Preparing To Move

Eddie and I are making a big change and moving to Oregon! We will be about 20 minutes outside of downtown Portland. Eddie has wanted to live up north before we even met, and almost moved there before starting Bible college in Murrieta. The Lord closed the door on the move though so he attended Bible college, graduated, and has been working there for the last 7 1/2 years. He has been involved and grown in ministry here and he met his wonderful wife here ;). It's been a really good season here in Murrieta but the desire to live in the North has never quite left. Since we've been married we've visited 3 times, he's visited more than that before we were married (in fact the 1st New Year's after we met he celebrated in Washington). Though the desire to live up there has been there we didn't feel the call until about a year ago. We knew God was doing something and growing our yearning to move up North but we stayed faithful to what He had us doing here. We knew we wouldn't always be a part of Calvary Chapel Canyon Hills, the church that meant so much to both of us. It's been hard saying goodbye to people from the church and friends from the college the last couple of weeks, and leaving a work family I loved.

Last time together with all these women who have blessed me during our time at CCCH:

One of the nights of "goodbyes" to the people from the college

My Allstate Family goodbye dinner. It was the first time Eddie met my boss & his wife and they were both sad it took so long to meet!

When Eddie was extended an offer to come be a part of a church in Milwaukie, OR we were really excited but still took a long time to pray and wait on the Lord to make sure this was His calling and not our desires only. God kept confirming the calling through scriptures & signs and ever since we decided, yes, we were moving, He has faithfully put everything into place and provided immensely. Within a week of making the decision I got an amazing job in Portland (with only a phone interview and they've been waiting for me for 3 months!). God provided the finances for the move through the church in Oregon, a place to stay for the first few weeks with our friends up there, and support from family and the people close to us here.

So now the time has come, in the last few months we've been making preparations for the big move and tonight we are days from making the drive up. Yesterday we moved out of our little condo in Murrieta-fitting as much as possible into our u-pod and cars, throwing/giving away the things that wouldn't fit.

We had a few days between moving out of the condo and traveling so the Bible college blessed us with a free room for a couple nights. Not only is the room free but the grounds can't be more beautiful. 

Lady is LOVING having this much outdoors to explore

Our view from the room:

That's all on the move for now, we're enjoying a time of relaxing after the chaos of packing and cleaning. Tomorrow (Sunday) we will be picking up our friends from the airport who will drive up with us and Monday we'll be going to Disneyland courtesy of their relative that works there! How awesome is that! :D

The Riley Farm in Oak Glen

Leading up to last Saturday Eddie told me that he had made plans for us on Saturday. The only clue he gave me (because I asked) was that I could wear jeans, boots, and maybe I should bring a scarf. Turns out he took me apple picking in Oak Glen! After our trip to Julian last year we decided we wanted to go apple picking in Oak Glen one day so last Saturday was the day! It was a fun experience together that was inexpensive and just something different to do. So of course, here are pictures from that trip!:

Excuse the weird sunbeam. It was nice and sunny up there, and I didn't need a scarf after all :)

Searching for apples. Eddie was on a mission to find the BEST apples on the trees. He would not let me settle

You can even go flower picking! We didn't do that, I just wanted a picture by them :)

Our apples! Aren't they so pretty? :) Pretty perfect. Good job Eddie!

Our Annual Washington/Oregon Trip!

Last June Eddie and I took a little trip up to Washington to visit with friends, it was the first time for me and I fell in love. It's so beautiful there! We did more touristy things that trip, like going to Seattle, since I'd never been. This year we took another trip up there but it was a little bit longer and more relaxed. Our only agenda was to relax, spend time with friends, and drink lots of good coffee:

The first day we drove around town and mostly visited thrift stores. We ate at a place called Pine State Biscuit. I had the "Weggie" and Eddie had the "Reggie" :) It was a good, interesting chicken sandwich :)

Eddie's been looking for old suitcases so we went to this thrift store because it wasn't just clothes. They did have some good ones! 

The friends we were staying with had a VBS going on at their church that week so we went with them in the morning to check it out

The rest of the day we just drove around town and visited coffee shops

Mary and Ryan

One of the things we did one morning that we didn't do last trip was go to Voodoo Donuts, it's a popular place in Oregon. 

This was my donut and Eddie had a maple bar with bacon on it

This is on the way to the Saturday market in Portland-the buildings are so pretty!

One man band at the market

One of Ryan's favorite coffee places-I love how awesome coffee shops look up north!

Driving in Washington

Our last day with the Fredrich's :(

After we left the Fredrich's we spent a day with some of our other friends who live in Washington. Last year they had taken us to Thai Peacock in Portland and we loved it so much that we went there again :)

View from our table in the city

The following day it was time to say goodbye to this area again. I can't wait to go back again, I love the people there and the beauty of it all. Oh and one more thing:

:)

Walking On Water

Disneyland!

Yesterday Eddie and I headed to the happiest place on earth: Disneyland! We used to have passes about a year ago so we would go whenever we could but after the pass prices jumped and our lives got busier we decided it would be a waste of money to renew them. So for Valetine's Day this year Eddie bought us day passes and we finally were able to use them! Going yesterday made us miss having an annual passes so we tried to do as much as we could in one day. We had so much fun! California Adventure seemed like a different park with all the changes they've made in the last year. We enjoyed re-discovering California Adventure and it's new rides and visiting our old favorites in both parks. I'll let the pictures tell the rest of the story...

As we walked into the California Adventure park the new trolley was going around with Mickey in the back:



First visit to Car's Land since it opened!

Getting on the new ride in Car's Land. It's cool because it's a mixture of a "story" ride where they take you through scenes with characters from the movie and then at the end it's a little mini roller coaster where you race another car of people. We went on the ride twice and won both times :)

We also tried another new ride in Car's Land-where you sit in these inflated tires and move about by leaning in the direction you want to go. I could tell Eddie was having a blast on them haha

One of the required stops at Disneyland was the Dole Whip stand to get a Dole Whip Float :) Last time Eddie and I had one of these was in Hawaii at the Dole Plantation!

We decided to get a picture with Pluto since he didn't have a long line. We had so much fun that we tried to get a picture with Mickey but his line was closed-there's always next time!

We headed back to California Adventure after doing a few rides at Disneyland (including Star Tours 2X). One of my favorite things to do in California Adventure is to go to the Animation Studio where they teach you to draw Disney characters. We learned to draw Agent P from a Disney channel cartoon

Inside the Animation Studio:

Our instructor:

Eddie's drawing is on the left-I think he did much better than I :)

We did a couple more rides and then bid the parks good bye. It was such a fun day and we cherished it even more because we know we won't be back for awhile.