Colorado Reunion

Hi everybody...

Breaking news**** It's 107 degrees in Portland today! Talk about record breaking temperatures this year. We get the coldest in 50 years and the hottest in something like 14 years... makes for pretty exciting news.... and a hot hot apartment. It's been quite a while since I've experienced that "can't blow-dry-my-hair,can't-put-make-up-on" type morning. Anyway, because Wes and I don't have an AC we new we would try and escape the heat today by going somewhere else. After much discussion we decided to go to.....................

EDGEFIELD duh-duh-duh-duh! (wish I could record sound)  

Basically, edgefield is my favorite Mcmenamins I've seen yet. It has everything: miniature golf, movie theater, swimming pool, Ruby's Spa, picnic tables, twinkly lights, tons of little bars, and restaurant areas, AMAZING bathrooms (each "Stall" has it's own shower, toilet and sink + living room at the entry), the best rootbeer around, and of course the unique art work that all Mcmenamin's have to offer. *sigh* wish you could be here to see. (sidenote: the hottest spot for a wedding around) 

But as I was saying... we decided to go to Edgefield today to see a $3 movie and hang out in an air conditioned room to write blogs. So, here I am finally delivering some pictures and stories to you.  The point of today's blog: Our Colorado Reunion! It's about time, I know. For any of you who didn't know, Wes and I went with my side of the family about 3-4 weeks ago to CO for a reunion. I think this is the 4th CO reunion my family has every had (correct me if I'm wrong!) and we had a blast. I think it was the most people we have ever had under one roof, considering now that 3 of us "kids" have spouses. There is of course no better way to tell the stories and document the trip than to share the pictures. So, enjoy! 

The View...

Miles...
Our horse lesson...

Bowling!...

Chris' bowling face:
mom's bowling face:

Matt's bowling face (and mom's in the background. ha!): 

Kim's bowling face:

My bowling face:

Me and Mck:

us:

our snazzy shoes

Biking!

this weird man on Pearl street..

Pre-tty creative...
girls day/pedicures:

and of course....

THE DUCKS!

Stewart, Truman & Lily June at the "Pea bar"

Much love to you all,

Katie

Scoville Camping Trip 2009

Well everyone, Wes and I have definitely been busy people. Mid-June Wes and I went on the annual Scoville Camping Trip (this was year 2). We went on a thursday and headed home on a sunday. This was the blog I wrote immediately following the trip, and unfortunately am only posting it now. Oops! :) 

 On thursday morning we loaded up the car for our first road trip in quite a while. The Scoville-camping trip has become a tradition- a reunion of sorts in which the Scoville family meets at Lewiston lake for a couple of days together with our tents and fishing poles. Last year Wes and I attended newly -married. This year we attended with a year under our belts and fully prepared with all camping-wedding-gifts at hand. Another thing that made this year different was that Caleb and Nina (cousin and cousin's girlfriend) joined us for the trek. Caleb and Nina live up here in Portland and we hang out with them from time to time. We loved spending the time with them and enjoyed getting to know them so much better. So, as I was saying... 

On thursday morning we packed all camping equipment into the car and barely had enough room for our stuff let alone Caleb and Nina's. After a couple minutes of worrying we figured we'd have to make it work some how and left to pick up Caleb and Nina. After re-arranging the car a couple of times we finally managed to fit it all in: there stuff and ours. After a quick coffee stop we were on our way. 

After the 8 hour drive to Lewiston Lake we arrived safe and sound and were ready for a good time. And a good time was definitely had. 

noteworthy highlights from the trip:

seeing everyone, picking out a marshmallow stick, fishing, s'mores, coloring in my coloring book... RELAXING! the smells of camping, looking at all of the stars, Anthony's amazing fish cooking skills-- so delicious!, getting a ridiculous amount of bug bites and weird sunburn designs on my legs, waking up to the crackling of a fire, jiffypop, being 30 feet away from a bald-eagle, and kayaking. 

Our pictures...

Nina and I coloring...

Wes and I one night before dinner...

The bald eagle we saw while kayaking... 

Wes helping Sue cook the bacon.. (ha ha)

The view...

Our tent...

This picture has a small story: Wes and I both caught fish at the exact same time but then seconds before this picture was taken, my fish broke free and fell into the water. I was slightly disappointed. You can certainly tell by the funny look on my face. 

