Weekend in Utah!

The week started out with my birthday - with the boys back to school and Jim out of town it was a pretty quiet birthday but thank goodness for girlfriends. I went to lunch with 10 of them on Monday and then celebrated again a few days later with another lunch and another friend. It is nice to stretch out the celebrating. Thanks to Tricia, Jayna, Tamara, Grandma and Grandpa Wilkes and my folks for the birthday phone calls and emails too. I ended up buying my own birthday cake but that is o.k. because that way I got my favorite cake - a cream cheese, poppyseed cake from Beaverton Bakery - yum! The girls and I enjoyed a slice each day all week long!

Jim was in Idaho and Utah all week, braving the snowy and icy roads while we just continued to wash away here in Portland. Big excitement on Thursday was a tornado that touched down in Vancouver - just north of here. We never get tornadoes and especially not this time of year!

On Friday the girls and I headed to Utah to meet up with Jim and to see the boys. Logan and the Young Ambassador's were performing on campus this weekend. Jim saw the show Thursday night and the rest of us saw it Friday and Saturday (except for Clark who opted to go to the Jazz game on Saturday night). Friday afternoon Tricia took the girls and I (and Jim tagged along) to the most amazing shop and cafe - Dear Lizzy in Highland. The girls and I were in heaven -it was the cutest place I have ever seen! We had a yummy lunch including a delicious cupcake and had fun looking at all the amazing things in the shop!! I think Jim felt a bit out of place as it was definitely a "girly" place!!

Before the show on Friday we had dinner at my favorite-Cafe Rio with Clark and the girl he has been dating - Brooke and Logan's girlfriend Shayla joined us too. It was fun to meet Brooke. She and Clark then went to the show with us but Shayla had rehearsal for a show she is in so couldn't go with us.
Saturday, Jim, Cali, Tessa and Clark and went snowmobiling with Uncle David and kids. They had a great time - there was lots of snow and it wasn't nearly as cold as the last time they had gone (35 degrees below zero). I stayed in town and took Logan out to breakfast and did a bit of errand running with him. He had a matinee performance so couldn't go snowmobiling.

Grandma and Grandpa Wilkes braved the icy roads and drove down from Idaho so they were able to go to the show with us Saturday night. A group of 20 of us Wilkes went to dinner at another favorite place - Los Hermanos before the show. Wynn, Emily and kids, Brendy, Cecilia and Jacob Wilkes, the David Wilkes (including Lane and Chelsea), Grandma and Grandpa and all of us (except Logan and Clark who was at the basketball game with Brooke) We had some yummy Mexican and then headed over to the show.

The show was wonderful and the crowd was great - lots of yelling, cheering and standing ovations. It was the first time the girls had seen the show.

Sunday Grandpa gave Tessa her Patriarchal blessing and then we attended church at Uncle David's ward. Aunt Tricia fixed a yummy Sunday dinner and the boys joined us for that too. We arrived home safe and sound last night, tired but happy. It never fails - each time we leave Utah someone always makes the comment "I wish we lived closer". A special thank you David and Tricia for always putting us up or should I say putting up with us and being wonderful hosts!

Happy 2008!

Well it is a little bit quieter around here - the boys have gone back to school. I need to readjust my cooking too - we had twice as much food as we needed at dinner today. Pecan crusted pork tenderloin and caramelized onions - you missed out boys!

We had a good New Year's Week. We rang in the new year with our annual Soup's On party. Lots of friends and lots of food. Shayla flew in New Year Year's Eve Day and it was fun to have her with us this week.

New Year's Day we all slept in, missed the parade and the boys even sacrificed football watching and we all went to the movies together. We saw a wonderful movie, I highly recommend - The Great Debaters with Denzel Washington. That evening I went out with girlfriends for dinner downtown and Shayla and Logan went to dinner with one of his roommates. The roommate was proposing to a girl from Portland and it was Logan and Shayla's job to "set the scene". They purchased 4 dozen red roses, got sparkling cider and a blanket. They had dinner on the riverfront, set up the scene and then hid in the bushes! It was too dark for the video camera but they got some cute still photos.

