27

We just celebrated Nate's 27th birthday on January 22. We had dinner with Rick, Karen, and Ricky on Saturday and then Nate and I spent all day on Sunday wandering around town. We had breakfast at this little cafe in Damascus and then spent a couple hours walking through Home Depot. We shared a salad and fries at Red Robin for lunch and then went to see "Pursuit of Happyness" (great movie, by the way). After the movie we drove to 23rd street, Knobb Hill, and split a sandwhich at Papa Hayden. And, last but not least, we each had a huge piece of New York cheesecake and a cup of coffee. The waiter caught on that we were celebrating Nate's birthday (I kinda told hiim), so he surprised Nate with a candle!



And what's a special outing without yet another self-portrait?

New Years Pics

MY COMPUTER WORKS!!!! WAHOO!

I can't contain my excitement:] It's finally up and running, the internet works, and now I can edit to my heart's content without going over to Mom and Dad's to use their computer/internet. And now I have access to my photos again...Life is grand!

Below I've attached a couple pictures from New Year's and the Peil's house. Their kinda cute!

Phew.

Oh my gosh, where to begin.

From way back...We'll take a look at the Breckenridge/Banks/Peils Christmas gathering. We got together on the 17th, bright and early at 9am. We spent a good chunk of time together and really enjoyed ourselves! Oh, and we ate way too much food. Now, because I'm trying to catch up on oh-so-many missed posting opportunities, I'm going to post only a few pictures [I'll try, anway-usually I get carried away].

Um, so this is me really working to distract Nate from his video games. It didn't work all that well. He got irritated for like two seconds and then decided that it wasn't worth it:] Oh how I love him! Dad makes fantastic pastries, which Stella quickly, QUICKLY figured out.

Like I said before, Mom and Dad were the gracious hosts, through breakfast, lunch, and lunner [lunch/dinner? one or the other!]. We got together on the December 17th to allow everyone enough travel time to get to California for Christmas Eve and Day.

Ivy is still freakin' adorable! This picture cracks me up...She looks so small in Tom's arms. And yet she's huge...Seriously. Oh, I made these for the girlies. I'm proud of them:)






Grandpa and Grandma Mac showed up for some dessert in the late afternoon, and then Nate and I headed home. We had piles of "stuff" to do before the next day...We had to clean the kitchen, take out all the trash, pass the cat off to some caretakers for the following ten days, finish the laundry, pack our suitcases, and pack some weather proof bins with presents. The next morning we were supposed to connect with Ricky, Nate's older brother, to load up his Toyota Tundra and make the long drive down to Fresno, California. Ricky had plans to come over by 6am, but that didn't happen...which turned out to be a very good thing! The weather was super if-y that morning, fog and potential ice on the freeways. Ricky arrived around 8am, he and Nate loaded up the truck bed, and then they took the truck to Les Schwab to get two new front end tires. We hit I-5 South at 10am. It was great timing!

We arrived in Fresno at Grandma and Grandpa Moser's house (Nate's Mom's parents) at right around 10:30pm. Yeah, we made excellent timing...and that was with, like, 5 stops. Nate and Ricky spent the next four days painting Grandma and Grandpa's house. Karina (my cousin...check out Reenee Roo's page, which, by the way, is way outdated, Karina. I can say that because I'm updating mine right now) picked me up on Tuesday morning and drove me down to Visalia (my Aunt Suzi and Uncle Lonnie's house). The Peil family arrived on Thursday the 21st, Dad and Mom flew in on the 22nd, and Nate's brothers dropped him off that Friday as well. We spent some time hanging out and finishing Christmas shopping, and then celebrated on Christmas Eve. A freakin' huge amount of folks showed up for the festivities! I don't think I have any pictures that do the gathering any justice, but I'll try. Yes, well, we had 21 folks sitting around the dining room for dinner. Does this give you an idea of the magnitude of what we all accomplished???

