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!

Lazy summer days

The weather has been very nice lately (except today at 100 degrees) and the kids enjoy playing outdoors. Here are some photos of the kids and family enjoying our lazy, carefree summer days!

Sophia's belated 4 month check up

Sophia finally got into seeing her doctor for her 4 month check up. The first appointment was canceled because her doctor got sick. I know... how can a doctor be sick? Hey were all human. lol Well we are happy to report that she is healthy and growing well. She is on the petite side with her weight coming in at the 10% but her head and body are with in the 50% of infants her age. I was told that you should not worry about weight so much as long as the head and body are growing. The head and the body need the most nourishment and anything left over contribute to the fat on the body (weight). She is displaying all of the milestones for a 6 month and the doctor says she is right on track! Here are her stats:

5 1/2 months

13.3 pounds

23 inches long

can sit up on her own

eating stage 1 foods 3x day

can grab toys with her hands

can switch toys from 1 hand to the other

roll from back to front and front to back

can scoot on tummy and bring legs in to kick out

walk forwards and backwards in walker

has 2 front lower teeth

smile and laugh 24/7

She had to endure 3 shots and one oral immunization. She was a real trooper only crying for about 2 seconds between each shot. I was more sad than she was. She will be back early Sept. for her next appointment. We will keep you posted.

A visit from Dr. Nick and Tita Leah

Nick and Leah recently came up to visit and hang out with us. They made their first trek up north to head to Vancouver, BC and stopped at our place which is on the way. We took them on a gorgeous 6 mile hike to Multnomah Falls located about 45 mins east of Portland and sightseeing at the Columbia Gorge. The hike was incredible and we saw some breath taking views. After our hike we headed to Mt. Hood. It was a great day of exploring our new home state since this was our first time as well. The next day Albert took them shopping at the nearby outlets and did a mini tour of Salem. I gave them a tour of my work and headed to the Willamette Valley vineyards. All in all we had a blast!

Nick and Leah,

Thanks for coming up and visiting with us! We miss you guys already! Come back soon!

4th of July Vacation recap

We have just started to recover from our week of family fun with both the Gelle and Campos reunions. This is how it all went down:

July 1:

Our family is all packed and ready for our flight down to Long Beach. We leave the house at around 10:30, grab a bite to eat, and head to the long term parking area. We got all of our things and start waiting for the bus. For some reason the bus is taking extremely long and we get to the check in desk with 30 mins to board. The Jet Blu guy gets on his walkie talkie and reports he has a family of runners and asks to hold the plane. We had to check 1 bag and it had all of our supplies for Sophie and Emma in it (food, diapers, bottles) and we wouldn't be able to pick it up until the next day by 9:30 a.m. We ran through security and got on the plane. We were just thankful we didn't miss our flight. We were met by the 3 Ignacio boys and head off to Roscoe's to eat a well desired dinner. It was delicious! We ordered 1/2 a chicken and 3 waffles for our whole family to share. I think Albert ate 2/3 waffles and Eden ate 1. I think I got a bite in there somewhere, lol. After dinner we headed over to see (Tita) Nikki in action at Jamba Juice. We got there at the perfect time as an order for 300 smoothies came in. She still made time to make us a smoothie and a quick hug! Next we headed to Target to grab all of the things we had to leave behind in our checked bag. We got to the Ignacio's house around 9:30 and off to sleep.

July 2:

Albert got up super early and took care of Sophie. He also got to catch a news story his old friend from High school was covering. Mommy made us a yummy breakfast and Emma showed her true Campos colors by eating Campos style! Nikki, Inay, and Mama showed up and it was off to San Diego we go! We arrived at Uncle Pol's house and family started trickling in all day. Later on some of the cousins and us headed to a nearby beach and had some fun hanging out. We got back and Emma and Eden got reacquainted with their cousin Felix (3 years old) and had a blast. We got to bed at a decent hour because tomorrow was the much awaited San Diego Zoo day!

