Into the Woods...

No, I'm not talking about the musical. Even though it was pretty hilarious when performed while I was in high school.After much deliberation and swaying back and forth with the plans I talked about earlier- we were able to make our trip to the Redwoods after all. And it was amazing!

Day 1:We left on a Sunday morning, traveling down the coast all day, sight-seeing and pretending to be tourists. We stopped for a cone at the Tillamook Cheese factory, going on down, we saw the Sea Lion caves (!!!) Newport, Gold Beach, went on into California to Cresent City and finally reached our hotel in McKinnelyville.Day 2: We saw a huge herd of elk just hanging out on the side of the road, and visited a couple of state parks. We saw the "Big Tree" and were able to spend time in Jedediah Smith State Park, part of the Redwood National Park system. It was amazing.This one was called "The Cathedral Tree" It looks like about 9 different trees but its really only one, people have actually gotten married in it.

Day 3, we went south a little, saw the Avenue of the Giants. Awesome, seriously THOSE are some trees. We found it so neat that because the soil there is so wet their root systems are really shallow, also their bark is almost fire-retardant. So they can withstand fires for the most part, only leaving them black in parts and hollowing them after time. Which is kind of scary since you could walk through the hollow part of a tree that is upwards of 300ft tall. The sacredness you can feel in a forest is so neat. To know that some of the trees had been growing there for hundreds of years.We finished our itinerary early and decided to venture out to see "The Lost Coast." A two hour ride on a terribly paved road filled with hairpin turns.

Also, wild turkeys and cows roaming at will on the roadway, all this to see the nation's largest stretch of un-developed portion of coast. (Black sand beaches too) Consequently since it is so under developed, there was no spot to pull over and take a brake, the camera battery also died that morning so we have some rather shaky home video shots of this beautiful beach.After the long venture to the Lost Coast we stumbled upon Fernville, the cutest old-western-style town I've ever seen. Complete with two token old-men sitting outside the Creamery playing chess...the Humbolt Creamery had some fantastic shakes too!
Day 4: We left McKinnlyville and took Hwy 299 to Redding, for the sole reason to partake in some In'N'Out Burger, (and to get to I-5, I guess).Can I just say, that was one of the prettiest drives I've been on. I took some pictures, but they don't do justice to the river and the snow capped mountains in all their glory, did I mention it was a perfectly sunny clear day, 70 degrees even! (Well not at the 4000ft we eventually hit but it was in Redding) We ended the day in Medford, Oregon catching a glimpse of the Temple before tucking in.Day 5: Homeward bound, driving up the 5, not nearly as interesting as the roads we had been on so far, we stopped in Winston to see the Wild Animal Safari! This was pretty cool, seriously giraffe's, peacocks, ostrich's right out side the window.
It was so nice to take a break from the city life and slow things down for a few days seeing some of Natures finest.
Moving on to more serious matters. Hayley is turning 1 this month! We can't believe it, (and then again we can!) remembering some of our early beginnings of parenthood in the wee hours. Coupled with watching her grow, learn and begin to mimic. The tender moments of seeing her take her first bite of real food, rolling over, getting chatty, dancing, and just this last week, taking her first steps.

Later this month Skyler will be going back down to Anaheim, California, this time for a NIRSA conference, at which he'll hopefully secure a Graduate Assistantship for next year. Like last year, this is an exciting time for us (in different ways this time around!) as we wait to hear back from colleges all around the country, potentially moving to an unfamiliar city this summer.

Celebrating 1 year of Hayleyroo/parenthood,

Pre-mature Acrobat

Hayley. Hayley. Hayley.

She has been learning to play with her Little Tikes, push car...

A few days ago she got it backed up to the desk.

Then proceeded to stand in front of the handle bars.

Slowly reach over the front to grab the back bar.

Then stretch her wee arms to maximum length grabbing the desk drawer handle.

And as if this wasn't good enough, she lifted her little legs to totally suspend her wee body parallel with the floor.

HILARIOUS!

Play date with Audrey and Layla
Hayley's first time really playing with a baby so close to her age!
She was very curious!

Such a beautiful day, so warm it felt like summer, ok maybe not that warm, but spring at least!
Hayley loves to swing!

Leaps and Bounds

First and only snow day this winter

This has been a fantastic beginning to the new year. With the stress and celebrations of the 2009 holidays and party's behind us, I'm so excited to be starting a whole new year. So far this year, Hayley began crawling just the week after Christmas. Which was very exciting and couldn't believe she waited until everyone was gone to do it. Well actually we can. It's really more of an army crawl and sometimes she can get moving pretty fast and trips over her arms, which is pretty funny to say the least. She gradually progressed to crawling onto the lower part of the coffee table, she loves hanging out there and just plunking down off the other side. Now...she is pulling herself up on anything she can get her clammy hands onto! Especially drawers and cupboards, which doesn't always end up happy.
We are also anxiously awaiting and planning our first family vacation. A road trip for spring break! Taking stops all down the Oregon coast to California, visiting Crater lake and The Redwoods! Not positive on all the details but we're very excited so far! Also I've been stuck in bake everything mode. A couple friends of mine have introduced me to this new blog, and I pretty much check it twice a day (just in case). And then, since this Woman has a tried true fantastic yummy recipe for about everything I've searched for (except a rustic sourdough recipe) I'm thrilled to not be stuck in a rut and producing new things from the Apt. 316 kitchen. Just to name a few...Cheesecake Marble Brownies, Salted Carmel Sauce, S'mores Pie, Braised beef short ribs, Southwestern pulled brisket, that's not all but I bet your salivating now :) Visit SmittenKitchen.com for the goods.

