Oregon Visit

Okay.. this post is long overdue.  I've been overworked and a bit under the weather since returning.  So, please accept my apologies for keeping you waiting!

Last weekend Julie and I got a chance to visit with the Team Henderson 2 in Salem.  We arrived late on Thursday and stayed through the weekend.  We stayed with Joel and Carissa (in Ryan's future room!) which was a real treat.

It had been a few months since we've seen them last - and there's been some changes!  Yep, Ryan is certainly making his presence known at this point as evidenced by the following pictures.

Joel had to work Friday morning - so we got to sleep in a bit.  The weather was sunny Friday morning and Julie and I got out for a nice walk before we met up with Joel for a wonderful lunch at our favorite Salem restaurant: La Perla Tapatia!  The food was delicious.

Oh... hey - speaking of food - we were very impressed with the cooking around TH2land!  Friday morning I had one of the best cinnamon rolls I have ever tasted.  I believe (Carissa, correct me if I'm wrong) that they were whole wheat.   All I remember for sure is that they were delicious.  They only lasted to Saturday morning!

After eating we had an opportunity to go shopping with the kids at Babies R Us.  We learned very early on just how much more complicated things have gotten since we had kids.  There are literally dozens of choices for every imaginable baby product.  It was interesting and informative to hang with Joel and Carissa and hear and see what they are thinking about for little Ryan.  For sure, they are making every effort to make sure you are safe and happy!  Good for you!

Friday evening we had a yummy homemade pizza.  I apologize for the skimpy number of pictures I took.  I'm getting a little irritated at my camera's indoor performance!  Anyways... just image a really good looking thin crust pizza and you would have nailed it!

Saturday we enjoyed an evening with Joan and Dan (Carissa's parents).  We got a chance to eat a wonderful dinner of Crepes - made by Joel and Carissa.  I have learned that they do a really good job together in the kitchen and create some very good and healthy food!  Here's Carissa in their kitchen.

Here's Joel enjoying the fruit of their labors!  What's awesome about Crepes is that you can have them both for the entree and desert!  We made all sorts of fruit creations for desert.  My favorite was raspberries, blueberries, this really tasty cheese sauce I can't recall the name of and chocolate!

We also had a great time playing Wii games Saturday night. Joel was the undisputed champion - but we did pretty good at a couple games.  Here's Joel and Dan playing!

And here's Dan and I giving it a try!

On Sunday we went to church with the kids and then took them to lunch.  It was a nice enough day that Julie and I walked back to their house from the restaurant (about 4.5 miles!).  We we arrived Joel and Carissa had just gone out for a bit of a walk of their own.  And, the Superbowl had just started.  So, Julie and I moved some living room furniture around, hauled the air mattress that we had been using into the living room and set it to watch the game (and perhaps get a minute or two of shut eye!).  We thought the kids would be pretty appalled at us when they came home - but they had a really good attitude about it.















All in all we really had a great visit.  It is exciting to see the two of them enjoying being married and anticipating Ryan becoming a part of their family.  We just can't wait ourselves!