The Doe's came to visit

Last week the whole Doe family was reunited in Vancouver, WA. Jared, Marcie and our niece Sophia came up from Arizona and Randee flew in from Indiana. We definitely had a lot packed in to the few days everyone was here and it was a lot of fun.


On Thursday, everyone had the day off from work and so we all got into the church van (there was 8 of us) and drove to the Oregon Zoo. Richard and I had been wanting to go there for a while now. It was a really great zoo with a lot of neat animals that we haven't seen at the Arizona Zoo (like polar bears...).

Richard and I had Randee, Jared and Marcie over for dinner one night. We did cheese fondue with chocolate fondue for dessert (yummy!) and then played this really cool game called Ticket to Ride : ) We also had fun eating at some new restaurants while they were here, like the Island Cafe on the Columbia River and the Screen Door in Portland.


Here's our niece Sophia jumping on our bed. She loved our cat Clover and kept calling him "Meow Meow". It was really cute.

It was great having you all come to visit! Love you guys and see you in the winter : )

Apron

I got a new sewing machine for my birthday last month and I have been really excited to make something on it. I have been wanting an apron for when I bake but didn't want to spend the money on a cute one, so that's what I decided to make. The day I went to the fabric store they were having a big sale so I got a really great deal on the fabric.


Here is the apron fabric all cut out and ready to sew (I got the pattern idea online after looking at a few random aprons).


And here is my apron all finished!

It was pretty simple and now I want to make some more : )

Wed. Night Youth Group

Last night, we had youth group at McKenna, one of the incoming freshman's, house. Her property is amazing! They have a zip line, climbing tree, swimming pond and a badminton court. We had a lot of fun roasting hot dogs and marshmallows and seeing how fast we could go on the zip line.

I'm getting ready to go on the zip line! It wasn't as scary as I thought it would be : )

Here goes Richard!


It has been really great getting to know all of the incoming freshman and getting closer to the rest of the high schoolers. Richard has a lot of great things planned for this upcoming school year and I'm really excited!

Our 1 Year Anniversary!

Last weekend, Richard and I went to Long Beach, WA to celebrate our one year anniversary. I can't believe it's been one year! We stayed at a friends grandparents cabin and had a lot of fun. All day Saturday we hung out in downtown Long Beach. We ate breakfast at a little diner, walked the boardwalk, went put-putting, walked through the shops, made sure to get some fudge and snickerdoodles and ate some yummy seafood for dinner. It was a really relaxing weekend and I was happy to spend it with the love of my life : )


This is the cabin we stayed in.


There was this really large frying pan for people to take pictures by, (why? I have no idea).

Put-Putting. Richard got a hole in one on one of the holes!

I like taking pictures of pretty flowers : )

The beach at dusk.

We had been looking forward to eating the top of our wedding cake from a year ago. It had been through some traveling and didn't look to great, but it still tasted like the best wedding cake ever!

Since we moved to WA just a couple weeks after we were married, that means we've been here for about a year too. In fact, we just signed another year lease at our apartment, that means we'll be here for at least two years : ) When I look back on this past year, in some ways it seems it went really slow, but then I think about all that we have done and it seems like a lot for one year. Even though this past year has been full of changes and hard on us both, I think we have grown so much individually and as a couple. It's weird and funny how God works in ways you don't expect, you just always have to be ready and open for what He throws your way.