...Then, two minutes later I caught another fish and I was all better...

Happy Katie...

Happy Wes...
Sue's first fish...

Me, Wes, and Greg, enjoying "kid-icecream" from the shop. Nothing like a Flinstone Push-pop to bring back the memories...

Thanks Scoville's for the memorable, fun time! We loved it. Next blog: Colorado Family Reunion! Will be posted soon... Love,

Katie

Our One Year Anniversary

It is absolutely crazy to think that this time last year we were on our honeymoon in Carmel. While it did go by fast it is understandable when after reflecting back on all that we have been through in one year. I will give you a brief re-cap so you can better understand what we felt as we sat at the Rhododendron gardens and Mcmenamens: The Grand Lodge on friday celebrating. Since June 14,2008 we: went on a honeymoon, moved 4 times (one of those times we endured the "flood of 2009" that sent us packing our bags and moving around the corner),  had our ceiling break in I think just once though it felt like more times... was it twice?(with this experience came the hilarious story of  the mummified rat plus it's bazillion rat droppings falling from said ceiling), went to a new church, went to a new school, got a new job 4 times (Wes 3 times), took meteorology which was an experience in of itself, took my first art class, and met some awesome people. oh and took several trips home and had several house guests. It has been an amazing year, hard but amazing. One thing that kept resurfacing in conversations on friday was how 5 or 6 years ago we dreamt of this day and now we are finally here. The one thing Wes and I always looked forward to was when marriage began to feel normal. What I mean is the little things like knowing what regular items you like to have on hand from the grocery store. It feels good that a year has past and it felt amazing that this last quarter finally came to an end. Wes and I celebrated the one year on friday the 12th because we knew we would both have work off that day (and we wouldn't on the 14th). I planned the first half of the day and Wes planned the second so we could both surprise eachother. I chose a picnic at the Rhododendron gardens (gorgeous!) and Wes picked a one night stay at a Mcmenamen's hotel (if you don't know what this is, look it up, amazing!) We had a blast and here are some pictures to prove it... (as usual they are all backwards, sorry) 

Mcmenamen's dinner:

Leaving the gardens... 

feeding the ducks...

(so much fun)

bottoms-up! look at the ducks...

blue bird joining us...

a long awaited game of chess..

amazing ponds...
ducks everywhere...
green green green
the husband. :)
us.
The end. We are so happy summer has officially arrived. Bring on the camping trip this week. Can't wait for the vacations to begin! love you...

Fall quarter...

Check out the classes I get to choose from for fall quarter:

-Idea & Form

-Two Dimensional Design

-Three Dimensional Design

-Digital/Time Design

-Intro. to Drawing

-Meaning and Making

Looooooove it. I don't know why I didn't realize earlier on in life that being an art student would be so intriguing to me. I'm hoping for the Intro. to Drawing, Idea & Form, and three dimensional design... We shall see!!! I will certainly keep you all posted. 

Miss you,

Katie

Summer Lovin'

There is a part of me that becomes a bit nostalgic in the summer. I associate warm balmy evenings with high school memories: Wes asking me to be his girlfriend (aww), the girls and I driving home from dinner together to go night swimming at someone's house, or going to the Laguna Creek racquet club to go night swimming with Cory and our brothers and watching the grasshoppers jump from lane to lane. Do you see what I mean? Anyway, I am loving the weather in Portland this week. It hasn't reached temperatures to create "balmy evenings" yet but it'll be rising closer to the 80s till next tuesday. So tonight after dinner (wes is at work) I decided to take a nice walk over to Palios to get some coffee and enjoy this weather. We haven't been to Palios in two weeks now that we have had internet at our place. And boy had our usual walk changed in two weeks. The rose garden by ladd-circle has exploded with roses! And all the garden's at people's houses are growing. It was absolutely gorgeous and reminded me of my first trip to Portland in spring 2007. This trip took place during my spring break. I was living in Colorado at the time and I met Wes in Portland to visit his cousin. I thought it would be fun to show you some pictures of some of the places we went during that trip. If only we knew then that we would be moving here. Enjoy!


Reed College:

Palios!...


Alberta Street Festival...

Pittock Mansion...


The view from Pittock Mansion...


Garden's near Belmont st...



The st. that we almost moved to when our place flooded...


Pretty trees...