A surprise visit and the Oregon Coast.

Last weekend, we were lucky enough to have Michael's dad and brother Matthew come visit for the weekend.

On Friday, Matthew called me and told me that they would be arriving later on that night and to not tell Michael.

(It had been 7 months since Michael last saw Matthew.)

So all day and into the night, I did my very best to keep the secret.

And it was no small task.

 For those that know Michael and I we can not keep even the smallest of secrets from each other.

But I did it and later on that night as we were sitting on the couch watching t.v. we heard this loud knock on the door.

I of course knew who it was but Michael looked kind of freaked out wondering who would be coming over so late.

I immediately said, "I call not getting it."

So he slowly got up and walked to the door and checked to see if he could see anyone through the peep hole.

Luckily I had told Matthew to make sure he covered it when he knocked.

So Michael just opened the door.

He was completely shocked and just stood there staring.

It was pretty funny, but he was really excited.

We had a super fun weekend relaxing, the boys went golfing of course, and then we made the hour drive to visit the Oregon coast.

I'm so glad we live close.

It was so beautiful and Olivia loved walking through the water and climbing all over the rocks with Michael.

It was quite cold so I didn't expect her to want to play in the water but she did and of course ended up getting taken out by a mini wave so she was drenched and covered in sand.

She did not seem to to mind though, so I hope we will be back soon!

Olivia loved spending time with "papa" and "math" and was sad to see them go.

Luckily we will be driving up to see them this very weekend!

I took a lot of pictures so enjoy!

She loved looking at pictures of "ruffs" on "Math's" phone.

Wet kisses!

Learning her colors by eating fruit snacks with "papa"

I love this picture except for the blurry Olivia.

Oh well.

She loved chasing the birds around.

Aren't they so cute!

She loves playing with daddy.

I love this one.

Us.

 Thanks guys for a fun weekend except for the Mcdonalds for lunch thing. 

I'm still not over that.

(I got some minor form of food poisoning).

I've officially decided that I will never set foot in that place again!

Let law school begin!

(Michael in front of the Willamette law building on his first day of school.)

The week before school started all the first years were required to attend a three day orientation.

They had classes, tours, and lots of food.

Obviously the purpose was to give the students a little sneek peak into what their lives would be like for the next three years.

Michael got a little sick of it and was just anxious to actually start school, get on a schedule and all that good stuff.

So Monday August 20th at 9:00 am Olivia and I drove Michael to school.

It was so cute to see him walk into the building with his cute little backpack all ready for his first day.

His first day and up to this point have gone really well.

He's spends a lot of time studying at the library but also manages to squeeze in a little time with me and Olivia:)

He is still getting comfortable with his new schedule but he's definitely figuring out the system.

So far he really likes getting ahead in all of his classes and then reviewing what he already studied before each class.

He's received some positive feedback from his writing professor, and really feels like he is understanding all the material which I think gives him confidence.

We know that the next three years are going to be hard.

Hard on the whole family.

But we are so excited to finally be where we are and I am so proud of Michael for being willing to go to lots of school, and do well, really well so that he will be able to have a secure job and provide for us.

He's amazing and we are very very blessed.

Doesn't he look so excited?!

Haha the sun was in his eyes and he was a little bugged that I wanted to take a picture of him on his first day of school. I think it made him feel like he was in elementary school again.

But oh well I'm sure one day he will look back at these and be so glad I took them!

Here's to 3 years and really good crepes!

Because we spent our "real" anniversary moving into our new apartment we postponed our date for the following Friday.

When we were very first driving into Salem I spotted a French crepe bakery.

It looked a lot like Kneaders.

 I knew at that very second that we were were going there for our anniversary dinner.

Michael was so sweet to take me,  especially since he isn't really a fan of crepes.

I ordered a dinner crepe with roasted ham, mushrooms, spinach, tomatoes and a spinach cream sauce.

It was to die for.

And since that wasn't enough I ordered a mixed berry dessert crepe.

I am not kidding you when I say that they were the best crepes I've ever had.

Ever since I went to Paris with my grandpa and enjoyed fresh crepes every morning for a week I've been wishing so badly that I could find a crepe just like them.

Up to this point, I've had no luck.

But THANKFULLY literally 1/2 a mile up the street from me is that cute French crepe bakery.

And I couldn't be happier.

If I could give you one reason to come visit Salem it would be to try these crepes.

They're seriously that good. 

After stuffing ourselves with the crepes we drove about 20 minutes to Woodland to go to the outlets.

We shopped around for quite a while.

Michael got a new pair of school shoes and I found a cute shirt.

Michael also found a "sick" picture of Tiger that he just had to get his picture taken with.

Us.

This picture makes my berry one look a little weird but I'm telling you it was to die for.

I love this, he's such a little boy in this picture.

I'm grateful for 3 wonderful years with my boy, for new adventures and good crepes here in Salem, and I'm grateful for forever because it will be perfect with Michael.

The crazy move.

After packing all day Saturday night (Aug. 11th) we were on our way to Oregon first thing Sunday morning.

Well it was 11:00 am, but that's still pretty good for us!

We rented our expensive moving truck which was supposed to be a 16 footer but apparently they made a mistake and didn't have any available so they gave us a 24 footer for the same price.

The only problem with this was that the truck was ginormous. 

I opted out of driving, so thankfully my mom and Michael were willing to take turns.

My mom volunteered to drive the first stretch.

So around 2 or so we stopped in the middle of nowhere at a gas station to get gas.

Michael and I were in the Honda across the street getting gas as well.

Well all of a sudden we hear this very loud sound and look across the street and see that my mom had hit something.