July 3:

Weeks before this vacation my mom had rented a behind the scenes movie about the San Diego Zoo for Emma to watch. Emma watched this everyday leading up to the trip. Emma got dressed like her favorite animal and was ready to go. We packed the whole caravan of us (Nikki, Inay, Albert, Eden, Emma, Felix, and me) and took off. We met Inay's friend Mandy and J-Lee at the zoo. We could hardly contain Emma's excitement as she saw the animals and watched a sea lion show. Moments like these makes a parents hard efforts seem worth it. To see the enjoyment Emma, Felix, and Eden were having makes your heart melt. We got home and the kids were restless and rambunctious! They attacked Inay and Nikki. There was tangled hair, feet in face, horsey rides, and even a boat. They are crazy! More family arrived and the adults (over 21 but younger than 35) got ready to go out! It was a crazy, fun, censored, evening of cousin bonding plus carne asada fries! ^_^

July 4:

Baby Girl Abueg's shower and Happy 4th of July and Family Reunion! Today was full of festivities. It was a great way for all of us to come together to celebrate a new life being brought into our ginormous family. The proud parents to be, Ate Lizzy and Kuya Gunther, were beaming with excitement and gratitude for everyone who came. We are all happy for you and praying for a safe and healthy delivery. We played shower games and Albert won the "measure how big the tummy is" and I won the "find as many safety pins are in the rice" game. We took lots of family photos since Ate Eydie's boyfriend, Bennett, is a professional photographer! There was plenty of food and yummy cake. In the evening we watched fireworks from the backyard. It was a great day!

July 5:

Time to head back to Orange for the Campos side reunion. After a sad and tearful (Felix cried) farewell, we packed up and left. Mommie was hosting a mini Campos reunion at her house and got the pool all cleaned for Eden and Emma to swim. We had fun hanging out and taking photos too. We watched Pixar short movies and rested up. Mama and Papa took Emma and Sophie to Auntie Marlyn's house while the older cousins and Eden headed to Kuya Edsel's bachelor pad. We sang karaoke, ate pizza, jammed out with the instruments, and ended with some Texas Hold'em. One of our friend Kenny even came out to hang out with us.

July 6:

Today was Disneyland day! Ate Melissa was kind enough to let us into the park with her complimentary employee passes. She made the visit even more special by giving the girls an autograph book with stickers and collectible pins! Thanks, Ate Melissa! The park was not that crowded and we enjoyed small lines to rides. The kids had a blast and Felix even got to meet up with us again. Emma's favorite part was watching the Fantasmic show in which Mickey saved her from the scary lady. Ask her and she will tell you the story. Eden loved riding the Molhulan Drive ride (rode it 2 times) and space mountain. Sophie was a trooper and was very good all day! We ended up leaving the park around 11:30 p.m. and need to get a little sleep for our 8 a.m. flight.

July 7:

We got dropped off at the airport by 6:30 a.m. and by now we are ready to get home. We arrived at PDX around 12:30 p.m. and made it back to our house around 2 p.m. We all took a nap and just vegged around. We all had to get ready to face the daily grind the next day. Thank goodness it was only 3 more days left till the weekend!

Check out our slide show of our whole trip here:

http://picasaweb.google.com/bejoyful21/July2009Vacation?feat=email#slideshow

Special shout outs!

Inay,
This trip would not have been possible without your coordination and help. Where I had a cup half empty outlook you had a cup half full take on things! You are a great sis in law, sister, and tita!

Nikki,
Thanks for the Jamba and shuttling us around. You always step in when the kids wanna play and make it fun! We had a blast and thanks for tagging along with us to the zoo and Dland.

Ignacio brothers (Kuya Royce, Edsel, and Rodney),
Thanks so much for shuttling our huge family around all over! It was so much fun hanging out with you guys and catching up. Thank you Kuya Edsel for the yummy Roscoes too! We had a blast at Dland with you guys as well and it was neat to see you guys interact with your goddaughters! Come up and visit us in Oregon!

Uncle P0l and Auntie Cel and Mommie Ingancio,
Thank you for housing all of us in your homes during this vacation and providing yummy food. It was great seeing all of you guys again.

Ate Melissa,
Thank you so much for hooking us up with Dland passes! If it wasn't for your help Disneyland would not have been in these vacation plans. Thank you for making the girls visit memorable by providing the autograph book, stickers, and pins! You went out of your way and was so thoughtful! The kids had a blast and it is all thanks to you!

Mama and Papa,
Thank you for stepping in and helping us with the kids. You allowed us to get a break and enjoy some time with our cousins. This trip was so much fun!

Mom, Paw, and Onnie,
Thank you for watching over our house and yard as we were away. The lawn looked great and I was at peace knowing our place was in good hands! Also thank you Mom for helping to create the excitement of the San Diego Zoo with the video. Emma had a blast!

The whole Gelle and Campos Clan:
It was great seeing all of you guys and reconnecting! We are all busy and distance is always an issue but when we all do get together it is magic and always FUN! Lets all do it again in Oregon!

p.s. I apologize now if I missed a thank you to someone who helped us with this vacation. As Inay points out to me, it has been 2 weeks since this vacation took place and my memory is getting a little fuzzy. If I did forget you, please email or comment and I will edit this post! I don't want to offend anyone. Thanks!