35 and Holding!

It is only 11:00 a.m. and I don't know if my Birthday can get any better. Chris - thank you for making me feel so special. You are the best!

Chris got me the most beautiful diamond earrings and had them on the bathroom counter this morning when I got up. At about 10:00 this morning, three dozen red roses were delivered to my office complete with chocolates and a balloon! Oh my gosh! I've never seen so many roses in my life - they are so beautiful and my office smells great.

I was not looking forward to 35, but it has definitely started off on the right foot and it can only get better. This is my favorite Birthday so far :-)

Independence Day!

Another perfect weekend, and a good time was had by all! My Aunt Peggy and Uncle Mike were gracious enough to invite us down to Lake Oswego for the long weekend. Once we got through the traffic on Thursday evening, we found our weekend to be filled with laughter, wine, great food, dancing in Peg's kitchen and some more laughter - of course. Chris met my cousins Mike and Marie and their son Kyle. I can't believe how big Kyle is - what a great kid! He also met Aunt Peggy, Uncle Mike and my cousin Emily. Emily is 14 and is the most beautiful thing. She is definitely a product of her parents :-). Chris also met my Aunt Kathy and Uncle Rolen, my Aunt Carol and Uncle Eddie. My Aunt Joan was there as well, who Chris had already met. One familiar face I'm sure he was thankful for! Chris loved everyone and said he had a good weekend.

It was so great to just relax with everyone and spend time with them. This doesn't happen often enough. Friday morning, Chris, Marie, Emily and me went for a walk downtown Portland around the water. It was a great opportunity for me to catch up with Marie and Chris got to visit with Emily. Marie's mom is pretty sick so I wish her the best and will keep her family in my prayers. The afternoon was followed by a little shopping, a great lunch at McCormicks and a BBQ at Peggy and Mikes. Fireworks were put on by Emily, Chris and me, which was my favorite part of the night.

Saturday morning we all meandered around the Lake Oswego Farmer's Market. Chris and I had breakfast and strolled through looking at all of the vendor's goods. It was fun - we love markets! We decided to head home and returned to Remond around 4:00.

Peggy and Mike are such great hosts and have a beautiful home! Thank you so much for inviting us. We look forward to the next time we come down there. It's weekends like this that make me realize what a great family I have - they are SO fun!

Sunday we opted for a long walk in the morning to get some exercise before we headed to the Seattle International Beer Fest. The sun was out, the beer was plentiful and the company was my favorite. Chris and I spent the majority of the afternoon trying beers from all around the world and walking about the center listening to music. We ended our evening at the Matador in Redmond for some great Mexican food.

This and That

It has been a while since I have updated my blog. Only becuase there has been so many fun things happening. I need to take a few moments and write about them.

Three weeks ago we had a big birthday party for Natalie and Morgan. What a fabulous weekend it was. There friends from Wenatchee came and spent the weekend with them. They all had so much fun. I remember being that age, staying up late giggling and riding our bikes around. The party was on Saturday and the whole family was there, including my parents. It was great to have the families meet! As much fun as it was to have 4 girls around the house all weekend, we were tired when the weekend was over :-)

Last weekend was my sister's wedding shower! What a fun event for everyone. It was so great to see her SO excited. I had a great time and it was great to see everyone together. It was especially nice to meet Adam's mom (Janet), Grammy (Rita) and his sister (Karen). They are such gracious people and willing to lend a hand to help with anything.

This weekend will be just Chris and Joan. We are going to have a couple Birthday Beers with Melissa and Mark tonight. Tomorrow we are going to hike Annette Lake, which will be great. Jill and Tonya will join us - yippie. The rest of the weekend is up in the air. This is good as the next three weekends are pretty booked.

I also started Weight Watchers just over a week ago. God help me stick to this. So far so good. We will see how it is going a couple weeks down the road. It seems like a logical plan and I think if I stick to it I can get to my goal.

That is about it for now. The sun is out and I'm ready to start the weekend......

I hope this finds everyone laughing, loving and living!

Mary Turned 30!

My sister turned 30 this past Monday.

Chris and I were able to spend the weekend in Vancouver BC with Mary and Adam. We had the best time enjoying the beautiful city; restaurants, parks and of course the sunshine.

Happy Birthday Mary! I hope your thirties are as good as mine are. Thanks for letting us celebrate with you. We love you so much!

IT'S A GIRL!!!

Amy and Matt are having a baby girl! How absolutely fabulous will it be to have another Amy in this world!

