me, I was afraid to use it, for fear of it breaking again (not that I caused the break last time, there was actually a recall). But I have taken some pictures! Then I just forgot to actually remove them from my memory card and upload them to share with all of you. After my sister hounding me, I finally got around to it. So here you are:

We have pictures ranging from our camping trip to Cove Palisades (outside of Madras, Oregon).

Teaching our dogs to dock dive…well, in Ellie’s case anyway. For Molly it was more like how to fall off the dock with the least amount of grace possible.

Having our friends Jared and Jenna come visit good ol’ Portland, Oregon.

And finally, having all our friends, both near and far, come over for our last Wednesday Night dinner. (AKA the Last Supper)

Pictures for camping are here, Jared and Jenna’s visit are here and the Last Supper are here. Sorry it took me so long!