'Holla' to the Northwest

We took a quick trip this weekend up to Spokane with Jared's brother Nate and had a great time staying with my parents. We had a layover in Portland the day we left so we took the Maxx into downtown and went to our favorite spot...Stumptown Coffee. We loved spending the couple hours in Portland, we loved the time with my parents, Jared's dad and Debbie, seeing my friend Ashlee (who looks so cute 5 months prego), we loved the homecooked meals and Papa Murphy's pizza which we don't have down here :(, we loved playing Yahtzee, going downtown, taking a drive with just me and my parents out on the prarie, and Jared and Nate loved going up to Priest Lake to open the cabin on Saturday with their dad. We did a lot in a short amount of time and we're so grateful for Nate who got us the free tickets to make it all happen! Thanks bro!
On the Maxx, headed into Portland. Btw-if you ever have a layover there, do not hesitate to go into downtown...it's super easy, cheap and fast and Portland is the greatest! It's one of our favorite spots!

Mmmmmmmmm.......

This was on one of the staircases at Stumptown...which is adjacent to a cool, modern hotel. This staircase takes you up to a sitting room where we enjoyed our coffees.

The one shot of Priest Lake Jared got before the battery on the camera went out. We've got to get better at remembering to charge our batteries!!! :)

*Side note: Somehow we didn't get any other pictures with family or friends, but I think it's because we were having so much fun with them! So...next time I guess! :)

California Dental Association

This past Friday, Jared went to the California Dental Association Convention in Anaheim with some of his classmates/friends. This convention happens annually, and is a mecca of dental "everything"...basically a Disneyland for dentists. Dentists from all over the state come to network, buy suppplies, and see the latest and greatest in the dental field. Jared came home and was so excited about how much fun he had...he was also thrilled about the bag of free goodies/samples he came home with. :) Here are just a couple pictures with the guys.
Jared, Todd, Gabe, and Kevin. These guys are so funny together. And let me just say they love a good Bon Jovi and/or Toto song while driving down the freeway. Picture this...Jared, a So Cal surfer boy, an Amish (seriously), and a Brazilian all bustin' out 'Livin' on a Prayer' with the window rolled down cruising along the 91. I was laughing so hard when Jared was telling me this story! :)

Relationships...

...as I've gotten older I've realized how special and important relationships are in life. There's nothing like family...friends...just people... and how they make life so much sweeter. Jared and I are blessed with wonderful friends and family and we have so much fun being with them. Last weekend we went out to Palm Springs for a "sister's day" and had a blast taking these photos just for laughs and something to do. :) Ryan, my sister Allison's boyfriend, just found out he has been accepted into his top pick for law school and so we celebrated him (hence the balloons you'll see in some of these pics) and had a great time just hanging out by the pool and relaxing!

...we all decided to do something silly with our hands for this pose...

If you know the Pike girls we love to mess around and take silly pictures and fortunately we have husbands and boyfriends who totally get into it too! I love this one of Ryan because he jumped right at the perfect time! :)


...yoga poses...kindof?

Congratulations Ryan, we are so proud of you!

These are our friends Ben, Landon and Lindsay at a BBQ we went to last weekend. Ben is one of Jared's classmates and Landon is a 3rd year. Lindsay is his girlfriend and she is super fun. Landon thought we'd be good friends and since the first time we met back in December we've totally hit it off! She's one of 3 girls too...that puts us in a category of similarity right off the bat! :) Oh, and Landon was trying to be funny in this picture. :)

Lindsay and I. So thankful she moved out here from Tenessee to be close to Landon!

Ben, Jared and Landon. Fun guys...all great guys!