Christmas in San Diego

I had a first this Christmas...it was my first Christmas not in Oregon! I have to admit, it was a bit wierd to not be with my family. Not to mention missing the "Christmas-like" cold weather and woodstove fires I have known my whole life! However, Matt and I had a fantastic Christmas with my NEW family (his fam). We went to mom and step-dads for Christmas Eve and dad and stepmoms on Christmas day. We are thankful for both families!! We ate way too much good food and homemade baked goodies! We enjoyed a fabulous Christmas service at our church, Horizon Park Chapel. We got up Christmas morning and did stockings with the pups. Matt and I filled eachother's stockings...but opened them on the 24th because we were too excited to wait for santa :) Soooo...the puppies got their stocking stuffers and were very excited. We are still on vacation until January 7th and loving every minute of it!!! We got an imac computer for Christmas from Matthew's mom and Robert (AMAZING unexpected gift), and we have been setting it up, playing around with it, importing music and photos, and it is such a beautiful work of technology!!! We are Mac snobs...once you go MAC, you never go back. Oh yeah, we found a super cool antique desk for the computer at a funky furniture shop down the street...it was quite an overwhelming place with A LOT of crap and some neat treasures in the mix...like our new desk :) Hope everyone had a merry Christmas and brings in the new year with style. We are heading to Julian for some trailor camping, relaxing, and cold weather!!

more pictures from Thanksgiving

Curran and Austin let Uncle Matt bury them in leaves...so cute!






A stop on our "nature hike" for a family picture!







Austin is happy with his bowling performance! :)







Curran and I pose for a pic of ourselves






I love this picture of zoe crusin across the park...she looks so happy!







the sis and I downtown Portland...all lit up for Christmas!

Thanksgiving in Oregon!

We made the drive up to OR in one shot. We were able to trade drivers all through the night and day to get here (Matt could drive for longer stretches--about 5 hours at a time, where I could only get a good 2.5-4 hours in and then I was done!) It took us about 18 hours!

We went to the Oregon Coast (Lincoln City) for the weekend. Walked on the beach during the day, cozied up to a warm fire and played games at night. Our dogs absolutely loved running up and down the beach!! My parents, my sister Kelsey and her boyfriend and Matt and I all stayed in a big cabin. It was Matt's first time seeing the Oregon Coast...it is very different from CA! We had such a great time!!

Now we are in West Linn (outside of Portland) where my mom and Tim live. We got to get together with some good friends last night and have been able to see other family...I was so excited to squeeze my nephews!!!! They are just my favorite. We are looking forward to spending the rest of this week and Thanksgiving with the fam!! We are thankful.

a new beginning

We thought it might be a nice idea, let me start over....I thought it might be a nice idea to share a bit of our lives via "blogging" with our friends and family! "Blogging"... It is the latest and greatest, haven't you heard? Many of our friends who don't live near us have blogs to update us on their lives....okay, so most of those bloggers either have a baby or are about to have a baby...and Matt and I are neither of those things (sorry Sis! haha) However, I am experimenting and have no idea at this point how much I will update this thing. Anyway, welcome to our blog and feel free to check up on us and dialogue with us! xoxo
p.s. This picture was taken on our honeymoon...the first Island we visited (The Big Island) in Kona. Such good times!