The Holiday Trip of 2013: part II

vivs outside of grandpa and grandma case's

I have always loved being close to the mountains and ocean, though to be quite honest, I never played much in the ocean or hiked very much growing up. My family members and myself were not avid outdoors men- er people- but I always felt a little more at home if I had a mountain nearby or an ocean I could drive to and admire the beauty of nature.

Oregon was lovely because not only is there an ocean nearby, but the mountains are too. And then there's Carl's family- I swear everyone in the Willamette Valley is either a Leder, married to a Leder, or went to school/work with a Leder. It's pretty awesome. We had a fantastic two weeks there, despite the sleep issues with the kids. I love snuggling with my babies, but being brutally beaten by toddler appendages does not exactly equate to a good night's slumber in anyone's book. If you say it does, you're a liar and no good. Hahaha. But really.

'Nuff with the jibber jabber, here's them pictures:


carl being a monkey and fixing Christmas lights just in time.

these kids loved those chickens!

visiting grandparents and being serenaded

We bought our first Christmas Tree!

Christmas morning!!

i love that Bella looks like she's smiling too haha

aftermath

Case Family Christmas Party

 I kind of love us. and I think I nailed my crazy eye quite well.

 1: spraying the ground 2: minimal splatter 3: whoops.

And then a few more goodies, including beautiful little Evelyn!

learning a few moves from uncle cody

 this girl really needs a dog.

they tend to do this a lot on trips.

 I also had the chance to take a few "portraits" (in quotes because I have no idea what I'm doing half the time haha. the truth is out!) of the ladies and grandparents:

I couldn't decide which one I liked more- color or no color... I'm thinking no color as it hides the low light jaundice a bit more.

Ummmm, adorable grandparents?!

Four generations :)

and now my head is pounding from staring at the monitor too long. It's true, I watched a shameful amount of youtube videos while waiting for pictures to upload or save on my photo editing webpage... and then again on the blog. Until next time,

xoxo

yarg.

yarg 
/yärGH/

exclamation

1. used to express frustration or exasperation
"yarg! I just accidentally used 2 cups of sugar instead of flour!"

or in my case, yarg! I just un-selected 40 pictures out of 172 that I was going to edit and set aside for my next blog post!

Yarg indeed. 

I'm not sure where the history of the word came from in my brain's word library, but it is up there with "wah" and "huzzah" if my vocab was running a popularity contest.

That aside, today has been a fairly good day. My good days mean I survived without feeling desperate for a rescue as my tyrannical children overrun me and make me walk the plank. No, seriously. I went to the gym and twerked did zumba, we had a playdate with good friends, the kids were fed and both napped (miracle!), and I had time to work on my little side project (hint: it has to do with dreams of Hawaii). The only thing missing was Carl of course- I haven't seen him since 6 am (it's almost 11 pm). PA school is rough stuff!

The children really are wonderful. Yet rotten. They have such beautiful and perfect little bodies and are so capable of destroying a days work in seconds. My love for them is more than I can imagine, but bedtime is never soon enough. Parenthood. It's a complex mix of emotions you feel within half second. I often joke that I am not cut out for motherhood, but that's a lie. Motherhood is not meant to be easy and like any human, I struggle with hard things some days (everyday). At the end of the day, whether I'm running away from hot enemy lines or struggling to stop snuggling my babies before bedtime, I never can bear the thought of a life without my children. 

I struck a jackpot when it came to family placement upstairs.

2 month old Ezra and 2 month old Vivienne.

picture update from CA trip

I took a moment and wallowed in my 2 foot self-pity pool for a few minutes this evening as I reflected on how few pictures I took in 2013. Moments gone forever! Why didn't I immortalize that day a year ago when Vivienne was barely walking? I have such a nice camera... why didn't I use it??

Oh wait. Perhaps I did take pictures. Sure they weren't on my fancy DSLR, but I did take pictures on my phone! And so began my growing joy as I realized I took almost 1500 pictures on my phone in 2013. Huzzah!  There were many gems to be found, plenty of laughs from screen shots of hilarious text messages of mine or selfies of Ezra, and best of all- memories captured in fairly decent quality photos. I am at peace once again.

I wanted to just share a few more photos from our December CA trip. I promise I will get to Oregon documentation soon, but not tonight. Soon.

traveling...

nothing an iPhone and couple of books can't cure... for a toddler..

tired. exhausted

vivs getting her nails done by aunt carol

grandpa (my daddy) and grandpa sunny

 pretty stoked about the cars and truck trailer from yee yee and uncle drew!

likewise about the puppy dog!

the new(ish) bridge

 having some fun with grandpa. love this first one!

one of my favorite pictures!!

crashed out at the airport the evening we headed to Oregon!

And just because I went through a couple hundred pictures for 2013, here is one that melted me. How she's grown!!