Northwest Tour Part 3: Spokane

Jared, me and my cousin Mitch

We were so busy in Spokane seeing everybody that we kindof forgot to take pictures...but here were the highlights of "home."

-Jared meeting up with many of his mentors: Dr. Grummons, Dr. Longmeier, Aaron McMurray, Kent McDonald

-Me getting to spend lots of time with my mom shopping, drinking coffee, in the kitchen and just chatting away

-A great lunch with Jared's dad and Debbie

-Spending an evening hanging out with my friend Ashlee over Didier's and taking a nice evening walk together

-A Pike Mafia BBQ at Grandma and Grandpa's house and putting together a mini softball game with all the little cousins

-Dinner at Latch Bistro with Dr. Grummons, Trudy, Bill and Lacey

-Jared touring all his favorite spots in Spokane: Rocket Bakery with his friend Jed, Gonzaga campus, the Book Parlor on Broadway, several dental offices collecting teeth for school

-Spending time with my parents in the evening talking, laughing and playing Yahtzee

-Getting to see Krystn and Orland again, the Story family, our grandparents and my cousin Mitch

-Just being..."home"

A view of Mt. Spokane

Dr. "G" and "J"

Jared's all-guy residence hall his freshman year at Gonzaga...DeSmet

This vacation was incredible! All we hoped and expected and MUCH more! It was hard for me to leave this time, but already today, as we are back in Loma Linda, I realize that God has so much in store for us and has put us here for a divine and amazing reason. One thing Jared and I both agreed on...there is nothing like the Northwest and what makes life so meaningful is the family and friends that God blesses us with to make life so rich. We loved seeing you all and can't wait until the next time we are back!

Northwest Tour Part 2: Priest Lake, ID

From Portland we flew to Spokane and drove up to Jared's parents cabin for 5 nights at Priest Lake. Man, was it good to be back up there. The fresh air...the masses of pine and tamrack trees...the blueness of the lake...it all reminded us of just how much we love this place. There is none like it and for us and Jared's family it's always been a haven!
Our friends, Bill and Lacey Grummons joined us for a night...

My parents joined us for a night...and huckelberry daquiri's at Hill's Restort

Jared and I took a boat ride across the lake in our little 12 ft. boat to meet up with my cousins over near Coolin. Fun ride...our little motor boat just kept trucking along and we kept laughing at ourselves that we were really doing this! :)

Jared rockin' his brother's clothing line at the lake (Stalyon)

Huge surprise to see my cousins Joel and Kim up at Priest with their 3 girls. We had no idea they were in town from Seattle until we arrived at the Taigens and we loved being able to see them and spend a couple hours with them in our favorite spot!

My cousins (from the left), Luke, Ryan, Noah and Katie. And #5 is on the way for Tracy! These kids feel like our kids- I love them to pieces!

Maddy, Katie and I

The view from the beach...where we sat everyday we were there for hours and hours until we had gotten too much sun. Took many mental pictures right here to take back with me to California!

Northwest Tour Part 1: Cannon Beach/Portland, OR

The first leg of our journey was a few days in Cannon Beach and Portland, OR. Made our first pit stop at Coffee People to start the vacation off right with a good cup of coffee.

Our friends Nels and Lauren Johnson (Nels was Jared's #2 Best Man in our wedding) met us in Cannon Beach to stay a night. We haven't seen them in over a year and a half and we had so much fun catching up with them. We walked all over Cannon Beach, had a great dinner together and then spent many hours sitting by a beach fire that Jared and Nels started on the beach where Jared and I were staying. The next morning we met them for coffee and then they headed back to Salem, where they are both law students at Willamette.

Lauren and I barely knew eachother before this trip, but you wouldn't know it because we became instant friends! She is an amazing person and I can't wait to spent more time the four of us through the years!

Best friends...

Haystack Rock, Cannon Beach. This place is so beautiful- I grew up vacationing here and Jared and I have been many times together since we've known eachother. We just don't get sick of Cannon Beach- there is something so refreshing and peaceful about it that keeps us coming back.

We stopped at Ecola State Park on our drive from Cannon Beach to Portland to catch the amazing view of the northern Oregon Coast. The weather this day was perfect and you could see a lighthouse way out to the north in the ocean.

The night we spent in Portland was spent with my best friend, Krystn and her husband Marc and little Orland. Krystn and I go WAY back to diaper days and even though their family lives away in Europe for Marc to play professional basketball, Krystn and I have remained the best of friends. We hadn't seen them in over a year too, so the time with them meant the world to me. I would say the biggest thing I learned from this trip is how important our friends are in life...they are what makes this life so fun and so meaningful!

Jared loved Orland and Orland loved Jared. Doesn't Jared look like he's ready to do this someday?

Best best friends

There wasn't a silent moment between us... :)

Vacation Time!

Jared's (aka "Subway") first group of campers- 6 & 7 year old boys

It's been a busy last couple of weeks- Jared has been a YMCA camp counselor up near Big Bear the last two weeks and I have been working and getting ready for...VACATION! As of tomorrow morning we are headed out of So Cal for a 2 week vacation that we're calling our "Northwest Tour." We have stops in Cannon Beach, OR, Portland, OR, Priest Lake, ID and Spokane, WA and we can't wait to catch our 6 a.m. flight tomorrow morning to kick it off. It's much needed time off- people keep telling us to enjoy this vacation because this will be the last vacation until 4 years from now when Jared graduates that we'll have even close to this amount of time to take off together. It's going to be fun and we'll hopefully get to see some of you! I'll definitely post pictures and share our time with you all!