5 short years and look how far we've come!

This year Aaron and I celebrated our 5 year anniversary. I honestly can't believe it's been another year for us, I swear with every child you have time moves by twice as fast! So far I have been pregnant 3 out of our 5 anniversaries! ha ha ha. It has been 5 years of work, school, moving, babies, mini road trips, and so much more.

We have been so blessed in our marriage. We have two beautiful little boys and another one on the way, we all have our health, and we even though we are so far away from home we are surrounded by wonderful friends who have become like family. It has een an adventure and there is no one I would rather experience it all with than my sweet husband, Aaron.
This year for our anniversary Aaron planned a night away, just the two of us! We were gone for about 30 hours in which time we ate A LOT, slept, A LOT, and played A LOT! It was so fun to spend time together with no kids, no friends, and no agenda. We did whatever we wanted whenever we wanted and it was heaven! We stayed at a great hotel right on the water in a beautiful room with the comfiest bed!

We walked around downtown, wandered through Powell books and then went out for a Delicious dinner. I loved not having to plan anything out, it was the best gift poy could have given me : a weekend away with all the decisions made for me, WOO-WHO!
I love this man! Thank-you for always exceding my expectations, you really are a perfect match for me, love you.

Red Rover Red Rover we call summer over!

We've had a bit of nice-ish weather here in Portland and we have been taking full advantage!Our first sunny day Lynz and Michelle took the boys and were off to the Zoo. I have been a little sick in my first bit of pregnancey and they thought it might be nice for me to have a few hours child free. TAHNK-YOU ladies!!!! What a nice little break it was.

Our friend Michelle is a great photographer, check her out here: www.michellecervophotography.com, so she took along her camera and got these fantastic shots. THANKS CHELLE!










Aside from the Zoo we have also been playing outside, chillin' in the hot tub, and of course riding bikes.


I told Lynz not to get me in any pictures but she did anyways, so here it is my everyday stay at home Mom look. Laugh if you must.

Jay Jay

This is my cousin Jay.

He is like a brother to me and in fact I think I might know him better than I know a few of my brothers, ha ha ha! He is such a great guy and I we were so excited to find out that he was coming to Portland for 6 whole days! Of course it wasn't all play he was here for a conference in which he presented his thesis, AHH!!! But he did GREAT and we were able to spend the evenings together as well as Thursday Friday.

First we hit up the Temple. We went with all the kids and new we wouldn't have time to go in but we wanted to spend time on the Temple grounds but when we got there this is what we found:
bummer! So we just had to enjoy from outside the fence.

After our adventures outside the Temple we hit up the tram. This was actually my first time on the Tram as well and it really is a great view from the top!
THIS IS MY CITY!



Just a side note. AJ got this weater from Grandma Tolman for Christmas and he loves it be he INSISTS on rolling it up like this everytime he wears it. I tried telling him it looks silly, rolling it down in a sneaky way, and even saying it could wreck his favorite sweater but nothing works. He just keeps rolling it up, oh well! Dust and Jay took the older boys and hit up the falls. Jay love nature and agriculture and we new he would love getting out and seeing some of what Portland had to offer nature wise.



We also went to Voodoo doughnuts and Powell books, two of my favorite Portland hot spots! It is always fun to have people visit but I especially enjoyed showing Jay around my favorite city in the USA. So glad you came to visit, next time bring your family! Love ya Jay.

Bounce House

We can't really afford on of those cool castles or giant animals that you can inflate and let your kids bounce around in but every now and then we like to fake it. That's right, we pull out our plain old 4 man tent, blow up the air mattress, and wait for a collision.



Not ecven our "bounce house" can pull Miles away from Toy Story 3, what a TV zoner he is! After all the kids had taken a sufficent beating we sent them home and had family movie night in the tent. See how much fun life as poor students can be!

OMSI

We have heard so much about the Oregon Museum of Sciens and Industry (OMSI) but with all the parks, the childrens museum, indoor park, the pool, and our Zoo pass we just never found the time or money to get over to OMSI. Recently Ashlee called to see if we wanted to go check it out with her and her boys, Ben and Luke, since her pass would get us all in free. So off we went!

It was a lot diffrent then I thought it was going to be, cool museum exhibits but also a exploration room for all the younger kids. It was great, I think the boys could have stayed their all day! Here's some of the things they found to play with.