It's a bit colder in Oregon...

This weekend Dana and I had the pleasure of catching up with two of his dearest friends, George and Eric, and their fabulous wives, Lindsey and Nicole. We took our annual trip to the Northwest and spent time hanging out together in a cabin outside Portland.

The laid-back weekend was just what we needed! We played a lot of card games (LOVE 3-card guts!), hiked, fly-fished and had great talks on our roles in marriage and the influences of our church community groups in our lives while we hung out in front of the fire. We also cooked a lot and enjoyed White Russians, compliments of Eric the bartender. We can't wait until next year's trip!

2, 4, 6, 8...

Who do we appreciate? Our niece Larkin!

Janelle's birthday and my new 'do

Tonight we had a fantastic dinner with our good friends the Loredos, Garners and Hottingers in honor of Janelle's birthday. We are so blessed to have such wonderful friends! Here are a couple pictures from the night as well as pics of my new haircut.

A fun, surprise date

Last night Elizabeth and I were swept off our feet by our romantic husbands who decided to plan a surprise date for us! We enjoyed a fun Tex-Mex dinner (love the Mambo Taxi margaritas), delicious gelato and an exciting evening of extreme go-carting. I love go carts! It was a blast.

Today the girls from bible study met to paint pottery and then I got my hair chopped off!

Going, Going, Gone

Following in the footsteps of my big sis Ana, my brother-in-law Sam, and the girls in my bible study....I'm chopping off my hair this Saturday. Check back this weekend for pictures of the new 'do! - Christine

Some Lessons on Love... (from our conference)

Love is not an adjective to describe how you feel, love is a verb for how you behave

At the root of every marital problem is a spiritual problem

Verbal affirmation can go a long way. Find 2-3 nice things about your husband every day. Tell him. Tell your kids.

Read the 5 Love Languages and determine each others love language so that you can show them love effectively.

Your expectations may be different from your spouses. Ask them (in all areas) to verbalize their expectations for you (what is "Par" vs. "Nice to Have" vs. "Over the Top"). Try to always do Par and to sometimes achieve the others.

Don't lose the spontaneity in your relationship after you're married. If you've lost it, work to get it back. Also, make sure you continue to "date" your spouse.

Make sure you prioritize your relationship over what others may see as a perfect or super-organized life.

Lastly, I really realized the critical importance of an "Accountability" group in helping to keep a marriage healthy, holy and happy. Try to get plugged into a church and find a group of friends for you and your spouse who you can both be vulnerable with and who will never let you stray/will hold you accountable to being the spouse that God wants you to be.

Marriage Retreat

While I unfortunately fell out of the #1 ranking in my Womens Fantasy Football league this week, I forgot my sorrows this weekend when we attended a wonderful Marriage Conference with our (previously newlywed) community group from church. It was so nice spending time really focusing on our marriage as well as bonding with our friends. For those of you not local, the picture above shows a group of people who we spend A LOT of time with! (minus Lindsay & Randy who are in Europe)

We attended sessions on:
Roles in Marriage, Sex & Intimacy, Spiritual Intimacy, Dating/Romance/Creativity, Preserving Intimacy when you have young children, and Pursuing Oneness in Community. Saturday night we came home and had a great date just discussing everything we'd learned.

Sunday was spent learning about "how to deal with conflict" at church and organizing the house, but we also purchased 2 new wine fridges that I'm very excited about! The Texas heat was causing some of our wine to spoil before we enjoyed it...

Lastly, we think we've narrowed down our next vacation plans to a 9 day Intrepid trip in Vietnam followed by 4 days in Hong Kong, leaving at the start of March. If anyone would like to join us, please let us know and we'll share the details!!!

Dana turns 31

Somewhere along the way I somehow skipped the fact that Dana celebrated a birthday Oct. 2. Last week we went out for Greek food with 10 of our friends and just enjoyed a casual, fun evening out. Last night we celebrated with just the two of us at Nobu! It was perhaps the best meal of my life. I love Nobu. We did the chef's tasting menu and it went on and on and on. I'm glad we were feeling adventurous because we tried a lot of amazing things that we wouldn't have tried otherwise. It was quite a treat!

Our Favorite Girls

Nieces Skylar & Larkin - do kids get any cuter than this?

A Weekend in Wimberly

After a crazy week at work, Dana and I were so excited to road trip down past Austin for Erol Tan and Danielle Shea's wedding. Erol and Danielle are good friends of ours from business school, and now Erol works with us at Frito.

Their wedding was awesome! It was in this adorable town called Wimberly, Texas which is the perfect place to escape for a weekend as there are a ton of cute shops, wineries and B&Bs. There were FOUR days of events, most of which took place around the beautiful Red Corral Ranch. From the barn that the rehearsal dinner was in to bonfire and smores following the wedding, this locale was phenomenal.

We danced up a storm, caught up with a bunch of friends from Frito and b-school and drank many "Pomegranate Kiss" martinis. This may have been my favorite wedding yet! They just get better and better...

Here's a picture of Dana and I trying on hats at the Turkish inspired rehearsal dinner (Erol is from Turkey). Also, a BIG CONGRATS to one of my closest friends in the world - Kelly (Tubbs) Campbell - who is expecting a baby and will surely be one of the world's best mothers! Hooray!

A Visit Back Home

This weekend was well spent celebrating friends and family and getting in quality time with loved ones. Christine went home to St. Louis for Erin and Rachael's baby showers (grade/highschool friends) and also to see her mom's adorable new place and videotape her grandfather sharing memories from his life. Dana stayed in Dallas and went out on Saturday night to Sushi Zushi, O Bar and Clear lounge where he danced the night away celebrating our friend Maisie's birthday.