Nieces visit

Last weekend for Spring break, Rick's nieces Riley and Kailey came to stay with us. My Aunt has always been so generous to me, and I have great memories of us doing all sorts of fun things while I was growing up. She even took me to Australia and New Zealand when I was 16! Sorry Kailey, I'd love to take you to Australia, but I don't think that's going to happen any time soon :)
Anyway, we had some fun things planned for the girls. They live in Salem so we wanted to give them the authentic Portland experience.
We went to the Blazers game and had sweet nosebleed seats!
Rick & Riley
All of us after the game

Then we took them to Voodoo Doughnut, where we had to wait in line, and while we were waiting a homeless man with a plate of chicken was walking up and down the line offering it to everyone. A must-see for the real Portland experience! We also had to cross over a pile of vomit on our way back to the car. Again, total Portland experience here.

Then we went home where Rick DJ'd for them until around Midnight. That's a pretty authentic experience around my house. (PS Rick is DJ'ing his first gig on Friday!)
Saturday morning we slept in, then went to the Flavour waffle cart-a delicious Portland treat!
Then we headed to China town to the Lan Su Chinese Gardens. I had never been and really wanted to go. It was impressive, however very small. The $8.50 it costs for adults almost isn't worth it, since it only took us about a half hour to walk through it. But it certainly was pretty, and they say its the most authentic Chinese garden outside of China!
Spring in Lan Su

Camellias all abloom and a wisteria cut into a bonsai. Beautiful!

Cute Riley

The intricate hand-laid pathways

I'm so happy there are things blooming! Hooray for Spring!

The gang in a pagoda

Rick & I enjoying the 70 degree day

sisters

All of us at the end

Beautiful magnolias

And more camellias

After that we went to Moonstruck Chocolate Cafe and enjoyed some delicious milkshakes-yum! Then shopped around Pioneer Place. We hope you girls had fun, because we really enjoyed having you here with us!

Night in Seaside

The first weekend of March Rick and I went to Seaside for a very short trip. My dear friend Emily lives there and she does my hair (yes, I drive to Seaside to get my hair done!). I usually go every other month or so, but staying the night was way over due so I'm glad we went.
We were treated with a beautiful afternoon and sunset!
Rick & I

Emily & I-we have known each other since I was born-our parents are great friends!

Emily took us out on the town for the night and it was something else, let me tell you :)

Dancing later at Girtle's :)

Em lives so close to downtown that we walked home. We made some funny stops on the way...

Interrupting my beauty sleep...

Thanks again for having us Em, it was SO fun! I can't wait til next time!!

In other news, I'm on Spring Break! Yay! Too bad it is almost over :( I feel like I've done nothing but work! I did lay around all day Sunday doing literally nothing all day and that was a great treat, but I'm hoping for some more relaxation between now and Sunday. I ended one of my hardest semesters with 2 A-'s and one B+. I know I should be proud of my grades, but I am a bit disappointed in that darn B!! Oh well, at least I have next semester to set it right before I am done FOREVER!! Woohoo!
All else is well, I am headed out now to meet some friends for Happy Hour on this gorgeous sunny day!

Wrapping up February

I call it wrapping up February, but here it is, already March 10th! Just a few pics for your viewing pleasure...
Chinese Gardens downtown (taken while I was out working-I really want to go to the gardens now though!)
Also taken while working :)

We celebrated Dick's (Rick's dad) birthday at the end of February by having dinner with the family. Rick's parents live in the country and next to their house there is a farm with sheep. All the baby lambs were out and too cute to resist!
Dick feeding a mama

The adorable babies

Baby following its Mom

Sunset in Salem

I also helped celebrate another birthday at the end of Feb. Miss Gwen Ricker turned one! There was a party at the Arnell's to celebrate and it sure was fun to see all of the Ricker and Arnell clans. Those families are just growing and growing and it is very obvious that miss Gwen has a lot of admirers!
Gwen and her new swimsuit that I got for her. You can't tell, but it has a halter top, its the cutest thing I've ever seen!

Leslie & Josh's little one-Finn with his Uncles Chummy & Jeff

The birthday girl

Jay, shoving the cupcake in her mouth :)

Jeff & Andee being cute with Finn

And another cute one of the adorable birthday girl!

