Our Special Weekend Getaway!

August 21st marked the 4 year anniversary for Joy and me. It was hard to keep what I wanted to do for our anniversary a secret from her. She has a way of asking nonchalant questions that eventually give her enough information to figure out where we're going. This year, Joy's parents gladly watched our three girls for us while we took some time for ourselves.

The day started out like any other Friday. Joy got ready for work, the girls had breakfast and we dropped off Joy at 8 at Willamette. When we got back, the girls got ready for the weekend by getting packed. I got a haircut, then dropped off the girls at Joy's parents at 1030. I picked Joy up at 11 and we were off on our weekend adventure.
Our first stop was ULTA for Joy. She got an awesome new haircut! As if she could get any more beautiful!! I love her new haircut and her new confidence in herself. She's also 13 pounds lighter and looks better than ever!

Look at that smile, and that hair! YOU'RE BEAUTIFUL BABES!

After ULTA, we headed on down to Washington Square Mall for an awesome lunch and even better dessert!

Joy's there's-no-way-they-should've-made-this RED VELVET CHEESECAKE. Yes, it tastes JUST AS FLIPPIN' AWESOME AS IT SOUNDS.

My not-as-awesome-but-still-pretty-delicious Strawberry Shortcake. The vanilla ice cream in the middle was REALLY YUMMY.

After Washington Square Mall, we drove back down to Silverton. Our fabulous day was topped with with our stay at the Oregon Garden Resort! This hotel was just recently finished this year, with the lodge/dining area sitting above the gardens.

Our sunset dinner view of the garden. It was an amazing view!

The view from the garden, looking up at the lodge of the resort.

My love.

The next morning, it was breakfast buffet and check out time. After we checked out, we headed on down to the Oregon Garden to check it out. It's a very beautiful place. They have a lot of different area where they grow different plants. They're extending a lot of it too, which will make the whole place even bigger!

We had such a wonderful time, but we couldn't have had this without the help of others. Thank you again to Mom and Paw for watching the girls while we got our time alone. Thank you to my sister, for helping me orchestrate this weekend and keeping it (almost) a secret from Joy. :)

Lastly, thank you to my wife, my love of my life, Joy. Thank you for being you. Thank you for all that you do, for our girls, for me, and for everyone! You are a beautiful, loving, caring, and just AWESOME person. I love you so much.

Thanks to all of you as well. Thanks for reading!

Special Visits!

I know it's been a while since I've written on the blog. I give no excuse for this, other than I was lazy and relied on Joy to do it. :) I know, I'm terrible! A lot has happened since our last update, that's normally how it goes right? Well, I won't make you wait any longer, because here we go!

My sister came to visit us the weekend of the 14th! It was really fun, and it got off to a great start when I had to be reminded of when she was coming. We picked her up from the airport on Wednesday the 12th, and got frozen yogurt. YUM! There really wasn't much else she her plane came in late! Haha!

Thursday was supposed to be our super fun day in Portland, but timing wasn't with us that day, and we missed out on leaving early to do all that we wanted to do. So we just hung around the house and had fun with the girls!


We picked up Joy and had dinner at RAM (or eatatmommywork if you're Emma).

Typical Campos Family Photo...

Sophie got her first taste of CHOCOLATE CAKE

So, funny story... Eden and Emma were arguing about something on the table, and Emma accidentally spilled my sister's water... all over her! Here is how the conversation went afterward:
Daddy, "Emma did you spill Tita's water?"
Emma, "Yes."
Daddy, "Was it an accident?"
Emma (smiling), "Nooo..."

Friday was finally Portland Fun Day! Our first stop was to OMSI (Oregon Museum of Science and Industry). We took Inay through a typical day at OMSI with the girls, starting with Turbine Hall and ending in the Science Playground. Eden and Inay got to go through the CSI Experience where they pretended to be CSI on a hunt to figure out who the bad guy was in a mock crime scene. We had lunch at OMSI then headed to Powell's Books! After Powell's was an errand run at HMart, then back home in time to pick up Joy from work! After dinner we watched BFF, a filipino movie that Inay has pretty much got everyone to see. "Don't do anything... I wouldn't do!"

Saturday had an early wake up call with Dutch Bros! We headed down to Detroit Lake with Maw, Paw, and Lara for a day full of boating, fishing and over all relaxing!

Sophie having her first chocolate doughnut. Do you see a trend here?

Eden showing Emma the ropes on how to fish. Emma got a really cool fishing pole from Grandpa! It's a Spongebob fishing rod that has a sinking Plankton at the end of it. Every time Emma cast the rod and reeled it in, she kept saying, "I caught it, I caught it!" What did you catch Emma? "Plankton!"

Emma wanted to eat standing on the table bench. I didn't understand why Lara was standing though.
Albert: "Lara why are you standing on the bench?"
Lara: "Because it's the only way I can get the fork out of the box!"

Emma got to drive Grandpa's boat!!

OK, so where do I begin on this picture. No, Joy was not at a Michael Jackson lookalike contest. Joy was holding Sophie while everyone was at the shore trying to help Paw and me tie down the boat. Joy stepped back and tripped on a huge rock (mind you, the entire shore was covered in rocks). Her awesome maternal instincts immediately kicked in, and she covered Sophie with her arms and body. Joy took the full force of the fall, and Sophie didn't get hurt. But Joy's heroic act cost her a huge scrape on her left leg and a couple of cuts on her right hand (that was holding Sophie's head so she wouldn't get hurt). I'm so proud of my wife!

Most of the day was spent just relaxing, and having a great time. Lara caught a fish, Joy and I went kayaking on our inflatable kayak, and Eden made a couple of new friends. Emma played in the sand and threw rocks into the water. Sophie... slept... for most of the day. :)

After our fun time at the lake, we came home and had MORE FUN IN WATER. Inay brought up our pool that they got for us a while back. We inflated it in our driveway and the kids had a great time in it. Inay did too. Watch the video!

Alas, Saturday dwindled down and it was time to say goodbye to Inay on Sunday. She ended up taking a train from Salem, all the way to Emeryville! 16 hours, that's crazy!

Thank you Inay for coming up. We had such a great time! Can't wait to see the family for Labor Day weekend! Thanks everyone for reading!

4 years and still going strong!

Today Albert and I celebrate 4 years of marriage! I can't believe time has gone by so fast and all the memories we have built up already. Albert has planned a mini get away for us and this will the first time we will have been away from the girls over night since moving up to Oregon. We will probably talk about our girls the whole time... haha... Have a great day celebrating our anniversary with us!