Happy Thanksgiving 2021

Similar to other holidays recently, we were ecstatic to be able to resume some regular festivities after having to take a break last year. Nothing like going without, to make you extra thankful for what you have! We gathered in Vancouver with the Corrigan family and had a great time eating, bowling, playing lots of games, and just enjoying each other. So much to be thankful for...

Dude Perfect

 For Christmas LAST YEAR, we got Marcus tickets to see Dude Perfect Live. His favorite group of guys came to Portland, but alas, the pandemic created a bunch of delays and cancellation across the tour circuit. We had several things get refunded over the last 18 months, but astonishingly, this one kept getting bumped, and finally the show date arrived! With our negative covid tests, vaccine cards, and masks in hand, this kid got to see his DUDES! His big sister volunteered to use the extra ticket and was the perfect big buddy. I think there might have a been a bit of stimulation overload for Marcus, however we managed. My oldest and youngest, palling around like nobody's business. So much fun!

Happy birthday to me!

 For my 45th birthday, I got a breakfast date with friends, tons of yummy food home-made by my amazing chef hubby (chocolate mousse, seafood yakisoba, steaks), a fresh hairdo, and a VISIT FROM MY FARAWAY SISTER (check out our matching shirts, we are awesome). I am blessed. If this is middle aged, I'm making it to 90, baby!  

Cabin Weekends

When your good friends have an amazing cabin, and are ridiculously generous, you sometimes get lucky enough to be invited there. Yay us!! And because we have five million kids in our friend group, we did the very wise thing and took turns with guy/girl weekends. The guys had the most amazing weather, and the ladies got a bucket of rain HOWEVER we do not let weather decide our attitudes. "No bad weather, only bad clothes"... RIGHT GIRLS?! I live by this Swedish mantra as a native Northwesterner, and I will never stop saying it. My one friend who shall remain nameless, has personal rules like she won't go walking unless it's above 40 degrees, so she really REALLY loves it when I'm constantly spouting this. We had an amazing time, both weekends. One thing Kyle and I both commented on afterwards, is how generous and servant-hearted this group of friends is. We are newer to this crew (a few years in now), and the rest of them have been doing life together for 15 years. They have mastered the art of who-does-what on these weekends, and there is an overflowing of serving each other. It's like even sort of tricky to figure out what I can do to contribute (ha). It is such a gift and blessing to join a community like this, because it is just such an awesome example of what community should be like. I love all of these people so much, it makes my face hurt from smiling!!

Holiday Hustle 5k

Running is something I do off and on, mostly for fitness reasons, but sometimes (like in this case) for fun! My friend Julie (a marathon runner) was so sweet to do this 5k with me, so it would be more fun. For her, this was like an afternoon stroll, but for me a fun stretch goal to get me into a more consistent running routine. It was holiday themed, so I wore my candy cane earrings and jingle bell scrunchy. This is not at all a middle-aged cringey thing to do, BTW. I mean, my picture shows me doing a double-thumbs-up, for crying out loud. I am so cool! Just ask my teenagers!

Happy Halloween

We were sooooo excited to finally got to go trick-or-treating after last year's hiatus. This was the first year both girls ditched us to go candy hunting with their friends! They are not too old (yet) for all this fun. Our costumes this year were:

Marin: My Hero Academia; also for school she had a "Ties and Tiaras" dress up day

Maddie: Angel

Max: Scientist

Marcus: Football Referee

Dad: Ted Lasso (he always finds a way to make those v-neck sweaters work for costumes, ha)

Mom: I wore my "Trick or Treat Yoself" shirt ;) Classic!