Swimming & Soccer

Dallin and I too a swimming class for a couple of weeks while Evan was in school. Dallin loves to play in the water. He's not quite a fish but at least he is not scared of it. It has been so fun to have that special time, just the two of us, to have a little fun. He's such a silly kid. Matthew would come over on his lunch breaks quite often and watch. I think Dallin's favorite part of the whole class would be telling his dad all the neat things he did. "Dad I go under. I so brave!" On the last day they turned on the fountain and the slide. We only got to go down a couple of times, but I am fairly certain that Dallin would have done it all day long if he could. He's a thrill seeker! Thanks for being my little swimming buddy Dallin. We'll have to do it again!

Evan, although not a huge fan of the water, enjoys running around like a wild man. So, I signed him up for a soccer class. He gets to take the class with the twins next door so that is fun for him. They work on drills and learning techniques and then the last 10 minutes or so is a schrimage. It's pretty funny to watch, but they have improved a great deal since the first day of class. Evan seems to think that playing soccer means running into players and falling down a lot. I keep telling him that if he keeps falling down he's going to get his face kicked in and it will hurt. He does keep running the whole time and has a blast so of course that makes me happy. Way to go champ!

A little R&R

Matthew and I take turns each year planning the events to celebrate our wedding anniversary. This year was my year and I decided to go BIG! We didn't really have a honeymoon, and we have never really spent time alone away from our two rowdy boys (more than a couple of hours). So I planned a special weekend for just the two of us and it was GLORIOUS!!!

I found this romantic hotel right on the coast, and I mean right on the coast. We had an ocean view and they even had Jacuzzi tubs that looked out to the ocean. I picked up Matthew, we dropped off the kids at Aaron & Sarah's and headed to Lincoln City.

We stopped half way and had some yummy sushi and then arrived to our cozy suite. It was soooo much fun walking in and seeing the rose pedals and the fire. I was in heaven, of course, and Matthew was just doing his best to be excited since he knew I had been wanting to do this forever. It was exactly what I was hoping for. I loved being able to hear the ocean while I slept. It reminded me of when we lived in San Francisco, and was so relaxing.

We could not have asked for better weather. We spent the morning just kind of roaming the city a bit and hitting some antique shops. Neither of us have ever really been antiquing and it was fun to see what we each thought was a neat find. We grabbed some grub and then headed up to Cascade Head Park to do some geocahing and hiking. It was pretty strange to be without little rugrats, but we still had a grand adventure. We saw some pretty amazing views and snapped some pictures of the plant life and caterpillars.

After leaving the trail to get to the beach and wading through some weeds, mud and bushes we decided to head back home so we could make our dinner reservation to the Blackfish Cafe. It was tasty and pretty fancy. We spent the rest of the night relaxing.

Saturday was our last day and ohhh how I dreaded the end of our weekend. We attended the kite festival which was actually pretty sad because strangely enough there was little wind on the coast that day. We did a little more roaming around the city and then decided it was time to save Sarah from our boys and we were starting to miss them a little too. What a great way to celebrate our 6 years together and may there be many more. Love ya Matthew!

He's a big kid now!

It's kind of weird seeing Matthew's name on all these signs. It's posted in 3 different places outside and then there is this big silver one above the reception area in his office. He even has a headshot posted in the waiting room that Dallin likes to talk to when we go in to visit. It still feels pretty surreal. It just always felt like we would be in school working towards something bigger and better and now we are here and I'm not quite sure how I feel about that. I'm sure proud of him though, my little Dr. Nielsen.

Out of hiding

So often I can't find my way into a picture because I'm the one doing all the snapping. Not that I really want to be in the picture, but I chopped my hair off the beginning of August I think and I haven't modeled the new look. The funny thing is that I just went and cut it again today a little bit shorter. So as lovely as the pictures may be here is what I look like these days. This is mostly for my sisters and mother because they are itching to see. Of course I could not be in it alone so there is my little swimming buddy Dallin in his dirty PJ's. It's fuzzy but it will have to do for now.

Oh and here we are modeling my beautiful anniversary present from Matthew. My sweet hubby is kind of a tradionalist about certain things. We celebrated the big 6th anniversary on the 29th and he read somewhere that the 6th can be represented by wood. We were in serious need of a table but didn't want to buy a new one and have our sweet and rowdy boys destroy it and the costco card table just wasn't cutting it. So, he picked this beauty up for $15 at a local Goodwill, sanded her down and gave her a beautiful look. I absolutely love it. It's square just like I wanted and can seat 2 on each side, and it can extend to seat probably 10+. It didn't come with any leaves but Matthew is going to make me some. You can't really see the fun pattern in the original wood but it really is a unique piece that I absolutely love. Matthew your the greatest!