Maui

We spent the first part of January in beautiful Maui! Pete and Joyce invited us to join them on their trip-and we couldn't turn it down. It was our 4th time to that island but we still found new things to do. We spent one day on the beaches of Kaa'napali which we had not previously explored. We also got up early one day and drove 2 hours to see the sun rise on Haleakala. It was gorgeous to see the vibrant colors reflecting off of the clouds-almost worth getting up at 4:00 am on your vacation :o)
We also stuck to some of our favorite traditions on Maui. We had several meals at the beautiful Five Palms restaurant, many sunset walks on Wailea's oceanfront path (while sipping on Lava Flows of course), and morning runs along the beach followed by trips to the Shaved Ice hut.
This time, we celebrated my 30th birthday while we were there. My mom even made me my favorite home-made white cake with rainbow chip frosting. The sun and gorgeous scenery made the big 3-0 easier to handle!
A few things that never change no matter how many times we go to Maui; we always have a wonderful time and we are never ready to come back home!

More Maui photos

Night out!

My friends Cari and Teri and I planned a night out with our husbands during our winter break from hygiene school. We decided to go out to dinner and bowling at Grand Central. It was tons of fun! The guys got along really well while we vented about how much we love school :o)

Hello 2009!

The end of 2008 was upon us! We went over to our friends Jeff and Ashley's house to say goodbye to 2008. We enjoyed lots of delicious appetizers and maybe a little too much wine! It was a family affair with the whole DeCosta clan and even a visit for Pete and Joyce. The DeCosta kids know how to keep the party going! We headed to the Ambassador just in time to ring in the new year with some live Karaoke music. A great start to the new year!

More New Year's photos

The basement remodel is complete!

Eric has successfully completed his basement remodel-and it looks great! My cousins Meagan and Molly were staying with us for Christmas and Molly was the first person to spend the night in the new space. Last year we would have never guessed that someone would actually be able to sleep in our basement. It will be so nice to have for hot summer days!

White Christmas

The weathermen were predicting a small break in the snowfall, so two days before Christmas we made a run for Eugene. It was slow-going with snow on the roads all the way through Salem. We did make it to Eugene-4 hours later!

It was well worth the long drive. The huge tree and cookie plate made it feel just like Christmas. We spent our two days in Eugene enjoying time with our family. Katie and her daughter Kaci had flown in from Florida. We enjoyed spending time with family and watching the kids get excited about Christmas surprises!

On Christmas afternoon we headed back up to Portland to spend some time with the Minus family. We went to Laura and Fadi's to exchange gifts and see Mollie and Mazen. We then headed over to Joyce and Pete's for Christmas dinner and games.