dear 2009

Seriously, where did you go? I swear just a few days ago we were just getting acquainted. And now here we are, about to say goodbye. I'm very sad, you see, you were good to me. You brought about a real treasure, my baby boy, and for that I will always keep you close to my heart. You gave us many firsts that I am so grateful for. Justin graduated law school and became a guy with a career. You brought many people into our lives that will forever stay with us. Family time was especially good this year because I got to watch adorning people love on my little man. Holidays were given a new meaning and you gave me a new perspective on life. I have never loved, laughed or been happier in my entire life. We truly have been blessed more than I ever could have imagined, I only hope I can give half as much as we received. We lived and loved in Lake Oswego, Oregon like we would be here forever, but like that, all good things must come to an end.

2010- You have big shoes to fill. I won't lie to you, Im not sure you can top '09, but Im willing to let you try. You can start with our lease ending on our little home, so you better have something good lined up. Im sure this will be another year of firsts for us, so we are ready for any surprise you feel fitting. And I know our adventures will probably slow down a bit, but I promise to do my part to not let you go to waste. So lets start off right, maybe somewhere tropical...

Cheers to a new year!

kelly

oh, the weather outside is frightful!

Every year, it snows in portland. Thats great, I think snow is soo pretty. However, because it only snow's once, maybe twice a year, the city has no idea what to do with it. We have no plows. They wont use salt. And they couldnt really predict this storm. Every hour they have come on the breaking news adding another "possible" inch to the expected amount to fall. I am happy and warm in my home, but Justin is stuck on the freeway, (and has been for the last 1.5 hrs.)trying to make it home, in our rear wheel chevy camaro... turns out its not the best snow mobile.

**and just for the record, it is now 11:30pm and Justin just arrived home safely (a total of 7.5 hours stuck in the snow). Thanks to the help of our amazingly great friends the Rockwoods and their fanatstic car, the FJ.

Merry Christmas!

What a wonderful week! We went to Utah to spend the Holiday with Justins family. It was fantastic. What a wonderful way to spend Rhys's first christmas. We headed out into the snow for some family sledding. Rhys was less than excited about the whole situation, but everyone else had a great time. He looked too cute as a blue eskimo though. We even stopped to have a snowball fight and build a snowman.Christmas morning was fun, but long. Rhys cut his second tooth that night, which meant he was up at least every 3 hours screaming. Poor kid. It was so cute to see all his new toys and the fact that he was more excited to play with the box.
What a good looking family, eh!he get such a kick out of looking at himself in the mirror! We call his reflection his buddy!

We flew back home on Christmas day to open our own presents to each other and have a great evening as a family.

family pics

When we were in CA, we did a family photo shoot for our xmas card. Im not sure any of them made the cut, but it was sure fun taking them.

wes, kel, justin, rhys, courtney, danny, mom, ashlyn, kristen

Really, only one guess....

I have to say I'm a little disappointed. Considering most of you have at one point, or still currently live at the base of these mountains, I thought it would have been easier. Theres a big clue in the bottom right hand corner... Ill see if I can zoom in on it a bit.

witwata

Lets play a game. We will call it where in the world are the Aida's? Why I didnt think of this sooner is beyond me, but we shall start now. Heres the rules: Every now and the I'll post a pic of the next fun place we are going to and lets see if you can guess it. Got it? Easy enough. Im sure Ill make up rules as I go, but whatever. Im not sure how tricky these will be, so we will start off easy.

Lets begin.
we will be HERE for Christmas.
...........can you guess where that is??

santa claus is coming to town...

really.

I come home to 14 degree lows and 30 degree highs. really. I though when they announced the temperature outside as we were descending into Portland at 22 degrees at 7:30 pm, that they had just completely bypassed Oregon and we were landing in Alaska.... I miss my California sun already.

thanksgiving!

What a fabulous weekend!

It started off with the turkey bowl. I love the fall for so many reasons. One of them being the delicious turkey feast that gets celebrated with some wonderful people! This year we went over to our friends the Darby's. They have 4 adorable girls who love on Rhys any chance they get. We had so much fun playing wii and eating. It was fantastic. We love this family!

the darby's- gretchen, linda, leah, margret, christian and momo

On friday, we woke up and drove out to the coast to catch up with my family and go crabbing. What a gorgeous day it ended up being out in Newport. We only caught one dungeness, but like 32 red rock crabs, so another feast began.

On saturday, we joined the local gym! Why is this a highlight of my weekend, you ask? Mainly because of the 100+ classes included with the membership, or the 1700 sqft child care center where we get 2 free hours everyday... it is fabulous!

And on sunday, we put up our christmas tree! I wish we could have 4 day weekends every week!

beautiful. A highly recomended read.

uh. oh.

seven months and ready for trouble! I wonder where he learned this one!

GRT- part 3

After Vegas, I met up with the girls from the road trip again at our place. They spent the night, and we had lots of fun talking. It was so funny for justin because he knew Christi and Amelia at BYU way before he met me. The next day they took off and headed to the coast while I got a few things done around here. I met up with them again Monday night in Seattle so we could go to Olympic National Park.

This place was cool!! Its these huge alpine peaks on this penninsula west of seattle. Again, it was kind of clouded over, so we went on this hike to Marymere Falls and walked around Cresent Lake.

River wanted to hold "manos" with Jaycee- which is what he called rhys the entire trip.

dreamy cabin

We ate dinner in Port Angeles and came across this:

So there really is a Forks, La Push, Quilute Reservation, and walking through the woods feels like vampires and warewolves are going to attack at any moment. We only made it as far as Port Angeles (which had a great view over to Victoria, BC) before having to catch the Ferry back to Seattle so they could catch their 10:30pm flight.

Viva las Vegas

So after being home for less than an hour, Rhys and I got picked up for another girls trip down to Vegas. My Aunt, Grandma, Auntie and Cousin flew down to meet my mom, sister, sister-in-law and Aunt from UT. What a trip. We stayed at the Monte Carlo and had fun all weekend.

We had some yummy food. Hard Rock cafe, In-n-Out..... watched the Bellagio fountains.....

hung out by the pool....

played cards...got pedicures and massages....and celebrated my grandmas birthday with a surprise bash down by the pool.

the whole gang- Aunt Ean, Aunt Kristy, Auntie Susanne, sis Courtney, momma Deena, Grandma, Sis-in-law Kristen, cousin Katy, and me....rhys was asleep in his stroller

Thank you for a great weekend ladies!! I love you all!