Birthdays & Anniversaries

June has been a busy month for us! It's pretty much always a busy month for us every year, as Brian and I celebrate our dating anniversary, his birthday, then our wedding anniversary all within three days (!) and then end the month with my birthday on the 30th - whew! This year was especially special because we celebrated our 5th wedding anniversary. And, get this - our first date night in over three years!!!! I know it sounds strange, but every time we've gotten a babysitter since Tristan was born, we've always met up with other people. We've never gone out by ourselves. But after Michelle offered to watch the kids for our anniversary, we decided that we definitely needed an alone date night. I really wish we would have gotten a picture to document this milestone, but completely forgot to take out the camera. We had a great time going to all the places in downtown Bend that we've always walked by (with the kids) and dreamt of visiting some night (as adults). We definitely have some new favorites and dream of when the next date night will be...hoping it's more like in three weeks instead of three years!!

Road/Work trip!

Brian had a work trip in southern Oregon this week which meant that we got to tag along to visit some of the beautiful places just south of us! On our way down, we stopped at Crater Lake for a few photo opps. I haven't been in a very long time - maybe 15+ years - but it was just as amazing as I remember it when we used to take family vacations down there.
And then after a quick trip there, we headed down to Medford for the night. Since Brian had business all the next day around the area, I did not have access to a car, so we had to find a spot where Brian could drop us off for close to eight hours. Eight hours with two kids without transportation sounded like a terrific idea at the time, but once we got there, we realized just how hard it would be. Luckily, I had gone to Ashland a few times when I was younger and remembered it being a quaint town with quite a few things to do. So after having dinner down there and scouting out possible things for the kids and I to do on our own, we came back the next day for our all-day adventure!

On our way with Teddy!


One of my new favorite photos. And if anyone knew me when I was teaching first grade, they would also recognize this bear. Teddy used to travel with me to different places so that I could take pictures of him to share with the class :)

We spent a lot of our time in Lithia Park, which is a huge park with a few playgrounds, many trails and lots of grass for the kids to run around. What we didn't anticipate was that there would be horrible weather while there. We were expecting 70/80s, but were greeted with 50s and rainy/thunderstorms. Yuck. Even harder when you're with two kids with no car and your hotel is 20 miles away. But we found lots of big trees that acted as cover from the rain along with the local coffee/ice cream/donut shops/restaurants and the library that helped us stay (somewhat) dry!


Oh, and another snafu that we encountered, was that we forgot our stroller - major oops!!! So finding a cheap umbrella stroller was a must, otherwise, not sure how I would have been able to chase around a one year old along with carrying a ginormous diaper bag all day!!

Tristan was also a big help and tried to help out with pushing his sissy if I needed a break :)

We even saw deer in the park. We were surprised at how close they let us get to them, especially in a park that has a lot of frequent visitors.
Another funny, but not-so-funny moment (reader alert - do not read if you have just eaten/about to eat/are eating - you've been warned!) was when we decided to take cover from the thunderstorm to go have lunch in a busy restaurant. Just as we were following the hostess to our seats, Tristan decided he'd show his disapproval for the place by throwing up all over the ground as well as himself. Oh, and right in front of a group of ladies who were in the middle of their lunches. And that was just halfway through our day. But he wasn't sick, it was a bad parenting move on my part. I spun him too hard and too long on a spinning toy at the playground. Not sure what was going through my head, but he was having so much fun that I wasn't thinking about the consequences of what could happen if you spin a three year old over and over again, repeatedly. I mean, we had a lot of time on our hands, so what else was there to do?? Luckily there were many helpful diners and employees who felt sympathy for our situation and jumped into action. I was mortified. After the embarrassment of cleaning up puke (and hoping fellow lunch patrons would not reenact the scene from Standy By Me), we left the restaurant and went back out into the monsoon. Since we still needed to find cover, we walked a few more blocks and found a little café and tried our luck again. This time everything was a-okay and I rewarded ourselves with ice cream :)
Overall, there were some hard moments, but for the most part it was a success! Not sure I would repeat it with the kids at this age again, but at least I can say we did it and it was an overall fun and memorable day :)

Portland trip - June Birthday Crew!

This past weekend, we ventured to Portland once again to visit family and friends. This time it was to celebrate the 14th anniversary of the June Birthday Crew! We also decided to celebrate the real Father's Day by going to the zoo. Such a fun weekend with some of our favorite people!!

Love, love, love these ladies!!

Bromance at its finest :)

Attempt at a Father's Day pic with the kiddos. There's always someone looking off to the side, and it's usually Brian!

It was a great day for animal viewing, especially the bears!

And another attempt...

It was a big deal when this little elephant was born about six months ago. We loved being able to see her for the first time!

All in all, a great weekend!!

Faux Father's Day :)

So today I totally got my Sundays mixed up and thought it was Father's Day! Oops!!! I'll blame it on the fact that I'm not teaching this year and am not clued into every single holiday like I usually am. At least we got this cute pic of the kids all dressed up on our way to brunch :) And Brian still got a card and a yummy breakfast out of the mix-up - not too bad for a faux Father's Day!

Pool Party!

As soon as June began, we have been blessed with beautiful weather. So nice, in fact, that we got to pull out Tristan's new birthday pool the other day. And it was also a good excuse to buy Talia a cute new swimsuit. Love the toddler bikini!

Tristan has been wearing these swim shorts since he was one and they still fit! Well, to clarify, they definitely did not fit him at one as they were almost down to his ankles. I love that I haven't had to buy him new shorts yet!

Love these action shots of Talia down the slide. This girl has no fear.

Sunbathing in diaper style.

Like father, like daughter. Pooped out after a fund day in the sun!

Springtime Adventures

Now that spring is in full effect, we have been taking advantage of the warmer weather by being outdoors as much as possible. And Bend definitely compliments that lifestyle! Here are some pics of our springtime adventures thus far:

Watching as Dad cuts the first grass of the season. No, I'm not kidding. That is another plus to living in the high desert - the grass only needs to be cut during the spring/summer months because it doesn't grow during the winter - what?? We were used to cutting our grass year-round west of the mountains!

Tristan also helping with the weed wacker. Helping with yard work is seriously Tristan's most favorite thing to do!

Not sure how smart this was, but apparently the tops of the trees needed to be cut and a ladder just wasn't going to work as well the top of the car. Don't try this at home, folks.

Don't blame me for this outfit choice. Obviously a Dad pick :) Getting ready for one of many bike rides!

Our weekly bike ride!

Biking over the Deschutes to the finish line of the PPP

Park adventures

Someone thought it would be an excellent idea to get a treat at Starbucks while mom got her coffee treat. Let's just say that a two hour walk along with two parks was needed to get this sugary treat out of our system!