Happy Easter!

I love traditions. I don't care if people think I am like a kid for wanting to do fun holiday traditions and one of my favorites is dyeing Easter eggs. Steve and I had started hanging out with his best friend Jake and his fun girlfriend Nicole and we decided to have a little egg dying night. It was a lot of fun hanging out with friends and acting like little kids even if we did have to force the boys a little bit. :)

Monster trucks!!!

Steve surprised me with tickets to see the Monster Jam 2011 on March 27th, at the new and amazing Matthew Knight Arena where the Ducks basketball team plays. I had never gone to see the monster trucks in real life before and it was very cool and very loud. I was excited because the Grave Digger was there and I had seen that truck on TV a lot while watching it with my daddy. They also had the megasaurous which ate a whole car and spit fire. It was fun and I was 5 again :). Steve said it was a much smaller scale than the usual monster truck jams but I still loved it!!

Reagan Rules..

So to top off our amazing but extremely quick down to California we decided to go to the Reagan Museum. We love Reagan, and it was really cool to see all of history. One of my favorite parts was this amazing model of the White House. It was a GIANT doll house and you could see inside and the detail was just insane. We did not get to spend much time in the doll house exhibit because we had to catch our plane and sadly I won't get to see it again because it was a traveling exhibit. Another part I really enjoyed was Air Force One. My mom and I went to the Reagan Museum on a field trip when I was in 4th grade but they did not have this exhibit then. You actually get to walk on to the plane (no photos allowed) and see where not only Reagan, but many other presidents did their flying. It was so fun getting to hang out with my parents and Steve and doing something fun like going to museums. By the end I started to hold in tears because I knew our fun trip was coming to an end. I wish more than anything that we all lived in the same place. As for the Reagan library, I give it two thumbs up! I would go back again any day.

The view from the library..So pretty!!

On our flight..

Rocks and Dinasours

One of the days during our short vacation in California I wanted to show Steve some of the places I grew up around. My parents and I took him for breakfast at the Halfway house which is where many movies and TV shows have been filmed up Soledad Canyon. While we were out that direction, we thought it would be fun to head over to Vasquez rocks. It was a beautiful day after all the rain went away. There was snow on the mountains in the background and the red rocks against the blue sky was so pretty! We hiked around and played on the rocks and played with dad's amazing camera. It was really fun.

Love my mommy!!

Later we decided to head to the land of weird and find something to do in Hollywood. We tried going to the planetarium but holy moly there were millions of people there!!! So we racked our brains and decided to go to the La Brea Tar Pits. I hadn't been there since my daddy took me there when I was a little girl. It was such fun outing with all my favorite people. It is fun to actually be a tourist in California instead of living there!

Mr. and Mrs. Chavez

My good friend Melissa got married in February to a very nice guy named Joe Chavez. She got married at Calamigos Ranch in Southern California so I got to go on a mini vacation to California. Steve got to come with me so we turned it into a fun little trip of SoCal sightseeing. Mel's wedding was on Friday so we got in to LA on Thursday night. Steve and I decided to rent a Ford Edge AKA my dream car and we headed down to Calabasas in the pouring rain. I felt so bad for Mel because her wedding was suppose to be an outdoor wedding but it was still very beautiful!! I was so happy for Melissa and Joe and so glad I got to fly down and share her special day with them. ♥

Cuddle time

Love our babies, they are the best little cuddle bugs!!

Valentine's Day ♥

Steve spoils me. Period. I tell him not too but he just won't stop, and I love it :). I love him. For Valentines day he hooked diamond earrings (my first diamonds ever) to Rodeo's collar and had him jump up on the bed to deliver them to me. I was so shocked he let him on the bed, I didn't notice the box hanging from him at first. I am so blessed God put Steve in my life, no one has ever fit so well. He is Romantic and charming and just the best!! Anyways, just had to brag for a few seconds! It was an amazing day to celebrate our love ♥ .

HoHoHo

Being away from home during the holiday season is the hardest, but luckily I have not had to miss any Christmas's. Mom flew up to Eugene and hung out with me for a couple days which I absolutely loved. We then drove down to California with Harlie the cat of course! It was sad to leave Steve and to not get to spend Christmas with him but we celebrated before I left. On our way back to California, Steve called me and said he booked a ticket to California so he could drive back with me. AWWW What an amazing guy :) His flight was to come in at 10 pm on New years day and we had to leave the next day to get back in time for his work. Christmas was amazing. I have the best parents in the world!! I loved getting to see all my extended family on mom's side and of course the annual Christmas Eve party at the Cain's, my second family. Christmas was great even though I missed my hunny.
An even more exciting thing that happened while I was home was MY DAD TURNED 60!! hehe I sure do love my Daddy!!!!
Steve's flight was delayed and did not come in to LAX until 12:03 ...literally. I drove him to the house and he got to meet my Dad, then we all went to bed, woke up early, drove Steve around to show him my home town and up to Castaic Lake and sadly said my goodbyes. Steve got to witness for the first time how much I cry when I leave home. We drove it in two different days and the second day we drove through Chico and he showed me where he grew up. He also tricked me into eating cow tongue..brat!! It was fun getting to see where each other grew up and having Steve get to meet my Papa. I'm such a daddy's girl...

