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.