our last week in oregon, a week spent with friends

our last week in oregon started with my birthday on monday. a day on which i enjoyed a prenatal massage and got to hold a brand new baby. the grover's had their baby the night before, which was perfect timing for mitch. you see, he planned a surprise party for the night of my birthday and this gave him a perfect excuse to get me away from the house.

 

when we got home our home was filled with so many of our dear friends who had come to wish me a happy birthday and spend the night celebrating with me. i couldn't think of a better way to spend my birthday than with friends! thanks to everyone who came and made my night special! our house was crawling with kids, kids, and more kids. sprinkled among all the kids were their parents. unfortunately, i was having too much fun with friends that i didn't think to get out my camera.

 

two nights later, elizabeth organized a girls night out as a farewell for me at claim jumper. i was deeply touched by how many of my firends showed up.

 

we were all surprised by the massive portions! i could not believe how huge the entrees were and the desserts, oh my word, can you say ginormous!

here i am with renae (who still doesn't have a blog. shame on you!) and amanda. they shared an eclair. the eclair that they shared was the size of a football, no joke! the white plate in front of amanda and the black bowl in front of renae both have half of the eclair in them. that was just ONE dessert!

 

i had such a great time visiting with my friends that night! thanks girls for making me feel so loved! i miss you all so much! i need another gno!

 

then, on sunday night we had a farewell/open house for the ward members to come say goodbye. it was an emotional night, but wonderful to see so many of our friends show up! i was able to take a few pictures of some of our firends and wish that i had taken more!

amanda, my friend who has been pregnant with me twice now and who we almost did a team triathlon together earlier this year if it wasn't for the pregnancy thing! and, of course , my dear, dear friend elizabeth, the best neighbor in the world!

 

dustin and camila, who went through so much to be together! we enjoyed many meals with them and a great wakeboarding adventure. oh yeah, and my brother kawika actually saved dustin's life! i'm not kidding! saved him from choking to death on a gummy bear in priesthood one sunday! i'm glad you're still around dustin!                                       

 

the barfuss family, who we didn't know for very long, but will always hold a special place in our hearts. earlier this year, they lost their teenage son, ross. during that difficult time we were able to get to know them on many different levels, photographer, hearse, and home teacher. we enjoyed rock climbing with them and many sunday dinners. our girls especially loved harassing their teenage kids!

 

the oberg family, who was one of the first families who welcomed us into the ward. i love this picture because scott's head is partially cut-off (just kidding, scott). the reason i love this picture is that when we moved here, between our two families there was 1 child, zach. now look at us! i think we both have done a great job at multiplying and replenishing, don't ya think? from one kid to 7 1/2! not bad!

 

rachael, my triathlon buddy (who refused to say goodbye to me! sorry i didn't call as i was leaving like i promised!) who was always giving such great advice and so much fun to workout with because we just talked for hours as we did! and we love her kids, too! carissa was one of my activity day girls, samantha was our babysitter, and cason was the movie day guy! our girls had so much fun with all of you!

 

and of course, kawena found her own ways of entertaining herself that night! actually, funny story i have to share... kawena found the peanut m&m's shortly after we arrived. she took handful after handful and was loving them! or so i thought! finally i put them up out of reach of her cute little hands because she had eaten like half the bowl. about 30 minutes later she came downstairs from the playroom. i noticed she wasn't her chatty little self and she wasn't opening her mouth for anything.i walked over to inspect. i tried to get her to say something and when she finally did i noticed her mouth was FULL of chewed up peanuts! she had been holding the peanuts in her mouth for a whole half of an hour!! just call her chipmunk! (she does the same thing with carrots. she loves to eat them and then spit them out! weird child!).

 

we had a wonderful last week in oregon, thanks to all of our wonderful friends. it only made it that much harder to leave, but leave we had to! and leave we did!

the following tuesday we drove off to our next adventure as the sunset on the oregon chapter of our life.

*the last picture was taken at cannon beach on our last trip to the coast