Labor Day in Paradise

I feel like since the foundation of my blog the blog theme has always been how awesome my baby is. Over the last few weeks I have felt the theme has shifted to how awesome my baby is and how awesome the place we live is. If you don't like it I am sure it will shift again someday, but for right now I feel like I am living in paradise and I can't help talking about it. Let me just give you an example of our weekend so you will know what I am talking about.

Friday we ate lunch outside in beautiful 70 degree weather and later in the afternoon went to the park. I was sad when we left Arizona because we had a great park right down the street, but this is the park we now have right across the street.


We had a great time there as a family before Jeremy had to go to class on Friday night.





On Saturday most of my family went out to a campground where Ben and Becca's family was staying, but Jeremy and I decided to take Merrick just down the road to the river beach


We went and explored down by the river and Merrick like chasing the ducks. I was shocked that they let him get as close as they did. After we had spent some time down by the water, we walked along a trail that overlooked the water. It was beautiful and perfect in every way.





Today, we went blackberry picking. I am kicking myself for not bring the camera, but it is amazing that without even leaving my parent's subdivision we could pick blackberries to our hearts content.

It has already been such a fun weekend and the fun will just continue tomorrow when my baby turns two and we have a party to celebrate. Check back in a few days for an update on all the birthday festivities...I can't wait!

Lessons on Preparedness

Okay so yesterday afternoon the power went out at my parents'/our house. It did not really seem like a big deal at the time, but as the hours went on and it started to get dark I started thinking about how we would make it through the night without power. As it turns out we are really dependent on electricity and woefully unprepared to live without it. We had a few, poorly working flashlights and our cell phones that would eventually die without power to charge them, but that was about the extent of our supplies. It got warm in the house, but I was counting my blessings that we were here in Oregon and not back in Arizona and we spent much of the evening outside where it was cooler and lighter.

As the evening wore on we decided we needed to get Merrick ready for bed. It was interesting changing a poopy diaper by the light of a flashlight and of course he would pick that moment when his diaper was off and we could hardly see to decide he needed to pee. We also had the challenge of finding batteries for his sound machine which could not be plugged in as usual and the question of whether we brush his teeth in a dark bathroom or let him skip one time.

In the end the Merrick did get to bed and after six hours the lights did turn on, but I was left with a lot of concerns. We are living not too far from a huge volcano and on top of a large fault line. Experts have said that a massive earthquake is LONG overdue here. While I don't have any desire to live in fear I would like to know that if something were to happen, we could be okay. Last night I learned that we have a long way to go. Since we struggled to make it through six hours my confidence in our long term sustainability is shaky at best.

I am not sure where we go from here, but probably some good working flashlights would be a good first step.

Portlanders

As most of you know, Jeremy and I were both born and raised in Arizona and are basically Arizonans to the core. Given that, we are trying our best to acclimate and adjust to our new home. Oregon, and particularly Portland, is very culture rich with lots to do, see, and explore. Thus far in our almost month of living here we have experienced some of what Portland has to offer and what we have experienced makes us even more excited to find out what being an Oregonian or Portlander is all about.

One of the major rights of passage in becoming a Portlander, and one of our first to experience, is eating at a food cart in downtown. On the way to the food cart we had the full downtown experience with busy streets, difficult parking, interesting people, and one-way streets. We did, however, eventually find both parking and a cart we wanted to eat at.

Our cart of choice was The Sausage Shack. They lured us in with all their signs for their award-winning bacon and it definitely did not disappoint.
Here are Jeremy and Merrick in front of our luxurious dinner accommodations


The food was really fun, interesting, and bad for you. Jeremy had a boring burger with bacon and an egg, I had a philly cheesesteak dog with German smoked sausage, and Merrick had a bacon wrapped corn dog.


This was our view while we ate.



It was a fun experience, although we decided that dealing with downtown in general would be more enjoyable without a two-year-old in tow. We are already planning our next food cart experience. I guess becoming Portlanders might come more naturally than we had thought.

Adventures in Food Part II

Ok so I know that I have done at least one post in the past about how much Merrick loves to eat, but I think it is time for an update. The day before we left for Oregon my sister weighed Merrick and her son Kai (who is 11 months older than Merrick). Merrick weighed 28 lbs and Kai weighed 31. Since coming to Oregon, Merrick thinks it is so fun to hop onto Nana's scale and weigh himself everyday. He has been hovering somewhere between 28 and 30 lbs, but that seems especially crazy when I think about the fact that both of my 4-year-old nephews weigh in the mid 30s.

Don't get me wrong, Merrick is not chunky at all. He is just really tall, solid, and loves to eat. For the most part he is also a really healthy eater. I think he is the only almost 2-year-old in the world who has been talked into eating his meat at dinner with the offer that if he ate his meat he could have some more broccoli.

On the other hand, he also has never been known to turn down a sweet. Over the past two weeks we have had a couple of chances to splurge on some yummy treats. Merrick has been so cute with them we could not resist taking some pictures.

