3rd Anniversary Trip

This year we decided to head to the beach to celebrate our third anniversary. We left Friday afternoon and stayed until Monday evening. Friday was my birthday and I had worked the night before, raced home, slept for three hours, went to lunch with my friends, and then we headed out of town. We stayed in Lincoln City for two days and then Seaside for a night. The weather was gorgeous. We enjoyed hiking, flying kites, playing on the beach, walking around town, shopping, napping, and of course, eating! I feel so blessed that we get to take trips like this together.

3 Years!

We celebrated our third anniversary this year! Crazy to think that it's been three whole years since that magical day. We both had the whole day off this year so our day consisted of sleeping in, going shopping, getting lunch, taking a nap, having a nice dinner, and taking our annual anniversary picture. I treasure every moment I get with Andrew and this day was truly special. I thank my Heavenly Father every day that He brought Andrew into my life. My heart is so full.

Dinner at Ruth's Chris Steakhouse

3rd Anniversary Picture 

Our Sweet Molly Dog

In April, we had to say goodbye to our sweet Molly. She was diagnosed with cancer back in November and were told she only had 2 months to live. She held on strong until April when one day, we just knew it was time to let her go. She passed away peacefully in our arms. It's always hard to say goodbye to a member of the family, even the ones with four legs. We miss her always and love reminiscing of all the good times we had with her. 

Hunting for snow

While we were preparing for our trip to Texas, we were also planning a trip to Utah. Andrew's brother (the one who lives in Texas) recently bought a Jeep Grand Cherokee and had really been wanting to take it on a road trip, off-roading, and in the snow. They figured Utah would be a perfect place for that and it was easy enough for other family members to head down and meet them there as well. We, too, had our own road trip with Andrew's mom. It was fun to spend another week with family we don't see all that often. We stayed with some friends who were so gracious to let us take over their house for a week. The weather was surprisingly warm and sunny while we were there, so the snow was hard to find. We were able to find a decent amount up on Powder Mountain. We also got to go for a nice hike, spend some time in Salt Lake City at Temple Square, and celebrate Valentine's Day at a nice Italian restaurant. Again, this week flew by and it was hard to say goodbye, and, yet again, my travel habit of getting sick everytime we go on vacation didn't fail me for this trip. I got a 24 hour stomach flu bug the night before we left to head home, which made for an interesting 12 hour drive back to Oregon. 

    Valentine's Day

    Temple Square

   Beautiful Hike

   Snowboarding at Powder Mountain

Weekend at Skamania Lodge

I have said this many times before and I will say it again: We truly are blessed to be part of the America's Tire/Discount Tire family. Sometimes, we get a little spoiled. Andrew's store had an awesome month back in November and his team reached some goals that have never been met before by that store, and that have been met by very few stores across the country. To celebrate, the company took us all to Skamania Lodge for the weekend. It is located in the gorge and overlooks the Columbia River. The amenities were perfect and the view was breathtaking. We went zip lining, got pampered at the spa, had delicious food, a cozy room, and all the drinks and room service you could ask for. The best part - the company paid for it all! The evening dinner was accompanied by a little presentation by the regional Vice Presidents. Andrew received a plaque to commemorate the amazing work they had done. We had such a great time getting to know the Vice Presidents and their wives better and are looking forward to many more company events.

Trip to Texas

In January, we had the opportunity to take a trip to Texas to visit Andrew's brother and his family. They had recently had a new baby so we were excited to meet him and spend a week in the Lone Star state! The week went by very quickly but we definitely filled it with tons of fun. Some of our favorite memories from the week were those from just sitting around the house hanging out. I have developed this bad habit (not by choice) of getting sick on every trip we go on. On this trip I got a nasty respiratory infection. I felt terrible for a couple of days straight. I was trying to stay away from the baby so he didn't get sick so Andrew got to hog all the baby snuggles. It's a bummer that our family lives so far away but we truly treasure every moment we get to spend with them.

Southern Caribbean Cruise Day 9: Heading Home

We woke up Sunday morning already missing the Caribbean but ready to head home. We ordered room service for breakfast so we could finish our last minute packing. We had put our big suitcases outside our room the night before so they crew members could sort them in preparation for debarkation. We had to be out of our room by a certain time so we as soon as we were all packed and had finished breakfast, we headed upstairs to the main dining floor. We picked a booth and got comfy, as we knew we would be sitting there a while. We had to wait until our group number (based on where our cabin was located on the ship) was called before we could debark and go through customs. We pulled out our cards and continued our tournament of Skip-Bo. My phone, unfortunately, was not much better than the previous night. Still obvious water damage. We still don't know what happened and why the case leaked but it was definitely frustrating heading home with a broken iPhone.

We ended up playing cards for about 2 hours. I believe I ended up winning the Skip-Bo tournament by 1 game. The wait was dragging on and we just wanted to get home. Finally, our number was called and we were able to debark, locate our luggage, go through customs, hop on a shuttle, and head to the airport. Once we arrived at the airport, we checked in and went through security before getting something to eat.

We flew through JFK in New York City again on the return trip. Overall, the flights were fine. We still didn't sleep much, but fortunately we had movies and direct TV to keep us entertained. 

We finally arrived home around 12:30a.m. We couldn't wait to crawl into our own bed and fall asleep. Before falling asleep, I decided to take a quick peek at our credit card account. What a very unwelcome surprise it was to see that somewhere along the line, our credit card had been hacked and some $300 worth of charges were put on it. We were less than thrilled. 

After getting a few hours of quality sleep, we unpacked, did laundry, got me a new iPhone, called the credit card company, and did our best to recoup after an amazing week. 

Andrew and I love traveling together. We are always able to find the best adventures and have to most fun with each other. This Southern Caribbean Cruise was no doubt amazing and will definitely be hard to top with future vacations.