Sunday strolls

One thing we love to do is go for Sunday afternoon strolls. Sometimes we go close to our home,

but we often go to Graham Oaks Nature Preserve

We love the trees and the fields

Sometimes we bring a frisbee along with us

Setting Sail!

We set sail on the annual Precoa incentive travel trip. This year's destination - Beautiful Alaska. We departed from Seattle. This year, we had special guests - John and Vicki!

 

The view from the ship of the Seattle skyline was beautiful. We continued through the Strait of Juan de Fuca, enjoying the views of Canada and the Olympic Peninsula.

We spent the first hours exploring the ship and seeing all of the amazing features and looking forward to an incredible week to come!

Stafford Ward talent show

One of the best events of the year in the Stafford Ward is the Ward Variety Show. This year, Lisa Jensen was in charge, and she went all out! In the spirit of The Greatest Showman, they created an entire circus theme.

The 

The program was filled with a variety of acts, from gymnastics to guitar shredding, to musical acts, to an eating contest. 

Kate and Liam performed "There's a Hole in the Bucket" and absolutely OWNED it,

 

 and Jacob played his French horn.

They also had popcorn and cotton candy vendors

They had a cute drawing of a lion and circus master - 

It was an incredible show, as always!

Date nights

We have had some fun date nights this year! We love our date nights - especially with our oldest 2 able to watch the other kids.

We went to dinner with Ryan and Jessica at a Middle Eastern place called Aladdin's in Lake Oswego. It had good reviews, so we decided to give it a try. We were seated in a booth at a low table sitting on mats on the floor. The food was good - and it made for fun stories.

Who knows what was going on here... I think we had a Bunko night that evolved into arm wrestling matches!

Hamilton came to town, and we got to go see it. We were in the very last seats in the theater, but the production was incredible! The music was awesome, the lighting and dance choreography were incredible.

We also got to spend some time downtown enjoying the beautiful water fountains and scenery.

Sometimes, we need simply have some Buffalo Wild Wings with some romantic flowers in our pajamas.

One date night, we went downtown with the Battles and Jensens. We rented the red bikes and rode around town. We stopped at some of our favorite restaurants.

Lisa's bike was hard to pedal - which was pretty funny. She eventually traded with Eric. We love time in Portland!