Not much to report

Things have been pretty low-key this week. I have a few random pics to post.

It's hard to see, but there is a rainbow between the pine trees. I was following Brandon home from a restaurant Wednesday evening. It was so pretty, but the iPhone camera didn't do it justice. If you click to enlarge and then click again to zoom, you can see it.


Brandon & his dad have mostly finished the rock project. The next step is to buy & plant the landscaping for the new flowerbed.


I made some DEELISHous chocolate chip/peanut butter cookies this week. We don't need them, but they are good! :)


Brandon & I went on a date last night in Portland & Clackamas. We ate dinner at my favorite mexican restaurant. It was sooo good. On the way to Portland, I snapped this pic of a jet/airplane flying over us. The 205 bridge crosses the Columbia River. If you look to the left you see Mt. Hood and if you look to the right you can see the airport. My family loves looking at jets! (We call them "jets" even though most people call them "planes"). To each his own! :)


The last pic is of my pretty hutch at night. I didn't realize until about a week ago that it lights up! :) Brandon was talking about how much he likes our new furniture tonight. He said the furniture is amazing and our house is "transformed." That was nice to hear, since he mainly got the furniture for me. :) I'm glad he likes it. The house DOES look totally different. I am thankful for a loving, giving husband. We are blessed. :) Thank you, Lord!

Dinner with my honey

Last night was the first time we ate dinner on our new dining room table. I made marinated pork fillets & seasoned rice with low-fat, buttermilk cornbread muffins. It was good! Tonight, I tried another new recipe from my healthy cookbook. It turned out great! My honey was very complimentary. :)

Before we topped it with parmesan...




Cookbook picture...


My picture! :)

Our new bed!

Brandon & I put our bed together today! We weren't sure if the sideboards & footboard would work with our existing bed frame. Also, we weren't sure the headboard would fit under the sconces. Well, we had to pull the bed away from the wall (in front of the sconces) a little, but it looks great! Yay for us!!! :)








I think this is the best possible arrangement for the furniture in our room. One whole wall is windows and the opposite wall is the bathroom entrance and room entrance. So... this is how it fits! :) I love our new bedroom!!! I like to just sit and look at it.

Friday night fun :)

Last night, Brandon & I went over to his parents' house to hang out with Brianna, Mohit & Ethan. B's parents are in New Mexico for a marriage conference. We commandeered their house (ha,ha). Bran & I brought leftovers from our house and Bri & Mo brought leftovers from their house. We also ate leftovers from the 4th of July party. There ended up being a feast on the kitchen island. :)

After we ate, Uncle Brandon went to the couch for a quick nap. Ethan ran in the living room several times to jump up in Brandon's lap to love on him. It was cute, but really quick. I never managed to get my camera in the living room fast enough from the kitchen. I got a cute pic of Ethan running back to the kitchen after a hug.


While Uncle Brandon napped, I took pictures of Ethan & Brianna playing hide-and-go-seek with Mohit. It was HILARIOUS. Mohit would holler, "Ready, Ethan? Here I come!" And Ethan would holler, "Ready, Papa!" We just laughed at the 2.5 year old, giving away his position. It was so cute. :)




I saw a deer in the backyard, which happens frequently. I wanted to go outside and get a picture of it. I traced it to the next door neighbor's backyard. She left pretty quick when she saw me. You can see her hind legs behind the tree. I'm a real sleuth! ;-) Click to enlarge...


Brandon bought his mom a Wii a few weeks ago. Bran, Bri & Mo wanted to play it. Ethan even got in on the action and was pitching & batting on the baseball game. It was fun!




Brandon & Brianna challenged each other to the bowling game toward the end of the night. Brianna beat him by 3 points! Brother/Sister rivalries can be tough! :) It was a good night!

:) 4th of July!

Yesterday was July 4th and Brianna's birthday. I think you all know by now, but Brianna is Brandon's sister. Bri's husband, Mohit and Brandon's parents planned a surprise birthday party for her. It was fun!




The party was at Brandon's parents' house. The friends arrived early so we could surprise Brianna. While we were waiting, I got some cute pictures of Ethan playing in the pool. He is a gorgeous, funny little kid. Brandon and I adore him. :)


Mohit grilled burgers and links on the backporch. It was a beautiful day, with the high of 75 degrees. The view was awesome! The Rays' house faces Mt. St. Helens and the view was really clear yesterday. As people started popping their fireworks, you could see fireworks across the whole valley, even 30 miles away. We got to experience this on New Years Eve, except there were a whole lot more fireworks last night. We saw 2 solid hours of fireworks... non-stop... it was amazing!

I finally got to meet Ethan's favorite little friend Hannah. She is ADORABLE! And watching the 2 of them was very entertaining. I have quite a few pictures of them in the album at the bottom of this post. VERY CUTE!!!




Around 9:15, we went out to the front yard & street to pop our fireworks. The neighbors were outside popping theirs, also. It was quite a show! I've never seen so many fireworks. The end of the street faces the Columbia River and the airport in the distance. We could see fireworks coming from Portland!


