April Showers....

Man, times flies. It's hard to believe that May is already here. But when I look back at April I want to take a deep breath and then take a nap. =-) We had a lot of fun, but a very full month. And to top it off, it rained a lot!!!! April showers brings May flowers....and lots of weeds, for sure!. =-) We had a beautiful March and the flowers started to bloom, but then April came and it feels like there have been very few dry and warm days to actually get out in the yard. I think we saw some record high grass levels this past April. Thanks James for helping us mow and edge. =-)



This past month we enjoyed visiting with my sister, Anna, and her boyfriend, Jon, for Easter. Following their trip, my bother James drove up from CA for about a week. We had a blast with all of them. On top of that, Blazers completed their regular season and went into the first round of Playoffs. I started teaching a class at church on Wed. nights. It's a video series based on the book "Boundaries" by Cloud and Townsend. It's been a lot of fun getting involved in the church this way.



Now we are into May and looking forward to more visitors and adventures, but most of all spending some quality time with each other. Here are some fun pictures from April. Enjoy.

Anna and Jon came to visit at the beginning of April. On this night we were heading out to McMenamin's Jon Barleycorn for dinner then off to a concert.

We had great seats to see Michael Buble'. It was an awesome concert and a fun night.

Here are some of the pretty flowers we've been enjoying at our home.

Easter Sunday

We had a wonderful Easter Sunday. It's been several years since Anna and I have been

able to celebrate Easter together. So we were excited. We started off heading to church to

enjoy a wonderful service celebrating our Lord's Resurrection.After church we headed to our favorite little magical spot, The View Point Inn, and the guys were awesome to treat us to this wonderful brunch.

After brunch, Anna wanted to take Jon to see some nearby waterfalls, including Multnomah Fall. However, it was raining. By the time we go to Multnomah Fall we got soaked as we hiked up to the bridge, in our Sunday best... yes heals and all. It was crazy and wet, but in all honesty, it was a blast! And we made an awesome memory. At least that's how Anna and I like to think of it, Jay and Jon might have another thought on the matter. =-) We have the best guys!

A few days after Anna and Jon left, my brother James drove up from CA for about a week. I have to say he was a good sport. He left CA at 3:00 AM and drove up in 15 hours to arrive in time to head to a Blazer game with his sister. Crazy! But we had a blast! We got to sit in the club level and enjoy the yummy all you can eat buffet. We haven't had a brother sister night in years, and it was a blast. The Blazers lost, but the crowd was very exciting. =-)

As you can see April, was a blast. Looking forward to what May has in store!

Night Out On The Town

This last Friday night, Jay took me out for a night out on the town. We have been so busy lately, it was so awesome to have a fun date night.

Our night consisted of dinner at Typhoons, a Thai restaurant down town and then off to the Broadway production of CATS!!!!! This is a production that I have wanted to see since I was a little girl. So I must say I was pretty excited. =-) The play was a compilation of poems so there wasn't a huge story line, per say, but the singing and the dancing... AMAZING!!!!!!! But the part I found quite amusing was we all know how much Jay likes cats (NOT), and here we were being entertained by a bunch of cats. =-)

I was so excited to get some new fun pictures of Jay and I, on our big night out, but as I turned my camera on I discovered that the battery was dead. Ahhhh So not fun!!!!! But I did grab this one shot with my cell phone.

Thanks again Jay for a simply wonderful night!!!!!! I am one blessed lady. =-)

Jay and Marcus Camby

This week has been a full week with the Blazers. We traded two of our guys, Steve Blake and Travis Outlaw, and we got Marcus Camby from the LA Clippers.

Of course Jay was all over this story. Here is his interview with Marcus.

http://www.mediafire.com/file/zh5vzu5ynyy/Marcus Camby with JAY 2-16-10.mp3

Mandi's 34th birthday

January 5th was my 34th birthday. Yikes!!! Man time flies. We were still in CA so I was able to spend my birthday with my family, which I haven't done in quite a while so it was awesome! The bummer part was that Jay left that morning. But at least I was able to see him on my birthday. And it made for two birthday celebrations. So cool!=-)

I have been longing to see the CA ocean so much. So my mom, sister, sister-in-law and the boys all decided to take me up to Santa Barbra for the day. It was such an amazing day!!!! The sun was out, the weather was perfect and we had a blast. Part of the fun was taking pictures, so there are a lot to share. =-) Enjoy!

We started off our afternoon with a yummy lunch at this Mexican restaurant. So good.... good suggestion RoseAnn

After lunch we walked the main street in Santa Barbra and just did window shopping. While we walked around a farmer's market was set up and we found these gorgeous flowers. RoseAnn bought me the beautiful orange ones on the right. They made me think of our wedding.

Afterwards, we headed down to the Pier for ice cream and

what turned out to be a major photo shoot. =-)

I had to get a picture of this little cutie!!! Love you Will!

Will's birthday is Jan. 7th, so of course we had to get our picture together!!!! So sweet!!!!

As we were making our way towards the beach I caught this awesome pic

of RoseAnn and Charlie!!!

