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!

Christmas 2008

This year, Richard and I got to experience a white Christmas. It was beautiful on Christmas day to see the huge white flakes coming down. I have to admit though, I was really sick of the snow! Vancouver, WA doesn't usually get snow like this, actually the last time they had this much snow in this short amount of time was 1967! Maybe God wanted it to happen again this Christmas because we just moved here and He wanted us to see what it was like, who knows. But it has finally melted away! Here are some pictures from Christmas this year.

This picture was from a Christmas party we went to at our friends house.

Part of the Doe family on Christmas Eve, we wish Jared, Marcie and Sophia could have been there too! I definitely missed being with my family this year, this being the first time ever I haven't been with them on Christmas Eve and Christmas day, but I was grateful to be able to celebrate Christmas with Richard's parents and sister.

The pretty snow around our apartment.


Looking out our bedroom window with the pretty Christmas lights on.

White Christmas?

So on Wednesday I posted that it was snowing... well NOW it is snowing! Here's some updated pictures of our front/back yards from when we woke up this morning.

...

While I was in the middle of posting this blog, our friend Vicki, who lives down the street, called us and asked if we wanted to walk to the grocery store with her, which is across the street. So Richard and I got on our warmest clothes and took a walk in the snow to the store. It was fun! There were surprisingly a lot of people walking on the streets and we went and got some coffee at Starbucks. This is definitely a new experience for us! Below is a video of the roads and at the end you'll see Vicki and Richard.

Maybe it will be a white Christmas this year...

It's Snowing!

On Sunday, we got hit with a snow storm! All last week everyone here was talking about how the Vancouver/Portland area was going to get hit and we sure did. It started with freezing temperatures on Saturday and then the snow/ice came on Sunday. Richard didn't have youth this past weekend so we stayed inside our apartment all weekend long. On Monday and Tuesday, the temp. was in the 20's but sunny and then when we woke up this morning, it was snowing again, and more than on Sunday! Thankfully, I didn't have to babysit today and Richard gets to come home early from work because the snow is supposed to turn into freezing rain, which I guess is scary to drive in, something I don't really care to experience.

This picture is from the storm on Sunday,

and this picture and the video are from today. I took my cat, Clover out in the snow and he couldn't figure out what kept hitting his face, it was cute.

Everyone say a prayer for Randee, Richard's sister who is flying into Portland tonight.

Christmas decorations!

It has been a lot of fun decorating our apartment for Christmas! Richard and I had to get a few things that we didn't have yet like stockings and a star for our Christmas tree. There aren't many places to hang lights on an apartment, but I put some lights up in the windows and everything looks so pretty.

Here is our beautiful tree that Richard cut down himself. We didn't realize how big it was when we picked it out and once we got it into our apartment we had to cut the top of it off so that the star would fit.

The fireplace with our stockings hanging.

Baby Jesus and the Nativity scene. After all, He is the reason we celebrate this time of year.

And my new collection, Christmas houses! I bought one this year and I'm going to add on each year.