I can see her now. She will have beautiful blonde hair with this sweet smile and will have the most pleasant nature about her, along with the patience of Job (no pun intended). She will have Matt's quick wit and logic . She will be happy, full of life and happiness like both Matt and Amy, as well as intellegent.

She will be the perfect package.

Congratulations Matt and Amy! I am SO excited for you!

Home again, home again, jiggity jig..........

Today was the first day back to work after having 8 days of total relaxation, no emails, no phones and no one asking you to do anything. I think our biggest decisions on vacation were to have a cerveza or a mai tai, lay on the beach or by the pool, do we walk down the beach to the north or to the south........................... Anyway, it is nice to be home safe and sound, be in our own bed and have the sun out in Seattle!

Our last couple days in Cancun were nothing but enjoying the sun by the pool, walking the beach collecting shells, a few more great meals and many more laughs and cervazes.

We were able to have Sunday to get things all taken care of prior to work on Monday. You know the drill - laundry, grocery shopping, checking the hundreds of emails. We finally broke away from the house at 2:30 or so and headed to Green Lake for a walk. How fun to go there - it has been a really long time and made me think of all the afternoons I have spent walking down there and around the lake. It's always very theraputic down there - whether you need it or not.

So Monday is over - the first day back. It was hard, as I was expecting the pool boy to be walking by my office around 10:00 asking if I wanted a mai tai. It never happened - ha!

Chris and I went for a bike ride tonight to enjoy the nice weather and then finished it off with dinner on the deck. It was a perfect evening.

I love my life!

After 5 Days in Cancun..............

It has been a fabulous and relaxing week thus far. We will enjoy a day by the pool today after spending a few days doing fun stuff around neighboring islands and downtown.

Monday we went for a long walk on the street side of the hotel (instead of the beach) just for some different atmosphere. The rest of the day was spent by the pool relaxing - again. We signed up for a few activities to do in the coming days as well. Monday night we went to Hacienda Sisal for a traditional Mexican dinner and show. The show featured Caribean dancers and an MC that sounded like Regis's older brother who just stepped out of Vegas. It was a very entraining evening.

Tuesday we had breakfast at the hotel - this has become a habit as it is so delicious :-) We went on a jungle tour with snorkeling at a reef that was called "Punta" something - I can´t remember, but we had a great time. There were ten of us in our group and each couple got on a Seadoo and went through lagoons, crossed the Caribean to get to this reef. The snorkeling was ok - the best I´ve seen in Mexico (but no comparison to Hawaii). Chris had never snorkelled before and either of us had ever seen a reef, so it was great. We swam around for about an hour and then headed back to Cancun. It was a fun time and something we both enjoyed and would do again. We went to Lorenzillo's for dinner - a favorite of mine and a place Adam recommended a few years ago. Dinner was excellent and so was watching the fish swim around while we ate. They also have their own lobster farm, so that was interesting to see. You can pick your own lobster out for dinner - go figure. Dinner was followed by a long stroll and a couple stops for a drink here and there and a couple games of pool.

Yesterday we went on a all day tour to Isle Maujez. We took a big boat to this island where there was a beach club. You could snorkel, sun bathe, sit in hamocks, swim, kayak or rent golf carts and take them around the island. Chris and I voted for the golf cart and drove around the island to see the way people live and just take in the views. At one end there was a lighthouse that is open and so we got to climb up to the top. It was beautiful. We got tons of pictures, so look for those in the coming days. The islands was disocvered by Spaniards in 1516 and is only about 7 miles long with a population of 15,000. We figured the livlihood was probably fishing. It also seemed that very rich Americans (and others) docked their huge boats there and just lived because of the cost. We headed back to the beach club for lunch and then a little sun. The boat left the beach club and took us to the other end of the island for some shopping. More locals trying to sell their goods. We were shopped out so we just walked around a bit and found a place to have a cerveza. So on this island we got 2 beers for $4.00 - now I know why some people live here - ha! Anyway, we boarded the boat and headed back to Cancun. They way back was a party and we continued that at the El Shrimp Bucket. Chris and I had a great dinner with too much shrimp and a couple margaritas. So far El Shrimp bucket has the best margaritas. We crashed early from a full day of touring and being in the sun.

Today will be lounging at the pool after breakfast and then we are headed out to find a place to watch the hockey game. Detroit needs to win one more in their series - yahoo!

I hope this finds you all well. We are totally enjoying ourselves and look forward to another day of relaxation.

Talk with you all soon.