First snow..

Besides one time in 1989, being from Southern California, I never got snow days growing up. I never got to sit by the window, drink hot chocolate and watch the snow flakes fall outside the window. I never had to learn how to drive in the snow and I had to go at least a half hour up the grape vine to go sledding and throw snowballs. Most people would love the 70 degree weather in January but I always wanted the snowy wintery days on the movies.
OK OK so it's not like the movies exactly. Driving in the snow is just plain frightening so I just stay home for the most part, and it only snows a little bit where I live but I must say... I STILL LOVE IT!! It's beautiful, cozy, and relaxing. The best part is I still get school days since I am still (yes, still) in school!!
Here are some fun pictures of our first snow in Eugene/Junction City. Harlie the cat loves watching the snow fall and we caught a really cool picture of me throwing a snowball at steve while he had his iphone. Can't wait for next winter!

Dinner for Two...

I love getting to cook for someone else and I am constantly trying to better my cooking skills. My mother was an amazing cook so I never needed to learn how to cook gourmet, just quesadillas and grilled cheeses on the nights my mother couldn't cook. I have mastered those two items by the way.
Anyways, my favorite is when Steve helps me and it becomes something we make together. I just think it is so much fun. My favorite was a pizza we made quite a while ago. Talk about gourmet!! Grilled chicken, pepperoni, goat cheese, artichoke hearts, spinach, tomatoes, olives, fresh mozerella, olive oil and pizza sauce... cooked perfectly!! Paired with some great wine and wah lah! You have yourself an amazing meal and a great time making it. Love these great nights with my hunny :)

My Ducks..oh and those Beavers..

Unless you were hiding under a rock last year, or could care less about college football, you would remember that MY school, University of Oregon, was number ONE for most of the 2010 season. Yeah, us Ducks pretty much rule. College Gameday on ESPN covered the Ducks at three different games. One being the biggest game in Oregon, Civil war. Oh yeah, there is another kinda good team in Oregon called the Beavers. I guess to some people in Oregon they are a big deal too and it has become quite the rivalry here and in my own relationship. That's right... My name is Jenna Need and I am dating a Duck hating Beaver fan. What better way to celebrate this house dividing football game but wake up at 4 in the morning and head to Oregon State University to see them film College game day. It was quite a scene!! Half Ducks, Half Beavs, two marching bands and lots of name calling. Not to mention my parents saw us on TV!! I had made Steve a shirt (because I am an awesome girlfriend) based on the name of the quarterback but also kind of a crude joke, that made many people stop and say OMG I LOVE your shirt!! We hung out in Corvallis until the game and watched it in a sports bar.
Oh and if you were wondering, The Ducks won...Duh.

Bainbridge Island to Seattle.. Love

Welcome back to December! Still in catch up mode here but this trip was to good to pass up. Steve got sent to Bainbridge Island in Washington, just a short boat ride from Seattle. I just happened to be done with finals that week so right after my Early Russian final I drove straight to the train station and hopped on a train to Seattle. I met my hunny that evening in one of my favorite cities where we first went to the flagship Store of REI. Steve got to rock climb this HUGE rock that you can see from the freeway. We had dinner at Benihanna and played games at Gameworks in Seattle and then took the last ferry to the Island. Steve's job put him up in a awesome suite. During the days while Steve went to school to get his tower climbing certification, I explored the island. The AMAZING homes, the Puget Sound and the fun shopping. It is easy for me to say I could live on that Island any day, just give me the millions I need to do it. At night we hung out with the guys he met at school and even got Sushi with them. It is always fun meeting new people.
When Steve graduated his class with his certification we decided to stay the weekend and head back over to the mainland. An old family friend and his beautiful wife (Chris and Martha) invited us to stay at their beautiful home. We met them for Dinner in the city (so fun to say) and then after Chris had to go to work we took Martha back to Gameworks. We loved it there. We won some candy, a back scratcher and a great little bubble machine for Rodeo (Video of this will be posted soon..hilarious!). The next day Martha came with us to visit my favorite part of Seattle, Pike Place. We visited the first Starbucks and got warm drinks, we enjoyed the decorations and the smell of the fresh cut trees being sold out on the sidewalks. We walked through the amazing looking produce even in December, watched the men throw the fish and shopped in the fun little shops where Steve bought Seattle Post newspapers from 1929 describing how "Washington Falls Before the California Bear", now framed on his walls. Hmm..now I want to go back.
I love Seattle. The End.

