First day of spring....

It was a beautiful Saturday in Portland! Brad and I decided to put on our sunglasses, plug in the iPod and drive around the back country. We decided to have lunch at Helvetia Tavern which is in the back hills of Hillsboro. The burgers there were so good! We’ll definitely plan a trip back out there this summer.
Just thought we’d share how we spent our first spring day in Portland! :)




After living in Portland for 5 years, I've never been over the St. John's Bridge.

Shamrock Run

Jim, Maureen and Joe Weber with Brad before the start of the Portland Shamrock 5k run!


Here they come, Joe and Brad running to the finish line!

The Bales Baby

Our best friends, Alicia and Nick, who were our Maid of Honor and our Best Man, also got married four weeks after Brad and me! Right after their honeymoon, they made dinner plans with us to tell us their happy news of expecting a child. Brad and I were so excited for them!

20 weeks later, we learned their baby is healthy and what the gender is. They had family and us over for a revealing party the day they found out what they were having. Each person had to wear the color they think the baby is, pink for girl, blue for boy. Nick and Alicia had the color of what the baby was under zipped jackets, and it was Blue!!

We are so excited for the Nick and Alicia to be expecting a little boy! I guessed right, blue for boy :)





Brad really thought they were having a girl!


Excited girlfriends!


"It's a Boy" cigars from us

Our new nephew!!

Brad and I became and Uncle and Aunt again on Thursday, March 4th !! Brad’s older brother Casey and his girlfriend Chelsea had Caleb Raymond Fetrow at 6:59pm! Caleb was 8lbs. 120z and 20.5 inches when he was born!

We first visited Caleb on Friday night! We were holding him and realized that he wasn’t even a day old yet!! Couldn’t believe the little guy in our arms was less than 24 hours old! Incredible!

Brad’s parents came up on Friday for a long weekend. Chelsea and Caleb came home from the hospital on Sunday morning and we all gathered at their place to celebrate Mike’s 60th birthday!










Caleb is so precious! He has big cheeks, beautiful blue eyes and a ton of hair! We joke that he needs a haircut and needs a shave! He sleeps a lot but when he is awake, he is alert and loves to move his arms and legs! He makes the cutest noises and love it when he yawns, which he does a lot!













Needless to say, we adore our new nephew and can’t wait to see more of him!!

Seafood & Wine Festival

Brad and I experienced our first Newport, Oregon Seafood & Wine Festival last weekend. We had a great time wine tasting with our friends. The theme was “The Grape Wild West” and so we dressed up for the event!

The weather at the beach was beautiful; the sun was out but still a bit chilly. We stayed in Lincoln City with our friends Genny and John both Friday and Saturday night. We met up with another group of friends Friday night and then we all got together as a group and headed out to spend the whole Saturday at the festival.

There were a lot of great wines that we enjoyed and hope to visit some of them this summer in wine country.

Taylor's 28th Birthday

Brad organized a little birthday party with friends to help celebrate my 28th birthday! We went bowling and had a great time! Can’t believe I’m 28 years old!


Kelly made a yummy cake!


Friends!

New Years and Rose Bowl

Brad and I celebrated New Years this year with a trip down to Pasadena, California with his parents to see the Oregon Ducks play in the Rose Bowl! Despite the loss, it was a great trip!

We were suppose to leave Tuesday evening from Portland right after work, when all of a sudden, it started snowing around 2:30pm and did not stop until around 8pm. Needless to say, Portland was a mess and covered in snow. It took Brad, 5 hours to get home that evening. We decided it would be smart to just sleep that evening and get up early and head down to Medford Wednesday morning. We met up with his parents and continued to drive all the way to Valencia, Ca. The trip down was not too bad and went by pretty quickly.

On Thursday we spent the entire day at Magic Mountain! We rode all kinds of roller coasters, some even twice and had a really fun day! We went out to dinner at a place called Elephants, which was fun, and capped the evening with a bottle of champagne and a New Years wish.

The next day, ROSE BOWL day! Ducks were everywhere, and the atmosphere was intense with school pride! We got to the stadium and walked around to take in the scenery. After that, we set up our little tailgate!


The Rose Bowl was a lot of fun and despite the outcome, we were all still proud to be a Duck! And as every Duck fan was saying "There's always next year!"
Go DUCKS!!

Christmas in Sunriver!

