janurary 2015 | grandma whitehead's keepsake book

One of the coolest things that we have found in my parents move has been this book.

This is a little book that my Great Grandma Whitehead (we called her this after my Uncle Curt nicknamed her this since her hair was totally white) kept, & after she died (when I was in middle school) my Mom took.

 

It is a book of all the pictures that my Mom sent her of my brother and me, she started it right when my brother was born & kept it until she died.

Here is the first page-

 ^ a picture of my parents wedding on the left, and pictures of baby Josh on the right.

 

All the pictures are insanely adorable, but here are some of my favorite :

 ^ Josh, me & my Dad flying a kite.

 ^my 2 cousins, my Mom & me

 ^ me at the zoo!

 ^ Micah, Josh & me

 ^ LOVE THIS! Josh & I with smokey the bear.

 ^ Micah and I on swings

 ^ The pictures get less cute as we grow up, because I was really ugly but here I am bungee jumping with Micah - our Dad's took us, of course

 ^ Josh and I with Grandma Whitehead

 ^ last page of the book. She was really good about updating it, because the last pictures would have been around Josh's freshman / sophomore years of high school, which is around when she died.

 

 

janurary 2015 | my parents new house, 1

There is something really sad about the fact that my parents are moving out of my childhood home, or at least where I lived from grades 4-12..then grad school...and lots of summer / time in between. But it's exciting too, because well you only live once, & my parents really wanted to live in the country. My Dad wanted land and my Mom wanted a beautiful house she could have everyone over in (& we would all fit). So around this time last year, they finally found a piece of land that they both loved, and started to build.

They wanted to keep it on the DL while they were building, but the house is gorgeous and I wanted to share it and they finally gave the okay (they're moving in about two weeks so time to let the cat out of the bag!).  I have lots of pictures of the land before / in progress  (which I plan to eventually share as well).

 

So (without further ado), here is my parents new house :

 

 

janurary 2015 | mitchell point

I had kind of a bland weekend (helped my Mom w/her new house Saturday, failed brunch plans & 2nd date plans Sunday) so when I was driving back from Portland Sunday afternoon I decided to stop and go for a hike since the weather could only be described as perfect.



 

I decided to hike Mitchell Point, which I'd never done before. I (stupidly) didn't even both to change out of my snow boots thinking "oh it's short" (2 and a half miles). This was a mistake I would pay for later.  1,300 feet later in 1.2 miles, to be exact. And I was cursing my heavy snow boots every step of the way.

 

 ^ the trail gets SO NARROW, with a drop off that is no joke

 

But the views come quick.

 These rock things ... I hate them so much. And this hike had four sections of them.  Whhyyyyy

 

 The view made it worth it.

 

 

Though (if I'm being totally honest) this was a hike that I thought was too narrow and too exposed, and I don't usually feel that way (aka, I have never felt this way about a hike before). I kind of thought I mayyyy throw up at points.

 Needless to say, I can't wait to hike it again. :)

Janurary 2015 | I bought a selfie stick

So last weekend I was out with some friends, and one of them had a selfie stick. I needed one. I had recently gotten a trial of amazon prime (free 2 day shipping). I paid $15, and 2 days later....

^ my 1st selfie stick picture

I tried to use it to spy on my Dad while he did yard work, it didn't really work:

Needless to say, I am pretty happy with my purchase.

January 2015: Ski Day w/Julia Goolia

( Do you get that reference? )

 

Friday night was an impromptu girls night (I had people over for dinner then Julie, Elaine and Phoebe and I went out) and Saturday Julie and I woke up and went skiing.

 

It was the kind of day where you're not sure it's going to be good... but you go anyway... and it was perfect. My favorite kind of day.