Easter Celebration

“Behold, this is our God; we have waited for him, that he might save us.This is the Lord; we have waited for him; let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation.”

- Isaiah 25:9, ESV

This last Easter was so special. My sister and her boyfriend came down for the weekend. My parents hosted it along with some family friends, and it ended up being a pretty big celebration. After the 22 seats were set we celebrated all together how wonderful our Savior is. 

We definitely took the opportunity to take some family pics as well. 

How wonderful it is to know Jesus. To be able to know the One who lived and died to give us life. He loves us, everyone of us, so much to have given his life so we could have ours. I feel so overjoyed to know that I have a Saviour who loves me for who I am; not who I'm supposed to be, but who I am now. It is something to rejoice over, every single day. Amen that He lives!

He has risen // leah

Sunriver Hangs

For the second part of Cory's Birthday Adventure, we headed to Sunriver for a weekend away with some really great people. We have this solid group of friends that we have met over the last two years and we've all become as close as family. These are the people we do life with. We laugh, cry, talk about our marriages, our struggles our successes. We have never been on a trip with all of us before and we thought it was about time. We headed to Sunriver for a long weekend of fun!

The Guys

The Girls

We went on walks, talked in the hot tub, went into Bend and had happy hour at Deschutes Brewery; we stayed up late to play mancala and had many rounds of ping-pong tournaments. Each couple made a different meal and we all just hung out. The dogs even came along and had some fun of their own. 

This time was so special and one I won't forget. One of the couples is moving to the Midwest in June, and having all of us together, really enjoying each others company, was something priceless. 

To memories with friends // leah

Cory's Birthday Adventure

My main squeeze just turned 28 (!!) He's like a good bottle of whiskey, just gets better with age. We took the week of his birthday off and did some projects around the house (read: paint the whole upstairs and do about 15 hrs worth of yard work). We planned the week really well by having our relaxing, adventurous time at the end. On wednesday we headed up north to Seattle. I had a couple things planned for his birthday and was only able to keep one thing as a surprise. I'm terrible at surprises and he loves them. Good thing I have many years to practice my secret keeping. 

First stop, iFly Seattle. 

We spent the next two hours learning how and taking our first "flights".  I've never been actual sky diving and from what the instructors said it feels pretty realistic. I was surprised by a couple things. We both did pretty well keeping our flight-position. The instructors are in the flight room the whole time and help to fix your position if you are not doing it quite right. One thing I was surprised with was how easily you could move with just a small adjustment of your body. Keeping your chin up helped you not fall so fast, moving your arm in towards your body made you turn one way or the other. We only flew for about 3 minutes each, but it was well worth the price! Such a fun experience and really great for people like me who have that inner want to go sky diving but will never, never actually go.  

We met up with my sister that evening in Seattle and went out to celebrate with some great food and drinks. We stayed the night in downtown and then headed to our next stop. 

Tree House Point

The unique overnight stay was one we will never forget. Something I would considered glamping, we decided to stay in a tree house for our last night up north. Nestled away in some trees, not far at all from downtown Seattle, were these beautifully built tree houses. We stayed in the Nest. A cozy thing that lived up to it's name. 

This place was right off a main road leading out of Fall City, Wa. Which by the way have some of the friendliest people I've met. 

We only stayed a night and would have loved if we were there a bit longer. They served a home-cooked breakfast in the morning and had a main lodge with a fire to make smores that night.  The fact that there were only 6 tree houses to stay in made it a little community of visitors. We all communed in the main lodge and talked about how we got there and what our tree houses looked like. 

We will definitely be back and will be trying a different house each time. Next one, maybe the Bonbibi (as shown below). 

Happy birthday my love! Birthday adventures are so much fun, and I'm so blessed to be able to celebrate my man. He is a special one. 

To Adventures  and birthdays // leah

Seattle

Stay: Courtyard Seattle Downtown/Lake Union - close to some great eats and the Space Needle. Nice Lake view too. 

Eat: Crow , Roux , Quoin

East-Ward

Stay: Tree House Point

Eat: Finaghty's Pub , Fall City Bistro

A Birthday Hike: Angel's Rest

My Dad has always loved being outside. Hiking, biking, walking, whatever it was to get us kids outside, that is where we would be. With him. So it wasn't a surprise that for his birthday he wanted to go for a hike. We all piled into the family mini-van, all 6 of us + 3 dogs and headed to the Columbia Gorge. He chose Angel's Rest for the hike and some other popular views around there. So great celebrating my dad amongst such beauty!

 

The views were stunning. I've done lots of hikes before, especially in the Gorge, and everytime they cease to amaze me. How much land we have here in Oregon. Uninterrupted green. The day was perfect too. It had been calling for rain all week but sunshine was all to be had. It was like this place was waiting for us to come and see it in all it's glory. It was also so wonderful to have my sister, her boyfriend and our brother all along on this hike. My mom was at home prepping the dinner..and the Easter lunch that was to be had the next day.

 

So fun for a birthday day!

 

To hikes and birthdays // leah