And then we all fit ourselves into the living room, along with the hundreds and hundreds of presents. Man, Karina was soo organized. She had the presents in stacks, catagorized by who they were for; she had the little kids pass out presents (often interrupted by, "Where's MINE?!?!" in total panic); before the little kids could open their presents, she had them put all the trash in huge bags, which they did in order to earn their next present. Paper was flying...we made it through the presents in no time at all! I can tell you now, though, that it's going to take quite a bit of effort to gather pictures from everyone who was using their cameras. I'd love to post more pictures from that Christmas but because this isn't my computer, it has some weird tweaks that I can't figure out. I can't find a way to rotate pictures so that up-and-down photos are sideways...This is one of my favorite neices, working really hard to crack me up:) No, just kidding. But she makes me laugh! Actually, at the time this picture was taken, she was driving Rae Ann crazy. She wouldn't sleep to, literally, save her own life. She came down with pnemonia while in Visalia. It was caught early, though, so she was doing okay within a few days. But the sleeplessness was specific only to her sickness. Check out Rae Ann's blog and read more about the munchkin's stubornness. Oh, the house picture is from a very cool store named Good's Goods. They're in Visalia, just ten minutes from the Powell's house. It was the house used in the "Son-in-Law" movie with Polly Shore. On Christmas Day, Karina drove Nate and I back down to Fresno to spend the next few days with the Banks family at the Moser's house. Stephen drove up from LA, so that was fun to see him again! Right when we got to the Moser's, we celebrated Christmas with presents and the made the drive over to Raymond and Tammy's house (Karen's youngest brother and his wife) where we had brunch. The next few days were spent relaxing, with some good ol' shopping mixed in:)

We all loaded up and drove back up to Oregon on December 28th. Ricky and Stephen headed south to LA, Nate and I loaded up in Karen and Rick's car and drove the 12 hours home together. We arrived home right around 8 that evening. The next day Mom had her knee surgery...on their 26th wedding anniversary, no less. On the 30th, Leslie and Adam came over to celebrate our own little form of New Years! Yes, yes, we had the wrong date, but Les and Adam are from Pendleton, one of the craziest, snowiest places in Oreogn. So they had to attempt the drive home before the weather got so bad they were stuck in Portland. SO! We played some fantastic games (Friend's SceneIt and Balderdash) and we ate dinner and exchanged gifts. That was Christmas number, let me think, five. Or maybe six. I can barely remember. It's ridiculous, though, how many Christmas we celebrated this year. Okay, so then for New Years, Nate and I went over to Tom and Rae Ann's, along with Mom and Dad, and watched movies and played a nice, friendly game of Clue. I love, LOVE games and look forward to New Years to finally be able to play games...Nate isn't a fan, so he avoids them any other day of the year. Oh my goodness...I think I made it through everything I wanted to write about. IT'S A MIRACLE!!! Oh, one last thing, I've been wanting to post a picture of our fantastic twelve foot tree, so let's see if I can make that happen.

TADAA!

Yuck.

So, I have piles and piles of photos to catch everyone up on...The post will be enormous--when I get around to it. Our computer failed us back in December and it's been at the Mac store shop ever since. I'm using dad's computer for now, so I'll have to figure somehting out so I can blog a little and catch you all up. We've traveled to and from California, visiting family in Visalia and Fresno for Christmas. We had a great time and have lots and lots of pictures to prove it:) We've been home for only a few days now (sooo glad to be sleeping in our own bed! we tried out four different ones over the course of our trip, so that's never fun), so we're getting back into the swing of things.

I'll slap some pictures up soon:] STAY TUNED!

Another more innocent video

Again, this is from our cruise. The beginning isn't so interesting, but I thought the end was kinda cute. Or whatever:)

Yum.

Okay, this totally cracks me up! I was on Mom's computer the other day (mine crashed) and I found a bunch of honeymoon videos from July 2005. Enjoy this one with me, please! It's sooo funny!

*snow snow snow*

Only a couple days after Thanks- giving, the Brecks, Banks, and Peils loaded up and went hunting for our Christmas trees! This year we made sure to get there before the ranger station closed so we could get our permits. It was a close call last year. And with two babies to watch out for, we headed out even earlier in consideration of their naps...


We drove up to Zig Zag and followed the road up the mountain. Everything was absolutely covered in snow! It was gorgeous! The tree cutting rules changed a bit this season...Instead of paying $5 and cutting down trees 8-feet and shorter, we paid $5 and were able to cut trees 12-feet and shorter. After trudging our way up a logging road, Nate and I clamber down the embankment to look at a couple well formed trees. One of them was sporting two trunks, so Nate vetoed that one. Others we saw were just not right enough. So we walked on. I was in front at one point, and stopped when I heard some yelling behind me. I turned just in time to see Nate, thigh-high in snow, loose his balance and fall head first into the snow. He did a weird sort of twisty-turn thing, but I'm not sure it spared him from any wetness. I nearly lost my balance laughing at him - he looked pretty funny, I promise you!

We made our way back up the hill to the road and then decided to cross over to the other side. We spotted another tree up that embankment, so we went for it. The size and shape were great, so Nate pulled out his man-saw and cut it down in .5 seconds. He's burly. Need proof? It's in the picture...





