Labor Day Weekend - Oregon Coast

We were very excited to have such nice weather in the month of September this year, especially considering the weak-sauce weather we had the rest of the summer.  As Labor Day weekend approached Jaime decided he wanted to take me to the Oregon Coast and I just can't turn that down!  Since Andra was almost at her due-date, I was very hesitant about going 5 hours away and risking not being here for her labor.  Thankfully, the place we were staying understood our situation and let us make reservations knowing that if we had to bail at a moments notice, we wouldn't be charged. 

We also treated this trip as our 7 year anniversary trip even though it wasn't for a couple more weeks. On Friday we headed down to Oregon and decided to stop off and stay the first night in Lake Oswego.  We stayed at the same hotel as we did 7 years ago the night before we got married, right by the Portland Temple.  

After checking in and walking around the temple grounds, we went to dinner at the restaurant (Oswego Grill) that we ate at immediately after our wedding. It was great time to reminisce of our wedding day.

The next morning we continued our trip down the coast to Surfrider Resort just north of Depoe Bay.  I love this place!  I've been her many times even when I was a kid and it is one of my favorite spots along the Oregon Coast.  Our room was just perfect with a spectacular view and I wasted no time putting up my hammock on the balcony.

Once we got situated in our room, we headed down to hang out on the beach for a bit and play in the waves.  We couldn't have asked for better weather!

Staircase down to the beach

I love the Oregon Coast

Waves hitting the rocks

Me playing in the waves. (This is the exact spot a sneaker wave took me out about 24 years ago....and my whole family laughed at me. Now this beach is called "Not-Funny-Beach" because I screamed at them to stop laughing at me and that it wasn't funny!)  Now I try not to turn my back on the ocean. =)

Being cute on the beach

Jaime flinging seaweed at me

Beach smooch

Haha...check out this ghetto gazebo.

Going to check out what's so "dangerous"

Jaime walking on the rocks at Boiler Bay

I LOVE this picture

Holding hands

Coming back onto the "safe" side of the fence

One of the things I love about Surfrider is their restaurant.  It. Is. Amazing!  And reasonably priced too which is hard to find along the coast.  It also has the most amazing view overlooking Fogarty Beach.  We went to an early dinner to assure we'd get a table with a view and we ended up having the restaurant to ourselves.  I got the seafood platter and ate oysters for the first time since I was a kid. So nasty! Thankfully I had tons of other seafood goodies to eat.
After dinner, we drove into Depoe Bay to get some food for the next couple days.....or so I thought.  Once we got out of the car, Jaime went straight to the candy store.  Figures.  We bought enough salt water taffy to last most people 6 months.

Jaime found candy

Then we headed back to our hotel just in time for the sunset.  

One of my favorite places to read in the whole world.

The next day the weather was not as good.  It was super clear when I first got up in the early hours for a morning run on the beach, but by the time Jaime crawled out of bed the fog had moved in.
We decided to go on a drive to try and escape the fog and find a sunny beach somewhere.  No such luck..but we did find some cool spots to hang out at for a while including a beach that had tons of surfers we watched for a while.

Cool deserted beach we found near Devils Punchbowl.

This beach had some pretty cool caves we explored for a while.

After a day of walking around 

After exploring and spending the day at numerous beaches, we were both pretty worn out so we headed back to our room (which had big jacuzzi tub) and enjoyed a nice warm soak while watching a movie.  Then I passed out in front of the fireplace. (It was turned on, but you can't see the flames in the picture for some reason)

I love sleeping by fires

It was a great enjoyable weekend and I can't wait to go back.  Kudos to Jaime for coming up with the idea!

Forgotten Post

My last post was an "End of Summer" post and I just found a couple more pictures from the end of summer.  So here they are!

Suntop Lookout

Anyone who knows me really well knows that Suntop Lookout is a very special place to me.  I have very fond memories as a kid going up there in the middle of the night to watch meteor showers, and going up for day trips with my family.  Even as a teenager, I took friends up there (and some dates) to enjoy the amazing views and sunset.  See?? This is what I'm talking about.

Anyways, another reason why this spot is special to me is because this is the spot our family scattered my Grandma Alberta's ashes back in 1999.  She always loved the Cascade Mountains of Washington.  It was a very special day and one that I will never forget.

