The Catch-up

Ok, I know I owe some text and some photos for my absence of late. I guess the easiest way to go about this is go through the last month and a half and chat a little about it all and put some photos at the end. So, here it goes:

Brooklyn's Birthday
Mid-February Matt and I went over to Bend to visit friends and to go snowboarding...finally. It was also my friend Cambria's little girls 1st birthday, so of course, I tried to get some cute shots of her :) Anyways as always we had a great time, Tasha loves running around with Abbie and Maddie and we love hanging out with the crew. As some of you know we are looking to move in the near future (moving stuff a little further down), and Bend is at the top of our list.



Red Hat Convention
End of February I headed down to the Red Hat Convention at the Cow Creek Casino in Riddle. This is the second year I have made the trip down to "hang out" with these crazy ladies....and it is always a blast :) The last post I had put some of the pictures from the convention up. There was the Duck Race Pool Party, the Carnival dinner, the High Tea and the 50's bash.....always moving and always changing outfits!! Photos are on the previous post...

Moving
Well after all the crazy work we have put into this house of ours, we have decided to put in on the market. We always knew we were going to sell it and actually held onto it for longer that we had originally thought! The market isn't too bad, actually, in Corvallis so we will see what happens. No idea for sure where we might end up, we have been looking at Bend, Portland, and Seattle. But we first need to sell this place! Here is a link to the listing for our house, take a look!
http://www.tncrealty.com/ MLS: 608591

Nichole Van Photo Workshop
The first weekend in March (now this is where things get crazy), I flew down to Salt Lake City for a photography workshop by Nichole Van, she is just an amazing photographer that I really admire and she was offering a beginners workshop....I just couldn't pass up the opportunity. Plus Matt and I have racked up a few airline miles so at least the trip down was cheap :) As a bonus, I ended up staying with one of the other workshop participants that lived close by in their huge beautiful house with the most amazing views! I wish I took some photos of that! Anyways, it was a blast, I learned a lot and hopefully will be able to start using some of the tips! Here is Nichole's website and Flicker page to get an idea of her work. http://nicholevan.typepad.com/ or http://www.flickr.com/photos/nicholevan/

Here are a couple of sample shot we were practicing with:




Mexico
So I flew into SLC on Friday and flew back to Portland on Sunday. Matt met me at the airport, we went out to dinner with Beth and Bryce, stayed the night at Beth's house and Beth drove us back to the airport at 5:45 the next morning to catch a flight to Mexico! I told you it was crazy....in 72 hours I had been on 6 different flights! All I can say was I was happy when we finally got to the warm and the sun! And happy that Pam and George were there to meet us :) There had been a little concern that they would make it down on time and be there waiting, but the sun and relaxation must have done them well....they were there smiling with a beer in hand waiting to show us the ropes of taking the bus all around town.

First stop, of course, was the grocery store to stock up on the essentials. Although we would be staying at a little apartment/condo, our plan was to spend the first 2 nights on the boat. There is definitely a different boating world amongst all the sailors....even the first night as we ate out at a little outdoor restaurant we ran into multiple people that knew Pam and George (they were both referred to as "Mollyhock") and these people knew where they had come from, what their travel path had been and were asking about other boats they hadn't seen in a while. It was really pretty funny. Anyways, our first full day we sailed out to some islands that were suppose to have some good snorkeling, (it was pretty cloudy and choppy weather so we didn't get in), and then off to anchor off the beach that our condo was near.

The place we ended up staying was great, I would totally recommend it. We aren't the big resort type so this was perfect, a 2 bedroom place among 3 or 4 other units about a block from the ocean in the middle of this tiny little town. Here is the website for anyone interested; www.casalaspalmas.net the owners were so funny and nice, willing to do anything for you. I really don't have a whole lot since we did a lot of hanging out and enjoying the sun and company. We did have a surprise the first night though, we happened to get there on the town's birthday celebration night (now remember this was a Wednesday night, not Friday or Saturday), and do they know how to party, and play music loud....until 3:30 in the morning!! We bought fresh shrimp and fish and spent a lot of time cooking and eating :) On Saturday we finally got to do some snorkeling on the other side of the bay. The funny thing is to get there, Irene (the owner) dropped us off in front of this huge wood gate that had an obvious "No Trespassing" sign and told us that you just pop through the hole in the fence and follow the dirt road down to the beach. We were a little skeptical at first but it was all ok and we ended up at a gorgeous empty beach! So of course we had a blast but I am glad to be done traveling for a bit! :)





Pam and George looking like they are floating in the water, (actually they are in a dingy)




My little horse friend that got tied up the the fence with no food or water for 2 days....I took him water, we was a little mouthy :)



and last but not least......

Frog
During all of this craziness Matt and I found out that we are pregnant and due around mid October. So far everything has gone well, we had our first appointment last week and everything looks to be on its way :) If you are confused from the title, we have lovingly named it Frog, until we know the sex and have a name! After all of this we have realized we can't do just one life changing thing per year...we always end up doing at least a couple....(buying a house/getting married, selling a house/having a baby) :) oh well.



Well I think I have caught up at least a little bit, hopefully this post gives you a little in site to all the fun we have been having lately!!