Oregon, My Oregon

Another highlight of the summer was a trip to Oregon to see my family. This is Wilson, nephew extraordinare, showing off his increasingly rare find (partial sand dollar) and very sandy hands. I spent the first few days of my trip in Newport, which was a treat as I hadn't been to the beach house in the summer in about 3 years.

Midway through my trip, I met Peter in Seattle and we drove up to Kelowna for his cousin Paul's wedding, with a sidetrip to Edmonton to visit his Mormor. We had an enjoyable day visiting with her and the wedding was lovely. Peter had to return back home after the wedding so I dropped him back off in Seattle and returned to Portland for a few more days.

The drive to Seattle and back was a lovely excuse to quell my fast food desires--I ate at Burgerville twice (spicy black bean gardenburger and thick shake made with real, plump, local, berries- how I love thee).

When I returned, Mom decided we should look for possible Oregon wedding locations, so my sisters and I piled in the car and off we went, perusing wineries and miscellaneous country locales. We went up to Hopewell to say hello to my Great Grandma Scoggan, and out to Sheridan to visit the church my mom went to growing up (she claims they say she was the second best organist they had). It was pretty fun, despite the sweltering 95 degree temps, I hadn't driven around on those country roads in many years. Portions of the last two days were spent looking for a wedding dress (successfully I might add) and registering at Crate and Barrel, though now that I've read this book, I'm thinking of canceling the registry. We'll see though (it would be nice to have matching dishes for once).

Now I must leave to go get to work on Winter Goal #3....................

A New Beginning

Another attempt at this blog business, though no one except Laura or Peter would know that. Today was the first day it really felt as though winter was on its way. A brief glance out the window this afternoon resulted in a sudden pang of excitement (its going to snow soon) and sadness (summer is definitely over and by the looks of it, fall is near to done too). The mountains were more than dusted, the snowline now nearing the houses on the highest-up bits of hillside. In honor of the changing of the season, here's a photo from the summer highlight trip to Yellowknife/Great Slave Lake. I have no idea actually where this was taken, somewhere along the Alcan between Ft. Nelson and Whitehorse (yes, that really narrows it down, doesn't it?)

As always, I'm hoping to accomplish a lot this winter and so I'm publishing the list here, so that all you readers can hold me to it.
1) Ski at least 2 times a week (as long as snow conditions allow), either classic or skate
2) Do the Tour! I will minimally do the 25k, but ideally I'll do the whole thing, classic or skate
3) Put in at least 2 hours a week at the loom
4) Do at least one cabin trip
5) Finish a knitting project or two before I start any new ones
6) Plan the darn wedding
7) Start writing letters to friends again
8) Eat all the fruits and vegetables in our box every week

I know that I will have more but that's a start. Its sort of like my New Year's resolutions, but I guess I prefer to make Equinox resolutions (look for the next set come March).

Peter went to Homer for a few days for work so I'm going to watch a movie now with Jackson, the as-of-late incontinent, on one side, and Mason, he who desperately wants to be walked, on the other. Asia, fat cat, will no doubt nap on my lap.
Cheers for now.