What a Week!!

Last week was WONDERFUL to say the least. John finally got some vacation time after 8 months of way too many stressful hours of work. He had the whole week off, which was perfect for our birthday/anniversary week! Here's the details: (**warning... this is a super long mega post... lots of fun went on!)

SUNDAY-TUESDAY~

Sunday after church we drove down to Glide to visit John's parents! When we got there they had made John and I a birthday cake and we had a little birthday party for us since no other family would be up in Portland for our actual birthdays. Monday, John, his dad and I went river rafting down the North Umpqua! It was a perfect day for it- 95 degrees outside which makes the cold water for once feel heavenly! It was A LOT of fun! We had the perfect balance of some adrenaline pumping rapids and calm sections where we could jump in and cool off. I LOVE that the Grahams have their own kayaks and equipment so we can do this anytime it's hot enough and we are down there! I also love that the river is practically in their backyard! We decided after this trip that we don't go down the river enough and need to do it a lot more.

A BIG thanks to Grandma Sue (John's mom) for watching the boys ALL day.... after the river, we got to go to the movies and then out to dinner at a nice restaurant to celebrate our 5 year anniversary!! Thanks for the gift card Gale and Sue! We LOVED it!! The boys of course had a blast hanging out with Grandma and Heather and busted out the slip'n'slide to beat the heat back at the house while we were at the river. They love anything to do with water right now, so they were totally into it!

One of the many wonderful things about having a truck... makes trips like this possible!

Getting ready to go down the river! This is what you get, John, for refusing to look at the camera.... or give me a real smile! :) I wish I had pictures of us in action, going down the river, but unfortunately, the random couple we passed by on the side of the river that took tons of pictures of us has not yet found a way to reach us to e-mail them to me! :)

Meanwhile, the boys had fun back at Grandpa & Grandma's house playing on the Slip'n'slide with Aunt Heather

Tuesday morning, we got in a great workout at the track that is behind the Grahams house, spent some more time on the slip'n'slide, packed our stuff up and headed home, with a brief stop to load up on some Euphoria chocolate in Eugene. It was a much needed trip and a great way to start out the week!

WEDNESDAY~

8AM John had an interview with a new company called VESTAS up here in Portland as a Tax Analyst. It is a Danish windfarm company that we have heard wonderful things about. We were really excited for the interview and praying hard it would go well.... and it did! JOHN GOT A NEW JOB!!!!! They called him back within 15 minutes after he left the interview and made him a great offer!! We are stoked! He starts September 8th! I will post a follow up blog explaining more soon! We were sort of in shock all day and couldn't believe that the craziness of job searching is finally over, but so excited for it to happen just in time for our birthday so we could truly relax and have a great time! To celebrate the new job (and also our upcoming anniversary/birthdays), we went out to dinner without kids (yes!) to The Vintage Room at the Reserve Golf Course... it is definitely one of our favorite places to eat. We get gift cards for way cheap online for there. We love to sit on the deck when we go because it overlooks the beautiful golf course and that night they had live music out on the deck that made it absolutely perfect! It was very relaxing and romantic.... and we had some fantastic food! So delicious.

THURSDAY~

I get to take the boys to the Portland zoo every now and then, but John is of course always working and hasn't been since he was a little boy himself. So, thursday, we decided to all go together and I am so glad we did! It was so fun for John to be able to watch the boys first hand run from exhibit to exhibit getting all excited and having a blast instead of me having to tell him about it when he gets home from work. The zoo still had their dinosaur exhibit going so we did that... Jackson was really excited about it beforehand, and was slightly terrified by the end. We didn't blame him though, the T-Rex was ginormous and terrifying, and some of the other dino's spit water at him as he was trying to run quickly by. Luckily, the burping Long Neck (at least that's what it sounded like to us!) saved the day and made the boys laugh. The weather was perfect and it wasn't too crowded and we got to see just about everything there! The boys were in heaven. We have a TON of good pictures from the zoo this time because we finally had our family photographer (aka John) with us this time! It's amazing how many good pictures we get when he is around to be the photo taker.

Waiting for the max...

Jackson loves riding the max/train Baby Bear loved the Bear's... no joke, he really liked them!

The only proof that I was indeed there... Jackson and the snake having a starring contest












The bats... Jackson's absolute favorite exhibit And the Seals... this one is my favorite!

After the zoo, we just had to go get our birthday burgers at Red Robin! That is the one thing I love about having the same birthday.... two free tasty meals! haha. We love Red Robin and the kids love it too thanks to the free balloons!

FRIDAY THE 20th & SATURDAY~

THE day! Happy birthday to John and I and also, happy 5 year anniversary!! That morning, we woke up to Jackson standing next to our bed saying, "Happy Birthday!" I was so proud of him for remembering! For breakfast, John wanted to make us some Eggs in Purgatory... if you don't know what it is, google it. It turned out amazing! John has always been a great cook, he just never has time to do any cooking! So it was a special treat to get such a great breakfast at home without me making it!

That day was also C & R's (the company I manage for) annual company picnic at Oaks Park- the only amusement park in Oregon! They had a free BBQ with lots of good food, had a pinata with tons of candy for the kids, and they gave us all free bracelets for the rides! We spent a few hours taking the boys on some little kid rides... they absolutely LOVED it!

I absolutely love this picture... can you tell how much fun he is having?!

Later that day, we dropped the boys off at our good friend's The Jensen's for the night and went out to dinner and got to stay downtown Portland in a hotel WITHOUT kids!!! It was wonderful. We walked around the city, got some amazing desserts from Jake's restaurant and just enjoyed not having to worry about bath time, story time, wrestling the kids into their PJ's, whinning about bed time and finally getting them to sleep. It was wonderful. We had a great time!

Saturday morning we got to sleep in past 7AM (wahoo!), and then walked down to the Pearl District and found the cutest little restaurant that had GREAT food! I had Banana blackberry pancakes.... mmmm... it was amazing. We walked around some more, went back to the hotel, checked out and then went to the movies to see INCEPTION. That movie was amazing. SO darn good. If for some reason you have not seen it yet, go see it, ASAP. It was so captivating and done so well. The acting is top notch and the effects and story line were truly done by some geniuses.

After the movie, we grabbed some delicious food at Noah's Bagels, spent an hour perusing Barnes and Noble and then finally picked up our boys! It was a much needed break and we had a great time!

WHEW! What a week! We are exhausted, but finally, exhausted from a fun and excited week instead of just being exhausted from too much work and stress! We couldn't have asked for a better week! A HUGE thanks to all of the friends and family who helped with the kids, sent cards and presents and called to help make our special day even better!! We feel so blessed to have so many people who truly care about us!!