Thanksgiving and Nat's Wedding!

For Thanksgiving we drove 11 hours to Portland to celebrate the holiday and Nat & Paul's wedding. Our first night there we ate take-out Mexican family style and initiated Paul into the family (by passing a bottle of Diet Coke). The boys were so excited to play with their second cousins, and between Adrie and Uncle Brad, they were 200% content the entire time we were in Oregon. :) 

Quinn chilled with Mary in this rather unusual position for a good while, scratching the fabric with her little fingers and not acting the least bit uncomfortable. :) 

Our Thanksgiving family shot! Nice eyes, T! 

Natalie's bridal shower with just family was the best shower I've ever been to. We sewed little sequin ornaments for Nat's new advent calendar, ate the most amazing Belguim waffles, and took turns sharing meaningful advice around the table. I so wish I had recorded those precious minutes of the women I admire most in the world sharing their thoughts about marriage and life.

I thought the homemade photobooth was way too fun. I'd like to recruit Joshua and Mallory to create this for all of my future events. :) 

Only missing Corey! 

The drive to and from Portland was a bit hard with Quinn (A week later, she still arches her back and squawks whenever she sees her carseat), but almost every other moment went off without a hitch. The boys are a great age for travel (much less stressful than they used to be!), and we had a blast in the hotel—especially the continental breakfast every morning and the pool!  

Thanks to all our family for feeding us and helping us with the kids! 

Best of 2013

While we were at Nat's wedding in Portland, Alaina snapped these for us at the temple. They turned out so well! I love my family!

Thank you, Alaina! 

Date Night in SF

In October we enjoyed our third overnight date in San Francisco. We owe a big thanks to the Hoffmans for watching our kiddos, especially considering Quinn still wakes up at night! 

We did basically what we've done in the past—the Omni (on hotel points!) & Tony's—with the addition of climbing up to Coit Tower while we waited for a table to open up. That was so much fun. I love you, babe! (We are going to have so much fun when we're empty nesters! haha) 

Gold

I’d been needing this kind of a weekend. Life has been full to the brim lately, which helped us really appreciate the slower pace we enjoyed when Kyle and Whitney flew into town one weekend in November. 

The boys mountain biked, the girls shopped the Banana Friends & Family sale, we hiked to the top of our own mountain and flew dueling kites. We talked till late, ate rice krispie treats, and got up good and early (because in an apartment with four adults and three kids, no one was sleeping in!). At one point, there was even a giant remote-controlled shark flying around.

Come anytime you want, Kyle!