The Rickers and Arnells both are like extended family to me, but Jay's Mom, Kathy, is truly like a second Mom to me. I adore her!

And that's it for February! Rick & I went to Seaside last weekend to spend some time with my friend Emily and I got some good pics from that. I'll get those up soon. Finals are next week so I am working hard on getting those out of the way so I can concentrate on a glorious 2 weeks off of school for Spring Break! It will be the first year that I haven't gone anywhere since I've been in school. I'm totally fine with staying home, working and getting some stuff done around here. Not only that, but it makes it easier to cope knowing that I just booked a week vacay in May to Cabo with Becky! I can't wait! Hope all is well with all of you!

Utah

We left for Utah on Tuesday the 16th of February and drove straight to Boise. We didn't get in until around 2am, and were up and back on the road first thing in the morning, so it felt more like a short nap, then a night's sleep. We stayed with Becky, but she was already asleep when we got in and had to leave for work around the time we were getting up, so we didn't get to visit at all. Wednesday we drove from Boise down to Provo in Utah county to Denene's house. That night we had a get together with the Morgans and the McCoys over at Denene's, it was a lot of fun to see my old friends/roommates and their kids. Denene just had her baby, Sylvie (my niece!) just over a month ago, so it was a lot of fun getting to spend time with everyone. The next morning we went to breakfast then McKay drove us up Provo canyon a ways. Rick had never been to Utah except just driving through the northern part of the state, so I was glad we could go up the canyon a bit. Its so beautiful up there! There are a few things I surely miss about living in the mountains!
Provo Canyon-Bridal Veil Falls
Snow up by Sundance

After our drive we went back to De and McKays and hung out for a few more hours. Rick and Carter had a dance party :)

My adorable nephew, Carter

De & McKay's pups, Griffin and Miles

Me and new baby Sylvia Claire (Sylvie for short)

We left De & McKay's to have a late lunch with my cousin Jordan and his wife Rachel. Even though we didn't get to spend much time with them, I was glad we got to visit a little bit and see all the hard work they've been doing on their condo!
My friend and old roommate Ashley Hawkins Jones had her baby the Wednesday we were there, so on Thursday before heading out of town, we stopped at the hospital for a visit. I hadn't seen her in ages, and had never met her husband! I was glad to meet her cute little boy, Lincoln Henry Jones. What a lot of hair he had!

We then headed to Salt Lake to have dinner with friends, and go out afterwards downtown. We had a great time and I'm so glad I got to see more old friends! Thanks everyone for coming!
After dinner, hanging out-Rick, Emiley, me and James

James and Rick

My cute friends-Emiley, Jessica, Lindsey and me

Friday morning we got up and had breakfast up Emigration Canyon, at Ruth's diner, one of my favorites and a friend from high school who now lives in SLC came up too, so it was fun to see her! After breakfast Rick, Lindsey and I headed up to Eden, up Ogden canyon. It was snowing out and we had a nice drive up. The whole point of this trip was because a realtor here in Portland asked me to go and photograph his vacation home in Eden, and if I did, I could stay in the home for free. The house is huge and beautiful and we had a really nice time there.
The view from the house looking out into the valley at dusk.

Eden is close to Snow Basin ski resort, but there is also this little ski resort right across the valley from the house.

Saturday in Eden was gorgeous and sunny

The house

Sunset night 2

Jessica, James and Emiley all joined us and Jess made us an amazing dinner Saturday night!

The gang, parting ways on Sunday morning
Miss you kids already!

We drove back to Boise Sunday afternoon and had dinner with Becky. We headed the rest of the way home Monday morning so I could get to class Monday night. Lee, the realtor that owned the house in Eden, paid me $200 to drive his car back home, so I did that. It wasn't too bad, and the money basically paid for all of our gas for the trip, so that was cool.
Well, here it is March already! Gosh, it sure snuck up on me! My theme for March is organization. I REALLY hope I find some time to spend on this goal. I love being organized, but with everything going on lately, it has had to move to the back burner. Hopefully with spring break coming up in 2 weeks I'll be able to spend some time doing some organizing here around the house and in my life in general.
That's it for now. Adios!