Road Trip!!! Vancouver here we come...

So a few weeks before Griffin's semester ended, he realized he got 10 days off before he started his Summer Terms. We decided to take advantage of the time by visiting some of his best friends who recently moved to Vancouver, Washington. Ryan and Stephanie Walker recently added a second child to their nest that we really wanted to meet, as well as see our good friends, so off to Vancouver we went! Originally we were planning on leaving EARLY Wednesday morning but Tuesday evening when we both were packed and ready, we looked at each other and said, "Why don't we just go?" So 8:30pm we started our drive to Cascade Locks, Oregon. Other than sleeping for a couple hours at some random rest stop we drove straight through!

Our first day we stayed at Best Western's Inn in Cascade Locks, Oregon. It was situated on the Columbia Gorge; this is the same river Lewis and Clark explored. You can see how close the hotel was to the river. The surrounding community was so pretty and green. Well everything was green in oregon. We loved it!

It was the perfect vacation to rejuvenate our marriage. Griffin and I realized it was the first time we had taken a trip by ourselves since our honeymoon! We fell in love all over again.
We would recommend this hotel to anyone. The rooms were wonderful, you could get a BEAUTIFUL view of the Columbia Gorge, it had a heated pool, spa, workout machines, cute paths to walk along, right next to the Bridge of the Gods, amazing continental breakfast, the most comfortable bed of my life (even our turtle Ether liked it), and so close to so many cites!

A highlight for me was getting to walk across the Bridge of the Gods. There was no sidewalk so the woman told us we had to walk single file on the left side (so we could see what cars were coming toward us). Most of the drivers looked at us like we were crazy. But being up there, feeling the incredible wind, and seeing the gorgeous view of God's creations was fantastic! These are pics from up there...

A REAL Easter Egg Hunt

So Easter has always been one of my favorite holidays. Always has been...ever since the Easter bunny would tie one end of a long piece of yarn to my bed post in the middle of the night and the other end to my Easter Basket--which was hidden somewhere in the house for me to find in the morning. Griffin would not be amused if i made him follow a piece of yarn around the house first thing Easter morning...but this year he okayed an easter egg hunt, easter candy and dying easter eggs!

For me the excitement comes when I'm reminded over and over that the holiday is approaching. The easiest way for me to be reminded is by putting up Easter decorations. But we are still so poor that I had to get creative and use whatever we could find. This is what I came up with... For FHE we colored in Easter Eggs, we reused plastic eggs from last year and the orange grass from 2 years ago. The "He is not here for He is risen" and "Happy Easter" signs are just plain old scratch paper. Not Martha Stewart by any means, but for our little cabin...it worked just fine.

Dad came over for dinner. As Griffin and I cooked, Dad hid the colored foiled eggs for Griffin and me. Then Griffin hid the blue ones for Dad. Needless to say all the memories came flooding back to me why Easter hunts were always so fun...because they were truly challenging. Dad actually moved books and objects and hid the chocolate eggs in the most impossible places! It was awesome! Griffin wasn't used to this challenging of Easter Egg hunts and so Dad reminded me about the "cold...warmer....oh much warmer...hot....hot hot hot hot hot hot!!!!" game. Unfortunately you can't use the "cold hot" game when you can't remember where you put the eggs in the first place!

We ended up not having enough time to get all the Easter Egg decorating stuff out and still be able to play Settlers (which Dad would seriously be depressed if he couldn't play) so to Dad and Griffin's relief, I agreed to save the egg dying kit for next year. :)

Oh and as of 2 years ago...Griffin and I have a new tradition...if you've never had Hershey's Coconut Creme Filled Kisses....you gotta try 'em! Oh man, they are a Easter seasonal candy and Griffin has learned to stock up. Coconut is one of his absolute favorite flavors. And the Coconut Creme Macaroon recipe on the back is a winner! We made almost 100 cookies and they were all gone in one week! haha. This is what the package looks like. You gotta try them!