A T T H E P A R K ' S

This year we decided to keep things minimal with our Christmas decorations and that included not getting a tree. In the past, we've driven out into the woods and we've cut down our own trees but this go around we just really wanted a simple, hassle-free holiday. In fact, we started the simplicity last year when I downsized our decorations from six bins to two bins! This year we downsized again from two to one bin! Now don't get me wrong, I love having a Christmas tree. Gazing at the tree in the dark is so relaxing and I love seeing the ornaments displayed and reminiscing about the past holidays and family traditions. We haven't shared much on the blog about our future plans and for now are keeping things a bit under wraps until we make some more final decisions. BUT, we will be downsizing even more in the next few months when we put our house on the market, so we just felt like keeping things simple this year was the best decision for us. Hope you enjoy the tour and we

It seems that this year flew by faster than previous years and I didn't get around to posting like I had wanted...so I'm making up for it now. Photo overload of the last five months below. AUGUST As you read in the previous post here , we installed the new kitchen appliances. The night before my birthday, JP took me on a camera shopping spree and said I'd need a camera for the next day. In the morning, he surprised me with a helicopter tour around the cascade mountains for my 32nd birthday!! With so many fires in the area, the air was a little thick but when we rose above the smoke...wow. Later that afternoon, my parents who were hiking Brokentop that morning came over for lunch after their hike. JP and I were literally flying over the mountain just a few hours before they were climbing it! We went on a family vacation to Sunriver with my parents, my brother and sister in law and their kiddos, and the two dogs. This is one of my favorite photos

Let me start by first apologizing for my lack of posts these last six months. Life has been clamorous to say the least.  We've said yes to some things and unfortunately the blog has been put on the back burner...but I'm hoping to change that in the new year!  There is much to share so keep an eye out for a follow up "catch up" post. In the meantime, we updated our kitchen appliances!  It might not sound exciting to you, but we've wanted to update ever since we purchased our home in 2009. If you click the "Home Tour" link on the right sidebar, you'll see what our kitchen looked like when we purchased and then after we painted.  Here are the photos pre our recent update. When we first purchased our home, a refrigerator was not included. Once we purchased and installed our stainless steel fridge, the rest of the appliances were mismatched. And let's be honest, it drove me a little crazy. So this August, we upgraded and I'm so g