The best 5 years!

November 7th we celebrated our 5th wedding anniversary by going to Seaside, OR for the weekend.

We started out by going to the Tillamook cheese factory for a little cheese tasting and yummy ice cream.

The weather was incredible!

This guy!  He’s my favorite person and very best friend!  I couldn’t have chosen a better man to spend eternity with.  I love everything about him!  Really—everything!

We rented these fun recumbent bikes for a few hours and had such a great time riding them.

A beautiful sunset!

We had such a nice time together!  It was the first time we’ve been away from our children overnight (THANKS to Barbara and DeWin who insisted we leave the girls—they are wonderful!)  I think we were both surprised at how much we missed our girls—we found ourselves thinking constantly how much the girls would love this or love that, and we look forward to being able to go back with them sometime.

Halloween 2014.

For our ward’s Halloween party, the girls were darling little cowgirls!  Harriet’s costume was given to her by Brian’s aunts, Regina and Leora—so darling!  Elna’s I just rounded up from things we had around the house.

Three cute cowgirls—Elna, Sydney, and Ella.  Hattie wasn’t interested.

On Halloween day Elna really wanted to be Minnie Mouse, so I decided to put Hattie in one of our dress ups, and she was Snow White.  Easy!  And cute!

Angie and I wanted to take our kids to the skating rink for a tiny tots skate time, but when we got there, they had canceled it (without saying anything on their website about it!).  Elna was super disappointed.  A few Friday’s before we had tried to go to the skating rink and it was cancelled last minute then too, so she was pretty bummed and getting kind of teary, so we had to think of something quick.  We went to McDonald’s to play while we waited for a library story time to start. 

Before we left in the morning.

Eating a healthy breakfast- ha

Then we went to the library for story time, but of course it was cancelled too—funny morning.  The kids had fun playing and reading at the library and then we went home.

Holding hands!

We first went downtown Troutdale with the Holweges for some trick-or-treating at the stores there.

Trick-or-treating at Grandma and Papa’s house, and then staying for dinner--earlier that day I had made a big pot of chili for dinner and we wanted to eat with them so that they could see the girls costumes before we went trick-or-treating.  By the time dinner was over, the girls were so tired, we decided to just go home and put Hattie to bed while Brian took Elna to a few neighbors houses.  She loved it, of course.

These pictures are from the next day—they did a lot of this.  I really love Halloween day, but the next day can be a little rough with the lack of sleep and the sugar.

I know that was a lot of pictures, but what’s Halloween without too many pictures…and candy?

The little things in October.

Elna calls this park the “church park” (because it’s across the street from our church building).  It’s her favorite!

Hattie had a meltdown in the library, so we had to leave suddenly.  Elna was pretty disappointed that we had to leave, and Harriet was still bawling when we got into the car, but this is what I saw when I looked back at the girls a few minutes later.  Sweet Elna is such a good big sister!

I love their outfits here—nightgowns/just a diaper with aprons and chefs hat, and a backpack.

I can’t remember exactly what they were doing, but I think it was a cooking demonstration or a tea  party.  Something fun,

Doing “Popcorn Popping”

This girl is very much going through a backpack, bag, and purse stage and I love it.  She almost always has a backpack and/or purse on.

I took this picture as Elna explained to me, “My baby still nurses once a day, and so…”

Blurry picture on the left is of a night we met Brian downtown after he had spent a day in Portland at a study class.

This is probably the last bare feet day of the season.

A sweet older gentleman was leaving the DMV as I got there and gave me this number he wasn’t able to use for some reason and I felt like I’d won the lottery.  I had just pulled the number 163, so instead of who knows ho long, I was only there 45 minutes.  Game changer.  So grateful!

This is an everyday occurrence at our house when they see each other first thing in the morning.  Big, long hug and lots of kissing.

Best dad!

Hats are also a big deal at our house right now.

If we can’t see mom, she can’t see us, right?

Reading books with Grandma Fae on a Sunday night.

Look at their faces!  My life is good!