Love is in the Air

Jeremy and I celebrated our 2nd Valentine's together with my friends Jamie, Michele, and Michele's husband Jon. For dinner we went to Pappadeaux. We then went across the street to Cowboy's Red River. I actually got Jeremy to 2 step with me again!

Mud on the Tires

The time finaly arrived for Pools Ranch to have the first 4-wheel ride of the year, which meant the first time I was officially going to get to get my 4-wheeler stuck in the mud! Hayllee and I met Jeremy and the rest of the crew in Athens late Friday night. We went for a late night ride and then spent all day Saturday riding! Jeremy of course had to make sure he started getting use out of his new wench and got stuck his fair share of the time! I had also had fun getting some mud on my 4-wheeler. I was quite proud of myself and how well I was able to keep up with everyone. Since I was now on my own bike, Hayllee was now Daddy's little helper on his. When Jeremy would get stuck, Hayllee was right on the front ready to help drive it out! After getting out of one hole, she decided to keep going and leave Jeremy behind. However, she didn't get too far before submerging it in another mud hole!

We also added a couple of friends to our 4-wheeling crew. Kristie and Brian came out on the ride with us and brought their new travel trailer, which is where we stayed! Hayllee also had a guest on the ride. Wally the whale, the class "pet" came home with her for the weekend, so of course Wally had to go for a spin on the 4-wheeler. We decided that Wally probably had the most fun this weekend than any other weekend so far and that he would miss going home with Hayllee!

2nd Annual Ski Trip

At the top of the Gondola lift Me, Jeremy, and Hayllee ready to ski!

Over MLK weekend we drove to Ruidosa, New Mexico for a weekend of skiing. This year we rented a huge house and there were 11 adults and 11 kids; we had quite a crew! We got into town late Friday night. Saturday morning we were up early and ready to hit the slopes! Hayllee and I were especially excited since we both had our own new skiis this year! The first day Hay went to ski school with her friends Kaitlyn and Jordan and then Sunday a private lesson with her ski instructor, Lance. By afternoon on Sunday, she was making turns and beating us to the bottom of the hill.

Hay with her instructor, Lance going down the hill

Luckily this year, I managed to not fall out of the ski lift flat on my face! But, don't think that I didn't have another ski lift $100,000 moment for funniest videos! As Jeremy, Jace, and I were getting on the bunny lift to take us across the resort to the other lifts, I ended up on Jace's lap! Jeremy and I skiied up to the line to wait for the chair and at the last minute, Jace decided to join us. When he did this, he chose the middle not realizing that is where I was waiting to sit when the chair came my way! He grabbed me and I was on his lap for the first 1/4 of the ride! With Jermey's help, we finally manuvered around and ended up with our own spots before getting off the lift! I have never laughed so hard and been so scared at the same time in my life! I am sure it was entertaining for everyone below! The rest of the skiing was great with beautiful weather and great snow! We can hardley wait to continue the tradition next year.

The kids had a blast in the hot tub at the house!

Time to get muddy!

Well, I have a new toy...a big kid's toy! I think it is the biggest purchase I have ever made apart from my house and car! Since a house and car are a must this day in age, this is the first TOY I have ever spent a lot on! It is a White, Honda Foretrax 4-Wheeler with powersteering! The powersteering part is very important...that means I can turn quickly enough that I don't run into trees....this has come close to happening before on other non-powersteering 4-wheelers that I have driven!!! Now that I have it, I have the itch to go riding. Hopefully within the next couple of weekends I will convince my friends and we will go!!

Are You Ready For Some Football?!!

Jeremy took me to my first ever Dallas Cowboys game this weekend. This is the last year they will be playing at Texas Stadium, so we wanted to be sure to see a game while they were there. We got to the stadium and parked in timbucktu for $30! We had fun tailgaiting with all of the other crazy Cowboys fans. We then walked up to the stadium about 1 mile away and saw the rest of the crazy fans! Our seats were row 11, but when we got to them there were only 4 rows in front of us, so we were really only 5 rows from the endzone! They were great seats. We had a great time watching the game and saw lots of great plays. It was pretty cool to see the touchdowns and only be a few yards away! The players look so much bigger in person than they do on TV! The stadium was packed! It holds around 80,000, and I think that there were 80,000 there! It is so loud and was a very fun place to watch a game. The Cowboys beat the Bengals 39-22!

Batter Up

Hayllee is playing softball again this fall and the team is doing much better. They are hitting and fielding good and wining games! Hayllee has played several positions and has helped make several outs in each game. I have taken the duty of book/stat keeper and Jeremy is coach and runs the pitching mashine when Pink Crush is up to bat

The City of Roses

It had been 3 years, but I finally made it to Portland and Jeremy was able to go with. While we were there, Portland decided to put her best foot forward and roll out the red carpet for Jeremy. The weather was absolutley beautiful with clear blue skies and 90 degrees! We couldn't have asked for a better weekend.
We arrived to Portland at 1130 AM. Dad, Grandma, and Joy picked us up from the airport and we went to The Original Taco House to eat some lunch. It's funny how that seemed like the best Mexican food ever to me at one time. After living in Texas I realized we definatley spice up our Mexican food here! After lunch we went through the Oregon Gorge to Multnomah Falls. Dad and Joy rolled Grandma up to the view point and Jeremy and I hiked to the bridge of the falls. After a quick stop at the falls, we began our drive to Dad's house. We made a quick stop on the way to stop and say hi to mom. I'm not quite sure what Jeremy thought of going to the cemetary and taking pictures at mom's grave site, but he was a good sport since he knew it was important to me. Next, we made it to Dad's house and I showed him around where I used to live!
Jeremy and I then left to go to the Benson Hotel for Nicole McCord's wedding in which I was a reader. The wedding was a lot of fun and it was great to see Nicole and her Maid of Honor, Kelly Shunk; both of whom I grew up playing tennis with. Jeremy and I had a wonderful time at the wedding as well as the reception.

Sunday morning we got up and since we were already downtown, I figured it would be a perfect time to give him a tour of the city. We drove all through Portland and Jeremy even got to see Rose Garden Arena where the Portland Trail Blazers play. I then continued my job as city guide and we drove up to the Rose Gardens and to the Pittock Mansion for Jeremy to see more pretty views of the city. From there, it was on to visit with Sandy, Will, Kaitlyn (my God daugthter), and Emily. It was so nice to have Jeremy finally meet them. Although Sandy and I talk almost every week, it was nice to be able to talk and have her right there next to me!

You would think after all of that, our day would be over, but we still had more to do and see. Jeremy got more of a tour of the houses/schools I lived, attended, and worked. Then we decided to see if we could see Roloff Farms where Little People Big World is filmed. The family's farm is only 5 miles from my dad's house. When we got there, the tours had just ended, but that was ok with us since we were able to see almost the entire family and took pictures. We also were able to see and take pictures of the house, all of Matt's cars, the zip line, and barn. It was fun for both of us to see since we watch the show all the time!

We ended the evening with dinner at Red Robin with Chris and Shelly Hartenstein and both of their girls. It was then back to the house to visit a little with Dad, Grandma, and Joy.

Monday was a little more calmer of a day. We got up and then eventually made our way over to Tualatin Hills where Jeremy was able to see where I grew up playing tennis and meet my coach. We then made our way around the area by my house and oddly enough ended up buying snow skiis since they were on sale and we can't get them in Texas! After an afternoon of running around, we went back to the house so we could go out to dinner with Dad, Joy, and Grandma to Newport Bay on the water at the waterfront. Once again it was a gorgeous night and we were able to eat out on the dock. The next morning it was time to head home to Texas, but we had a funfilled weekend!