Beth and I celebrated our birthday with a weekend trip to Lincoln City.
We stayed in a great hotel, gambled a bit of money away at the local casino, hit up the buffet, drove to Tillamook, went on a nature walk and ate some ice cream and braved the cold to spend some time on the beach.
Beth brought all these props for us to use for pictures. I've never seen Beth more excited for something so silly in such a long time!
Gambling our money away...
Tillamook
We spent some time on the beach in Tillamook and we almost froze to death.
Beth, Bev and Travis finally talked me into joining their Ragnar Relay team. I was very reluctant to join becuase I'm not a very experienced runner and running isn't exactly my most favorite thing to do. But, I am glad I joined because it was a lot of fun. Being able to eat candy all day long without feeling too guilty about it was kinda nice, too. And if you were to ask me if I would do another relay my answer would be a definite maybe. I'd have to be in Van #1 and I'd have to have the easiest legs. I have no idea how my team members were able to run 18 to 21 miles in one day. That's just crazy.
Before we left for Washington we decorated our car. We even had Christmas lights on top!
The race started in Blaine, Washington (right at the border of the U.S and Canada). It ends 188 miles later at Langley, Washington. The white building in the foreground is CANADA.
I'm at my exchange waiting for Paul to hand off the baton so I can start running my first leg!
For our birthday, Beth and I went to dinner at the Firehouse Grill in Portland and then to a comedy show. The food was great, the comedy show was not so great.
Although, the show was a disappointment we managed to find some fun at Le Happy, a crepe restaurant we went to for dessert.
Thrill the World happened last night. Thrill The World is an annual worldwide simultaneous dance of Michael Jackson's “Thriller.” Most of you now that I am a big fan of MJ, but my sister, Beth, is probably even more of a fan. She jumped at the opportunity to learn the dance and join in the fun. My mom, Bev, Paul and me went to Portland to watch the dance. It was pretty cool. The "Thriller" dance really is a masterpiece; Michael Jackson is a genius. Beth and her friends looked pretty good, too.
Here is the video of Beth and her friends rockin' it in Portland. You can see Beth at the bottom of the screen wearing a purple dress. The sound quality on this video or horrible, but you can imagine how fun it was hearing the music as they danced.
We have very squeaky doors in our house. After a few months of the squeakiness getting under my skin I grabbed the WD-40 and sprayed every single door. The doors no longer squeak, but they also no longer stay open. Seems I just swapped one annoying problem for another. The only door that really bugs us is the one in Shelby's bathroom. When we are brushing her teeth or fixing her hair the door will close and tap our butts. It's annoying. Last night, Travis was brushing Shelby's teeth and the door kept shutting and hitting his butt. It was really getting to him and after gently kicking the door open a few times he finally kicked the door hard to get it to stay open. That last kicked worked well because the door knob stuck into the wall and the door stopper got stuck in the door. So, NOW we get to fix a whole in the wall and buy a new door. Yay!
Shelby has been into hair bows lately. She has to be wearing them in her hair at all times. The other day I bought out the bow selection at Gymboree. Shelby was in heaven when I came home and showed her all the bows. The next day she made me put all of the bows and barrettes we own in her hair.
A week or so ago I found a student desk for sale at a thrift store. We don't exactly have room for the desk, but I bought it anyway. It is in perfect condition and I knew Shelby would just love it. The only thing I had to do was to re-paint the desk. It started out bright red. Yuck. 2 days after bringing the desk home, Travis and I knew it was a good buy. Shelby spends a lot of her free time sitting at her desk. She has never colored more. We love it! And I love that her mouth is full of candy corn in the first photo.
Shelby and I drove into Portland today to visit Beth at her work and to go out to lunch. Shelby loves visiting Beth at work. It makes the 30 minute drive well worth it. It's so cute to see Shelby have so much fun with her Auntie. I love that Shelby loves Beth so much. Shelby's favorite things to do at Beth's work is to sit with Beth at her desk and take her hand and walk around the office. If you didn't know better you'd think that Shelby was giving Beth a tour of the office and not the other way around. Of course, I love seeing Beth, too.
Beth has a tendency to get me cool gifts for my birthday. This year she took me to see Grease. Having seen the movie about a bazillion times, it was hard for me to see and hear the songs sung out of order and out of context. But, it was a good show and very entertaining.
American Idol winner, Taylor Hicks, starred as the Teen Angel. And for some reason, it was annoying for me to see his face plastered on all the advertising posters when he has such a small part in the show. However, he does have a good voice so I suppose the attention he is getting is well deserved. They even made of joke of his American Idol days during his song, "Beauty School Drop-out". All-in-all it was a great show and it was a great way to end our birthday week. Thanks Beth!
