Eighth Anniversary Celebration(s)!

This year, our anniversary seemed to be the "anniversary that just kept on giving." For some reason, we ended up celebrating multiple times...all fun, small ways, but celebrations nevertheless.

For my gift to Kyle, I gave eight gifts to him over the eight days leading up to our anniversary. The first were the eight heart-shaped love notes on our bedroom wall. Other days it was eight mini-candy bars hidden all over the house, eight cards made by the kids, eight different "junk food" presents, eight text messages, etc. All small things, but once Kyle knew what I was doing, he had something to look forward to each day, wondering what the next eight surpises were. The kids really got into it and were so excited to know what the gifts were when Kyle didn't. (And they actually did really well at keeping it a secret!)

On our actual anniversary, August 2nd, we got a babysitter and went out to dinner to a nice restaurant here in Salem. And Kyle shocked me by buying me a new wedding band! When he was going to propose eight years ago, he wanted me to choose my own ring, yet still wanted a ring with which to propose. So he bought a simple band with several small diamonds in a run across the top. When I ended up choosing my wedding ring, I decided I still wanted to wear the band he had given me when he proposed, so I chose a wedding ring to match. Ever since, I have worn the two together (but not sautered), and have loved it. But Kyle has always said we should "upgrade" to a real band to match. Well, this year, totally unbeknownst to me, he went and purchased a beautiful band that matches perfectly with my ring! (Just to be sure I wouldn't find out about the surprise, he asked my parents to loan him the cash so I wouldn't see the charge come out of our bank accounts or credit cards. I was laughing so hard about that one. My parents sure are great accomplices!) Anyway, he gave me the new band while we were out to dinner. I have since had them both fitted and sautered together and I LOVE IT! It is so beautiful.

Lastly, we had planned a get-away weekend for our anniversary. My parents agreed to watch our kiddos, but were out of town the week of our anniversary, so we scheduled it for two weeks later (August 19th). We were going to go to Victoria BC, then Bend, then Portland, then finally decided we should just save the money from the hotel and come home! (Since our kids were sleeping at my parent's house.) Hilarious, aren't we? We ended up spending the day in Portland, then coming home that evening and working on projects on our "to do" list. (My husband is so wonderful, he knows how much I love doing projects!) While we were in Portland, we went out to lunch, then went to the beautiful Chinese Gardens (it was amazingly peaceful/tranquil for being in the middle of the city and so relaxing to walk around and enjoy together), then went and got a yummy Moonstruck milkshake! Yay!

Saturday we did some more projects around the house then went to my parent's and took the kids swimming and enjoyed the afternoon with them before coming home. It was a great, relaxing weekend, and cost us very little. Perfect for preparing for baby #4!

So, basically, our anniversary celebrations lasted almost a month. Talk about fun; let's do this every year! I sure do love my honey, and really don't know where I would be without him! I waited (what seemed like) soooo long to find him, and now it's impossible to imagine life without him. It truly is a gift to be married to your best friend (as cheesy as it may sound)! I love you, babe!

Seventh Anniversary Celebration

Saturday (August 7th), Kyle & I had a wonderful day, just the two of us. We picked up our great babysitter, Ashley, at 7:15 a.m., and headed out.

We started things right by eating breakfast at Bakery D'Amour, just to make sure our day would be filled with love:). Then we headed down to Albany to tour a recently completed Adair Home (just thinking ahead here).

Then we drove to the Oregon Coast, via a couple stops along the way. Here is a panoramic shot (it looks kind of small on here) of the Red Bridge, a restored 1914 covered bridge just east of Lincoln City. (Side story: this is a tiny, out of the way, tourist site, just off Highway 18, the main road from Lincoln City to Portland. Right after we pulled up, a lady came over to us and said their car had just been stolen 10 minutes before. Her and her sister were on a three month road trip from North Carolina and had stopped at the bridge and left their keys in the car while they looked around. A young girl pulled up, parked a truck/trailer, walked around a little, then went and got in their car and drove off! They didn't realize what was happening until their car was pulling away. Turns out the truck had been stolen about an hour earlier in a town about 20 miles north. Everything they had brought on the trip, except their camera, was in the vehicle! I hope they recovered it!)

I liked this cute, dilapidated bird house that was in the foilage next to the Red Bridge.

Next we had lunch at a much-raved about cafe, in the "podunk" town of Otis. This restaurant has a total of five tables and a bar, and to use the restroom you have to walk through the (very small) kitchen to the back (yuck). But their food is raved about by everyone who has eaten there. I commented to the people sitting next to us that it was time they expanded and they said, "They did," and pointed to the picnic tables/tarp covering outside. Pretty funny. But, they had a booming business and we bought a loaf of their delicious pumpkin bread to take with us. My chowder was good and Kyle especially enjoyed his breakfast potatoes.

Then we headed to Tierra Del Mar, just north of Pacific City (my family's favorite beach). There I got to live a dream I've had since I was about 14 years old: ride horses on the beach with my boyfriend! (Yes, Kyle is my boyfriend, for those wondering! tee hee!) It was a great ride and they even let us run the horses a couple of times. The weather was perfect, and we were on a practically deserted beach. We got to ride for a little over an hour, which ended up being perfect for us not-in-shape-to-ride-horses people. Our inner thighs have been reminding us of the day:). I rode "Wild Thing" and Kyle rode "Abby". The cute part was Abby (the female) was less than interested in Wild Thing (the male), but Wild Thing was very interested in Abby. Abby was a faster walker, so she would get ahead of Wild Thing, then Wild Thing would try and catch up (trotting), and Abby would just walk away again. The owner told us they always do that.

