Central Oregon...again :)

Central Oregon is where it's at. Growing up we visited Bend and Sunriver a few times. Brian and I have continued to travel there more and more because it's just perfection. The weather, the activities, the mountains...so much to do and always so much fun. 

Pronghorn is a new little area that is very close to Bend and reminds me of a very quiet and smaller Sunriver. It's peaceful and way out of the way of chaos so it's such a relaxing place to visit. Scott and Randi's new vacation home is breathtaking and they were nice to offer us to come join them for a short weekend this last weekend. I was immediately on board because we were in desperate need of some family time with all Brian's traveling (he's in Arizona this week). 

On Friday we packed up the car and picked up Bria from school then headed directly there. We got there at 7 pm, let the kids run around, opened some wine, got in our pj's and RELAXED. It was pure heaven. 

In the morning as I sipped coffee by the fireplace, I couldn't help but feel all toasty warm and happy. 

Perfection

The girls played all morning long until it was time for the Inukai's to hit the mountain, and us Holcomb's to go ice skating.

Ready for some family fun

Sisterly love

We have taken Bria twice before, and although she wants to do it, it's been a frustrating experience. In her mind she wants to be like Elsa or the figure skaters she sees on tv, so it's super annoying to her that she can barely balance. 

However, this time she was determined and I LOVED seeing her so focused. She never got frustrated, even when she fell, and she was so brave. She would go around all by herself (holding onto the wall) and seemed so proud. Then she would take mine or Brian's hand and go around pretty dang fast. By the end of it all she was thrilled with herself and on cloud 9 that she did so well.

Reese did pretty great too. She never got frustrated, but was definitely timid. She preferred Dad to take her around but was okay going with me sometimes :) She enjoyed holding onto both hands and being in front of us, it was cute to hear her, "Wahoo!!" every once and awhile. 

 They also had the little walkers for kids to use and both girls tried them out a few times.

Here comes Bria!

Her favorite

Proud mama

Pros

 Our absolute favorite memory though was holding hands as a whole family and going around the rink. Obviously we couldn't capture a photo, but that's okay with us. It's something we won't forget. The girls were laughing and smiling and it was just such a precious moment.

 Definitely grateful for such a fun family outing.

When we all returned back home, all of us girls got in the hot tub and warmed up. After dinner and a movie, we crashed and all slept like rocks. It was fabulous.
Sunday morning we went to breakfast and the girls behaved well...so thankful!

The older sisters

The babies ;)

 I even had a pomegranate mimosa and yes, it was as delicious as it sounds.

A little photo shoot near the golf course

Happy parents

So yeah, you could say our weekend was pretty dang successful. Especially considering we bowled that evening and won! I had some bad games myself, but my team did great and we won all 7 points that you can earn. Thanks awesome weekend, I needed you! 

Mud

We ordered these cool portable bunk beds for the girls. Why? Well we travel down to Albany a lot and these seemed like the perfect solution for beds for them since they love bunk beds but don't have them in their rooms. 

They were thrilled and as soon as Dad set them up they wanted to go to bed! For 2 nights they slept in them, I think these will be a success. And hopefully we can get a big enough tent and camp with them too. 

The rain has been crazy here lately, like ridiculous. So when we have a break from it I make sure to get the kiddos outside for some fresh air.

We went to a park that's about a mile from our house. I pushed Penny in the stroller, Reese rode her scooter and Bria rode her bike. They did great on the way there especially considering there are quite a few hills.
We enjoyed ourselves at the park for awhile and then started a game of hide and seek.
All was going well until Reese was running to hide and slipped in the mud. She was not happy:

Naturally I whipped out my camera to capture the hilarity of the moment (I don't think she appreciated that). I calmed her down and was attempting to clean her up with dog poop bags (new ones, not used ones just to clarify) because I literally had nothing else. As I was doing this, Penny was very intrigued and walked over to inspect the muddy disaster. Well what do you know, she found a little mud hole and stepped right in it.