Getting into the Christmas Spirit... 9 months ago..

OK OK, I will admit it, I am the worst blogger ever. Sorry Dad. But at least I am getting to it eventually even if my 26th year of life is about 2/3rds over.
So let's go back to last December. Steve and I were still kinda new and he wanted to show me a place that his family goes to every year before Christmas out at the coast. Of course he wouldn't tell me exactly what it was but we decided to make a trip out of it. While trying to find a hotel we came across Yurts, which were considerably cheaper and it looked like a lot of fun so we decided to rent a yurt in Charleston. We checked into our yurt (sorry, I like saying yurt) and headed out to the surprise location. It was a state park called Shore Acres where there are amazing gardens that were once the home of a man named Louis J. Simpson. His grounds contained five acres of formal gardens and kind of reminded me of The Butchart Gardens in Victoria Canada, which I had recently visited. Simpsons house (pictured below...pretty crappy house eh?) burnt down in 1921 and after financial loses in the 30's the land fell into disrepair. The state bought the land in 1942 and kept the gardens, turning them into a wonderful tourist attraction.
Now here is the fun part.... during the Christmas season they cover the gardens in Christmas lights. Not just a couple lights here and there, but this last year they had over 300 thousand lights, and it was pretty cool! The park also decorated the garden keepers house (the only building still standing since the fire) with really cute Christmas decorations. You even get free cookies and Apple Cider!! OK call me a five year old but I absolutely LOVE this kind of stuff.
After the Christmas lights we headed to the Mill Casino in Coos Bay where there was even more Christmas Spirit in store for us. We got some hot chocolate and walked into this lodge like area with an awesome fire place and board games. They had just had a Christmas tree decorating contest and there were trees everywhere! It was a very fun night. Then I whipped Steve's butt at air hockey and we played the slots for a bit.
The Yurt was an adventure in itself. It turned out to be an extremely stormy night which sounded pretty cool on the yurt. We played card games and drank wine and tried to keep warm. A little tip for those who are Yurt bound in the colder months; even if it says space heater included, bring your own!! The yurt was so big the heater could not warm it up.
The next day the storm had passed and we decided to head back to the state park. We did not go into the gardens but they had a look out there, where the house used to be, and it was amazing! The way the waves hit the cliffs was so cool! I can not express how beautiful the Oregon Coast is. It is a place that you should definitely see for yourself. We then headed down to the beach and played in the water a little which turned my feet blue before heading home, cheerful and ready for Santa to come :)

Southern Oregon

This is one of my favorite trips Steve and I have gone on. It was right before my birthday and my friend Delaine had just had her second little girl Brynn, so what better excuse for a mini vacation?! Delaine is a friend from California who moved back to her hometown (Medford area) around the same time I moved to Eugene. Visiting her gives me a sense of going home so I really look forward to the times I can venture 2 !/2 hours south. Plus I absolutely ADORE her babies. It was really fun introducing Steve to Dan (Delaine's hubby) and watching them get to know eachother over a football game. I decided to make a super batch of Chili for dinner that night so that there were LOTS of left overs for Laine to freeze for those super stressful days of being a new mommy of two, so I stole my mama's amazing chili recipe and cooked up a storm. It was really great seeing them, visiting with my favorite little girl Reagan and meeting the adorable Baby Brynn. :)

After visiting with the Weaver family, full from delicious chili and cornbread and happy that the Ducks beat the Bears (well I was, not Steve) we headed to Grant's Pass to our hotel and decided to go for a late night swim in the hotel's pool. The next day we set out to Applegate Valley so I could show Steve the dairy that my parents used to live on. Of course I could not find it but we did end up at this amazing covered bridges. Now if you know me, you know I love bridges, so naturally we had to get out and explore and it was absolutely beautiful. It was built in 1917! Applegate Valley is literally God's country and I love it there. The ranches and cows among the green grassy hills with rivers and streams cutting through all set up against mountains... Gorgeous!!! I could have spent all day there, but Steve had an even better idea!

Steve's idea was that we go to Crater Lake!!! I had never been to Crater Lake before and even better... there was rumors that is was covered in SNOW!!! I love snow more than bridges!! So after we ventured through Applegate Valley we booked it up through the windy roads that lead up to Crater Lake. As we were driving up it was so foggy and we were afraid that we would not be able to see anything. As we got closer and closer, it got clearer and clearer and then we were there and the clouds perfectly circled the lake so we could see it perfectly!! We got out of the car and was instantly got smacked in the face with the coldest wind ever! But that didn't stopped us, we got out and played in the snow with Steve's dog Rodeo and took pictures of the AMAZING view of the Lake. Best mini vacation ever!!!

I'm a slacker...

Wow! Where the heck have I been? I have some major updating to do! Steve and I have had quite a few fun adventures in the last 4 months. I better get started...
Stay Tuned :)