The End of 2020

 December is always such a fun month to get together with friends and family.  To eat and play games and enjoy the spirit of giving and Christmas.  This December was much different in that we mostly hung out with our own little family.  No parties, no crazy New Years Eve bash.  But, looking back on the photos from December we did still manage to have some fun.  I am so grateful 2020 is over and look forward to a return to normal in 2021.  Fingers Crossed!!!

Walking around Fern Hill wetlands we saw this cute little mommy nutria with a baby.  I thought it was crazy they had babies in December...don't most animals have their babies in the Spring?  It was pretty cute to see:)

Hyrum and I got away from the kids for a night and went out to the Oregon Coast.  We started by going into Astoria for some food and then we headed over to Washington to Cape Disappointment State Park.  We walked along this jetty for a while but it was very cold and windy.  I will definitely be back because if you get to the end of the jetty you can watch the giant barges cross over the bar from the Pacific Ocean into the Columbia River.  It was awesome to stand out on this small strip of land with the ocean raging and swelling on either side!

The view from our hotel during breakfast.  I'm so glad we could get away, even if it was for just one night.

Hyrum has been spending his free time working on our boat.  He has sanded and replaced some of the outside fiber glass and is working on replacing the wood from inside the boat.  He likes to keep busy:)

Christmas tree hunting

We found a great little tree.  All the boys took turns using the saw to chop it down.

Hauling the tree to the car.  It was such a gorgeous sunny day.  We really lucked out on the weather for Oregon in December!

We did a drive through Christmas light display that our city put on.  It only took about 3 minutes to drive through the entire display but it was free and I was glad to have something to do with my kids that was safe and festive.

Look at me being all domestic and baking Christmas cookies!

Took the boys downtown Portland to see the big tree in Pioneer Square.  Of course...it was raining!

Hyrum took the boys skiing up at Timberline on Mt. Hood

This was Julian's 2nd time skiing.  He took a little bit of time to get the hang of it but Hyrum said he was doing really well by the end of the day.  I think a crash on his final run has put him off trying to ski again, but we will keep trying.  He sometimes has a hard time sticking with hard things.

Peter, the Christmas kitty

Our beautiful tree all decorated.  It is so festive to sit in the living room with the tree all lit up:)

Another attempt at family fun:)  I think the boys are happy to decorate for about 15 minutes but then you can tell they get bored with it and just start throwing icing and candy up anywhere:)

Our traditional Christmas Eve gathering with the Doxey's was held outside this year due to Covid.  Hyrum set up a great fire in the back yard that kept us all toasty and comfy.  Luckily it didn't rain on us and being that we live in Oregon this was sort of a Christmas miracle.  We had the traditional Chinese food for dinner and had a lot of fun opening "grab bags."

Our festive little gathering outside.  I'm so glad we still were able to gather with family, even during this crazy pandemic!

Gifts wrapped and under the tree by 2:00 AM on Christmas morning.  Every year Hyrum and I say we will start wrapping gifts before Christmas Eve but every year we end up with getting it all done the night of Christmas Eve...it makes for a very long night!

Merry Christmas morning breakfast.  Hyrum's brother Jason joined our family for Christmas morning.

Some of the gifts the boys got this year.  Merry Christmas!!

Took a nice walk around Rood Bridge park on a sunny day.  

Snow shoeing as a family near Trillium lake on Mt. Hood

Proof that I joined the family for some winter fun:)

Hyrum was given his first vaccine against COVID-19. As a doctor he was in "Group 1" of the vaccine roll out.  I can't wait until we can all get the vaccine and hopefully get back to life as normal!

Our New Years feast.  We had some yummy German rolls and sausages.  It wasn't the normal party with the Doxey's and other friends but we still enjoyed our time with our little family

We got tickets for "Zoo lights" on New Years Eve.  It was a great way to spend some of our evening enjoying the festive lights

Zoo lights did not disappoint.  It took about 30 minutes to drive through the zoo and they did a great job with the decorations.

We had a great time waking up our neighbors at midnight on New Years Eve with some fun fireworks.

Happy New Year!  Good bye and good riddance to 2020!!!  Here's to hoping for a great 2021.  To getting back to normal and putting the pandemic behind us.  To getting rid of the crazy man that has been our President for 4 years and the disgrace he has brought to America.  Let's hope only good things happen in the new year!!!