She liked it even less than Reese did and was screaming pretty good. I naturally whipped out my camera again and began to laugh at the scene that was unfolding.

 Eventually I got them to calm down but I couldn't clean them. So after some swinging and playing I decided we better make the trek home because they were going to get cold pretty fast.
I stripped them as soon as we walked in the door and soaked those muddy clothes and shoes. Then texted Lark the pictures and told her of our fun adventure ;)

The next time I took the girls to the park, I took them to one without mud.
Things went much more smoothly.

 But it wasn't quite as memorable ;)

Surprise

Thursday evening before Brian was to return on Saturday, the girls and I were thrilled that in just 2 sleeps he would finally be back. 

I was going over the last 24 hours in my head and wondering why we had barely heard from him and hadn't gotten to facetime. It was so out of character for him and it concerned me. I even sent an email asking why he was so absent, I didn't want to be a nagging wife, but I missed him!

I sent him a text at 7 pm as I started getting the girls ready for bed and asked to facetime:

Here was our little dialogue:

As soon as I read the last line, I heard the doorbell ring.

I froze.

Then walked to the door in a fog and opened it up to my husband. Standing in front of me in the flesh. 

OHMYGERSH!!!!! 

The little stinker had been MIA because he had secretly caught an early flight back and wanted to surprise me. It totally worked and the girls and I were ecstatic. None of us wanted to let go of him for fear it was a dream.

The girls doing their favorite thing: wrestling with Dad

So we got him back 2 days sooner than planned and it was wonderful. Unfortunately he brought with him a terrible cold and that mixed with his jet lag led to him sleeping for about 4 days straight. But at least he was home. 

Once he was a little better we decided to do a family day and because our girls are obsessed with the mall we went there. We let them ride the weird stuffed animal things which they loved:

They got cinnamon pretzels and played on the play structure and were very thrilled with our family day. Good thing our kids are easily entertained! 

I'm still in need of a date night with my husband so hopefully that happens soon, but at least we get to relax on the couch together after the girls go to bed, that is definitely one of my happy places. 

Singapore

Although Brian is adventurous and enjoys being spontaneous, international travel is not his favorite he has decided. Why? 

Food.

My incredibly particular, picky, crazy, husband is very plain and simple when it comes to food. He doesn't enjoy trying new restaurants at home, let alone in a different country. So while his coworkers discuss the new restaurant of the night, Brian is finding the nearest Subway. 

I think this time around he was a little more adventurous, I mean, he even drank something that had a pineapple attached to it:

He says the architecture in Singapore is out of this world and everything is so nice.

He knows his daughters are so curious about the places he visits so he has been good about taking a lot of pictures for them and they love it.

He has actually really liked Singapore, but the biggest downside is the weather for him. It's mid 80's and 100% humidity. He is not a fan of that. And while I could see that being annoying, it beats this unrelenting rain that Oregon is currently having.

Snow days

We got back from Pronghorn and 2 days later woke up to snow! I couldn't believe it snowed and the girls were ecstatic. They didn't care that it was half of inch, it was white and pretty and fluffy.

 Even the next day when it was barely dusting the ground, they wanted to go play in the snow.

Brian is in Singapore, going on week 2 of him being gone. When he went to Germany in November for 2 weeks I rallied did a pretty kick ass job. This time? I don't know what happened but I fell apart and I'm slowly trying to get back up and rally. It's taking awhile but today I feel a little better. This single parenting thing is no joke. Not only that but I miss him like crazy and just want my best friend back...the stressful part and the part that gives me anxiety attacks is that his traveling doesn't seem to be letting up any. Praying for strength.

In the mornings these two sit over the vent and warm up together

She.ate.grapes. This was definitely worth documenting!

Dinner time is FUN. 

