Dayville!

Trying to find a place that is halfway between Portland and Boise, that can accomodate 4 girls isn't easy. As you know, my best friend Becky lives in Boise, so we (Brianne, Shannon, Becky and I) tried to figure out a place halfway for us to meet. Somehow we settled on a TINY town called Dayville, OR, just west of John Day. There is pretty much nothing there but a tiny cafe and a tiny post office. Luckily there is a small place with 3 little rentals attached to the back of the post office, so this is where we stayed. I didn't get any pictures of the place, and now I am wishing we had! It was quite an adventure, but we had a great time cooking and being together. We played did a LOT of madlibs and watched Labyrinth, since Shannon had never seen it! We also took a day trip to the John Day Fossil Bed National Monument-both the Sheep Rock unit and the Painted Hills. Eastern Oregon is so beautiful!

Sheep Rock

Brianne scoping out Sheep Rock

The inside of the visitors center had lots of awesome fossils, but really weird paintings of prehistoric times. Here is a prehistoric Brianne and a prehistoric Becky.

The Painted Hills...

 

And one last one of Lucy riding a chihuahua sized trike. The trike was in the funny place we stayed :)

 

And that's it for Dayville!

Seattle

Rick and I went to Seattle the first weekend of August to celebrate our anniversary early. We knew we were going to the beach for Kelly's birthday the weekend of our anniversary, so we had to plan early! Thanks to my friend Josh, we got an amazing deal at the Westin in downtown Seattle. We were on the 39th floor of the hotel overlooking the sound. It was gorgeous. We spent our weekend relaxing, shopping, eating and going to a soccer game. It was a great weekend away!

View of the space needle from our room

View north from our room, there were a few cruise ships in port

The weekend we were there was the Seafair, and they had the air show on Saturday. We didn't go, but a few of the Blue Angels flew right in front of our hotel, which was awesome, but I didn't get a good pic of. Two came back later around the other side, this was the best I could get!

Nice clouds over the Sound

Seattle skyline from the soccer stadium

Glitter and fireworks during the national Anthem made for a fun start to the game. We got tickets through Samsung, had awesome seats, and had an entire row to ourselves! It was really fun, I'm excited for the Timbers games next year!

Us at the game

Yesterday was our actual anniversary (and my Dad's birthday!). I can't believe 2 years have flown by so fast. I love being married to Rick so much. He treats me so wonderfully, he makes me laugh every day, he keeps me challenged and on my toes, and I know I am blessed to truly love spending time with him both one on one and in groups. He is my very best friend, I love you Rick!

We were able to go to a nice dinner at Ristorante Roma downtown last night after I got off work. We had a LOT of food, and it was really good. If you ever want a good Italian restaurant downtown, I totally recommend it. 

Work is going well. So far so good...its just been a bit of an adjustment getting used to working full time again. I like what I'm doing though so far.

I have a lot of pictures to process through-girls weekend in Eastern OR, Lady Gaga concert and our weekend in Lincoln City for Kelly's birthday. To come soon!

TJ & Christy's wedding

Last Tuesday we headed out the gorge, up to the Bridal Veil area for our friend TJ's wedding, to his beautiful wife, Christy. The wedding was held at Bridal Veil Lakes, which I had never heard of, but was absolutely gorgeous. I got a lot of great pictures, it was hard not to take a ton since the location was so perfect!

Walking in to the ceremony, which was on the other side of this lake

The bridal party. We know TJ through Dylan (3rd from right), and now TJ works for AT&T as well. The funny part is that one of the bridesmaids, Kelly (2nd from left), I graduated high school with, and one of the groomsmen, Ryan, (2nd from right) is my first husband Adam's cousin! I tell ya, small world!

 

The happy couple during the ceremony

 

The bridesmaids, I loved those grey dresses with the yellow

 

Its official!

 

The newlyweds

 

TJ & Christy taking a canoe ride. She was brave, not sure if I would've gotten in a canoe in a wedding dress! 

