Exploring Oregon

I can't believe we have already been here for 6 weeks! Life has flown by so fast. We are having such a wonderful time here. Scott and I decided since we are only here for 2 years, that we need to explore everything. We don't want to leave Oregon and wish we would of done more stuff. So we are trying to do something new every weekend. Even if it is a new trail or an hour worth of driving around. However, here is what we have done over the last 4 weeks. 

This first picture is Kyle having a play date with a little boy in our ward. We love play dates! I don't know if it is more for me or for him, but we love them!

Park in Timberhill: October 10th

Sunset Park: October 17th

Park at Oak Vale Apartments

These next few pictures are all of the parks we have been to recently. One thing that is neat about Corvallis is that there are so many parks! We probably go to the park 3 or 4 times a week. Especially since it has been so nice here the last few days. We got to get all the sunshine we can! We also go to this one park on 29th street, but there is so many kids there, that I think Kyle gets intimated by it. So he usually just watches the other kids instead of playing. So that is why we like to explore other parks. The best though is Arnold park has Beavers to ride. Go figure right! 

Arnold Park: October 2nd

Silver Falls State Park

                                 One of my favorite things that we have done here is go to the State Park called Silver Falls. It was about and hour and twenty minutes from Corvallis, but it was breath taking. We didn't get to do the 5 mile loop like we wanted to, but we got to see the 2 main falls. The big one is about 177 feet. That is the main one in the park. The lower falls is 93 feet. This summer we are planning on going back and camping one weekend. There was so much to see that we really didn't get to explore much. It didn't help that Kyle was super fussy too. It turned out that the poor little tike had 2 teeth coming in on the bottom. We discovered that Saturday evening, but for the most part he was a trooper. 

Lower Falls

Scott, Kyle and I at Silver Falls

                     
After Silver Falls, we wanted to continue our adventure of being true Oregonians. So on our way home, we stopped at the Davis Family Farm Pumpkin Patch. It was more expensive then what it said online, but it was still fun. The people there were extremely nice. The guy that was driving the tractor even had Scott and Kyle drive it out to the pumpkin patch. We really enjoyed our time there and found some amazing pumpkins. I have never been to a pumpkin patch before. If I went again, I would probably compare prices a little more, not do it on the same day as traveling to a State Park, and of course make sure Kyle isn't teething. Besides all that though, we really did have so much fun. The Jack Family also met us there, which made it even better too. All in all, it was a great weekend. 

Circle Path 

So almost every day Kyle and I go walking. There is this perfect little trail that we mostly go on every time we go. However, we have been exploring other trails for awhile now and the other morning decided to go back and walk on Circle Path (thats the trails name.) So we went at 9:00 which turned out to be way cold! However, as you can see, it was beautiful. The fall here is amazing. I love Utah fall, but it seems like it doesn't last very long because we will get one random snow storm and all the leaves will fall off. But here in Oregon, it seems to last longer. Fall is my favorite season and I just love looking at the beautiful different color leaves. Such an amazing sight! 









So these next two pictures I think are just adorable. Once Kyle got through those awful teething days, he was back to his good old self. He is such a happy little guy for the most part. This picture is him during breakfast. He loves milk as all kids do, but today he got a milk mustache and I just thought it was adorable. Got to love first time mom pictures! 






This picture was just us playing around in the leaves. We are actually just right inside out apartment complex and found all of these leaves. Kyle wasn't quite sure what to do with them, but he loved when I would throw them up in the air. He is such a cutie! He is getting so good at talking now too. When ever we will give him a cracker or toy, he always responds with "thank you!" Of course it sounds more like "dank do" but its so sweet that he knows what it means. He gets smarter every day I swear. He now also says the words: Go, Hey, Hi, Bye, More, Ya, No, Thank you, Mom, Dad, and the other day he said Belly when we were going over body parts. We also have been working on the word Jesus, but it hasn't quite stuck yet. He is so fun! 

Bucket List: Check!

So far we have now been here almost 2 weeks. I have already fallen in love with Corvallis. It is so beautiful here. Although everyone keeps saying that you pay a price by living in the rain for 9 months to look this beautiful, its still gorgeous. So far we have done some pretty fun stuff. I found a new trail this week beside the other one that I take. It truely is so beautiful and just in our backyard! Here are some pictures of the trails we have been on. I don’t think they have names, but they are just fun bike and running trails.

Trail practically in our backyard

Scott and I also got the chance of exploring Corvallis a little more. On Wednesday we decided to take a nice walk around Downtown. It is so fun down there with so many fun shops. We were able to find all sorts of awesome stuff. We even came upon another trail that goes along the water front. It was so neat and one day I will go and walk it. While we were walking around we came across this unique bar and restraunant. We could see 3 people talking in the corner by the window at a desk. As we stopped to check it out, we realized they were doing a news cast! It must be like a Beaver station because the restranunt was covered in Beaver stuff and it looked like a sports place. I think I might add that to my list of what to check out while we are here in Corvallis as well. Anyways, to say the least Corvallis is so pretty and we are slowly getting to know it better and better. I still have to use our GPS a lot, but not as much as I use to. Ha ha Slowly but surely :) 

So another thing that we just passed off on our bucket list was visiting the beach in Newport. On Sept. 21st we decided to make it a day and drive out to the beach. Its about a 45 minute drive, so not too bad. We were nervous it was going to rain on us the whole time since it was raining in Corvallis, but when we got to Newport it was cloudy, but didn’t rain which was nice. We took Kyle down to the water and walk around with him. He seemed to really like it. I know the sand wasn’t his favorite to sit in (nor was it mine because we got sand al over the car) but he warmed up to it really fast. He is at the point where he can’t walk yet, but wants to hold our fingers and try. Since he didn’t seem to want to crawl in the sand either, we just walked with him around. We even dipped his little feet in the water for a split second. Because it was still pretty cold and we were hungry, we decided to go find some sea food! We went out to a restaurants called Georgieo’s. It was really good! I had the pasta with the sea food and it was literally packed with Sea Food. Super yummy just a little bit spicy though. The sea food here isn’t very expenses compared to Utah. Probably because they don’t have to ship it anywhere. It was so yummy. 

