PacPac City Getaway

This weekend a group of us took a glorious weekend getaway to Pacific City.  It was so nice to escape from Portland for a couple of days and enjoy the beautiful Oregon coast.  Our friend Nicole's family has a gorgeous beach house which comfortably slept 13 of us.  The group of guys and girls was the perfect mix of fun and layed back.  We played pool, sat and read books, played card games, cooked every meal, walked on the beach, climbed the sand dunes, had dance parties, took naps... pretty much did whatever we felt like doing.  How perfect!

view from the back porch... doesn't even look real!

Madison and I exploring

love this picture of Madison... sheer joy.

 

Madison and I are planning to submit this picture with our Amazing Race application to show our adventurous spirits and fun personalities

sunny afternoon on the beach

Liz kite dancing on the sand... my favorite picture of the weekend

Snowshoeing Mt Hood

Yesterday, I joined the Imago Dei "Reveal" hiking group on a snowshoeing adventure on Mount Hood.  This is only the second time I've ever snowshoed (and the first time I've snowshoed without a cast on my arm).  A group of 13 of us strapped on our snowshoes and hiked the White River trail.  We just happened to be hiking on the same day as a breast cancer awareness group event, so we just threw on our pink wool hats and hopped on the trail.  It was a chilly day and snow flakes were in the air.

I borrowed snowshoes from a friend and apparently my feet were just a little too small to stay strapped in, so our group leader Eric kept having to "MacGyver" them to stay on by using the loop from his hiking poles and even his belt as extra reinforcement.  We hiked about 2 miles up to a clearing with an amazing view of the Mount Hood summit and ate lunch.  Once our bottoms started getting numb, we thought it best to get back on our feet and start the hike back down.

the hike up

the group

Mount Hood summit view

Katie and I in front of the great view

 

Hallow Winter Valloween

When I got back to Portland, I made a quick costume change and joined Megan's birthday party - the 2nd annual Valentines/Halloween themed celebration...

Superman, RGIII, Maverick and Marcel the Shell

Happy Birthday, Megan!