My Brother/Bend Trip

I love those vacations that reset my energy clock. I return home feeling great with renewed energy. This was not one of them. I crawled home exhausted and sore with an adventure hangover, but I loved every minute of it. 

Here's the deal: My trip to Bend, Oregon was packed full of exciting adventures, each day progressing in beautiful, new (to me) scenery. However, nothing topped the adventure of getting to know Daniel's new world. My brother has quickly fallen in love with that town, and it seems that he'll be out there for a while. Being the overbearing sister that I am, I HAD TO see it. I saw his places. I met his people. I explored his town. It was wonderful to see it all

Here's a detailed recap of my few days out there:

Day 1: Travel. It was nice to have time to myself to read and not be responsible for anyone else. By the time I got to Daniel's house, I had been up for 23 hours. That was intense. I got five hours of sleep then got the party started. 

Day 2: I woke up and was out of the house in five minutes. THAT NEVER HAPPENS THESE DAYS. I washed my face, threw a jacket over my nightgown, and ran out for coffee. We drove around and Daniel took me on a side of a hill with an incredible view. There were several snowcapped mountains looking down on Bend. It was breathtaking. 

Later, we went 4-wheeling down dirt roads to a smaller town nearby. We ran into a ranger and almost got $400 tickets for being on roads in the off season. I was sweaty from our encounter, but my brother told me  "the more run-ins you have with cops, the easier it gets." Clearly, I've been doing it all wrong. 

After dinner, we met some friends for nachos at an outside patio in 30 degree weather like that was normal for me. Crazy people. I tried to play it cool, but inside I was shutting down. Thankfully, we had to leave because we had to make it to some honky-tonk bar at 8:00 for line dancing lessons. This was great! Never in my life have I wanted to WATCH the dancing more than DO the dancing. These people were extremely good and I was wide eyed. 

Day 3: was our snowmobile day. I'm still reliving it in my head, because it was like nothing that I've done before. It was up there with snorkeling in the Red Sea, living in Mexico by myself, and visiting Israel, but it wasn't as epic as childbirth. I would easily pay the money again to have that much fun. 

After we got back, I made dinner for Daniel's teammates and we ate at his coach's house. Post dinner activities included acoustic Bieber and Eric Clapton. 

Day 4: I woke up in a lot of pain from the snowmobile, so I decided to go for a run to help. Running on vacation is stupid, but it was fun to run in his town and enjoy the views. 

After I got back, we went for coffee and brunch then headed to Smith Rock. The beauty that I saw there was like nothing I've seen before. (Similar to snowmobiling) I kept going on and on about how amazing the views were. By the time we were done, I told Daniel that I almost felt emotional over all the beauty. That got a laugh and "gosh you sound like Dad."

Once we returned we shared a bottle of local wine with his teammates and I got to talk to them more. I LOVED getting to talk to them, and I really wish I had more time to do it. Those girls are great! We carried our conversations to a Thai restaurant for some great food. My brother knew all the great places to eat-so great!

Day 5: Travel. I left early in the morning. At sunrise, I flew over the mountains that I enjoyed all week. That was breathtaking and somehow I ended up on the window seat for the flight. My face stayed pressed against the window for the entire ride, and helped keep the leave-my-brother tears at bay. It was a great ending to the trip.

In conclusion, I see a theme: I'm old and mushy and I don't get out much. The slightest bit of beauty makes me all weepy and such. Plus, I only explore eastern Tennessee these days. While there's great stuff to see here, leaving my timezone opens up my mom-world to some great things. My brother did such a wonderful job playing tour guide. Besides all the cool stuff we did, my absolute favorite part was getting to know Daniel's cool town. I can't wait to visit again!

Smith Rock

"Make sure you bring your camera," Daniel told me as we headed towards the high desert outside of Bend. This was another "never seen anything like it" adventure for me. We left the city headed through flat desert towards a large rock formation. Ridge? Mountain? Hill? Butte? I'm not sure, but it's called Smith Rock. 

We climbed the steep 600 feet to the top. Since I'm no professional athlete, Daniel and I did a tortoise and hare kind of thing. He dashed up the trail having to pause and wait for me while I huffed and puffed to the top. The views from the trail were completely different: we saw flat land, more volcano rock formations, river, and those beautiful snow capped mountains. The stops we made on the way to the top gave me a chance to look up and take pictures. 

The views were plenty amazing on their own, but we had another treat. We got to the top and there were crazy people swinging from one rock to another. It's called the King Swing from Monkey Face and there are plenty of videos on youtube. Watching it in person gave me a personal dose of adrenaline that lasted a few hours.  

The views struck me so much that I got all old-people emotional. On the way down, I told Daniel that I almost felt like crying and I was thinking about the kids. He laughed at me, "you sound like Dad." The beauty was unreal for this southern girl who doesn't get out much. 

We made a quiet drive home stopping for a local bottle of wine and dreamed of the Thai food we got to eat later. It was another amazing Oregon adventure. 

Snowmobiling In Bend, Oregon

Snowmobiling was one of the most exciting things that I've done in my life. I sort of kind of tried to back out because I was getting cold feet. My brother, Daniel, told me there was no backing out, so we made the drive up there. All my irrational and rational fears almost took over. Then, I almost had a panic attack over the helmet. I was quietly panicking, but we paid some serious cash and I hate losing money. 

We had our instructions and practice time, then the guide told us, "and don't try to keep up with me, you just can't." That's reassuring to a wimp like me, but those word are nothing but a challenge to Daniel. Thankfully, there was an older couple on our tour that slowed us down a little bit. That meant we went fast for a while then stopped to wait for them while we took a few pictures. 

I've never seen snow or landscape like this, and the views never got old. We drove through some snowfall and sun. Both were equally stunning. I was in awe.



I can't say enough good things about our experience.
My only complaint would be that four hours went by too quickly. 

Valentine's Day 2016

One of my favorite parts of being a mom of young children is simple celebrations. At this stage, my kids get very excited over a few little extra things. I thrive on hype and energy, so minor holidays quickly become grand occasions in our house. Burl and Fern still talk about how magical last year was because they got carabiners and bungee cords. This year's Valentine's Day was no exception (and based on my Instagram feed, several of my mom friends are the same way)!

Burl and Fern had incredible school parties. I joined Burl's party, and felt the energy. I stand firm on the belief that there are few romantic gestures that match the excitement of a school Valentine's party. Fern had a big day at first school party. Apparently she was the dancing queen and bell of the ball at her dance party. "Mom, they even had balloons, decorations, lights that blinked on and off, and music! They played Uptown Funk!"

At home we celebrated with a special dinner that was up their alley. Lately Burl has fallen in love with sushi and Fern has fallen in love with egg rolls, so that's what we made. The boys were in charge of sushi, and the girls were in charge of the egg rolls. 

Once we lit the candles and set the table, Fern proclaimed, "this is like a feast in our castle!" It doesn't take much. 

After Ridge went down (baby was so tired by the time is was said and done) and cleaned up, we had dessert. The kids wore their new little gifts (much needed helmets) and ate ice cream out of wine glasses. We talked about the day. A fun dinner + a gift was enough to put our Valentine's Day celebration up there with Christmas morning and their birthdays. 

I treasure their uninhibited excitement and their simple joys.