November ~ February update on our Oregon adventures!

Yes, Kent and I are alive and well! We still really like Oregon and are happy and busy. Kent is almost done with his second term at the Portland Community College and I am working 30 hours a week at Babies R Us!
We have done quite a few fun things over the past few months....we have gone on a LOT of drives around northwestern Oregon, including to multiple beaches and to the Salem area. We had a simple, fun Halloween and carved one pumpkin, had a small yummy Thanksgiving dinner- complete with a pumpkin pie I made all by me onesies, and a WONDERFUL Christmas, thanks to the generousity and love of our families!
Since New Years we have visited the Tillamook Cheese factory in Tillamook and visited a beautiful old Victorian home in Astoria (those pictures will come later)! Soon we will be celebrating my birthday and doing something else fun! Here are some of my favorite pictures from our recent adventures in Oregon...


I love Fall and all the beautiful colors and textures of the Earth!


This is a house in Silverton, Oregon built by the famous American architect and designer, Frank Lloyd Wright! We just kind of stumbled upon it during one of our drives! I think it is cool.

The Pittock Mansion in Portland. We haven't been inside yet, but I LOVE the exterior of this house! I REALLY WANT a house like this someday.It is so romantic and beautiful...

Here is Kent with his Christmas present! He was SO EXCITED! We were both excited about what a deal it was too!


Our Thanksgiving feast, complete with "bubbly"! haha

Kent took this picture on one of our drives...isn't it beautiful?

This one is for my brother, Joe: inside the Tillamook Cheese factory, where the world's greatest Cheddar is born!

This poster was in the cheese factory~ haha, it made me laugh!

I thought it would be funny if Kent and I switched roles and HE was cow and I was the farmer.... we look nice, don't we? :)


This pic shows how BIG trees get here! This was taken during a hike we took near Tillamook...

At the end of our hike near Tillamook, we reached this beautiful, rocky beach that looked like it was straight out of a Twilight movie! It was majestic and peaceful, all at once.

I honestly thought that hike would NEVER end, but finally we reached a point where we could see our destination: the rocky beach. Here is the breathtaking view we saw.

This is what Kent has been up to in his concrete class this term: building home foundtations. Here are two pictures of different stages of that process...


At the Tillamook Cheese factory ice cream counter: Kent no can haz ice cream! (sniff sniff! so sad!)

Our Halloween ghoulie pumpkin and black kitty!

Cat! I'm a kitty cat!

Everyone who knows me well knows how much I ADORE my kitties! (I even tell my parents and in-laws that Merlin and Hermione are their "Grand-kitties" instead of grandkids!) Here are some of the latest cute pics of my babies!

Merlin under our Christmas tree! All I wanted for Christmas was for him to learn how to behave~ haha! Like that will EVER happen!

A Christmas kitty named Hermione!

Sometimes they get along well and snuggle together so cutely, like this!


I don't think that I have ever seen a kitty face cuter than this one!

Here is Merlin as his alter-ego self: "Coney!" The look on his face is his typical hyper, about-to-cause-havoc-and mischief look...Beware of that look!

There is that mischief face again...beware!

Kent and I call this Hermione's "Glamour shot" because it looks like she is posed! te he he

The one ear to the side look is another classic Merlin look...it means he is bewildered!

If he can't see you, then you are NOT there! AND, if you can't see his body or face, then he is magically invisible!

This is typical Hermione: hide under the bed and peek her little face out to see if the coast is clear and Merlin is NOT in sight!

We like to call these HUGE eyes either "dinner-plate" eyes, "platter" eyes, "mischief" eyes, or "eyes the size of the moon!"

The amazing headless Hermione!

Merlin's "cone of shame" makes for a GREAT clown costume! haha! Isn't he cute?

The Oregon Zoo- the BEST zoo I have ever been to!

I love zoos because I LOVE animals, so I told Kent that we HAD to go to the Oregon Zoo! It was definitely worth it. It is a BIG zoo that is in the middle of a forest, so the trees, bushes,etc. in the zoo are an actual habitat with animals that aren't caged. Did that make sense? Anyways, here are some of favorite moments and animals from the zoo! (My personal favorite are the Cheetahs and Kent's all the monkeys!)I know there a lot of pictures, but I think all the animals are worth showing off!