walking in a winter wonderland.

So first I will apologize for not writing in the past week. I have been really sick but I am getting much better!

Needless to say the snow has been coming in Portland and boy is it beautiful. The weird thing is that the city is at sea level so we don't get snow where our apartment is, but on our way to work over the first hill it is immediately a winter wonderland. Of course working at a preschool is the perfect place for me to enjoy the snow!

Unfortunately, I forgot my camera on Monday and I remembered it on Tuesday but the snow mostly had melted. But of course that didn't stop us so we played in the slush!




I did remember to bring my camera today and we had about 3 inches in the West Hills.




With all the kids showing up at really odd times due to the condition of the roads, we decided to scratch our planned academics and have a fun day.

So we made pudding.

All of the kids got a chance to mix, beat, and stir. I think it took all the discipline they had not to eat it right then and there.




Then we bundled up and buried our pudding in the snow. (To adults this seems silly, why not just put it in the refrigerator? But, to the kids it was awesome. They were so excited the snow got to be a part of their "cooking" experience.)

"We gotta make sure it's very very cold."


The pudding is in there somewhere!

And while we waited for the pudding to set, we had snowball fight! Some of my kids really have arms on them!

This is Max (in the blue coat) chasing Teacher Stephanie with a snow ball.

Hailey throwing a snow ball at me. That would be the snowball in the top left corner.

"Teacher Erin look how big this one is, you are going to get it!"

The kids discovering snow sticks.

Finian (in the red and blue coat) chasing Teacher Stephanie with a huge snowball.

Uncovering our pudding to take back inside for lunch.

My class hungry for chocolate pudding!

We ate our pudding with our lunch and the kids loved it! I think it tasted better because it was buried in snow. Not only did they eat it but they wore it too!


Aside from a million runny noses and a couple hours in borrowed clothes (while their wet clothes went in the dryer) we really had a great day! If only everyday could be this fun!

I hope everybody has been enjoying life as much as I have!

Rick unfortunately has not. In his industry, snow makes life a little bit more difficult since he drives such a large machine. I did ride in it for the first time last week and boy is it crazy. I felt like big foot being that high off the ground, especially since on the ground I am used to everybody being taller than me (well minus all the munchkins I teach!) But other than that, he is loving Oregon as much as me. He won't admit it but I think he is a little bit jealous I get to play all day!

We love you all!

Love,
your covered in snow oregonians.

the beauty of oregon.

I don't have much to report, we are keeping it pretty mellow. I think we are going to go on a hike this weekend so we will have much more to show you guys, but in the meantime...

I woke up this morning to a phone call from Rick telling me to go check out Mt. Hood...

And this is what I saw...


And although the pictures don't do it complete justice, I still thought they were worth sharing. I guess we can still see the sun rise on the West Coast. Looks like we have a lot more beauty to look forward to!

Hope this finds all well and happy.

Love,
your beautified oregonians.

back to the grind.

We had a very nice visit with Bryan, it was just a really quick weekend! Unfortunately, I was not very good about keeping my camera on me so I only have one picture.


Can you tell we are related?

Our next adventures will be hiking as we don't have any scheduled visitors and/or trips until April. Rick and I are going to pick up some hiking guides this week so we can start checking out more of our new state. I will be sure to take lots of pictures!

Hope this finds everybody happy and well.

Love,
your adventurous oregonians.

quick update.

GREETINGS!

We have settled into our schedules since our latest traveling-fool adventure. It is nice to sit back and focus on work. I have made a few connections with some families around Portland to try to start babysitting on the weekends as well. I think it will give me something else to kill the redundancy of adult life (not that we are at all bored with our fabulous life yet... I am just thinking ahead!)

My brother flies in tomorrow night for a weekend visit. We don't really have much planned, probably going to drink some Oregon wine and maybe do a sight-seeing. We are going to leave it up to Bryan since we live here and he has never been here.

Other than that we really have nothing exciting to report. We are working on getting things in order for the wedding which is coming along slowly but surely! (Mom and my sister, Kaira are doing a great job of keeping me on track!)

Rick and I are still in shock that our next Christmas together will be as a married couple! We really can't believe its less than 7 months away! It's pretty intense being an adult! My preschoolers still think cookies and milk for snack is intense!

Well, Rick and I will take many pictures this weekend so everybody feels like they are in Portland with us and my brother!

Hope this finds everybody healthy, happy and warm!

Love,
your well-adjusted oregonians.

Ps. I apologize for the excessive us of exclamation points but that is sort of how we feel!!!

who dat say dat bout dem tigas! x2

So... Where do I start...

This was by far the best trip we have ever been on. I wish I could explain to you every last detail of how much fun this was and I know it sucks to hear, but you really had to be there.

Every moment seemed like divine intervention from not being able to get reservations at our favorite restaurants, which forced us to try new places that we ended up loving more to running into Les Miles himself out to eat with his family (and being seated at the same table) all the way to winning the national title, the 2nd for LSU making LSU the first school with 2 crystal footballs and the first team with 2 losses to make it all the way.

I went through our millions of pictures and try to pick out the best. I think most of the photographs are pretty self-explanatory but I will add captions to those I don't think are.

I hope everybody really enjoys looking at all of our lovely photographs because we loved taking them!

Love,
your blessed oregonians.



We had a 4 hour layover in Atlanta because our first flight was late. We ended up being there for the early hours. Apparently, God really wanted us to see the majesty of his touch.



Nobody forgot their Redskins gear for the 1st playoff game. It didn't go so well, but that isn't the point!







This deli had a helmet for almost every team and traded it from the tigers mouth based on who the tigers were playing. If you can't tell this is a buckeye helmet.














This Bryan and his Oakley boss, Ryan. He fit in quite nicely.
















We were celebrating a touchdown! That is me dancing.




The final seconds of the game wind down as the team runs onto the field with a victory.





Matt Flynn holding the crystal football.