Portland Fun

I was lucky enough to get to go to Portland for the weekend and see some family.  I left on Thursday night and met my cousin Brandy and her husband Ryan at the airport and then we waited a short time before my other cousin, Mandy's flight arrived and met us all.
We stayed at Ryan's aunts town house that was close to Brandy's house.  His aunt summer's there so the house was perfect for us to spend a couple days.  We stayed there our first night and ended up staying awake until like 2:00 in the morning talking. 

We slept in as long as we could on Friday and then we went back to Brandy's house for breakfast and then planned out our day.  We started by going to the movies and seeing "Saving Mr. Banks."  It was a really good movie and I am glad that we went. 
After the movie we went back to the town house and did the heart craft that I brought.  We each chose our paper and paints and then had fun chatting and doing our hearts.  It was so sunny while we were there, so it was so nice to open the shades and enjoy the sun while we did our craft.
After our craft we went to dinner at The Olive Garden.  It was really busy and we had to wait a long time, but we didn't mind too much since we didn't have any kids with us.
After that we headed back to the town house.  We stopped at a store on our way home and bought some finger nail polish and some crazy makeup.  Then we went wild when we got back.  We did our finger nails and toe nails and then did our makeup like we would never ever do in public.  We are such silly ladies.  We stayed up pretty late that night too, but we had fun.
Saturday we planned to go to the Chocolate Fest.  We stopped at WinCo to pick up some healthy breakfast of fruit and such.  Then we drove to downtown Portland for the Chocolate Fest.
We had a hard time finding a parking spot so we ended up parking further away from the convention center and then taking the train there. 
Chocolate Fest was a lot of fun.  There were lots of people there and vendors.  We had a lot of samples of good chocolate and bad.  Some were so bad...after tasting one I literally said "Oh yucky" right in front of the vender. 
We got about half way through the venders when we were getting a tummy ache and decided to eat some lunch.  We all had salad.  It was sad but we all got sick of chocolate before we were done seeing everyone.  But we all bought lots of chocolate and had a good time.
Then we drove back to the house and ate our left overs from the night before.  Then we hung out and watched some shows.  Ryan brought us over some ice cream with all the fixings - so good.  We really needed more sugar.
Sunday morning we got up and got dressed for church.  We packed our bags and got all our stuff and went to Brandy's.  We ended up just going to sacrament because Mandy wasn't feeling well.  Then we ate some lunch before Mandy had to go to make her flight.  While Ryan, Brandy, and Mandy went to the airport Nate, Tony's brother, came and got me and took me to their house.
It was so nice hanging out with his family and seeing their new baby, Cora.  I really can't say enough how much I liked hanging out with them.  They are such a neat family and I hope that they can move back to Utah some day soon.  I ate dinner with them and it was so yummy! After dinner and chatting Nate took me back to Brandy's where I slept that night.
I was so tired I went to bed early and was able to sleep in a little bit.  Monday I just hung out at Brandy's house.  I took a nap and we chatted lots.  Then she took me to the airport.  I flew home and my dad came and got me and dropped me off at home.  It was a nice break and I am glad that I was able to spend time with my family.

Cousins Weekend Here I Come

I am leaving later today for Portland.  My cousin, Mandy, is also flying in from Boise and we are meeting up with our other cousin, Brandy.  It should be a fun weekend of hanging out, chatting, eating, site seeing, and whatever we want to do without children (or husbands).
It is a much needed break that I am excited for.  I am a little worried about the flight because I am not feeling super great and flying generally makes me sick.  But I am going to be positive and hope for a good flight.  Luckily it isn't that long of a flight so I should be good.
Margie is helping out with the kids while Tony works and then Tony is taking care of them for the rest of the time.  I am very thankful to them for making this trip possible.  I love my cousins and definitely don't get to see them enough.  It should be a great time!

Another Year Gone By

I can't believe it is already January 10th.  Nothing too big has been happening here.  Tyler and Josh started back at school this week.  It was nice having them home for a couple weeks, but it was good to get them back on a schedule.
We had a good Christmas break.  The kids pretty much just played with all of their toys from Christmas the whole time until schools started.  It was nice seeing them enjoy their toys.  New Years was pretty low key for us.  We got some food New Years Eve and then hung out at home.  The kids went to bed as normal and Tony and I were in bed before midnight.  We are super awesome.
It has been really cold and has snowed off and on all week.  It is so pretty and I just love it.  We haven't really been playing in it with school and everything, but maybe tomorrow.  One of the things we like about when it snows is that the air quality is good and we can have a fire.  We all love having fires and it just makes the house so cozy.  Well, it should be a good year.  I look forward to all the craziness and good times!