Brad and I decided to spend our first Christmas together as a family in Sunriver! Brad was able to secure a house for us to stay at for a few days! We loaded up the car, stopped by and picked up a mini Christmas tree and we were on our way to Bend. We stopped by our friend's parents house for a Christmas Eve dinner and some games. It was a lot of fun!

Christmas morning, we opened presents, built puzzels, watched a few movies and just relaxed! It was one of our most favorite Christmas's ever and we are both so happy we spent our first year with just the two of us! It felt like a second honeymoon!!

Christmas

All of the kids celebrating Christmas with Mom

Honeymoon in Oahu

Brad and I spent 7 days in beautiful Oahu Hawaii! It was simply amazing and the best trip Brad and I have ever taken. We left the day after we got married and spent our first night walking the beach, watching the sunset and checking things out! Monday was our first full day and we got some breakfast and headed to the beach to just relax and soak in some rays. That night, Brad’s parents treated us to dinner at their favorite restaurant on the island, Roy’s. We sat outside and enjoyed the warm air as we ate a delicious meal! We had Roy’s recommended and famous desert which Brad devoured.


Tuesday we woke up and walked down Waikiki to a place to rent our Mopeds for the day. Needless to say, Brad was extremely excited for this! We got our 2 minute tutorial on how to ride a moped, and we were off. Brad opted not to wear the helmet, but I did. I looked like a tiny person on a little bike with a fat round red helmet! Brad spent most of our drive out to Pearl Harbor glancing over at me and laughing. Not sure if it was the horrified look on my face as trucks and cars were zooming past us or the big red helmet! We arrived at Pearl Harbor and spent a few hours touring the memorial! It was breath-taking and something I’ve always wanted to see. After that, we hoped back on the mopeds, this time, I decided to go with the wind blowing through my hair and no helmet. Per Brad’s advice, there’s nothing like the warm wind blowing through your hair :) We drove to the other side of the island and visited Sea Life Park where we saw sea turtles and dolphins swimming. We left there to drive back to the hotel, when we were caught up in a torrential downpour and struggled to drive our little mopeds home in the rain! It was an experience we’ll always remember and had lots of fun doing. That night we went to the Magic of Polynesia show.


Wednesday we got up and went snorkeling at Hanamua Bay. It was beautiful! You are so close to the reefs and the fish are fun to watch- but we didn’t see any sea turtles. After snorkeling, we rode the trolley down to the marina to go on the Makani Catamaran. That was so fun! We saw sea turtles in the distance and the dolphins came up to the boat and swam next to us for a little bit. It was fun to just sail around the island and see Waikiki from a distance.
That night we took a tour bus to the west side of the island for a luau! This was the best luau on the island and it was a ton of fun! We met a couple from Vancouver Island, BC and ate some good food and saw some fun Hawaiian dances.

Thursday we went hiking first thing in the morning before it got too hot. But the thing about Hawaii is that it never cools down, so it was still hot at 8am!! We hike all the way up Diamond Head and the view was amazing and worth it! It was actually a fun little hike and I got a certificate stating that I hiked a mountain and survived, and if any of you know me, I’m not a hiker :)
After the hike, we went to the famous Duke’s restaurant and went boogie boarding on Waikiki beach. That night we went to the most famous and nicest restaurant on the island, Alan Wong’s and had the best time! Our dinner was quite the experience when I ordered a rare Hawaiian fish and when it was served, it looked as if it was something that is killed, stuffed and belonged on a wall! It was the weirdest looking thing, it was the whole fish, steamed, with a slit down the middle with salad stuffed in it! But after I got over that fact that I’m eating a fish that still has eyeballs and teeth, it was pretty good! Then, as we are enjoying our meal, we saw two famous actors from the show LOST walk by us to sit two tables behind us! It was a fun celebrity sighting!

Friday we rented a convertible Mini Coup to drive around the Island and head up to North Shore! We made it to some famous spots on the Island like Matsumoto Shaved Ice and Giovanni’s shrimp truck. We stopped at Sunset Beach and played in the ocean. The current and waves on this side of the island are unbelievable! We drove up to Pali Lookout and enjoyed beautiful views along the way. We made it back to Waikiki just in time to watch the weekly firework show!

Saturday was our last full day in Hawaii. We just spent the day relaxing and hanging out at the beach. We went and had happy hour at the restaurant at the top of our hotel and watched the last sunset, then walked along the beach!



We owe a huge thank you to my grandparents Gayle and Donald Mullin for being so generous and giving us this gift of Hawaii! We love them!

To view our Honeymoon pictures, just click on the picture right here to start the Slide show.