Tea Party

Since we had such a lovely time last year at the Lavender Tea House, we decided we should make it a birthday tradition and go again. I have always been a tea drinker, thanks to my wonderful Grandmother, so this is my idea of a perfect birthday party. I have the good fortune of sharing a birthday (well, almost) with this beautiful lady. I have always been lucky to share birthday parties with the people I love. My brother and one of my very best friends have birthdays two days after me and we have always celebrated together. I don't think it would feel quite the same if I didn't get to share with someone wonderful, so I am ever so grateful to Marissa for being born two days before me. In honor of my beautiful and classy tea drinking grandmother, I wore her dress. I believe her mother made this for her when she was young. I love that it fits me perfectly.
As I have said before and will say again, I have the best friends a girl could ask for.

Our favorite part about the tea house, besides the ridiculously delicious tea, is the ridiculously awesome hats.
It was a wonderful day. I can't wait for next year.

25 is going to be a good year.

I can feel it.

Mt. St. Helens Winter Style

Ty and I have loved every excursion to Mt. St. Helen that we have had over the last few years. But we have never tried it in the winter. And we have never had such an unbelievably beautiful day. I mean look at this! This just does not happen. Especially not in the middle of February. We had no business getting so lucky. But we enjoyed every minute of it. Ty needed desperately to get out of the city and have a little adventure, and I being one to never turn down a mini trip obliged in finding us a little cabin. And since Mother Nature knew how important this little get away was to Tyler's sanity, she threw in the perfect weather.
This is what two very happy campers look like.

Out good friends the Groesbecks and the Apkers joined us for the afternoon. We played in the snow and checked out all of the different view points along the road leading to St. Helen. Unfortunately the road was closed off due to snow, so we didn't get to go as far as we wanted. At least not by car. But more on that later.

Rosie and I are gifted dancers. Clearly.

But so is Tyler. Our children will be very talented. Rosie, Me and Katie soaking up the sunshine. Being outside in the cold sunshine is incredibly refreshing. I felt like a new woman after a few hours outside.

Also, note the little plume of smoke behind me. St. Helen still smokes, and it is awesome how well you can see it on a cold day. One of the most beautiful places on earth. I am sure of it.
After we drove around we said goodbye to our friends and they went home to hang at the cabin and be warm. We however have been wanting to try out a new potential hobby. Snowshoeing. We rented some snowshoes and bought an old used pair off CraigsList and hit the trail, so to speak. We had no idea what we were up against as neither of us had ever tried before. But we fell instantly in love. And how could we not on a day like this? We started out with an easy one miler. We were acting like little kids. We were so excited and having s much fun and so happy to be outside hiking again. It has been a long indoor winter. We are so happy to have found a way to keep hiking all winter long. I just don't know why it has taken so long for us to try out snowshoeing.

On day two we decided to give a more valiant effort with a just under 10 miler. Perhaps a little ambitious for our first attempt. We did manage to get totally lost for awhile. It is hard to stick to the proper trail, when there is none. And when the trail markers are barley visible in the snow. But we had a great time blazing our own trail until we finally found where we were supposed to be. Which was traversing up a very very steep mountain. My friends, snowshoeing is hard work. I am sure we burned eleventy million calories trekking up that baby. But the view was spectacular, and the feeling of total isolation was wonderful. We didn't see another human being the entire time we were out. It was silent and cold and so lovely. We did end up bailing out early because some serious clouds started to roll in, and we did not really want to get lost on the ridge of a volcano. Maybe next time.

I feel so lucky to have married someone with an adventurous spirit and a true love of nature. I have always loved being outside and trying new things, but it was not until I married Tyler that I really fell in love with all that the out doors has to offer. There is something very personal and spiritual for me about being out in nature. We have hiked, camped, rafted, traveled, now snowshoed and I have loved every single moment of it. We have really enabled each other to be adventurous and to try new things. I am so glad I have Tyler to share all of these fun experiences with.
And simply for your viewing pleasure:

I saw this on the road as we were driving home and Tyler of course made us go back so we could take a picture. That is a full set up ribs. Picked dry. And bloody. I throw up just a little every time I look at that. But its kind of cool at the same time. But ew.

Valentine

He is mine.

I am so lucky.

Old People Prom

Do we qualify as old people? I guess if we are referring to prom (or my YW) then I do qualify as old. However I do not feel old, so I had no problem signing up for a high school reenactment (well not total reenactment - pretty sure booze was not provided in high school) of Prom. We had to scrap the day date of ice blocking due to work and school, but we did have a lovely dinner with our friends. Then we headed up to OHSU for the dance. And surprisingly we had a really good time. Tyler even got his groove on. In public. Which is unheard of. And I loved it. And the really exciting part was our cool friend Kate came and took legit photos for us. If you live in the Portland area and are getting married any time soon, you will want to call her. She is very good.

It was great to have a night out with all our friends. There were not even any babies around to spoil the fun. KIDDING. Sheesh. I LOVE kids. But 100% adult interaction is a rarity around here, and we loved every second of it.

We are so lucky to have so many wonderful friends.

Here, you can meet them:

Steve and Danielle

Stevenson and Marissa

Tyler and Tara

Todd and Rosie

John and Malorie