Updates

Hey! Creative title huh?! Thought I better finally update this thing!

Oregon has too many spiders!! I'm serious! I've never seen so many spiders in my life! Check out this beauty that was right outside our door (Cam almost pooped his pants)!

Enjoying the finer things in life (i.e. - cupcakes) These cupcakes were scrumptious! We drove into Portland one night to try these out (I have a problem!).

My parents came to visit for the weekend (a really short weekend it seemed)! We took them to the coast. Of course, had to stop and get some Tillamook ice cream (Wow! I have a sugar problem huh?) It was a bit (okay, we almost blew off the cliff!) windy! We had fun though! I'm so glad they came! We miss our families & friends so much!! Love ya!

Me eating a honey stick we got from the cheese factory. Like I said, sugar problem!

We also went to an air museum while we were there. Cam pretty much disappeared (as you can see from the picture that he was by himself, far away). Like a kid in a candy store. I fell down some stairs while we were there. Nice job huh? I looked pretty cool I think! I about pulled my arm out of socket. The guy behind us was really awkward and didn't know what to do. He walked past in a hurry and tried not to look at me. Luckily I only had a nice bruised arm to show for it. I am so graceful!!

Conference was amazing! I wish we had it more often! What a blessing to have a living prophet and apostles on the earth. Here are a few videos. How comforting to know that we have a Savior who loves all of us. The one video is a little older of President Hinckley, but I love it too!

Discoveries

So, since I have been up here in Oregon, I have made a few discoveries. Here are some things I have discovered:

1. I am extremely, utterly, pathetically, hopelessly, completely, (Okay, I'm sure you get it.), OUT of SHAPE! There is a little walking park across the street that Cam and I have been to a few times. We decided to go jogging over there the other day and Cam put his little Nike sensor in his shoe so we could see how far it was. We jog (Jog mind you, not ran) around once and I was spent! I was so exhausted! I turned to Cam and asked how far we had gone. He said, "About a third of a mile". What?? I couldn't believe it! I can't even jog a mile anymore! Sad. We also discovered some wild blackberries over there. We picked a lot, but didn't really eat very many (I'm not sure if I like them). They are riper now so I guess I should give them another try. Here is Cam enjoying them:

2. Even though it is 110 degrees in Beaverton, the Oregon Coast can be 40 degrees at the same time. We are only about 45 minutes from the coast too. We went with our friends from the ward over to Lincoln City. It had been seriously hot were we live and we thought the coast would be a little cooler. It was a lot cooler! I wasn't very prepared! I was freezing! Luckily Caitlin had a jacket she let me borrow. It was dang cold, and our silly husbands decided to get in the water. Boys. They don't really think things through! Here is a picture of their feet after they had played in the 20 degree water. It is probably 10 tens colder than it looks in the picture of Cam running:

3. There is no where to Camp in Oregon. Seriously. Cam and I tried to go camping and exploring this last weekend. We just wanted to drive over Friday night, camp-out in the truck, and then explore the coast line on Saturday. We just thought there would be some little area we could park, either in the trees, or on the beach. Nope. There are signs everywhere: "No Camping", "No parking", "No Driving on the beach", "No having fun of any kind". Okay, so I made up that last one. If you know me, I freak out about little things too. I didn't want to camp anywhere we weren't supposed to, so we drove all over trying to find somewhere to camp. We stayed in some new neighborhood that had some strange side road we parked down. Strange I know. Next time, we will be more prepared though. The coast was awesome though! I am pretty sure that you should all come visit and we can show you all the cool sights!! Here are some pictures:

These are all from Pacific City. It is awesome there! You can see all the Clams and Star Fish. It was really pretty, and the warmest beach we went to.

Newport was pretty crazy! There were tons of people! We saw some Sea Lions there and went to there Farmer's Market and got a yummy cookie and some bread.

We hiked up to a lighthouse too. I look like a weird bug. I didn't realize you could see my eyes through my glasses. Nice.

This made me laugh. Cam was watching some blowhole that we saw at one beach when the water almost got him!

Annual Update...

Okay, I know I am horrible at updating this. I am going to try and be better than every 4 months. This is what I am like with my journal (only worse). I've been such a slacker that I don't even have access to a lot of my friend links anymore because they went private and I didn't know! :( Oops! That is what I get I guess! So, let me give you the update on the last few months. We have had some happy things, some sad things, and some big changes in scenery.

So the happy and sad. We have a new nephew (Cooper, to Luke and Ashley) and a new niece (Leah to Joe and Trina)! They look pretty darn cute! I haven't seen either of them in person yet, but from pictures they are stinkin cute! Also, Cam and I have now been married three years now (crazy)! We have had some sad things on the Kay side of the family. It has made me extremely grateful for the knowledge that we can see our loved ones again after this life! However, the pain of missing those loved is still pretty hard.

