Celebrating FIVE years!

On March 19th, 2005 Aaron and I were married for time & all eternity. It is so hard to believe that it has already been FIVE years! We are incredibly happy with the memories that have been made, the goals completed, and the growth we've made together and as a family. We look forward to what lies ahead in our future!

We decided we were due for a couple's retreat and dropped Malia off at Nana and Papa's for her first sleep over ever! (Thanks Mom, Dad and Zz.) We decided we wanted some R&R, so we booked a night at Skamania Lodge in the Gorge. We couldn't have been more lucky with the weather! On our way down we stopped at our own little piece of history: Crown Pointe. Our first official date as a couple was a hike (somewhere on the Oregon side of the Gorge) that ended with us overlooking the scenery from Crown Pointe. I really thought this was going to be the place of our first kiss, but Aaron chickened out and ended up kissing me in the driveway the day after. He said it was my fault for not coming in the extra 20%... whatever. Since it was such a funny memory, Aaron chose this as the place to propose to me. It was so perfect! On November 21st he drove me up to Crown Pointe, walked me to this grassy spot, ran back to the car and blasted our song by Braddah IZ "Somewhere over the Rainbow", danced with me below the stars, then got down on one knee and proposed. I still remember how the moon glistened off my ring! Oh the memories... We tried really hard to take a "timed" picture but it was SOOO windy, that it kept blowing the camera off of the table we had it set on. I liked this action picture of us running back to the camera to save it from blowing away.

This wasn't a terrible picture... we were lucky it took before blowing off the table!

Here's a memorable profile picture: 23 weeks!

Aaron and I really enjoy the outdoors so after checking in, we headed off for the 4miles worth of hiking around the resort. It was so beautiful, peaceful, and relaxing!





Here's a picture of the lodge...

... and of course a great picture of us!

And here is the view from the Lodge. We were so lucky to have such great weather!

The view from our room was incredible.

Our stay at Skamania was amazing! The alone time was great, the food was great, the outdoor hot-tub was great, and the massage was INCREDIBLE! After sleeping in Saturday morning, we checked out and went for a hike up Beacon Rock. It wasn't necessarily difficult, but all the uphill made our legs tired! It didn't help either that I had eaten a huge lunch, and that it was already hard for me to breathe. :) Here's us at the top!

I love living in the Northwest. The breathtaking views are spectacular!

We headed to the Troutdale outlets after our hike and did WAY too much shopping. It is so hard NOT to buy anything for the kiddos from the Carter's outlet, and then it is so easy to justify the "good deals" for things we didn't even need. It was fun, especially since we didn' t have to chase our 2yr old around everywhere.

Our last stop for our "get away" was at Beaches. I love how they try to get to know you there! I accidentally slipped the word "anniversary" and soon every waiter/waitress stopped by to wish us a happy anniversary. They even made us a special menu with our names on the list of VIP's, crowned and lei'd us, and sent us home with a candle holder. I left the camera in the car, so unfortunately you don't get to see a picture of how goofy we looked. :) What a great weekend we had! We sure missed Malia, but it was also so wonderful to just have husband and wife time. To another FIVE years!