Here I am on Wild Thing. I like it because it looks like I'm running him, but actually we're just trotting.

Kyle, Abby, Amyanne, and Wild Thing.

Riding off into the sunset (mid-day sunset, of course!). How romantic. Work with me here:).

Post ride with Wild Thing.

Then we drove back toward home, stopping in an out-0f-the-way place near McMinnville. After years of driving to the coast and passing signs for a monastery, we finally looked online and discovered it was the home of the Brigittine Monks, who sell truffles and fudge as their livelihood. Naturally, most of their sales come from shipping/online, but they do have a tiny store/visitor's center at the monastery. We decided to see what it was like. We bought a box of truffles and visited with the starved-for-conversation man who met us at the door. Notice the Eddie Bauer sweatshirt I am wearing in the picture below? He asked me who Eddie Bauer was. And when he asked Kyle where he worked and Kyle answered, "Cricket", he asked "What's Cricket?" So, it was fun, and unusual conversation to say the least. We also spent a moment in their chapel, which reminded me a bit of Israel, oddly enough.

The monaster is about 15 minutes outside of McMinnville completely surrounded by farm land. This beautiful wheat field was along the gravel road to the monastery, and the shafts were heavy with ready-to-harvest grain. It was so golden and beautiful and it reminded me of the wheat fields that were right next to my home growing up. So I had Kyle snap this picture of me standing in the field:).

Lastly, we did a quick jaunt into McMinnville to see the Evergreen Aviation water park they are building next to the Aviation Museums/IMAX theater. They are turning it all into quite the place. There is going to be a hotel/resort with the water park and the retired 747 jumbo jet on top of the roof is quite the spectacle. Kyle loves seeing this kind of thing.

Then we headed home to our sweet kids who had a full day of riding bikes at the park, getting ice cream at McDonald's, and going to the library. They said they missed us, but I'm not so sure:).

Sixth Anniversary "Stay-cation"

For our sixth anniversary, we opted for a less expensive "stay-cation" and hit the streets of Portland. I admit I was planning it this year and I am a frugal zealot, but who wants to go on an expensive "get away" when you have to take a four month old with you anyway? Not exactly a get away. :) Jana & Scott (my sis & bro-in-law) graciously agreed to watch Kylene & Spencer for the day (last Saturday, August 8) for about 10 hours AND helped me brainstorm. Thank you so much!

We started by taking the kids to the Portland Temple and walking around the grounds a little, then we dropped them off at Jana & Scott's and headed to Pittock Mansion (with a local library pass for FREE admission: frugal "score" #1!). (Pittock Mansion is a beautiful, 12,000 sq. foot home built in the early 1900s by the founder of the Oregonian. It had all the latest amenities at the time, including an elevator, two different phone systems, etc. My favorite part was that every light fixture had gas & electric capabilities, since they were just switching to electricity and it wasn't reliable yet.) After touring the mansion and enjoying the beautiful views, we set up a picnic on the grass overlooking Portland (frugal "score" #2!).

Outside Pittock Mansion:

Part of our "gourmet" picnic:Kyle, getting ready for lunch:

Then we drove to the other side of downtown for another beautiful view of Portland: this time from the new OHSU Tram that connects the South Waterfront District with all the hospitals on Marquam Hill (an architectural feat in itself). That was fun to experience, and we walked across the huge sky bridge between two of the hospitals.

Snapshot on the tram:

View from the top of the tram:

Skyler & daddy getting ready to ride the tram back down:

Next, we headed over to Portland's Saturday Market to experience the "artsy fartsy" side of Portland. Just kidding. I hadn't been to the Saturday Market in years and it was fun to walk around for awhile looking at all the wares and to people watch. Man, there are some interesting people out there. Kyle's favorite part was the "hell, fire, and damnation" preacher on the corner. Oh, and the 10 minute back massages we both got. I loved that, too!

For dinner, we decided to experience one of Portland's latest cultural phenomenon's: food carts. Ever heard of them? Portland is becoming known for them, apparently. We found an empty parking lot with about 10 different ones set up and we each chose one. I chose the Meditteranean-style cart where I could get a yummy falafel (aaahhh, Jerusalem), and Kyle chose to buy a French crepe made by a Chinese woman. We got a laugh out of that. It wasn't exactly a high-class restaurant, but it was culture! And, fun. Oh, and cheap (did I mention I like that sort of thing?)!

Then we headed over to NE Portland (near Lloyd Center) to a park where the Portland Festival Symphony was putting on a free summer concert in the park. (Does anyone hear the frugal bells ringing again?!) It was so fun and so casual. The orchestra was set up in the middle of the park and everyone was seated on the grass all around them. There were so many families and kids everywhere. We could have totally brought our kids, but it was fun just to lay back and relax and listen to the beautiful music (lots of Haydn). It was a beautiful, cool evening.

And then we went and picked up our kids and headed home. A long day, but so fun just to relax and be together. (Oh, and do it all for under $50; woo hoo!) I love you, honey!

At the Portland Festival Symphony Concert in the Park:

Kyle, listening to the music: