I have gotten a bit behind on the blogging scene despite lots of recent going-ons. Last week we returned from our trip home to Oregon, it was another whirlwind trip but still good to be back and smell the clean air. I am always so shocked by how green it is, flying into Portland is such a contrast compared to Salt Lake (even though Utah has been having a “wet” spring). I was able to see almost all of my family, Jason flew in a few days after me and he managed to squeeze in a lot within his few days as well. I spent some time in Longview at my Mom’s, Jenna played hookie from school we hung out for the day and then went to visit Mom at work, here she is showing off the baby chicks in her classroom….
Dan and Kathy hosted a BBQ and we hung out Oregon-style around the fire pit…
Erin drove up from Corvallis and we toured the Japanese Gardens…
Chinese Gardens…
And we ate cupcakes at St. Cupcake…
Jason and I met up with Steph, Jenna, Mom and Jim to watch a Portland Timbers Game, afterward we met up with Lindsay to have drinks at La Merde and dessert at the Rimsky-Korsakoffee House.
We went on a hike with Dan, Kathy and Steph to Wahclella Falls in the Columbia River Gorge…
Everything was so lush and green…
We also got to visit with Corey, Alyssa and the new addition Carson! I didn’t get any pictures but man is he a cute one, I enjoyed cuddling with him, so tiny! I miss you Oregon and everything and one that lives there!
We also had a fun time exploring the SLC night scene which included a sad and hilarious attempt at “bar hopping” we ended our evening by performing Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believing” at a Karaoke bar, it is pretty safe to say we were the only ones with talent, immediately after our performance despite the entire bar’s pleads for us to stay and give an encore, we left the building. Here is a picture of Lindsay from that night…
After Lindsay left Steph came into town for Thanksgiving! We had a good time as well, one of the absolute highlights of her trip was when we managed to come across 7 Newfoundlands at a very posh pet store in Park City, the owner of the dogs (and the store) must have sensed my love for them (I did tell him at least three times “I love them”) and gave us 2 Newfie’s for us to walk around Park City!!! I was beyond excited, in fact I am still worked up about it, made my month!
Oh Yeah we were pretty serious about it, our very own little Whoville! Steph and I also cooked a turkey and did the whole Thanksgiving feast (mini style since it was just Jas, Steph and myself). The turkey turned out amazing, although I have to say that while Lindsay was here she and I cooked a full turkey breast in preparation for my first bird and it was by no means an easy task, in fact it was a disaster. Luckily the second bird turned out and was just wonderful, all credit going to Steph since I had to work the night before Thanksgiving when she did most of the work making the brine and everything else. This picture is blurry but check that bird out!
Here is a picture that gives a better perspective as to how tiny she actually is…
So cute, they also had three baby tigers, a monkey and a giraffe, Kelsey got some good pictures that you can see on her blog 
You can see the cute little chairs they had carved out of stumps and the plants were trained to grow over the wire fencing which provided the structure for the playhouse, it was so nice and cool inside because of the plants perfect for hiding out on a hot summer day! They had a large tunnel trellis that was shaped like a snake, you entered through his mouth and then you could wind through his whole body like a maze, here is a picture of the inside of the snakes belly…
We ended our day by driving down into Heber City on the other side of the Canyon and then swinging past Utah’s Bridal Veil falls, it was impressive but my goodness were there a lot of people standing at the base of the falls sort of like going to Multnomah falls but worse because here people were splashing around in the water, sort of takes away from the beauty.
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It was a nice little hike although it will probably be even better in early fall once all the kids go back to school. Then we went over to Snowbird and took a ride on the tram which takes you up to the top of Hidden Peak which is 11,000 feet! It was sort of scary but awesome at the same time here is a picture of Dan filming our ascent…
Our chariot…
We were laughing because it was weird to be on a ski lift without skis on, so when we were approaching the end of the lift we found our selves automatically raising our tips…
When we got back to SLC we picked up Jas and went to find a good place to watch the sunset…
It was a pretty evening you can see some of the Salt Lake off to the left in the picture below and what looks like a mountain range in the background is actually Antelope Island which is in Salt Lake…
Jason’s sister Kelsey started a scrapbook of me and Jason which is so cute, I have never scrapbooked before but I am going to have to start because Kelsey tells me she expects to see the finished product by Christmas! 
I had a really good time thanks to all of you that came and thanks again to Kathy for letting us use your house! While I was there Kathy and I went on a wild goose chase trying to find shirts and ties for the groomsmen to wear, you would not believe how hard it is to find green shirts and black ties. We had to call all over the place to find all the different sizes that we needed for the shirts. It was an educational experience for both me and Steph because we had never had to buy men’s shirts before and the sizing was new to us, I can now say that I know how to buy a men’s dress shirt and I know what Jason’s size is too :) I guess I could contribute my lack of knowledge in the men’s department to growing up with three sisters and no brothers. While I was there I also got to attend Jenna’s Regional Junior Olympic track meet which was very exciting, she had run previously in a meet in Seattle where she qualified in the 100m, long jump and high jump! Steph and I decided that Jenna needed to have a track uniform (since most of the kids in these meets are part of a team and have some snazzy get-ups) we found her a “speed suit” for 9.99 online and decided to get it for her, because for the price of 9.99 how could we resist?! We weren’t sure if she would wear it or not because Jen is usually pretty modest but to our surprise she loved it!
She did an awesome job at the meet we are so proud of her! It was a jam packed weekend of fun and exciting things next time I will be home will be the week before our wedding, exciting! I still have a lot of things that I need to get done, mostly little things but I have been enjoying getting our RSVP cards in the mail! I especially love the little notes that people have been writing on them, so far we have received 28 RSVPs and out of those 26 of them marked “accepts” people are coming woohoo!
Things that are still left on my list to do:
Here is a picture of her crossing the finish line in the 100m…
Here is Jen in the high jump…
I am so proud of her for overcoming her fear of the high jump after having split her head on the supporting bar during one of her meets in the spring; she is such a determined little athlete! Good luck today Jen!
