Two Years and Counting

Another anniversary has come and gone. We seem to have a theme of water going now... married at a lake, first anniversary at the ocean and we continued this by heading to the John Day River for a little get-a-way this year.

On the drive out we came across a wind farm and it was incredible to see how many huge windmills were out there!


One of the big attractions we planned to see were the John Day Fossil Beds. There are three separate sites and the first one we saw was the Clarno unit. The Palisades rock formations were awesome. These were formed by volcanic mudflow that coated and preserved leaves, trees and everything else in its path.

This was one of my favorite spots... Do you see the face?


In typical fashion, we set up camp in the rain the first day. Thankfully it stopped not too long after we finished and we were able to have a fire after dinner. Of course you are not really camping without s'mores!









































The next day the weather was gorgeous. We headed into the town of Fossil and saw the super cute court house building that was built back in 1898!


That night we stayed in the town of Spray in a little bungalow right down by the river and had a great view from the back yard.


The next day we visited the Sheep Rock unit of the fossil beds. Very neat looking green rock formations.
























We also stopped by the Thomas Condon Paleontology Center to enjoy some air conditioning and learn a little more about the processes that created all of these fossil beds. The Cant Ranch Museum was our next stop. It was interesting to see a little bit of how life was for the first settlers in this area. This was our actual anniversary day and we had a lovely dinner at the little
(and only) cafe in Spray.

The next day was spent just enjoying the river. Jake got to do some fishing while I enjoyed reading my book and relaxing in the sun. We camped that night in Spray and got to see a beautiful sunset.


















Our last stop before heading home was the Painted Hills unit of the fossil beds.


















It was a wonderful trip and I was sad to be going home. Jake did all the work and planned everything so all I did was get in the car and enjoy. I have such a great husband and had a great anniversary!!

Finally Some Sun

I have become horrible about blogging as events happen, which has lead me to my new goal of staying up to date. We will see how long this lasts! First I have to catch up though.

Jake and I had a couple fun adventures this month when the rain finally stopped:
We visited Hagg Lake for a little walk on the trail around the lake and enjoyed the beautiful weather.


Next up was a hike in the Mt. Hood Wilderness on the Elk Cove trail. It was a great day...


Until we came to this...


The trail disappeared but we kept trekking (Jake more willingly than I). We then realized that the trail was going to cross the creek and obviously there was no less snow on that side! So the hike ended up being a little shorter than planned, but still a great day.

Where Did May Go??

Somehow it has been a month and a half since the last post. We have been pretty busy and it sure did go by fast.

I was in UT near the end of April for my mom's birthday. It was a quick weekend visit but it was fun and Jess came out as well so it we were making the rounds to see everyone. It was great to see family and we even managed to get a dinner in with Sara and Michelle. The next week was Xavier's birthday, so we had a joint party for him and mom and the fam headed to the bowling alley. It was the first time Xavier and Maisey had bowled and they had a blast.

















I was on my way to Cincinnati after the visit in UT. I have been very lucky and able to stretch my working from home arrangement for over a year but it is now coming to an end. This trip was to begin training the ladies who would be taking over everything I do. Worst case scenario I will be employed through the end of July so I will enjoy it while it lasts.

After I got back we met up with the Parkers to visit Silver Falls State Park. It was a great day to be out and about. We did a 5 mile loop hike and got to see 7 of the 10 waterfalls. The Parkers little girl Emma took a liking to me and we were buddies through the whole hike.























Later that week Jake left for CA to visit his family and go on a fishing trip with his dad, brothers and grandpa. It was great that they could get 3 generations of Bonham boys together for an afternoon out on the water.


While Jake was in CA, mom came up to Oregon to spend Mother's Day weekend. We had a good time checking out the Beaverton farmer's market that is about a mile from our house and taking a walk on the trail at a nearby park. It was a gorgeous weekend and nice to relax and hang out with mom.

Because I just can't get enough of it, I was back to Cincinnati the next week for our annual HR meeting. It was nice to see all the other managers from our facilities one more time before my time is up.

In celebration of Armed Forces Day we went south to Sutherlin to enjoy a BBQ at the Parkers house. Trevor and his wife Erin and Wes and Sandy came out for the celebration as well. There was tons of delicious food and good times breaking in the fire pit in their backyard. It is a few hours from home so everybody spent the night there and the next day we headed up to Blacktail Ridge and walked along the trail through some lovely rolling green hills.


That pretty much sums up the last month. I can say I am definitely ready for summer to be here and get rid of this rain that seems to be non-stop. Then I remember where we live and just put on the rain coat and move on. Here's to hoping for some sunshine!

In The Great Outdoors

Last weekend we hit the trail and went on the Multnomah-Wahkeena Loop Hike. The trailhead is only about 45 minutes away, so it is usually pretty busy, but thankfully most people stop when the paved trail ends. The whole trail was about 5 miles and besides the wind at the beginning and end it was a great day for an adventure in the woods.

Tulips and More Tulips

Last week Jake and I went down to Woodburn to visit the Wooden Shoe Tulip Farm for the annual Tulip Festival. It was amazing to see all the different types of tulips and colors that they had. It made me wish I had a house to plant a little garden in front of. Unfortunately I was so excited to see the flowers that I forgot to change into my "get dirty" shoes and got my nice ones all muddy! But none-the-less it was a fun day and the sun even came out for a minute while we were there.

How Did I Forget....

I don't know how I left this out of the last post!! The day before the race a couple weekends ago Jake and I went to Oregon Museum of Science and Industry. It has been on our list of things to see here in Portland and I was excited to finally go. The best part was one of the main exhibits was SAMSON!! I am not sure why I enjoy dinosaur exhibits so much, but I totally do. Samson is one of the world's largest and most complete T-Rex skeletons. It was awesome!!


The rest of the museum was pretty neat too. There was a lot of hands on stuff, mostly for kids, but we had fun with it too. There was a big space exhibit and a really neat fetal development exhibit. An excellent way to spend a cold afternoon.

Weekend Fun

The last two weekends have been pretty good around here.

Last weekend was the 5K race, so on Saturday Jake and I went to pick up my shirt and bib number so we would not have to get to the race even earlier on Sunday. The traffic was ridiculous to get up to the pick up site. I ended up getting out of the car, walking to the building, getting my stuff and walking back to the truck before Jake even made much progress. There has got to be a better way to do this!

Sunday was the race and it was quite cold that morning! Note to self... sign up for summer time races only! But after bundling up and getting on the MAX with about a million other runners we made it downtown and met up with Wes and Sandy. There were a few different races going on that day with a total of 21,000 runners! Needless to say it was crowded. The race went well though and once I was running the cold was not noticeable. My goal was to beat my time from the race in Cincinnati in 2008, and I am happy to report that I DID IT!!!! 27:31 - new personal best for a race.


This week was Spring Break for USU and a few friends were up here for a visit. Saturday we met Kevin, Kari, Kylie and Brian downtown at the Saturday Market. Sandy and Wes met up with us there too. It was gorgeous weather so we walked around downtown for a while and then headed over to Rogue Brewery for some lunch. Sandy and Wes left after lunch to head down to the Parker's while the rest of us decided to go to Washington Park to continue enjoying the weather. Getting to the park turned out to be quite the task! But we finally made it and had fun throwing a couple footballs and a tennis ball around for a while. This confirmed that I am totally ready for Spring and the weather to get better and stay that way.

In other news, Jake leaves for a work trip on Tuesday. Heading out to Puerto Rico, but only for a week this time, so it won't be too bad. I have plenty to keep me busy - piles of laundry that have been neglected, cleaning to be done, and time sucking reality TV to catch up on!