Wednesday, Logan, Shayla, Tessa, Cali and I went downtown to NW 23rd and did a bit of shopping and browsing and then went ice skating. I haven't been on ice in a few years but didn't do too bad! That evening we had our Mia Maid holiday party with a couple of crafts and chocolate and cheese fondue.

Thursday was a big day for Cali - she had her hair colored RED and she had a mole removed from her back at the dermatologists. That evening the whole family went out to dinner to celebrate my birthday. My birthday isn't until next week but since the boys will be back in school and Jim will be out of town all next week we celebrated early. The kids all went together (including Shayla) and bought me a panini maker - I am so excited.

We tried it out Saturday night with Grandma and Grandpa and made lots of yummy sandwich combinations! I think our favorite though was the one with nutella and marshmellows! The pepper bacon, pepperjack cheese and green apple combination was yummy too - in fact I don't think there was any combination we didn't like. I had a whole selection of ingredients (roasted red pepper, onion, tomato, pesto mayo, turkey, chicken, bacon, cheddar, pepperjack and provolone cheese, green apple) and everyone put their order in. We had sourdough bread and ciabatta rolls too.

Friday morning Shayla flew home and the boys, Jim and I went to a session at the temple which was nice. We had pizza for dinner and the boys watched a football game. We have had nothing but rain here in Portland and Friday night a wind kicked up. While we were at the temple a neighbor called to say one of our trees was really swaying in the backyard and they were afraid it was going to come through the fence. So when we got home the three boys went out back in the wind and rain and cut it down. They cut another one down the next morning that looked precarious - at this rate we are not going to have many trees left!

Saturday night the boys went to another Blazer game - Logan said it was the best one he had been to in years (sorry Jazz fans) and the girls and I went to a chick flick. We say PS I Love You - a cute, romantic movie - definitely a chick flick! Tessa and I have also been enjoying watching the BBC mini series Jane Eyre during the week. I have Wuthering Heights rented and ready to go next!

The girls aren't too excited about starting school tomorrow but I must admit I am looking a little forward to having the house to myself again. It will be quiet around here with Jim out of town and the boys gone.

Dreaming of a White Christmas....

Monday morning we finally made it downtown to our annual family visit to Santa. I was getting worried it wasn't going to happen. But because of Tessa's dance performances over the weekend it was the first chance we were all home and available to go. Macy's has taken over Meier & Frank so Santaland has been delegated to the basement. There is no more monorail - only a monorail museum. It was a sad day when all the kids outgrew the monorail (when they could no longer walk throught he snowman) so they had fun sitting in the monorail car at the museum - old times!

A miracle happened - we actually had snow on Christmas. Statistically - Portland has a 1% chance of having snow on Christmas Day and this year was that 1%! At our house the snow didn't actually stay on the ground but we did have snow in the air! It has been over 30 years since Portland had measureable snow on Christmas Day.

We enjoyed a nice Christmas Day - Santa paid a visit to the kids' with a new guitar hero! Clark has become quite the expert, spending hours playing it and is half way through the difficult level - everyone has to stand in line behind him to get to play! Santa was also good to me - check out my other blog at http://www.yourhomebasedmom.com/ to see what he brought me!

Wednesday we just hung out at home and we all went to see National Treasure - a fun, action movie - almost as good as the first one. On Thursday we decided to drive to the beach house for the night. The pass to the coast was covered in snow and so were the roads. We pulled over once and considered putting on the chains but then decided to forge ahead and did fine - it was a little slow going but we made it fine. It was stormy and rainy at the beach but we enjoyed watching movies - a Bourne Ultimatum marathon, playing games and eating fish and chips at Mo's in Cannon Beach.

We came home Friday in time for the boys to go to the Blazer Game - they have won 12 in a row so the boys are excited - the glory days are back!

Saturday we spent the day cleaning - it is amazing how much stuff a teenager can stuff into their closet. Shayla is coming to visit on Monday and will be staying in Cali's room so we had to dig it out! That evening we attended a wedding reception of one of my Beach Babe's friends daughters and then took a drive down Peacock Lane near our old house.

My week has been filled with trips to the grocery store and cooking - I plan to take the entire week after the boys go back to school off from cooking!! (Jim will be out of town too)

I have already started cooking for our New Year's Party! We are excited to have Shayla here for the week and Logan is busy planning lots of fun activities. Happy New Year!