I got some really cute pictures of Ethan and Hannah in their little chairs with their blankets. The temperature dropped to the low 60s once the sun went down and it was chilly! I've mentioned before that we get strong winds coming from the Gorge. It felt great!


After the party was over, Brandon & I cuddled under a blanket on the backporch, watching the fireworks across the valley. Very romantic night with my honey! :) A year ago, Brandon and I were emailing each other on July 4th. Who could have known that this year we would be married?! :)

It was a fun party and a great night. :) Here's to many more years of fun! Click the link below to view the party pictures.

July 4th

Saturday trip

You can see our distorted reflections in the background of the sign. Funny!



Saturday was our 3-month anniversary. We took a day trip toward Mt. St. Helens to a little town called Yacolt, Washington. It was a gorgeous day to ride the train. After riding the train, we drove a few miles away to a little town called Amboy, Washington and ate lunch at a quaint little pizza place.

This next picture is the Cedar Creek Grist Mill. It still grinds corn meal and flour. It was neat! This mill has been photographed for calendars and puzzles. There's a beautiful covered bridge that leads to it. There were a surprising amount of tourists at this place. It is in the middle of NOWHERE.

The Cedar Creek Grist Mill-A National Historic Landmark
www.cedarcreekgristmill.com/

You can see more pics of the mill and the bridge in my album at the bottom of this post.



After we saw the mill, we took a scenic drive around Lake Merwin and stopped at a park. We drove to the town we might move to next year and did a car tour of a wildlife refuge. Then, we drove around some new neighborhoods, looking at houses & picking up some flyers to get ideas about pricing. It was neat doing that with Brandon. :) We saw some beautiful homes.

I'm attaching the album link for the Saturday pics. Lots of nature photos. It was so nice that day! The high was 75. Perfect! :) Click on the link below to see the album.

Yacolt Train Trip

Train ride!

I'm really excited about tomorrow. It's our 3 month anniversary (July 2nd!) and Brandon & I are taking a scenic train ride about an hour from here. I've never ridden a train, so I'm excited! I hope to take lots of pictures. The whole 4th of July weekend is supposed to be really nice!

Here is the description of the train ride from the website...

JOIN US FOR A 10 MILE ROUND TRIP, FROM YACOLT TO LUCIA, THROUGH BEAUTIFUL NORTH CLARK COUNTY STOPPING AT MOULTON FALLS COUNTY PARK: ALONG THE WAY TO MOULTON FALLS YOU WILL SEE THE LEWIS RIVER FROM OUR CLIFF-SIDE VANTAGE POINT AND EXPERIENCE THE DARKNESS OF A 330 FOOT TUNNEL CARVED OUT OF SOLID ROCK.





I know there's supposed to be a "train robbery" with actors on horseback. Who knows what else... should be fun! :)

Friday=Furniture Day

Today was the big day! I left our house at 6:35 am to travel in the Portland morning commute. Traffic wasn't bad at all! It usually takes me almost an hour to get to Tualatin. But, this morning, I reached the destination at 7:22 am. I didn't have to arrive until 8 am. So, I sat at McDonald's and worked on my iPhone.

It was 48 degrees when I left our driveway this morning (in my capri pants and flip-flops...YEP). The high got to 76 today! It was sunny and gorgeous! A perfect day for moving...

Rosalind's daughter met me at the house at 8. The moving truck came at 8:20. The loading started at 8:30. It took them until 11 am to get everything loaded. I couldn't believe how long it took, but they were padding and taping everything. I went with the "top rated moving company in Portland". They did pretty good, I think. There are a few scratches, but I'm not sure if they were there already.

We drove 45-50 minutes to Washougal and the unloading began. They didn't finish until 1:50 pm. Whew! It seemed like a long day. Those poor guys were sweating and grunting, carrying all the solid wood furniture down the stairs at Rosalind's house and up the stairs at our house. We really got our money's worth. The movers kept commenting on how nice the furniture was. I know they had to be dying. I couldn't believe how much they sweated, especially with the temperature being so low.

I'll have to take some better pictures, but this is all I had a chance to get today. The lighting wasn't right. I'll try again during the weekend.


The 2 new chairs in the living room match the pillows on the new couch! :) Love it!




I took this pic while the movers were attaching the mirror to the dresser in our master bedroom. There is a chest and 2 nightstands that go with the set. We haven't attached the headboard & foot board to the bed yet. Those pictures will have to come later.


I had trouble getting a good picture of the dining room. Brandon has those long-lasting, fluorescent light bulbs in the chandelier and it's so bright it messes up the pictures. Also, the windows were creating back-lighting. Oh well!



We have another leaf that we can put in the table for special occasions. Actually, we can take out the middle piece that's in the table right now and it makes the table really cute. I kinda like it small. We will have to experiment. I didn't know how well the hutch and table would fit, but I think it's just right! :)

Now... the next project approaches... unpacking all my boxes from Texas! :) That will be a work in progress.

:)Have a great weekend!