Mom and Jesse come to visit

This past weekend, my mom and youngest brother Jesse came to visit us in Washington. It was so nice to have them see where Richard and I have been living for the past 5 months. We took them to see Multnomah Falls, downtown Portland, our church and all around Vancouver. We had so much fun and it was really hard to see them leave.

Me and my mom on the bridge at Multnomah falls. It was very windy and cold up there! We weren't expecting it.

Jesse and Richard, with their nice smiles =)

We also went to see the fish hatchery. We saw a 10 foot Stergeon fish! I think they were having a staring contest...

Richard, me and Jesse on the bridge in downtown Portland.

Eating dinner one night. My mom helped me make shish kabobs. That night, Jesse made some yummy brownies that we brought over to Don and Lori's house the next day (where we watched the AZ Cardinals win the NFC championship game!).

Snowboarding

For the past few weeks, Richard has been trying to go up to the mountain to go snowboarding, and every time it got canceled, but this past Saturday we finally got to go! We went up to Mount Hood in Oregon with Richard's cousin, James, and a few other people. We did "night skiing" which is from 3pm-10pm and it costs 1/3 of the regular price. The weather wasn't that great, when we got there, the freezing rain started and then it turned into rain, but it was still a great time! This was Richard's first time snowboarding and my third time, but by the end of the night, we were pretty much on the same level because Richard picked it up so quickly. Here are some pictures from the night.

Before we started snowboarding, and before we were soaking wet from the rain =) I like this picture because you can see the mountain in the background.

Me, Richard and James' friend, Christina covered in a sheet of ice, even my hair was frozen!

Richard and his cousin James in the lodge, also covered in ice. James and Christina stayed with us the whole time and helped us learn how to snowboard, it was so nice!

New Years Eve 2008

So this year we got to spend New Years Eve with 200 middle and high school students, not what I would call my first choice if things to do, but it was still fun. "Insomnia" is an event that the church puts on every year on New Years Eve where a bunch of kids come and stay all night at the church/high school. We had a couple of bands play, Richard's dad spoke, and there were a lot of fun activities like blow up bouncy things, guitar hero, wii, karaoke, movies and food. I was going to try and stay up all night, but ended up sleeping for a few hours in Richard's office. Richard, on the other hand, was able to stay up until 8 am! So basically, our entire New Years day consisted of sleeping =)

Me and Richard. He was a very busy guy all night long, he even got to be Zac Efron for a little while during a game.

I was so happy Randee was there with me for the first few hours!


Balloon drop at midnight!