Tuesday, August 19, 2014

Celebrating Miss Larson

A couple weekends ago, I got the privilege of joining together with a couple other girls to throw a party for our beloved Brittney. I was pleasantly surprised how smoothly the planning process went. I mean, threes a crowd, right? But I think we were just all eager to celebrate and serve our friend who has celebrated and served us so well over the years.

We gathered on a warm summer evening for mimosas, good eats and great stories about the bride. Everyone in the room sounded like they were Brittney's best friend. I mean, I know it's customary to rave about the bride whose shower you're attending, but this wasn't just your average "I love you so much, cheers!" toasts. These people love this girl and have been LOVED by this girl abundantly. She really is one of the greatest,  loyal and most thoughtful friend to me and it was amazing to sit in a room with a bunch of women who can say the same thing. 

















The bride-to-be and her hosts. (We got the memo....)



Ah, I love this lady.

Thursday, August 14, 2014

Bits & Pieces: July

June was a lovely, quiet month full of baby snuggles, trial and errors of cloth diapering and much picture-taking as I waded slowly into the life of motherhood. Our weekend away over the fourth of July was a kickoff to a much busier month. 

We enjoyed a few visitors from California who made time in their trip to Oregon to swing by and meet Taylor. So fun getting to show people our life up here! 


We road tripped-down to Eugene to celebrate the birthday of our favorite set of twins! Let me tell you, those kids really know how to eat cake. You would've thought they did a practice run or something. They went all-in, face-first, no hands allowed. I was proud.


It was so fun to finally introduce Taylor to the Blake family. (The last time I saw them, I was hours from going into labor, tromping around the park with their family in hopes of breaking my water. It was a lot better being on the other side of things and a lot easier holding both the twins on my lap!)

Taylor and I made a mid-week trip out to the beach to join my family on their annual vacation. They've been renting the same beach house for 20-ish years, but I haven't been out there since high school. My brother and his lovely girlfriend Casey were there too so it made for a pretty fun reunion. It was kind of surreal playing cards in the same spot of the living room floor that we did when I was 16, except this time with a baby in my arms! (I won, just for the record.) 

In honor of tradition, my mom and I dragged my dad to the outlet malls. I managed to walk away empty-handed, but Taylor made out pretty good thanks to his generous Grandmama.




It was pretty great being reunited with the Oregon coast. I prefer a still lake over the waves of the ocean, but I forgot how beautiful and unique the coast is here. I left a sleeping Taylor behind with my mom and sneaked out for a few hours of card-playing, frisbee-throwing and iced-coffee-drinking on the sand. The only thing that was missing was Matt!


A few days later, we excitedly welcomed Matt's Grandma and brother from Alabama. His mom's visit in June and their visit this month was a much-needed slice of home for Matt, who hasn't been with them in over a year now.

As tempting as it was to spend all our time with them on the back deck, sipping tea and listening to Grandma's stories, we decided to take them out for some sight-seeing. Competing with the summer crowds to get a good glimpse of Multnomah Falls and the Gorge wasn't easy, but it was definitely worth it. Taylor, of course, slept through most of it.






While Matt was at work, I had Grandma all to myself. Highlights included homemade blueberry pancakes, bottomless cups of coffee and endless stories about Matt's dad, Taylor's namesake. Kelsay was a really good sport about being stuck home with his sister-in-law and a baby, but hopefully his outings with Matt in the evenings made up for it.



July was good to us. Busy! But so, so good. Matt and I said good-bye to the last of our visitors for the summer (more on their trip later) and have a few weeks of down time before we move! It'll be a bittersweet change for us, as we wrap up our time at my parent's house and move into our own house downtown, closer to Matt's work and our friends. But for now, I'm savoring our time with my family and trying to relax as much as possible before the seasons change, inside and out.