Tuesday, May 7, 2013

7 years and counting...

Joe and I had our 7th year anniversary last week.   I know, we were just teenagers when we got married. :) J/K  I sometimes just marvel that I get to be the wife of the mostly amazing, tender-hearted, loving, Godly, wise, generous, adventurous, wonderful man I know!  I am a blessed woman!

To celebrate our anniversary, Joe's mom came out to visit and take care of the kiddos and we got 3 WHOLE DAYS AND NIGHTS away together.  We had decided to go to the Mendocino Coast and just enjoy some down time and time with each other.  We had a blast talking about our wedding and bringing up memories from the past 7 years of marriage.

I'll let the gorgeous pictures from the weekend tell the story.

We stopped to take a picture on the railroad car that we took a picture on for our anniversary last year

Silly kids


We spent the first night at a camp outside of Truckee.

John (the director there) and Joe have become good friends and I was delighted to get to meet his wife and their two little girls.  

It was about a 6 hour drive to Mendocino so some great windshield time with my man

While we were driving through a national forest on our way into the coast, the road was lined with these beautiful flowering bushes.  

As soon as we got to our accommodations (a steal from Groupon!), we walked to the coast

It was pretty windy so we had to lay flat to stay warm

Spring was most definitely in the air!

This was probably my most favorite spot on that walk



That night drove a few minutes north to watch the sunset at the Ft. Cabrillo lighthouse


The next day we explored a blow hole at a nearby state park

Self-timer pictures can be fun... and funny



Seeing as how we were in wine country, we did a little wine tasting.  

Where we were staying had beautiful and abundant foliage and flowers! This wisteria smelled amazing.     


On the night of our anniversary, we got dressed up and went out to dinner, but still had time to check out the sunset on the Mendocino Headlands.  

I can't even describe to you the 50 mile an hour winds that were whipping through here at this point, but when we finally set up a contraption to keep the iPhone from blowing over, we were able to take a selfie... or a few. :)



Thank you Lord for letting me love and be loved in this wonderful marriage and may it be in glory and honor to You, the Creator of love!





Friday, May 3, 2013

Weeee!!!

This girl loves to swing.  "Ma undadog! O-tay Mommy?"

Translation: "More underdog.  Okay Mommy?"


Vegas sisters trip

My sisters and sister-in-laws and I got away for a fun trip to Las Vegas in April.  My sister-in-law Rhiannon, lives in Vegas and just had a baby the beginning of March.  I was SUPER excited about this trip as I obviously got to see and hang out with my sisters, but also cause I got 4 nights (yes FOUR) away from my lovely little ones.  It was a very nice break and honestly, some of my favorite time was getting up early every morning to read and journel and enjoy sweet fellowship with the Lord for hours without interruption.  Ahhh... so good for my soul.  

Ok, back to how we filled our days though. :)  I've got some amazing sisters that love adventure and so we packed it in with hiking and rock climbing and of course some good spa time and getting all dolled up to hit the town!  Check out the photos.  




Isaac Benjamin... 6 weeks old

Heading out to the crag in Red Rocks Canyon






Spa day at a Korean Spa.  Very similar to a Roman Bath but apparently the Koreans like to be naked.  It was quite a fun bonding experience.  



Then it was off to the strip.  Yes, Mary and I had brought basically the same "dress up" outfit.  Love it.  


Inside the Bellagio



The fire show

Inside the Venetian at approximately 11pm

Probably still my favorite part of Vegas, the water show at the Bellagio

We just couldn't get enough so the next day we headed back out to Red Rocks for more climbing (aka: tanning)







What a wonderful time hanging out with these beauties.  And of course Ben and Isaac. :)