We Made It To Oregon!

Well we are officially residents of Oregon!  It already feels like a lifetime since we left Arizona, even if its only been 2 months.  While I miss so much more about AZ than I thought I would, there are definitely perks to living in Oregon.  For example, did you know black berries grow like a weed out here?  The streets are literally lined with wild blackberry bushes.  They are at every park, and along many sidewalks.  We live so close to a couple U-Pick blueberry and raspberry farms too.  I ate a blueberry that was no-joke, the size of a quarter! I didnt even know that was possible.  My parents came down last weekend to deliver the remanider of our stuff, and we went berry picking 3 times in one weekend!  That tells you how delicious they were.  We are living in a temporary 4-plex, and we are trying not to unpack anything we dont need.  Joe did most of his training in Portland during July so the kids and I stayed in a hotel for 2 weeks.(That's a story on it's own, one I dont wish to re-live...Let's just say, no car or stroller, Rosy and double ear infections, sick kids, no sleep...blah blah blah) So we really have only been here (in Albany at our 4-plex) for less than a month.  We were so used to living with so little since we left our 'stuff' behind at my parent's house that now that we have our boxes I still haven't unpacked much.  For example, we have one knife, and it's about 100 years old and it's still the only knife we have. I dont' know why I mention that, just that it makes me laugh when I find myself washing it 20 times a day.  The funny thing about living somewhere you know to be temporary is it's hard to ever feel organized.  No matter how hard I try I seem to still feel like a mess. 

 We did let Bear stay with Joe's parent's while we were making it work in a hotel.  This is the happy family at Multnoma falls on our way to visit the parents and drop off the dog.

Between study intervals (at this point in the summer Joe still had to take both of his Pharmacy tests- just ask him, BIG headache, he was convinced he had failed, but actually passed with flying colors) Joe and Rocky rode the lawn mower at his parent's house.

Rosy making cute baby messes at his parents house.

Look at that sass face!

So here we are, adjusting to life in Oregon.  For those of you who read that, it was a lot to read, but I have been MIA from blogging for a while!

Time Spent in CA

We had a beautiful day at the beach, it was actually sunny, which is a rarity in Northern California.

Rocky had a blast. He and Joe were like peas and carrots.

Baby Rose's first trip to the beach.

 I love my parent's backyard, it always has a breeze no matter how hot it is. 

We celebrated my dad's 60th birthday while we were there.

On the 4th of July we hiked to the "W Tree" in Sunol, CA on the Little Yosemite trail.  I love that trail.

Check out the dead rattle snake on the trail. yuck.

The W Tree 

Grandpa's teaching Rosalie all sorts of stuff about Sycamore trees.

That's so cute.

Check out the rocks in the root stump of this tree.

Unfortunately I had a few little fingerprints on the lens of the camera, I thought it was just sun spots, but all the pictures I took that day had smudges on them.

X marks the spot.  Unfortunately I didn't find any buried treasure under this rock.

On the 4th we also went over to great grandpa Daine's for a BBQ.  He's great for lots of reasons...

Traditional 4th of July fireworks in the court.  It was warmer this year, we weren't shivering in our sweatshirts!

GRADUATION

Three years of Pharmacy school has FLOWN by!  And we have loved every minute of living in Arizona. The week of graduation we had lots of opportunities to celebrate.  Here we are at a fancy formal dinner to honor the graduates.

Oooh, these girls! I could have had about 4 more inches to my shoes to catch up with all that height.

I love this picture.  Jared, thank your dad for rearranging the furniture in the hotel lobby.  However awkward I might have felt at the time, I am much more grateful to have this picture for posterity.

There's Joe giving his best smile.

We have a panoramic option on our camera, and I took this picture before the graduates came into the building for the big ceremony.  Hi Warren in the corner!

Baby Rose is doing great on the floor during the graduation ceremony siphoning her big brother's juice.

My mom said she took the same picture of Rebecca at my dad's graduation.  That's fun to think about.

We had such a great time with Warren and Margaret.

The graduates in their Harry Potter robes!  way too hot for an Arizona afternoon...

During the ceremony the Dean was addressing the class about their accomplishments.  There had been service projects, weddings, and 6 babies born to this class.  She said, "And I heard a rumor a graduate had two children born to him while in school!"  The rumor is true!

ALSO...We are on our way up to Oregon to start Joe's job with Target.  We left Arizona on the same day as graduation.  The check engine light also happened to turn on that day.  There just wasn't time to get it looked into, although we planned on it once we got to California (our halfway stop up to Oregon.  We thought we would stay and play at my parent's house for a week) On Saturday, day 2 of driving up to California my stress levels reached new heights. It's kind of hard on a girl to leave her home, her dearest friends, live out of a suitcase for a couple weeks, and move to another state without her new car breaking down on her, but it did.  Here's what happened.  My mom was driving somewhere in the LA valley on the freeway when our Land Rover had a total break down!  My mom and I heard a strange noise, a loudness that we couldn't recognize and then 2 minutes later it felt like a tire or two exploded, smoke was going everywhere, it was very scary and chaotic.  My mom was so calm and handled everything so well.  She pulled over and a tow truck came and hauled away our 1month old used car...so sad. Anyway, it's all over now, Joe has since gone back and picked the Land Rover up at the repair place we left it at. 

Joe and I had a trip planned to Monterey, CA for a little while now, just the two of us.  We were calling it a graduation get away but it was also a de-stress and re-charge getaway, especially after the Land Rover did us so dirty...  It was beautiful, relaxing, and it accomplished it's goal three times over.

He really was happy to be there.

I took a little snoozer on the beach in Joe's lap.  This is me looking as relaxed as that sounds.

The place we stayed was on the beach and had some sand dunes. 

This is me not thinking about how much I hate the Land Rover.

The place we stayed also had golf carts for everyone to drive around in.  That was the best part!

My good friends, the Grow's always go to Carmel and we were so close staying in Monterey that we checked out Carmel, CA for the first time.  LOVED IT!  Check out these trees.

This girl is so sweet. I. love. her.