Living it up at the beach in New Port

After lunch, we went and drove to Depoe. We didn’t get out in Depoe, but decided to do all the look out views. Because of the full moon the waves were just roaring! They were massive. The ocean really is so pretty, but I do have a fear of it. I don’t really have any desire to go out and swim, but its just memorizing to watch. It really is so fascinating to me. Of course when summer comes I’m sure we will go swim or try boogie boarding, but the Oregon Coast is definitely a cold beach. It is a gorgeous sight. I mean you got pine trees and a beach within the same 100 feet! It really is so fun and beautiful, just cold. 

Being here in Corvallis has sure opened our eyes to being outside of Utah. I was so nervous about making friends and having a hard time meeting people. This is another reason I am so grateful for the gospel of Jesus Christ. It is like an instant family. Our Ward has been so welcoming and so loving towards us. We have already had dinner with several families, been invited to play games, and I have been able to make lots of friends. Kyle and I have been invited to several play groups which is so nice to get out of the house.  I am grateful for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. I'm not sure what I would do without it. Even though we don't know a lot of people yet, I feel like I can rely on the gospel as a support system to get us through if/when hard times hit. Scott has met the members in his cohort and he talks about how some of them are having hard times right now. He said as they were doing some orientation things that he felt like he could solve their problems with teaching them the gospel. I know I not a great missionary especially in Utah, but I am hoping that while I am here, I will be better at sharing the light and truth with others. I hope that through Scott and my example of just being happy will make people ask why we are so happy? Praying for missionary moments I know can help us to, but I just feel like I have this extra excitement to spread the gospel here. I never thought I'd say this, but I really quite like living outside of Utah. I feel it will be so good for us. I'm glad that everything has worked out and that Heavenly Father has lead us here. 

 Such Beauty! The ocean really is so peaceful and so beautiful. Who would of though just plain old salt water could be so memorizing. 

Settling In

 We arrived to our new place Monday Sept. 9th around 1:00. The place we are living, we had never seen before. We had seen pictures online, but doesn’t mean anything now a days. So of course we were anxious and excited. We got our keys and decided to go check it out before we moved anything in. It is awesome! I guess leaving in a hole for the last 15 months did us good, because anything would be nice for us. It really is nice though. We have space, a storage shed out back, big living room and kitchen area, nice bathroom, and a huge closet! For just winging it, it turned out quite nice. It did help that we had a friend live in the same complex as us. Even though she didn’t know what ours look liked inside and that it was a different model than hers, it was still nice to have the reassurance that it was an okay place. So living in a hole paid off. We started to unload the truck and realize that Kyle wanted to help to. This of course was not helpful. We set him in a pack and play. He of course didn’t like the idea (nor do I blame him). So eventually once more boxes were inside, I let him roam while I sorted boxes to rooms. 

We then got to met our neighbors who are all really nice and helpful. The best though was Kelsey (are friend that lives here) brought us lunch. After eating out for the past 3 days we were pretty sick of eating out. A fresh sandwich was just the trick! I thought that was so neat that she did that. I hope that one day when I see someone moving in and I can give them lunch. It really was so nice. 

So far though I have already added stuff to my bucket list. One thing that Kyle and I love to do is go walking down new trails so I’m adding that to my list especially since there are so many trails here. 

BUCKET LIST: First 10 things! 

Go to the ocean and eat sea food. 

Visit Avery Park

Walk down a new trail every week

Go to the sweet waterfall

Go and visit the Gorge by the Columbia River

Go to McDonalds College Forest

Go to the Enchanted Forest Theme Park by Salem

Take the bus route

Learn how to take the bus route :) 

 Walk around OSU campus and Downtown

Kyle's 1st Birthday

Kyle’s Birthday!

So we got to our place on September 9th and Kyle’s 1st birthday was on Tuesday the 10th. I wanted to do a fun party with a cute cake and little decorations, but moving three states away didn’t help with that cute party I have been picturing. So it was pretty low key. Tuesday morning we had to drive another 30 minutes to Salem to drop off the Budget truck. Poor Kyle was so done with the car. When we got back we decided if we needed to go somewhere one of us would stay just so he wouldn’t have to go back into that car seat. 

The rest of the day we just unpacked everything! We wanted to at least get the living room all cleared out so that we could host a little party for Kyle. So we slaved away the rest of the day. We finally got things all arranged enough to have have an actual living room. I then went down the the dollar store and got some balloons and a few more things for the party. I just did a plan old cake because there really wasn’t much time to do anything else. Scott and I then wrapped some presents and set him up for a cute 1st birthday picture. He did really well opening presents. He actually got the main idea pretty fast. I think Christmas will be a blast with him. Then around 7:00 Kelsey and Cameron Jack came over for cake and ice cream. I was hoping Kyle would be a classic dive in to food picture, but he really doesn’t like to get messy that much. After a few bites though, he started to get more into it. He really enjoyed the ice cream though. 

Even though Kyle’s first birthday was nothing like I had imagined, it turned out just fine. After all, I know he won’t remember it, but it still is a fun event to look back on. I still can’t believe he is one year old though. Time has just flown by since he was born. I love him so much and I am so grateful to have him in my life. He teaches me something everyday. I’m so glad I have the opportunity to stay home with him even with Scott going to school. We truly are so blessed!