And the final reason why this spot is special to me is because this is where Jaime proposed to me in August 2004! (also a day I will never forget).....I just realized I've never blogged about the story behind his proposal...so be on the lookout for that post in the near future! It's a good one.

Jaime, Dad, Mom, Donna, Brent, Jerry, and me (Aaron taking the picture)

My Aunt Donna and Uncle Jerry (Mom's siblings) were in town for a while in August so we decided to plan a  quick day trip up to Suntop Lookout to visit the site where my Grandma's ashes are. Coincidentally, this day we chose in the end of August was also the 7 year anniversary of the day Jaime proposed to me up there!  So it was a doubly special trip for me.  We got donuts and chocolate milk (in memory of Grandma Alberta) and had a nice little meal up there and reminisced about her.

Donna, Mom, Dad, Jaime, Me and Jerry.  Donuts and Chocolate milk

Exactly 1 mile above sea-level

Dad enjoying the breeze

HDR - Aaron, Brent, Jerry, Jaime, Me, Donna, Mom, Dad

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After Labor Day the lifeguards quit for the summer, so after work Jaime likes to take his ramp and "lake-jumper" bikes to Lake Wilderness.  He sure draws a crowd of kids and onlookers.

Love the girl in the background. Haha

Bye Bye Summer

It's time for an end-of-the-summer update.

Camping

Our last camping trip of the summer we went to Naches (of course) and found an awesome new campsite pretty close to the river.  I didn't take too many pictures this camping trip so here are the few that we took. 

Riding Jaime's bike around camp.

I think it's about time I get a bigger bike!

Reading in the hammock

Getting ready for the morning ride

Ready to ride!

The view from our private beach on the river

Spending some time on Lake Wilderness with our double tall air mattress set-up.

Who's the creeper in the raft? Haha

Bon, Me, and preggo Andra

Me and Bon feeling baby boy Davis moving around.

The Mustang

Jaime is constantly buying and selling cars..."cycling them through" as he calls it.  His newest addition is this 1966 Mustang.  It's definitely one of the nicest classics we've owned!  He had to sell his beloved Lexus and some other odds and ends to pick this up but I'm sure glad he did.  It's been a fun car to cruise around in.

We bought the Mustang in West Seattle on that ONE night that it was dumping rain all evening long.  Thankfully the drive back to Black Diamond was going smoothly because I was pretty worried about driving a car that hasn't been driven in a long time for that long of a distance.  I was about 1/2 mile ahead of Jaime in the truck and he called to tell me he had a flat tire.  We were only 2 miles from our house!! We almost made it!  Turns out the rear tires are pieces of crap and this tire blew out in like 10 different spots.  Our nice neighbor let us borrow a spare and we changed it and got it home.

The next day, we took it for a spin after putting a brand new rear tire on and we didn't get more than 2 miles from our house and the OTHER rear tire blew out!  I was surprised, but Jaime was pretty much certain it was going to happen and got it changed out in like 3 minutes.  Stupid shiesty foreign tires. 

Of course I had to take it for a spin.

I love driving old cars

Jaime waxing up his new baby

Boeing Company Picnic

Our family went to North Bend to attend Boeing's company picnic....and boy, do they know how to picnic!  There was tons and tons of free food including unlimited ribs, burgers, ice cream, sodas, chicken, and many others I can't remember right now.  There was also a car show and many other activities for kids and adults.  Plus the weather was perfect! It was a great day.

Leave it to Jaime to find a bike to ride around

He was probably the only guy doing tricks on this thing. I wish I would've got a picture of his bunny hop. Haha

Jaime and Brent about to race the bikes.

It was pretty hot that day, so once we all ate our fill of unlimited food, we packed up and headed out towards the Middle Fork River to cool off.

Jaime found a buoy while exploring

Dad, Aaron, Dustin and Brent

 Andra's Baby Shower
Bon and I had been planning Andra's baby shower for a couple months and the day came quickly!  But we were ready and excited to spoil this little boy she's been carrying around.

Bon made this amazing (and perfect) cake. It tasted really good too.

Opening presents

Presents!

We happened to have a watermelon so I thought we'd take a "twin" picture. 

That's all for now. I've got much more but that's all I've got time for!