These are from last weekend and our visit to "Heavenly Doughnuts"





And these are from our trip to McDonald's for ice cream after a particularly hard day last week




I have had lots of experiences with a picky eater since we got to Oregon so whether it is broccoli or ice cream I am just really grateful that he eats.

6 and Counting

Yesterday Jeremy and I celebrated our 6th anniversary. We started the day with a shopping trip at the local outlet mall. As we drove we talked about how quickly the last six years have flown by and it truly does feel like it has passed in the blink of an eye.

In the evening my mom and dad (when he was not at the hospital with a friend) were kind enough to stay with Merrick so that Jeremy and I could go out on a date. We went to downtown Lake Oswego for dinner. We stopped at several fancy restaurants before ending up at The Tillamook Creamery. I had halibut and chips and Jeremy had a bacon cheeseburger and we shared some ice cream. We laughed about how even on our anniversary that kind of place was more our speed than a fancy restaurant.

After dinner we did venture out of our typical routine and went to a play at The Lakewood Theater in Lake Oswego. We saw "Boeing Boeing" and it was hilarious.

The first six years of our marriage have been relatively calm. We had our struggles in getting pregnant with Merrick, but for the most part life has been smooth sailing. The next few years however are going to be an adventure. We have done the school thing as a couple before, but never like this. We have all our eggs in this basket and life is going to be different than it has ever been. I take comfort, however, in the fact that I get to tackle this adventure with my best friend. In all honesty I can't wait to see what the future holds for Jeremy and I as a couple and for our whole family.

The Move

I know that there are only one or two of you who care, but I apologize that it has been so long since I have updated the blog. We have been completely wrapped up in our big move to Oregon, so here is a recap of the move:

Day 1: After spending the day before loading the moving truck, cleaning the house, saying goodbye to friends and family and crying, day 1 of our move began at 6:30am. Our goal was to be on the road by 7, but we neglected to take into account that we still had to say goodbye to Jeremy's parent and brother, my sister and my grandparents before we left. After lots of tears, and with tears still in our eyes, we hit the road at about 7:30. Jeremy was driving the moving truck and towing the Honda. I was driving the Lexus with Merrick and Lola.

We made it to Blythe without incident and actually made good time. At our first stop Merrick really wanted to try driving the truck.


After stop number one, the day was down hill from there. Once we entered California the speed limit dropped to 55mph since we were pulling a trailer. Not only that, but we experienced our first mountain pass and discovered that they are not designed for a large moving truck towing a car.

We did see some beautiful sights along the way.

Unfortunately I had LOTS of time to take this picture as we were stopped for an hour in construction traffic. Once we got going again we were stuck behind this

In case you can't tell, that is a semi full of onions. Not only did the air smell of onions, but it also proceeded to shoot onion peels at us as we drove down the road.

After 15 hours on the road we finally made it to my Aunt Launa's house. She was so sweet to let us stay there and while we were not there long enough to enjoy it, this was our view


Day 2: Day 2 was definitely an improvement on day 1. Again we tried to leave by 7, but after getting blocked by a semi at a gas station, we did not really get on the road until almost 8. The highlight of day 2 was our stop for lunch in Mt Shasta. It was really beautiful

Even more important than being beautiful, at this stop we got to see Jeremy's brother Bryce (now you would think I would have a picture of us together, but alas I am not that smart). Bryce is serving a mission for our church in Mt. Shasta. He left when Merrick was about six months old, but we have made sure to show Merrick pictures so he would know his uncle. It was so sweet because when we got there Bryce stooped down and Merrick walked right up and gave him a big hug.

Eventually we said goodbye to Bryce and got back on the road. Most of the rest of the trip was uneventful. We were just really trying to make our final destination as quickly as we could, but just past Eugene this did happened in the Lexus


We finally pulled into my parents' house at about 8pm and had this waiting for us courtesy of my sweet niece Lauren


Over the last few days we have really gotten settled. All the boxes are either unpacked or in storage. Jeremy starts school on Monday and I start watching my two 4-year old nephews full time and another little girl Merrick's age two days a week. Let this new adventure begin!

Thank You

In case you were wondering, this is Merrick giving you a big "thank you" kiss. Life has been so crazy lately and I have been focusing so much on the move that I feel I have neglected to properly thank many, many people...so here is a little shout out to just a few of you.

Thank you to Shaunell, Aubrey, Keith and Nancy for getting us lot of packing boxes.

Thank you to Grandpa and Lollie for watching Merrick, helping to move furniture, and much more.

Thank you to Emily for helping us sell some of our furniture.

Thank you to Nancy for helping me pack boxes.

Thank you to Grandpa and Grandma Great for bringing me packing material and applesauce when I was down and out.

Thank you to Shaunell, Tristan, Morgan, Daphne, and Violet for spending time with my little man so I could pack.

Thank you to Papa and Nana (in advance) for letting us invade your house and for all the time you have spent getting it ready for us.

Thank you (also in advance) to everyone who is coming on Saturday to help us load the truck.

Thank you to all our family and friends for the love and support. We are in the home stretch of this moving and could not have done it without all of you!