DC Graduation and Creer visit

Hello there. It's been a while.  But you  know the drill by now, where I take long hiatuses of blogging.  I took a month off for daily blog posts during our Whole30 experience and now I'm back.  Kinda.  We'll see how long it lasts.

Dustin's graduation from the University of Western States receiving his doctorate of chiropractic and masters of sports and exercise science was June 20th.  It was exciting to celebrate graduation and we enjoyed having some family visit for the special occasion.  My grandparents and Dustin's family both came to help party. 

Graduation was at 11:00, then we took a whole lot of pictures and had lunch at Jake's Famous Crawfish with the whole gang (Creers, Gailey grandparents, and Art and Sheri and Jake Gailey).

 

 

 

 After lunch we went to the Portland temple to show the Creers around.  There were a ton of weddings that day and we tried to get Jared to sneak into a red headed family's group picture (he would have fit in perfectly!) but he didn't want to photo bomb them.  It would have made for some hilarious conversation for them.  The rest of the evening we just relaxed playing Mario Kart and taking a nap.

Saturday we went out to Seaside and Cannon Beach.  It was a perfect beach day! Apparently everyone else thought so too because it was sooo busy.  And Cannon Beach had a sandcastle event going on so what should have taken 10 minutes to get from Seaside to Cannon Beach took 2 HOURS.  It was insane. 

 

 

 

 

We met the Brent and Holly Creer gang at Mo's in Cannon Beach and then walked the long stretch of beach to see what all this sandcastle fuss was about.  And it was kind of lame.  But we got some great exercise walking that beach! 

 

 

 

Sunday we got to enjoy Dustin in the special musical number during sacrament meeting before heading up to Roy Washington for a BBQ and softball game.  And by BBQ I mean Brent grilled some amazing steak and halibut.  It was so good! 

 

 

 Monday was a day in Seattle taking a ferry from Bremerton to downtown and exploring the waterfront and Pike's Place.  And then AMAZING seats at the Mariner's vs Red Sox game. 

 

 

Tuesday we drove back down to Portland, dropped Nicole off at the airport, and then fell alseep.  Because we partied so hard.

Wednesday I had to go back to work but Dustin and his dad went on a guided fishing tour on the Willamette.  It was kind of a bummer because only ONE fish was caught by anybody on the boat. Dustin was the one to reel it in, but it was on the guide's fishing line so he got to keep it (lame). We enjoyed a delicious dinner at Claim Jumpers that night with "Thor" as our waiter. 

Thursday we had to say goodbye to the Creers as they headed down the coast and through scenic California on their way home. 

It was so much fun to have them here to visit!
And wahoo for graduation! One last quarter (that we now are 4 weeks through, only 6 weeks to go!)
So proud of my doctor and the all the work he's done to get through school!

February 2014 Date of the Month

We've been able to take a beach trip every March for our anniversary while we've lived in Portland, but this year we went to Utah to job search in March. So our beach trip came a month early and counts as our February date of the month. 

A beach trip essential

We took a weekend getaway to Lincoln City Valentine's Day weekend.  It was super windy!!! And rainy!! But we still had a good time.  We only made it to the beach for a walk Sunday morning for a little while due to the weather, but we enjoyed time shopping and relaxing.

 

We escaped the storm by enjoying a sushi lunch

A stormy walk on the beach

We took a lot of pictures trying to get a good one. This awful one was probably the best

I hope this isn't our last beach trip while we're here.  I think with family come out to visit this summer, we'll sneak at least one more in.

Lincoln City

For our anniversary trip and Dustin's break between quarters, we took a little weekend trip to Lincoln City over Easter weekend.

The best way to start a road trip is with an ice cold Sonic (not available in Portland, which is what makes it so exciting!)

We stayed in the exact same room that we stayed in last year, which I loved because it's the jacuzzi room. :)

We spent some great time relaxing at the beach, shopping the outlet, and eating good food.  On Saturday we went on a whale watching boat tour down in Depoe Bay.  It was so cool!  We hadn't seen Life of Pi yet, but I felt like the moment when the whale jumps over the small raft.  Of course it wasn't that dramatic, but it was really cool to be boating right next to a pod of 6-8 whales.  I got soaked on the way out from the Bay. SOAKED.  Good thing it was nice weather and I could laugh about it.

It's a whale! And we're so close to it!

Being at the beach felt like a little piece of heaven.  After such a crazy time at work it was a much needed getaway!