 

The gorgeous setting

 

Dylan looking stylin' in his groomsmen outfit and complimentary dollar store shades

 

Rick and I all dressed up

 

Dylan & I

 

The setting for the reception

 

The beginning of one amazing sunset, looking over the Columbia

 

Me, Jen &  Misty

 3

Love TJ's face!

 

 At sunset the light started streaming through the trees and it was gorgeous

 

Definitely my favorite shot of the night

 

TJ & Rick

 

and one last one of my lady friends...

Me, Alison, Misty and Amber

 

It was a great wedding and we are glad we got to be a part of it!

In other happenings, I start my new job tomorrow. I am excited to have a normal schedule again, but at the same time, I haven't worked full time in about 4 years so its going to be a hard transition after having this whole summer to do nearly nothing! Back to being a grown up!

Camping at the beach

Last weekend we went camping in Pacific City on the coast. We stayed at Webb County campground, and I do not recommend it! The nice thing was that it was across the street from the beach, but the downside was that it was pretty much a parking lot. We happened to get the one spot that backed up to a natural setting, but the rest of it backed houses etc. Kinda of weird! 11 of us went, and we had a great time and beautiful sunny afternoons. Saturday we were all in our bathing suits even. Of course, we didn't get in the water, it was WAY too cold! Here's the pics!

Tina (the birthday girl!), Saturday morning, waiting for the clouds to burn off

Zach, Liz and Gracie enjoying the sunshine on the beach!

Zach decided to dig a hole...

 Ronn, drinking out of a frisbee

Kelly soaking up the rays

 

Ronn playing football with some kid

 

Scenery...

 

All the ladies from L-R

me, Shannon, Rachel, Jenny, Tina, Kelly & Liz

 

Tina and Jenn hanging out with Gracie. Once it got cloudy, it got cold fast!

 

Ronn and Kelly tossin' the pig skin

 

Dave and Gracie dancing

 

Cute Gracie

There were wild bunnies everywhere at our campsite. Tons of them!

Why not eat salad out of a giant bowl? I got a little toasty that day...

 

Shannon, Tina and Liz waiting to be fed :)

 

It was Tina's 29th birthday. We rewarded her for being born with some St. Cupcake!

 

Nothing like a chubby bunny contest when you're camping!

 

I came in third with 12

 

 Ronn came in 2nd with 14

 

Our audience

 

And Dave won, with 15!

Rick jumped on the bed and didn't know I had unplugged the airmattress. He rolled right off!

 

After a LONG lunch at the Pelican Brew Pub, we hit the beach again. It was a little windier on sunday...

And that was our trip! So fun!

In other FABULOUS news...I got a job!!!! Hooray! I am going to be the manager of a alarm monitoring center for a company in Vancouver. I was interviewing for a receptionist position, but they liked me so much they wanted me to do a management job, which is great! It isn't my dream job, but it is a good use of my Business Degree, and it makes me feel so relieved to not have to stress any more, and to know I'll have a stead income during those winter months where I usually make nearly nothing doing my current job. My current boss was so totally supportive and excited for me, it made it much easier to quit the job I've done for the last 4 years. While I am training for 4-6 weeks, I will have to work swing shift 2 nights a week, so I am planning on still doing the photography job in the mornings as needed during that time. After that, I am hoping that some realtors will still want me to shoot for them on weekend mornings, so I can make some extra side money. My desk top computer is theirs as well, so they'll let me keep it as long as I am still on pay roll, so that's really nice too, I was worried about having to go buy a new one. I go in to sign paperwork next Tuesday, then I'm hoping I can start work right away after that. I'm anxious to get moving on it! 

Rick and I are off to Seattle this weekend for an early anniversary trip. I am really looking forward to it, and to a weekend away with Rick, he has been working like a madman lately, so I'm glad he'll get to relax. Hope everything is well for all of you!