The beach and biking

I thought I would throw in the first 3 pictures because JP proposed to me exactly 4 years ago today and our first date was exactly 5 years ago. He proposed on the top of Timpanogos and Che was carrying the ring in his little doggy backpack (you can see him in the background). I would say that even after all this time we still make a pretty good couple ;) JP teaches me to be adventurous, have fun, love life, and be carefree... and I teach him how to worry/stress, and deal with an emotional train wreck-me. Pretty fair trade, huh? I'm just glad we can meet in the middle (most of the time) and share our ups and downs, smiles and frowns, and worries and adventures together!


The quality of the pictures is pretty bad because I dropped the camera and broke it the day before we moved out here. JP still manages to take some pretty cool pictures. This fun trail is really close to our house. What do you think of my pink socks all you pink haters?

Another pretty shot. Can you find JP in this picture?

On Monday we went biking and ran into a man who was probably about forty years older than us. He asked us if he could show us some trails and then he smoked us! I couldn't believe how fit he was or maybe it should be how unfit I am?! He was good and fast. It got pretty dark and he kept on cruisin. Unfortunately, I did not. I went down a pretty steep drop off and before I knew it I was face down in the dirt with my bike over my head. OUCH! My ankle is huge and I have bruises and scabs covering my body. Yikes! I know what you are all thinking...what's new, right? This day was probably the best day of my week, seriously.

We went camping with some new friends Jake and Julie a couple of weekends ago (thanks for the hookup LTB). They were kind enough to let us AND the dogs crash at their cute house the night we arrived in Oregon and eat all their food. JP still hasn't stopped talking about the delicious banana cream pie Julie made. We had lots of fun and made lots of plans for future weekend getaways! We went on a really cool hike to see different waterfalls and beautiful overlooks. Jake brought a camping kitchen and cooked delicious meals.



Beautiful scenery and an awesome dude. I love this picture.

These little biking bridges are all over the place. They are fun to ride.

JP took this picture because he is amused by my OBSESSION with picking and eating delicious wild blackberries. The dogs love the blackberries too, but there are lots of thorns and they have a hard time getting to the blackberries without help. JP's new quote is, "Give a Che or Bode a blackberry and you feed him for a day. Teach a Che or Bode how to pick a blackberry and you feed him for a lifetime."

More mountain biking pictures, but I couldn't leave them out. There is a mountain bike park in Falls City and it is amazing. It has trails, stunts, and jumps for beginners to experts. JP and I are excited to get a little better in this new world of tricks.



Look at that sweet air! Remember, I'm still learning...and suprisingly no, I did not end-o.

This teeter totter was harder than it looks. When you get to the top it drops down and you roll off.




We love going to the coast and this day was pretty much perfect. After biking in Falls City we took the dogs to the beach. Bode had never been and took a big bite out of the sand thinking it was snow. It was so funny! We watched the kite surfers and shared a pizza on the beach. We REALLY want to try kite surfing, but even to rent the gear is SO expensive. Maybe someday. Then we split 3 scoops of icecream: bubblegum, cotton candy, and lemonade. YUM!






Che and Bode on the drive to Oregon.

5 slideshows? What am I doing? I really wish I knew, but I spent sooo much time uploading these pictures to Picasa to create a collage and I couldn't figure it out and this is the only way I could get the pictures out of there :)

My cute family had a going away party for JP and me (Katie, Nate, Kelene, Jill, and Sean moved away too), but we just really love ourselves (that's why I'm in EVERY picture) so the party was for US. Really though, I am so glad we got to party with so many people we love one last time before we moved to Oregon. Although I had so much fun, it made me realize even more how hard it was going to be to leave!! And hard it was. Chase and Libby were so cute and cried, so Indie said, "Bye Ber, I love you and I will miss you and I'm crying too" as she rubbed her eyes and pretended to cry. Everything about the move sucked and went wrong, but we made it. We are here...I don't really know what to think about it...and I get lost every second...and I feel like I don't have a clue what's going on because I have THREE bosses to report to...but we did have a very fun labor day weekend and I will post pictures later. We miss you all (uh-oh, tears are coming. When did I turn into such a wuss?) That's all for now!

PS sorry we don't have pictures of every who came. We tried.

We took a trip to Oregon by the way of the coast with Jon, Shelby, and Owen to have fun and find a place to live. It was beautiful, we had lots of fun, and we got an idea of where we might live. We had to stop at the Salt Flats to see if "our" sign was still there and it was! I think we did a better job of covering up James and turning it into JP this time. I never knew about the white sand dunes here. They are pretty awesome. The Redwoods were cool too. JP and I got a lot of ideas for future weekend trips! Everything was crazy green (you don't have to remind me that it's going to rain for nine months straight. I know.) You should all come out to visit!



We got to go to Newport Beach, CA with JP's family (minus 7 because Miles and Barb couldn't come this time) just before we moved. Katie and Nate came too! It was extremely relaxing. I don't think I even read one book during college/grad school, so I made up for it on the beach and read around 3,000 pages. Yep. Kes bought Twilight for me, so I can finally join the club. I still need to read the next 3. The rest of the time was spent doing the usual: longboarding to the pier to get frochobanas, donuts, and crabcooker, body boarding, body surfing, pleasure craftin', and cooking ourselves in the sun. We had perfect weather the whole trip and gorgeous sunsets. The dolphins liked to swim past us everyday too. It was pretty much perfect. It was fun to see Reyn, (and Heidi and Sam, of course) he's getting so big! Aubrey was a little daredevil on her body board, and little Rylee was the dancing/singing queen. Nieces and Nephews are the best!


All the girls in my family and all the nieces and nephews (minus Haven) went to Thanksgiving point to see the animals, ride the ponies, and play in the water. They are all such cute little picture posers (just never at the same time). It helped to break up the craziness of packing and it was so fun to see these little guys play with each other.



We also went to a family reunion in Swan Valley, Idaho with my mom's side of the family. It was a smaller reunion than most, but we had fun rafting/floating down the river, boating, playing games, bonding with the cousins, and horseback riding.