Will and I went running for the water. Personally, I thought the water felt amazing. The sand was colder than the water, so it seemed warm to me. =-)

I thought this was a perfect spot for pictures, so here is the clan that spent the day with me.

RoseAnn, Will and Charlie, Mom and Anna

Me and my Momma

Me and RoseAnn

We probably spent an hour taking pictures, especially jumping pictures. We were laughing so hard and having a blast. This was probably one of the funnest parts of the day.



As we were leaving I caught this gorgeous sunset! What a blessed day.
I had a wonderful birthday trip.


When we got home, my dad had gotten pizza and made his famous chocolate shakes and we all watched a movie. Charlie saw his Aunt Mandi and came crawling over to me.
Ahhhh be still my heart!

When I got back to Portland, Jay was so sweet. He had set up the house with cupcakes, balloons and presents. It was a wonderful birthday... except for the getting older part. =-)

Uncle Jay and Will build a Gingerbread Train

At Christmas, Will and his mommy bought a Gingerbread train that they saved for Will to build with Uncle Jay. So the whole time, he kept asking Uncle Jay to build the gingerbread train in his cute little 3 year old voice. =-) So finally they were able to build it. Will watched and ate, while Uncle Jay built and decorated. It was too cute!!! And I must say I was quite impressed with the final result. You go Uncle Jay!!!

Rose Bowl

Hi Family and friends. Well I wanted to take some time to update our blog on our activities this past January. Man when I think back about it, it was a full month!!! Fun but full.

Right after Christmas, Jay headed down to So Cal. to cover the Rose Bowl. I joined him later that week and had a chance to spend some special time with my family and friends. I also had a blast with my dad. We spent an awesome father daughter day together at the Rose Bowl. Wow!!! So cool. I think this is our second Bowl game together. The Ducks lost, but man it was still a blast and an amazing experience!!!!!

Here are some pictures from the Rose Bowl!

We are off to the game.

Ok, all I wanted was a picture of me in front of the rose bowl , but some crazy guy had to jump in the picture. Kinda funny though. =-)

Here we are! Look at all of those Ohio fans.



After the national anthem, the fire works went off...

Then the jets flew over. It was pretty cool!

Here we are me and my dad, 15 rows from the sideline. AWESOME!!!

Here come the Ducks!

Ok and Ohio

There is Jay working the sideline! =-)

Jay and I

Next year's Christmas picture. =-)

Christmas in Portland

This year was our first Christmas in Portland, just the two of us. It turned out to be very special. Here are some highlights from our Christmas weekend.

On Christmas Eve, our church had a special candle light service. It was the first for our church, and I hope it wont be the last. Pastor Ray and the rest of the Portland Christian Center team did a wonderful job!

After church we headed to McCormick and Schmick's for a yummy dinner. Someone had given us a gift certificate and we decided Christmas eve would be the perfect night to use it. For me personally, I have never gone out to eat on Christmas Eve, so I wasn't completely sure what to think. But it turned out to be very special and I would love to do it again. =-)

I ordered a side salad and this is how they brought it to me. I thought it looked so pretty.

Afterwards we went home and of course we had to take pictures in front of our tree in our Christmas clothes. Doesn't Jay look GOOD!!!! What a handsome husband I have! =-)

Afterwards we sat down and chatted about what kind of traditions we want to make. It was really a fun and funny chat. But hey we have never done this before. And then in tradition of the Vidito Family, we stayed up super late wrapping presents and listening to Christmas music. It was fun. =-)

Christmas morning was beautiful!!!! The sun was shining, and it was cool and crispy! The house was so joyful. I ran around taking some pictures of our decor.

The plan had been to enjoy our presents and then make a nice breakfast and eat on the china and enjoy our morning. But in the tradition of Jay and Mandi, the plan didn't happen exactly. =-) We scaled down the breakfast, cooked together and had a blast opening presents, and then rushed to get ready and spend Christmas dinner with our good friends the Hines. Of course we were late. But hey in the big scheme of it all, everything worked out. =-)

Go Ducks!!!

Jay got a "quacker" noise maker in his stocking. =-)

After dinner at the Hines and an enjoyable afternoon we headed to the Blazer Game. It was a very fun evening and the Blazers won, which made it even better.

The next night, we were given a wonderful treat. Our friends the Carl's invited us to join them at a Christmas Piano concert, downtown at The Old Church with Micheal Allen Harrison, a local well known pianist. Wow!!!!! It was amazing!!! It was such a wonderful event. This is definitely a tradition that we should carry on. One of the special treats for the two of us, sentimental buffs, is that we went to Michael Allen Harrison's Valentines Concert at the same place, 7 years ago for our first Valentines Date. So it brought back special, and funny memories. Here we are in front of the church.

Our Christmas weekend turned out to be very special. It was full of fun quality time, lots of laughs, attempts at new traditions and establishing of new traditions. Of course we both missed being with our families, but this turned into a very special, first Christmas in our home.

We pray you and your family had a wonderful and blessed Christmas Holiday as well. And have a wonderful New Years celebration.

2010 here we come!!!!