A Surprise Visit!

Two weekends ago Liesel and I made a surprise trip to see my family.  My mom was the only one that knew we were coming and we ended up pulling it off even though I missed one of my flights which made us arrive later than planned. 

Liesel was finally able to meet her Aunty AE.  When we came walking through my parent's front door and Aunty AE saw us she shrieked and then burst into tears of delight.  She sure was surprised to see us!  Liesel also got to meet her Great-Grandma aka Nana for the first time. 

We all had a wonderful time and I don't think Liesel suffered for a lack of affection and/or attention.  She was hugged, cuddled, kissed, snuggled, and played with quite often.  Here are a few pictures from our visit.

The weather was nice and warm

The shirt says it all!

Snoozing while we had dinner

Playing with new toys at Nana's house

Liesel's 1st trip to the donut shop I grow up going to!  Looks tasty!

Out on a walk with Mamie

Happy Girl!

Mamie giving Liesel a bath in the same kitchen sink that I use to be bathed in!

Coming Soon...

Pictures from our fishing trip to Square Lake!

Our Trip to the Coast

My DH had the week of Thanksgiving off so we decided to take a little trip to the coast. One of the places we decided to stop along the way was the Tillamok cheese factory. We both found it absolutely fascinating. Upstairs is a viewing window that allows visitors to view the entire cutting and packaging process of their cheddar cheese.

These are the big blocks of cheddar cheese that have been in another warehouse where they are aged. The longer they age the sharper the cheeses.

Here you can see more of the assembly line. The lady right in front is making sure all the cut cheese blocks weigh the same amount and if not she pulls them off the line and adds a thin slice of cheese to make it meet its weight.

In the middle you can see the finished packaging of the Tillamok Cheddar Cheese Baby loaf. After view all this we went downstairs to their store and sampling counter. Might I also mention that they make their own ice cream! My DH had French Silk and I had Coffee Mocha. They were delicious!!!

We then headed to the coast and it wasn't until the next day that we really got a good view of the ocean.

We walked along a seawall and when we looked back that was the view.

It sure was a beautifully sunny day!

We had a lovely time driving along the coast and stopping to get out and take pictures! We definitely plan on going back for another visit!

A Surprise Visit

Well, some of you may have noticed that I've been absent from my blog for awhile and that is very true. The reason I didn't post is because I made a surprise visit down to see my family. I left October 25th and returned home November 2nd. Only my parents and grandma knew I was coming down and I have to say it was a lot of fun to walk through the front door of my parents home and completely surprise my sisters!!!! They sure were taken back. Let's just say they were trying to figure out how I got there. I had a lot of fun surprising them as well as other people during my visit. What would be funny to watch was people would say a casual hi and then do a double take. "What are you doing here?" was typically their first response. I enjoyed surprising/visiting family and friends as well as former coworkers and students. Another fun surprise was the fact that one of my friends from church had her baby while I was out visiting so I was able to see him when he wasn't even a day old. (He was just precious and I'm so happy for them!)

So where was my DH during this time, he was on an Elk hunting trip. Unfortunately because of the warmer weather the elk weren't migrating like they typically do. Only one of the guys on the trip ended up getting an elk. And since there wasn't that many elk around, the group came home a day early, which meant my DH and I arrived home the same day! Believe me I didn't complain!!!

One thing I realized while on this trip was how much I missed my husband. We have only been married for about 3 1/2 months but I felt like a piece of me was missing. It really was the weirdest feeling for me and even L said the same thing. Though we both enjoyed our trips, we both agreed that it would be awhile before we want to be a part from each other.

So now that we're back home we are settling into daily living. It has rained almost everyday since getting back and my DH had snow one day up on the job. The leaves are also doing a great job at carpeting our front yard and I have been trying and let me repeat trying to rake them up. I've spend two days out there trying to get the leaves at least in piles and then move those piles off of the grass but both times it got to wet and rainy to continue. I have to say I'm making some progress but its going to be a continually battle to get them all off the grass. The only time I'll win is when the trees have shed all there leaves. Until than the battle will continue!!!