When everyone had cut down their trees, we congregated back at the car for some family pictures...but, alas, I couldn't find the picture of the entire family, so I've broken it up into four different pictures. The girls were actually very cooperative in their family pictures! They were all smiles! Naps were still a little ways off.

We bundled back into the truck and headed down the mountain. Check out Rae Ann's blog for the video of Stella driving. Tom, Nate, and I sat on the tailgate with the trees while Rae Ann, Ivy, Mom, and Dad were in the cab with Stella. Dad never heard us yelling for him to slow down from the tailgate...

We got half-way down and pulled over to where Tom and Rae Ann had parked their car. Stella's little snow boots had kept warm in their car while we were cutting down the trees, so when we got back to it, she put them on and played away in the snow. I kinda think she made some memories this year!

After goofing off for awhile, we headed back down to 26 and drove to Calamity Janes where we enjoyed piles of chili fries and huge hamburgers and endless glasses of pop. It was a ridiculous amount of food. But oh-so-good! [Thanks again, Dad!]






And to end, here are some other photos to look at...an overload to make up for my blogging break! ENJOY!

Thanksgiving

So, this year Nate and I found we had the space to accomodate family for Thanksgiving. I LOVE hosting, so I was super excited about this year's dinner! Mom, Karen, and I coordinated our dinner items and together we came up with I think a darn good meal. Mom and Dad brought along the turkey, one of their own from their "farm" (check out their blog for the best before and after photos). It weighed in at 31 pounds, way too much for seven of us! Rick, Karen, Ricky, Mom, Dad, and I did our best, though.



After dinner we enjoyed desert in the family room by the fire while watching "Christmas Story." The ambiance totally got me int the spirit of Christmas! Mom had threatened to not come over if my house was already decorated for Christmas, but I got away with having a few wreaths up and a couple random decorations:) All in all, we had a fantastic meal and enjoyed each other's company!

Our camera didn't have batteries that day so I didn't take as many pictures as I would have liked. Sorry that you're stuck with a couple of the dinner table!

Blah.

Sorry guys, but my computer is not cooporating with me right now. My browser shuts down anytime I try to upload anything. SO! I'll get it figured out soon and post some pictures from Thanksgiving and cutting down our Christmas tree.

Blessings:)

FAVES

Stella's second birthday was Sunday, Nov. 19, so Nate and I drove out to Lincoln City to join Rae Ann & Tom, Ron & Linda (Tom's dad and stepmom), and Mom & Dad at the beach house where they were staying. It was wonderfully relaxing! The girls shopped the outlet mall while the guys stayed warm indoors and cooked Thanksgiving dinner. The girls took advantage of amazing sales at the Columbia outlet store, but we all wore out pretty quick and had to head home.

It was super rainy when we first arrived at the coast, but it eventully cleared up enough to provied an incredibly sunset. I don't have any pictures of the sunset on my camera since my silly card holds like 40 pictures and that's it. So, I used Tom's card, and once I get copies of the pictures from him, I'll post some here. It was fantastic! The beach house sat up on a cliff overlooking the water and the shore, so the perspective added to the photos, definately. Rae Ann, if you're reading this, could you please e-mail me some of those pictures????

Dinner was exceptional. Rae Ann and Tom made some great food! The turkey, man, I'll be hard pressed to do as good a job when it's my turn. Last year I accidentally bought a chicken instead of a turkey, but I cooked it the same way as I would have the turkey. It was okay, but Nate and I did alot of laughing. Actually, this year Mom is bringing the turkey to the table, you know, the friendly birds that she's been raising in her backyard. Well, they're dead now. Butchered. And weighing in between 30 and 33 pounds. That's alot of bird...

The babies were both oh-so-adorable. It's easy to make Ivy laugh these days, so I took full advantage of it while we were there! With all of the adults around, the girls had quite a fan club right at their fingertips. I admit, I'm easily manipulated by their pouts and smiles. I don't remember exactly what it was Rae Ann said no to, but Stella began to make her rounds asking for huggies and sticking out her lower lip whimpering. She found comfort in her auntie's arms! Even though she was so obviously faking it, I couldn't resist:)





This is Nate, distracted and mildly irritated that I kept sticking the camera in front of his face for a picture. Well, buddy, suck it up.



Mom, Dad, Nate, and I eventually made it down to the water before heading home. Nate and I started to walk out toward the water, but we found ourselves sinking in sad that was holding water even though the tide was out away from us. Ah, I miss living at the beach!