(At the time we thought she might have run into the gas pump.)

So we quickly drove over there to find that somehow she had driven the truck right over one of those little poles in front of the gas pump. 

(pictures below).

We have no idea how she did this because that pole was literally wedged underneath the truck.

Of course people started gathering, police men arrived as well as firemen dressed like there was going to be an explosion.

It was determined that the best way to get the truck off the pole was to have a very large tow truck lift the entire truck up and off of it.

So while we waited for a couple hours for the tow truck we enjoyed Taco Bell and yummy desserts at Dennys.

When we came out of Denny's the towing truck was getting ready to lift the truck.

The firemen stood by ready to put out any fire that might start.

 (They wanted to make sure the gas pump didn't get bumped.)

And so literally 5-6 hours later the truck was off the pole and we were finally ready to go.

Good thing we were planning on making the drive in 2 days!

Luckily there were no explosions, my mom didn't get a ticket because it was private property, and Michael bought insurance when we rented the truck so we would not have to pay for anything.

What a day, and how you drive a truck over the top of a pole I have no idea but leave it to my family to do the unthinkable!

We arrived in Redding, California at around 10:30 pm.

It was a little more than halfway.

We stayed the night and then got up early (8:00 am) to drive the remaining 6 hours to Salem.

We made it to Salem with no more problems thankfully except for the fact that our apartment was not going to be ready for us to move in until the following day.

So we spent the rest of the day relaxing, swimming, and sleeping at a hotel nearby.

The next day, the moving in began.

Michael's family drove down from Yakima to help.

Which we were so grateful for.

It took us about 3 full days to get all situated and a few more to do all the finishing decorating touches.

 I am so sick of moving. 

So I think we will be here a while.

But we love it here in Salem.

 It is beautiful, small, and we live within 10 minutes of everywhere we would possibly need to go.

Oh and I love Willamette's campus, it's gorgeous. 

I'm so grateful for the Mickelson's and all their help with the move. 

Olivia loved seeing everyone again and is quickly learning everyone's names.

She calls Stephen "fefe", Rachel "chacha" and Sarah "sarsa".

And I'm also so grateful to my mom and the 3 littles.

Having someone there to help me pack up our old place, make the 16 hour drive with us to Salem, and helping us get everything organized and situated even when that meant buying a few large items that we needed, was so unbelievably helpful.

 We couldn't have done it without her.

So thank you to both of our families we are so blessed.

Here is the gathering.

 And here is the pole stuck underneath the truck.

The firemen discussing how dangerous the situation was.

The firemen standing by and the tow truck lifting our giant truck right off the pole.

We had such a crazy week moving in so this was the only picture I managed to take.

It was the morning my family left.

Olivia loved waking up in the morning and jumping in "mamas" bed to cuddle for a while.

She loved her afternoon walks up to Five guys to get some pop.

And she loved all the attention everyone gave her.

Olivia hates saying goodbye and knew when my mom very first came that she would be leaving.

So Olivia was extra clingy,  asking for her at nights and would cry every time we put her to bed.

She was scared that they weren't going to be there when she woke up.

The morning they left she cried and was so sad but she knows that this is her new home and that mama, the tits, and Shas don't live here.

She still asks for them everyday and I've even heard her calling out mama in her sleep.

Thank goodness for facetime, cell phones and Thanksgiving.

We're so excited to see everyone then!

My family's visit to Cali.

A week before the big move to Oregon my family drove down for a little visit.

My dad, Sophia, and Emerson would be down for 4 days and my mom and the three littles would stay and help with all the packing and then drive with us to Oregon and help us get situated there.

But more on that in another post.

I was ecstatic to have my family visit.

Mostly because I could hardly wait for the many trips to Tutti Frutti, and of course a few visits to our favorite place, the beach!

The apartment was a bit crowded since there were like 3 mattresses spread across our living room floor but it was so fun to have everyone there. 

(Of course we missed Ryan who couldn't get off work.)

We went to the mall and shopped.

I found the cutest dress for Olivia at Janie and Jack and a few things for myself.

Olivia was in heaven watching the turtles and fish in the pond all while getting 24/7 attention.

We went to Tuttie Frutti just a few times.

It really is not possible to get enough of that stuff.

I can't even explain how sad I am that we don't have one here in Salem.

We also went to Santa Monica Beach 2 times.

Ate on the pier, did some tanning, played with the crabs and of course enjoyed the waves on our boogie boards.

We spent one evening driving around Hollywood and Beverly Hills which was interesting.

Some of those houses are unbelievably huge and it was so fun to see all the designer stores.

We had the most amazing time together and it was really hard to say goodbye.

Luckily we are all serious beach lovers so it won't be too long until we're back!  

Here are a few pictures mostly of our beach fun!

Olivia getting spoiled with constant attention!

I love her in those sunglasses.

Looking at the "pinches"

She was obsessed with them.

Her favorite thing to do was to sit in the sand with the "tits"(twins) and "mama"(grandma) and catch the crabs, put them in a bucket and then take them down to water and let them go.

She would scream "pinch" and then point down to the water and say, "home, home."

It was really cute.

Watching the family play in the waves.

She loved watching "mama" catch all the waves and would get so excited when she would ride one into shore to see her.

Throwing sand on me.

Yay!

Sharing a mango with aunti "phoph"

At the end of the pier.

She was a little hesitant about going in the water but uncle "sa sas" (Emerson) made her feel safe.

I love her little arm around his neck.

Isn't this the cutest?

My cute parents.

Making sure we get a good enough tan to get us through the winter!

More posts to come about the move and our first week in Salem!