cozy week, portland weekend

 last monday, azalea stayed home sick from school. her symptoms were borderline whether she should go or not, so i erred on the side of caution. she and i had a nice little day together. we made popcorn and watched 'home alone 2' in the afternoon :) 

tuesday she went back to school. right after school, both kids had an orthodontist appointment. an annual retainer check for azalea and a consultation for ashford. he is going to start treatment soon: an expander on the top of his mouth to make more room for his adult teeth and invisalign on the bottom to correct the way those are coming in. i hope it goes well as he is a lot more sensitive to sensory stuff than azalea was/is.

wednesday night azalea's soccer team had another tournament game, but we skipped it because she still had a cough and i didn't think running around in the cold would be a good idea. her team won another game! unfortunately we had to miss the next game over the weekend as well since we were out of town, which they also won so the tournament continues this week. 

every year i always think i'm finished decorating for christmas by mid december, then i come across something at a store that i can't resist. i love this wintery garland i found at joann fabrics, and bonus -  i can keep it up past christmas too!

 

 

and we finally got our angel chimes up and running. i love them so much! 

 

 

wednesday - friday i got to visit my friends joe and alice's chihuahua named bamm-bamm to feed him and take him for a walk while they are out of town. he was alarmed to see me at first, but then we bonded. :)

our thatcher's baking endeavors this week included oatmeal carmelita bars. my absolute favorite! he brought some to his work holiday party on thursday night, but there was plenty leftover for us.

the kids and i went to kay's for dinner that night because her husband was out of town for work. she and i enjoyed her beautiful tree while drinking wine and eating pizza :) 

friday evening ashford went to 'parents night out' at school again. azalea, thatcher, and i watched a christmas movie and packed for our weekend getaway.

saturday morning we hit the road for portland. we hadn't been there in 18 months and we hadn't seen thatcher's cousins in 3 years, which is crazy to think! our first visit was to our friends ian, joanna, and kyla who we know from minnesota. they bought a new house last summer and got a cat, so we were excited to see both. we hung out there all afternoon, catching up. we ordered thai food for dinner. after dinner, we all headed to our hotel to use the pool. the kids were thrilled and so were joanna and i because there was a hot tub. then we said goodbye to them. 

sunday morning we had a little time to kill, so we drove to oregon city to get coffee at a super cute coffee/gift shop.

 

 

 

then we stopped in downtown portland. 

 

 

we drove to the island outside portland where thatcher's cousin lives with her husband. her brother who lives in portland also joined us. the kids had fun playing with their dog, meeting the horses that live next door, and jade made us a delicious lunch. it was so nice to see them after way too long. 

we had an uneventful, mostly dark drive home with a stop for dinner at mcdonalds. now we are under 2 weeks from christmas. this is the kids' last week of school for the year, so i really need to get a lot done with ashford's bithday and christmas coming up soon!