We are also now living in Portland! Technically, Beaverton, but pretty close to Portland. We have went to a few places, so I will post some pictures (hopefully entice someone to come visit!). My parents and Cam's parents helped us move up here (which we are VERY grateful for)!! Our first night in our apartment, we had a flood! It was traumatizing! We went to fill up our car with gas (around 11:30 pm or so) and came back to a laundry room and kitchen full of water! I started freaking out (for those of you that don't know me well, I have some anxiety issues!)! The safety pressure valve was spitting out HOT water. I called my parents and they came over to help. We called the on-call maintenance person as well. The real hero here was the Sham Wow towel that my mom remembered we had! I'm serious! I think my dad would offer to be a spokesman for them! It really does the job! It was a long night! Cam and I had another episode before we went to sleep (1 am to 2 am). We filled and emptied containers until it drained out. We woke up at 5 and there was another flood. Cam thought we should pretend we hadn't seen it. I decided to just stay awake at that point. Lots of filling and emptying containers, and putting the sham wow to use. Come to find out, another water heater upstairs was the one with issues, and they had covered the drain in the laundry room with the flooring (nice). Pretty eventful first day. When Cam's parents came, we also had some excitement. We got stopped for about an hour coming back from Tillamook (there was a wreck). There were so many people out of their cars walking around. Cam's dad went and was talking to people to pass the time. It took forever, but we finally got going. Good times on our first week. Things have settled a little now (thank goodness!).

Coast and a shipwreck:





Here is a farmer's market in downtown Portland and the Columbia.



Rose Gardens, Japanese Garden, and the Pittock Mansion (I was too cheap to pay to go inside the mansion. Maybe someday we will and I will post those as well):






Our kitty made it here okay. She actually did really well on the drive! Here is a little kitty video montage. She is such a weirdo! Cam's favorite is the karate kick in the second video. Sorry about my annoying voice in the background. Proof that we need kids:

Pois é

Who would have thought.

Talking about America's top 10 unhappiest cities
These are places where the pain points from the recession are greatest.

Oregon

Look at me go! Two posts in a row! Hey, that rhythms! We took at trip to Oregon a few weeks ago so I thought I would post a few pictures of our trip. Cam had an interview at Pacific University for PA school so we decided to make a trip of it. We decided to drive, which wasn't too bad on the way out because we got to see all the scenery. We had a good time, other than Cam's break lights don't work and so I was freaking out the whole time thinking someone would run over us (seriously freaking out! I made him stick his arm out the window and do the sign that he was stopping!)! The ride home was another story. We made it though! We stayed in Tillamook (probably spelled wrong) and went to see the ocean. You can't go to Oregon and not see the ocean (Cam's thoughts). We also had some perfect ice cream that day! Then on Saturday Cam had his interview. It was going to last awhile, and I can't drive Cam's truck (I know, pathetic) so I decided to ride the trax type system to downtown Portland. I know! Me?! It was a little scary, but better than being bored! Here are some pictures:


The falls (I can't spell the name)






The school, but not where Cam's classes will be.

We went to the temple there too! It was so beautiful! That black blob is me. I'm not sure why Cam told me to stand there.


We just heard a little over a week ago that Cam got into that school! We are really excited (and terrified! Well, I'm a little scared!)! It is such a blessing! Our Heavenly Father knows where we need to be! We are moving pretty soon too! It is crazy! He starts the end of May! We are really going to miss everyone so much!! I wish everyone could go with us! This is an invite for anyone to come visit (if we find a place to live, okay, even if we don't). It will be a good adventure though and we are excited.

Blessings

Okay, so I know I have been a slacker! Lazy, busy, probably a little of both! Probably more lazy to be honest! I like reading other peoples blogs! Updating is not as fun! I thought I would finally update after it has been like 2 months! With Christmas and New Years just past, I have been thinking a lot about our blessings (I know it is February now, but I am a little slow). I was going to post pictures, but again, I'm pretty lazy so I will just write a few of the things I am thankful for. I will try and update more soon (try).

First and foremost I am thankful for our Savior, Jesus Christ and for a loving Heavenly Father. I am thankful for Christ's birth and his life, and for what he has done for all of us! How truly thankful I am for that! I am so thankful for a Heavenly Father who loves all of us and listens to our prayers!

I am thankful for such a sweet husband. He is the most spiritual, funny, kind man I know (aside from my dad). I love him so much. I'm not sure what he is doing with me, but I am glad I tricked him somehow!

I am so thankful for our families! We have some pretty amazing family! They have blessed our lives so much! I can't even explain! We love them so much!

I am thankful for friends! God has placed some really amazing people in our lives that have helped us in so many ways!

I'm thankful for the gospel of Jesus Christ and that we have a living prophet that guides our church. I thankful for all the temples. How blessed we are!


Aside from the big things, here are a few smaller things I am also thankful for: cookies (love them! Maybe a little too much), clean sheets, new socks, rainy days, coloring books (relaxing!), dishwashers, inside plumbing, leaves in the fall, art, and little kid laughs (just to name a few)!

Thank you all so much for blessing our lives!! I feel like I said the word "much" about 15 times too many, but I really am thankful!