This month was pretty dull with mountains of school work to wade through, but luckily punctuated by a few choice events: the release of the Twilight movie, Lauren’s birthday and Thanksgiving!

Lauren, Brianne and I are pretty nerdy about the Twilight series (let’s be honest, who isn’t) so we went to see the movie. It was obviously geared for teenage girls and very low budget but it was filmed in Oregon and at least we got to giggle at all the swooners in the theater!

We went out to celebrate Lauren’s birthday and got a special treat, Aaron joined us!

Here’s one of Megan, P, Aaron and I.

We had a really good time! Here is a pic of Melissa, Me and Brianne.

I might be the last person on the planet to find out about St. Cupcake…but if I’m not and you’ve never been-you must try it! They have heavenly, gourmet little cakes.

Brianne thinks I’m a dork for taking a picture of our cupcakes…

Here’s one last photo of Gabriel on Thanksgiving. They night before I had a little slumber party with Allie and her daughter Emily and then Thanksgiving was pretty low key with the Fam. We obviously had a delicious spread that Lou made from scratch and the 5 of us were excited that Lindy (Heath) Grubbs joined us for dinner. She’s the best!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! I will be so happy when this term is over.

Lots of Love!

Amers

I really love all the seasons pretty much equally. With each new season I think, “This one is my favorite…” Autumn is so beautiful! We have a row of maple trees in our front yard and there is one single tree that hangs on fiercely to its chlorophyll each year. This year I decided to take a picture.

Last weekend one of my best friends, Allison, went to New York for a trade show. Her daughter, Emily, came to Portland to stay with her Grandma Renee and she came to play at my house for one of the days! She had a blast playing with my (almost) two year old nephew. Emily has to be the most intelligent, kind, eight year old that I’ve ever met. You can’t not love her!

Of course no update would be complete without pictures of Gabriel….here is one of him watching his KitToons in a chair that my Grandpa made when I was a baby.

I swear that no child love their toothbrush more than Gabe….

Tonight for Halloween, Allison, and her husband, Brandon are coming up from Bend. We are going to dress up and go downtown after we take all the kids trick-or-treating. Hopefully the rain lets up so we don’t get get soaked! Love you all! Happy Halloween and Happy Harvest!

Amy 

Yikes! I’ve neglected my blog. I really haven’t taken too many pictures recently. Here are a few.

Here is one of the Budweiser Clydesdales in Lakeview, OR.

Becky’s Going Away Party

Gabriel and Grandma

Lee and me flying over Clear Lake, CA!

Boating with Grandma.

Olive sampling with Granpa.

Hope everyone’s doing well!

Lots of love,

Amy

June 21st Allison Childers and Brandon Rothauge were married in Bend. Congratulations!

Here we are waiting for the bride

My friend stephanie (from middle school) and me

Audra (left) and Brandon, waiting for his bride

Stephanie, Me, Allie and Audra

Michelle gave them a goat for their wedding, his name is Montgomery

Stephanie, Brent and Audra

First dance and father/daughter dance

Bend is home to the Deschutes Brewery, they make Black Butte porter and Obsidian stout which are some of my favorite beers. This was a trailer from the “Bite of Bend”.

Brent’s grandma gave us some poppy seeds last fall and one of them turn out to be huge!

This purple one below is one that Brent planted.

Thursday night was Alex’s 25th birthday so we got together to celebrate!

From Left to Right: Brent, Holly, Dennis and Alex

For Memorial Day Weekend Brent and I went on another day trip with Oregon Wild. This time we headed out to the historic Twin Tunnels (between Mosier and Hood River) on our bikes. The tunnels used to be part of the old US Hwy 30. We started at the Mark O. Hatfield Trailhead where there was lots of Ponderosa pine and stonecrop. It took us about a mile or so to reach the east mouth of the tunnels.

 Brent found a little tree frog before we entered the tunnel.

Just inside the tunnel

I read up on the tunnels on the Oregon parks and recreation website and found that the tunnels are 5 miles long and pass through 2 climate zones. Upon leaving the tunnels, we noticed more and more Douglas fir mixed in with the pine and finally less pine with the introduction of hemlock. The farther west we traveled along the trail, the more familiar the vegetation. We saw fringe-cup, columbine, lupine and sword fern. The Columbia River Hwy was designed by Samuel Lancaster, built between 1913-22 and famous nationwide. His purpose was to take advantage of the scenic beauty of the area, even the tunnels were designed to compliment the landscape. As the need for faster, larger roads increased, segments of the historic highway were bypassed. Interstate 84 had replaced almost all of the old highway by 1960. The tunnel was filled with rock and abandoned until the 1980′s when new interest in the highway surfaced. After studies were conducted, restoration began with rock removal from the Twin Tunnels. After the debris was removed, workers discovered ”graffiti” from snowbound drivers dating back to 1921.

Another section of the tunnel

We enjoyed the wildlife, wildflowers, viewpoints and the exercise!

Acer

Molly

Molly and Axis

The day after Brent’s commencement we drove up to Rowena and hiked the Tom McCall Preserve to see the amazing wildflowers. The views and the plants were breath-taking. If you go, make sure you watch out for poison oak, it was almost impossible to avoid at times!

Here’s Brent standing next to a huge Lomatium (Carrot Family)

Brent hiking up the trail bordered by Balsamroot

View of the Gorge

I apologize for the repetition of the Indian Paintbrush and Balsamroot, I love them!

Another shot of the Gorge…

Paintbrush and Larkspur (Delphinium)

In this one we tried to capture the contrast of the red, yellow and purple flowers.

Abandoned bird’s nest

Inside of a Chocolate Lily

I met Lauren, Preston, Rick and their friends at the Doug Fir Lounge to see The Dimes play (also friends of Lauren’s). The music and the company were fantastic!

Classic Layner & Amers shot!

Melissa, Me and Lo

The Soon-to-Be Enochs!

Straining to hear Brianne over the music…

Brianne and Faith

Rick, Lo, P and Me!

Chillin’ with P just like the good ole’ days

Cute shot of Brianne, Lo and Rick

If anyone likes live music, I highly recommend going to see The Dimes!

Sorry I’m so disorganized in my posting. I guess out of order is better than never posting! These pictures are of Lauren, Becky and I working on Lauren and Rick’s wedding invitations-such fun we had…poor Becky was having issues with her contact lenses!

Trying not to mess up!

Here’s the wonkey photo for your amusement.

We had such a great time:)