A PLACE OF JOY (refer to the bottom picture)

For MY SISTER'S BIRTHDAY (yes, that's right...her birthday, not mine) she got me a plane ticket to come see her for the weekend! Now, time for my cheesy post. I HAVE THE BEST SISTER IN THE WHOLE WORLD. Here are of few of the reasons that she is the best: She always knows how to cheer me up. Whenever I get sad JP tells me to call Hollie because he knows she can make me happy. She is the most thoughtful and generous person I know and doesn't want/expect anything in return. She gives me presents and surprises like crazy and will threaten me with my life if I ever try to pay her back. She won't even take an hour of babysitting for free, (that's kind of messed up, I know) and I LOVE babysitting her kids. She is the funniest person ever. I could write a book about her all-time funniest moments because there are so many. I would list a few, but I'm not sure she'd be very happy with me :) She is very protective of me and everyone else she loves (hence her awesome comments on my blog). She is an amazingly talented dancer and cares about each one of her students. She really invests time, energy, and interest in those girls and they all love her. She is an awesome mom and has the coolest kids. She is crazy busy, but will make time for anyone who needs it. I could go on and on forever, but I'll save that for a rainy day (there are a lot here, so it won't be too long!). I hope you had a Happy Birthday! I love you!!!

I'm a little bit of an obsessed aunt, and it was sooo fun to see the kids. Libby and Hollie have the same birthday, so it was a combined celebration with the fam.









Libby got her first real manicure and pedicure. She's starting young!





The kids were as cute as ever and it was so good to see my family. For the Utah family and friends I didn't get to see, please don't hate me! I really didn't have very much time.


Believe it or not, I did not post every biking picture we have ever taken. I guess I'm a little camera happy and we are a little one-dimensional in our hobbies. JP and I slid and fell at the exact same time. He stood up and asked me how I fell at such an easy spot and he was serious (it was very dark, steep, and muddy), so I asked him the same question :) I'm frowning because I'm covered in mud and JP is examining the damage.





A little fun with iphoto. I think I'm going to frame these and hang them next to each other. They will fit right in with the rest of our overly colorful apartment.




A view of Mt. Adams and Mt. Rainier. We could also see Mt. Hood and Mt. Saint Helens. The other side was the coolest view I've ever seen (way prettier than this), but our camera stopped working. JP and I could not believe how pretty it was. We went on a 28 mile ride in Hood river with some guys JP met. I thought I was going to puke by mile 2, but managed to finish alive. It was sooo beautiful!

Moments before we got robbed :(

The lone rider. He's pretty lonely without his crew!

These pictures were just taken yesterday. Can you believe everything is so colorful in November? This was our first official ride in the pouring rain. It's about triple the workout on the uphill and pretty muddy! I should've taken before and after shots cause we were covered in mud.


I thought JP was going to make a goofy face because he always does, but look who's the goofy one now!





Just before the downpour of rain. I LOVE all my headbands Kelene (I don't know if you ever look at this)Thanks again!

The sign above him says, "A Place of Joy". We both thought that was pretty funny, but we did have a joyous time.

Mean trick without a treat :(

Last night we went up the canyon for one last refreshing bike ride before the rain starts coming. We had a pretty good ride, but when we got back to the car we found that someone had broken in and stolen our phones, JP's wallet, his sound system, i-pod, and xm radio (not that we needed all that to begin with, but it still hurts and we had a lot of info/pictures on our phones). JP kept saying that he was sure he locked the doors, but I was having a hard time believing him until we realized the meanie buppet (that's for you, Lor) sneaked (not snuck, that's for you Liz), into the back of the truck and smashed the windows in :( I lost all my contacts, soooo (that's for you, Alison) if you could please call or text me and let me know who you are, you might just get lucky enough for me to call you back... someday.

Don't forget to call or text me!!!

These sunflowers are all over the place. I think they're so pretty.

Happy crabbers! Do you think JP is sick of having his picture taken? He is so photogenic!

JP is really lucky and works with some pretty awesome people. Last week one of his co-workers took us crabbing. We caught tons of crab, but most of them were too small to take. The crabs we are holding were vicious and ripped each other's legs off. JP was scared to pick them up, but I wasn't! It was an overcast day and it started pouring rain. Good thing I am married to Mr. gear guy himself because we were more than prepared and we had an awesome time. His motto is, "You just gotta have the right gear." So true. Luckily, I think it's really pretty when it's overcast here and there's still a lot to do when it rains.







My dad actually mailed us our conference bowling game presents. Can you believe that? I had to take pictures because I have never been away from my family since the existence of the bowling game, and I had to prove to my dad that we held our own. Our set up was pretty pathetic considering we don't have a yard, we couldn't find a ball, and we used coolers and duffel bags in place of buckets. It just not the same without the family, but we managed to have fun. Thanks for the prizes dad! And yes, I do realize I look just like Carmen San Diego in this picture and should probably say goodbye to that hat.

There is a nature preserve park right next to where we live. It is beautiful. We love to go on Sunday walks there.

JP and I went to Portland to see the Matchstick Productions ski movie Claim. It was really good this year. After the movie they told us to stick around because Sweatshop Union was playing. I was pretty excited because we didn't even know they were going to be there until after the movie (this is one of Josh's favorite bands), and only about 20 people stayed to hear them play. I took this picture so I could mail it to Josh, and if we had a camera other than our phones it might have even been decent. I was loving it, but JP was really tired (he has to wake up around 4:30) so we only stayed for a couple of songs. As you can see, the next day I made him listen to them and have our own little dance party with the dogs. They make great dance partners!

HELP!

Something is wrong with me! No matter how hard I try, I cannot make chocolate chip cookies. If you have a good recipe (or some secret tricks) PLEASE TELL ME! It will be OUR little secret :)

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.