Where Have We Been?

View of the Coastal Range from Mary's Peak.

You are all probably wondering where we have been and even if we are still alive! The answer to the latter question is "BARELY!" We've had a fun but crazy month traveling across the country and moving in to our home here in Corvallis (which we absolutely LOVE, LOVE, LOVE!) It has been so nice to unpack boxes and to find a place for everything knowing that we don't have to move again in a year or two. We love our neighbors, our neighborhood, being in our own home and having a yard that Mark loves to mow. But who knew home ownership would be so much work?!

This place is so beautiful. Everything grows here! Every type of flower and tree (yes, I've even seen a palm tree) and berries, berries, berries. Raspberries, blueberries, blackberries, marionberries, cherries. Mark has been whipping up different shakes each night. He's such a berry fanatic. You can buy the berries at the farmer's market or you can go to the berry farms and pick them yourself!

So, I don't know where to even begin to sum up this past month. Mark made the long drive from Columbia, SC with his Dad in two and a half days (just shy of 2200 miles) while my mother-in-law helped me fly with all three kiddies! All of them did amazingly well on the flight and needless to say...we survived! We spent a week in Logan seeing family and then Mark and I drove up to Oregon with the kids. I spent the majority of the drive sitting between the twins' car seats feeding and entertaining babies. We moved into our home on one of the hottest days on record here in Corvallis with no air conditioning. We had to make an emergency run to Kmart to buy fans that we clipped to the babies cribs so they could have some relief from the heat and sleep that first night! I am happy to say that we now have A/C. For the most part, however, the weather has been perfect here.

Mark has been working for three weeks now and is loving the office, his patients, and the work. They have kept him very busy and he is so happy to be where he is at. My mom flew out last week to help us pull our house together (which has been hard for us to do with Mark starting work so early and me chasing three little ones around). We took her to the coast and the county fair (Yee-haw). We had such a great time with her! She was such a great help and even gave Mark and I a night off to celebrate our 7th Anniversary! We went to a fancy-schmancy restaurant called Strega that had great food and a great view of the city and then went to see "The Dark Knight." It was such a fun night! I had almost forgotten what it felt like to be with Mark alone, and no kids!

So here we are! We have met so many wonderful people and we can already tell that we are going to love raising our family here. It feels like home already!

Below are pictures of some of our adventures so far here in Oregon.

Bike Valet at the Da Vinci Days Festival. This is a very eco friendly town. I guess I'm going to have to get
myself a bike.

One of the events at Da Vinci Days is what they call the kinetic sculpture competition. These machines (or whatever you call them) are all human-powered and have to be able to make it over sand dunes, through mud and be able to float in the river (although I don't think some of them could float). They do this every year! This city if full of engineers that love nothing more than coming up with stuff like this!

Fun day out in Newport at the Oregon Coast Aquarium. We drove up the coast to a town called Lincoln City and hit the outlets. We stopped at Moe's on the way home for some clam chowder and fish 'n chips.

Pretty, but not quite your South Carolina beaches.

Macy at the Benton County Fair! She LOVED the animals and the rodeo!

My cute mom eating some famous Tillamook ice cream.

Macy going on her first ever roller coaster ride! She wasn't scared one bit!

Mark and I on the balcony at Strega where we had dinner celebrating our 7th anniversary! I'm still crazy over this boy!

Nicholas and Karlee eating their toes! They now have their two bottom front teeth and are chewing on everything!

I think that is everything in a nutshell!