Bria took a bunch of pictures on my phone, it was fun to look through them

6 year old selfie

Friday after I picked Bria up from school, I took the kids to the Children's Museum. It is the coolest place to take kids, they have every imaginary play scenario you could think of: grocery store, construction site, Veterinary clinic, water fun, Theater, clay, dump trucks, etc. And the kids get free range of it all. It costs a pretty penny but I went on Free Friday, score me. The girls had a blast and didn't want to leave.

Paging Dr. Bria

We took the Max and the girls love it

"It's coming!!"

Saturday I took them bowling and then Lance and Kayla came up because they were flying out the next morning. We enjoyed having company and it felt wonderful to talk to other adults, especially family.
On Sunday the lights stopped working in part of the house, including power to the garage door. It was such a headache to deal with, it was not only stressful for me, but Brian too as he was trying to help from across the world. The landlord came last night along with his brother and they found the problem and fixed it for the time being, but are coming back this evening to change out some electrical stuff. Very grateful for them coming out and fixing it.
So now it's Monday and I'm hoping this week goes by fast.

Here's to a New Year!

The last 3 years we have had a tradition of ringing in the New Year with the Inukai's and Buell's and eating lentils first thing after midnight.

This year was no different...only we all went to Pronghorn and stayed at Scott and Randi's new vacation digs. It was perfection. No one had to drive home, the kids weren't up super late, and we got to just sit and enjoy each other's company with no where to be.

Having 6 kids and 6 adults in one house for nearly 3 days seems like chaos, and maybe at times it was. But their house is large enough that we each have our own space and can retreat if needed. 

We did lots of playing and laughing...

Scott the chef

Just ordering from the esteemed Chef Presleigh :)

I love these two girls so much

 Randi and Amanda have been the best friends I could ask for. When I joined the Moms group 4 years ago I had no idea that I would find 2 incredible women who would support me, make me laugh, give it to me straight, and just be huge blessings in my life.

And not only have I found forever friends in them, but their families mean the world to me. Together we just fit like a perfect puzzle. Our husbands are friends, our kids are friends, and sometimes we plan our kids marriages so our grandkids can be friends :)

From left: Bria (6), Presleigh (6), Charleigh (4), Reese (4), Weston (5), Bennett (6)

 They can fight like siblings for sure, but they always make up and go back to loving each other.

Reese and Charleigh, the two babies of the group :)

My little toothless goofball

 During the day on New Year's we headed to a little sledding area near Mt. Bachelor. The kids enjoyed the sledding but not as much as playing in it and having a snow ball fight with the grown ups.

My little family

All of us! Brian is our go to on a big group selfie, thanks babe!

The wives

The husbands

After being in the snow, what's better than going in the hot tub?

Bathing beauties

 Bennett and Weston joined too, but gathering all 6 kids for a picture only happens a few times if you're lucky!
Once the kids were hot tubbed out, fed, and ready for bed...we found a cute kids countdown on Netflix and partied like it was midnight, even though it was 8 pm :)

The rare 6 kid picture! I owe it to Amanda, she is a pro at wrangling them all up.

Some party essentials, poppers and noise makers!

Dance party!

 We attempted a few family pictures and then put the kids to bed.

My phone takes horrible pictures, in this case I tried to use the glowing light as a mystical picture

Us adults played games until we were all exhausted, looked at the clock and when it said 10:30 pm we all wanted to cry. We were so ready for bed...but still had an hour and a half to go. So we put on Superbad and made ourselves rally until the clock finally struck midnight! We kissed (our spouses of course) and then ate lentils.
We congratulated ourselves on making it to midnight and then all crashed.

The next day we drank coffee in our pj's and had a lazy morning which felt great. Then some of us tried out Dusty's new hoverboard. I attempted but was too chicken. Randi did awesome but at the end of her turn she did a rapid turn and fell right on her head. She strained some muscles in her neck and got a minor concussion...we all felt horrible!
We stayed around to make sure all was okay and clean the house so she would be able to do nothing. Then we (Buell's and Holcomb's) got on the road. But not before the drivers got a snooze in...

Cute little nappers!

We had a great time and look forward to more fun memories in Pronghorn!