November News

Well, the election was called for Joe Biden!!  Thank goodness.  Of course Trump is telling all his supporters the election was "rigged" and "stolen" from him.  It's unbelievable the amount of BS his supporters will believe!  I had to celebrate with someone so I risked getting Covid so I could go visit Paige and her kids in Vegas.  It was also an excuse to go and visit my parents since they are staying with Paige right now.  I was worried about flying and being in close quarters with other people but I survived and had so much fun visiting

I brought the babies these fun light up reindeer hats...they would NOT keep them on their heads for a photo:)

Paige and I went to get a massage.  The entire spa experience is so changed with everyone wearing masks and no pools or other amenities open...but still amazing to get a massage!

With my Mom and Dad

This boy is getting way to big to pick up!  Love my little Remy man!

Just hanging out with my buddies.  Man I love these kids:)

Someone asked me if I was going to cook dinner for Hyrum for his birthday and I said, "Me?  Cook dinner?  That would be about successful as Snoopy cooking Thanksgiving dinner for his friends."  So I made Hyrum just what Snoopy made for Thanksgiving...and I even drew a fun Peanuts inspired card for him:)

Hyrum's office co-workers all know how much he hates people making a big deal for his birthday.  So of course he went into work this morning and found "this" had happened to his desk 😁

Enjoying a sunny day on a walk around Vernonia

Vernonia, OR

Even with the virus everywhere we still managed to make it up to Mt. Hood for our traditional Thanksgiving get away.  Hyrum's brothers Jason and Jacob joined our family this year.  It was fun to have them visit.

Snow shoeing the day after Thanksgiving up on Mt. Hood...such a beautiful, sunny day!

I "forced" my kids to do some activities during the Thanksgiving holiday.  One night we all sat down with a YouTube video and learned to draw a turkey:)  I think they all turned out pretty great!

It's Fall Y'All

 With the world shut down for COVID-19 it's nice to look back on the last few weeks and see that we have been able to still do some fun things.

Sometimes I feel so cooped up in my house that I just need to drive to the beach.  I feel lucky that I live close enough to the ocean to get out and enjoy some fresh sea air.  Julian's friend Jacob Greathouse joined us on our trip out to the coast.  We didn't stay long, just an hour or so, but it was a great drive and wonderful to get out of the house.

Our final sailing adventure of the year.  Hyrum and I took our little sailboat all the way past St. John's bridge near Portland.  That is the closest we have gotten to Portland since we started sailing.  One of these days we will have enough time to actually sail all the way to Portland!

I took the boys to Camp 18 for lunch.  It was Jacob's first visit and I think he had a fun time.

My very last yearbook.  I have been creating the Patterson Elementary School yearbook since 2013...that is 7 yearbooks!  I always told the school I would help with the yearbook until my kids stopped attending Patterson.  This is Julian's last year (since he is in 6th grade) and I'm not going to create a yearbook this year because the kids are being home schooled due to the pandemic.  I feel like I put so much energy and time into these yearbooks.  I'm glad I was able to create a little memory for their Elementary school years.

I hosted book club in October.  We had to meet outside to make sure we could gather together without risking anyone catching the virus.  Luckily it was a nice enough evening.  I don't know what we are going to do for book club once the winter rains start falling.

I served up everyone's book club treats so that no-one would have to touch the same serving spoons.  I think everyone still enjoyed the book club treats:)

We pulled our little sailboat out of the water for the winter.  We knew we wouldn't be sailing again until the Spring when the weather warms up and this way we saved some money by not having it docked.

We took a family bike ride to the Mosier tunnels along the Columbia River.  The forecast said there was only 20% chance of rain...so of course it totally rained on us!  It was still a fun bike ride, I always like to find new trials to explore.

The view of the Columbia River from the bike trail.

Another escape to the Coast.  This time just Hyrum and I drove out to the beach.  It's really great to be able to head to the ocean when I'm feeling stressed.

I started babysitting little Joshua Elison again.  Both of his parents are school teachers so they need help during the day.  He is a year old now and loves to crawl around the house.  He is my little buddy on my daily errands and has been super fun to have around.

November 4th, 2020.  The day after election day and we STILL don't know who the next President will be.  My anxiety was going crazy, I had to take a sleeping pill on election night because I was so anxious I knew I wouldn't be able to sleep.  Donald Trump is the worst President we have ever had and I have lost so much faith and hope in my country because even after 4 years of the clown show that was his presidency, so many American's still voted to re-elect him.  What the actual F***America!!!!  I had to get a Panera "kitchen sink" cookie to help me cope with the stress.