Tulip Festival

The Tulip Festival is something I've wanted to visit since living in Portland. It's a hard one to make time for as Adam (well, his allergies) wants nothing to do with it. So...since he was golfing in Salem one morning, I decided to load up the boys and Ella and head down to check it out. It was about 40 minutes away but definitely worth it. We spent about 2 hours there taking pictures, walking around and playing on the playground/rides. As you can see, it was a BEAUTIFUL day!

Being tethered up took us back to our days in Bali when we ziplined. So fun! 

Happy Easter!

Being that we didn't really have our typical Easter holidays while in Singapore, it was fun to get back to tradition this year. Family, food, egg hunts and baskets...so much fun!

The kids had to do a scavenger hunt in order to find their baskets :)

Found them! 

Drew and Maelin...the two MOST excited about the amount of candy! 

SPRING

It's a bit strange, considering I love summer SO MUCH, that Spring is my least favorite season. While I love the blooming flowers and amazing warmth of the sunshine again, I typically have a hard time adjusting to life during these months. February and March are notoriously tough months for me mentally. Perhaps it's the unpredictable weather, or the fact that holidays are over...I'm not sure. Given all of that, there are many ways we've managed to ENJOY life this Spring.

Last minute ice cream dates with cousins!  

School Performance - Luke and his buddy, Liam.  

Way too many frozen yogurt dates at our favorite place - Mango Tango

Enjoying the sunshine!  

A walk around the duck pond

I couldn't love these two more  

Where we find Luke on any given night 

Spring Break took us to Ma & Ampa's new house! 

Coloring Easter egg with cousins 

Hosted a baby shower for Lindsey...baby #3!

Playing in the backyard is more fun when you're a spy :)

Donuts for dinner and a Blazer game with Dad

Visiting a Navy ship in Seattle over Spring break

And perhaps the BEST part of their YEAR...meeting Marcus Mariota. They haven't stopped smiling! 

Reflecting on these moments helps remind me that Spring is FULL OF LIFE. xx


*But now that I think about it, I'm not sure February actually counts as Spring.

More than Exercise

For me, running is A LOT of things. It's my time away, my exercise, a way to clear my head, time with friends, an excuse to grab Starbucks, exercise for Ella, ME time, and so much more. When we lived in Singapore, running became a lot of other things. Hot, exhausting, frustrating, and stressful. I hated that.

Before Singapore, I had trained and become my fastest. While mentally, I understood that it was harder in Singapore, emotionally it was hard to see how sloooowww I had become there. It just wasn't fun for me, it was a chore. Something I did because I had always done it.

It's easy to say that running has quickly become one of my favorite things to do again and while I'm not back to my fastest time, I have gotten my distance back to where it was. I recently finished another half-marathon and it felt so.damn.good. The last one I completed was in May before moving to Singapore.

Immediately after my race, Luke competed in his first mile-run. He worked his booty off and did a great job! Upon finsihing, he said,  "Mom, I don't ever want to do that again!" Ha. I am leaving it alone...for now. But man did I love to see my little guy out there, sharing in something I love. Something, that for 10 minutes, we shared together.

While I don't regret many things from my time in Singapore, sometimes I wish I had pushed myself harder with running over there. Pushed through the heat and humidity. I admire my friends (Tanya!) who can and do push through it. BUT, I also know that I really did try that. And it was miserable for me. If I have learned one thing about running, it's that I cannot let it be miserable. I need it too much in my daily life.

And lucky for me, I have friends who share my love and are with me every step of the way...in Portland and in Singapore. I'll add that to the list of things I love about running.

I trained for this half with Kelie. Our husbands golf together every weekend so it only seemed fitting that we find an excuse to get away each weekend. :)  

We were both getting over sickness, but we DID IT.  

I love his LOVE for physical activity! 

A little fixing up!

We have slowly been re-doing some things around our house this winter. We plan to do heavier remodeling within the next year, but these simple fixes help in the meantime. It continues to be a place we love living in!

The ugly gold is GONE! This was the easiest, simplest fix! 

The wood trim around the counters isn't great...so a simple fix was to paint the front part of it! 

Painted ALL the wood trim around the sink in the downstairs bath and the cupboards. 

Hated this dark grout...which I think was just dirty, as it was all I noticed in that area. Read something online about tile grout paint and gave it a try.... 

Huge difference!

Our bathroom has bugged me since day 1...the owner put new cupboards on, but they were creme and the casing is white. Weird. 

MUCH better. So bright and light in there now. Painted the front trim as well. :)

My little helper :) 

Painted the boys bathroom as well...they had creme cupboards too. All bathrooms and our living room got new white blinds to brighten things up! 

After three weekends of nothing but house projects, we took a break from re-doing things, which was needed. I must say, I go through periods of being obsessed with DIY blogs. That's where I got all the directions, ideas, and inspiration for our bathroom re-do's!