Good Tidings!

A Merry Christmas to all!

We, not unlike every other American have been uber busy this month. Finding time to Celebrate with family, visiting family and friends, hosting, planning parties and the like.

I've been trying a new experiment on magazines that try and simplify your life. Actually DOING the advice instead of reading and saying "Hmm. that's a good idea." and forgetting it two seconds later only to return to the cluttered, confused, notoriously scrambling, late, flying by the seat of your pants style. One area I have been focusing on is the food. (surprising I know) Making meals for 5-6 people, even though it's just Sky and I and freezing the rest in portions. It's really great when you're tired or too busy and you cant stand the thought of eating another greasy burger or slurping one more milkshake tummy-ache combo.

I have also taken a liking to making my own baby food for Hayleyroo. I know the kind in the jar is fine, but wow it adds up! So typically a couple times a month I buy extra squash or sweet potatoes, carrots, fruits like pears, bananas and go to work. I find it especially easy to do it while getting dinner done too. The oven is already on, or the pasta water is already hot, making baby food a breeze.

This Christmas has been wonderful so far. I truly enjoy my calling at church and was able to plan the food and help set up for a fantastic Adult Holiday dinner. Which turned out great, excellent ham, tons of talented people singing and sharing musical goodness. Beautiful cheerily decorated tables and a lovely almond cake for dessert.

Skyler and I are lucky enough to be able to celebrate Christmas four times this year! We had my family come and visit last week which was great! We chatted, ate homemade peppermint white choc. cookies, choc. peanut pinwheels, peanut butter choc. balls, and dipped marshmallows. Then Saturday we ventured down to the Willamette waterfront to check out the famous Saturday market and eat lunch at the carts.

This weekend we traveled West to see Skyler's family which hasn't been all together in years. A full house, lots of kids and great food. Exchanging gifts by the tree, listening to stories of years past, rounds of Domino's accompanied by convincing stories of caramel corn made in the bath tub.

This week I'm pretty excited to celebrate with Skyler and Hayley for her first time. This year we decided we had an extra 4x4ft in the living room and got a tree! I've been filled with child-like thrill to have our first very own tree to decorate and leave gifts to friends and family under.

Even with all the Christmas parties and gatherings, the strains of life don't disappear for the latter part of December. Work schedules, and whatnot still needing attention. So we are back out to the Coast for the 24 & 25th for one last Cheers.

Till New Years!

Felting a Forest

Happy Fall!

Each month usually the 15-20th, my brain reminds me to blog. I have no idea why at that time it deems necessary to remind me to fill anyone in, who's reading, in on our previous month full of adventures or daily deeds.

Skyler took the liberty last month, as each day got crammed full and I passed up blogging.

So, I figured I would share a taste of what I have been doing. Lately I have been in a creative stitch, producing and creating more ideas for random things I think and secretly hope Hayley will like.

This past week we finally set up Hayley's big crib. (She's been in a bassinet) Since we moved shortly after she was born...I had a little more on my plate during the moving process and we lost all the hardware to set up the crib. I had also never set one up before so I really had no idea what we needed. Luckily we figured it out and got it up. The week prior, I decided I really never had that "nesting" chance in our old place to create the whole "nursery" effect. So I set out to the JoAnn's ETC. store and got the makings for crib bumpers.

Some leggings...

At our fall enrichment we were experimenting with crafts out of felted sweaters. I had never heard of this before but I quickly took to it. Since you don't have to hem anything, you can make stuff really easy and pretty quick. My original idea was a small handbag. But then I started seeing some REALLY cute things on other blogs and quickly had a que of things I "needed" to make. So far I've made a snail and an owl. I also crafted a couple of cute winter hats for Hayley.
My last project, which was initially the first one but is taking a bit more hand work is an Advent Calender. Little wool pockets I'm decorating with stitched drums, snowflakes, trees and other Christmas type things. All to be hung by ribbons with clips on a string. I cant wait to fill each pocket with surprises for Hayley (and Sky)

Cute summer dress for next year, made from an old men's collared shirt.

While stockpiling baby food jars for assorted holiday candle holders to come, this concludes my crafting so far, not to mention the couch pillow covers I haven't started on. Oh yeah, I love making Challah :)