Amy Scott's Thoughts

Yesterday, Jeremy and I made our annual autumn trek down to the Historic Waterfall Highway outside of Portland, OR. I love the waterfalls at any time of year, but it’s especially magical at this time of year with all the fall color and the leaves everywhere! Every time Jeremy and I hang out in Portland or go visit the waterfalls, it reminds me of our dating years while I attended Multnomah Bible College (now Multnomah University). Those were good times and special memories!

Every year we have a to guess a bit about when the best autumn color will be out. The Columbia River Gorge doesn’t get as cold as we do up here in Lewis County, so the leaves are slower to change. Usually we can take our peek color and add about a week or so before the falls will be ready. Also, Jeremy and I are limited in the days we can go – pretty much Friday or Saturday before our evening church service. Add the weather and trying to visit on a dry day… it gets complicated! Yesterday was going to be the best day for our calender and we hoped it would work out in our favor. While we didn’t a dry day, we did get some dry moments to we get a few pictures!

Some of the pictures we took!

After we explored and photographed around the falls, we headed back into Portland for some dinner and some shopping. By shopping, I mean, we bought tealight candles because we realized we were out last weekend when we carved our pumpkins and chapstick. So yes, big shopping spree! We had dinner at Famous Dave’s which Jeremy talks about often, but we never seem to make it there.  Our time in the city was brief, but fun! It’s always nice to stop by the big city!

We met up with Jeremy’s brother and sister-in-law for some bowling. I used bumpers for all three games and you’d think it would greatly improve my score, but it didn’t. I had a great time time being silly and trying to use the bumpers to my advantage. Jeremy ended up beating us all each time – no bumpers. He’s pretty fantastic!

It was a great day spent in one of my favorite places, doing some of my favorite things!

Fall Photos Through The Years – 2005,2008,2011,2012

Just one week left… How did that happen? October is one of my most favorite months and October 2012 did not disappoint and it’s not over yet!

Us at Charlotte’s wedding reception!

The theme of the weekend would be celebrations that involve cake! Saturday was a wedding reception for my cousin, Charlotte, who got married in Mexico at the beginning of the month. It was great to see photos and video from her wedding. They had a yummy confetti cake with a tasty whipped frosting! I watched my uncle go back for a second slice!  It was good to see the extended family. Most of them hadn’t seen April and Andrew since they got back from Kansas so it was good for the whole group. We were even able to get a family photo with almost everyone… The biggest highlight of the reception was watching the little ones dance as well as my grandma getting her groove on! Made me laugh so hard! In a good way – not in a I’m laughing at her kind of way! She was braver than me and for that I admire her courage!

Sunday was spent honoring 4 Scott birthdays! We had lunch together and then jumped into what the Scott family does best – table games! It’s not an official Scott gathering without the words “What game are we playing?” being uttered. Jeremy and I learned a new game called Carcassonne. I’ve learned that Jeremy’s dad and brother really rock the strategy games, so I don’t expect to win. The biggest win for me was being able to accurately count my points! It’s the small things that equal victory in my book. We played BuzzWord which is more up my alley and Catch Phrase. For the birthday desserts I had a small piece of Nathan’s homemade German Chocolate Cake and Debbie’s lemon cheesecake with raspberry puree. Good stuff!

Blast from the Past: Kaly & I – January 2003!

Yesterday was another awesome food day, when my friend Kaly’s husband, Isidro, made dinner while I was over for a visit. Isidro is a professional in the kitchen and it showed in the amazing food I ate last night! Even though it was a wet and rainy day, I made my way up north to visit with the Gomez family. I made major headway with Lucas – a cute little boy with beautiful, expressive eyes. At his birthday party a little less than a month ago, he didn’t want me to hold him. Yesterday, he sat himself on my lap so we could read a book. While Kaly and Isidro were cooking, he let me hold me at the dining room table. I was shocked! We made some major progress! My heart was happy! It’s such a special treat to spend with Kaly and her family since she’s lived out of state for many years! Now I’m making up lost time! It’s so much fun!

Oh, October! It’s full of good food and time with loved ones! I’ve been happily enjoying fires in our wood stove and snuggling up in many layers. This Friday, Jeremy and I hope to make our annual trek down to Portland to visit the scenic waterfall highway! I love the colors of fall surrounding the falls. It’s always so beautiful and one of my favorite places for a Christmas photo op! I was talking with Kaly yesterday about how she’s already ordered her Christmas cards! I hope to be in that same boat soon! Just have to get the right photo!

I think I October so much because the fall colors really come alive in this month. Pumpkin everything becomes popular – like amazing baby pumpkin cheesecakes with gingersnap crust (I enjoyed that at staff meeting today – we had a special Pastor Appreciation Month lunch provided by a very talented lady in our church)! Jeremy and I have annual traditions like carving pumpkins and going to the waterfalls. October gets me all excited for the holidays! Red Cup Day (if you don’t know what this holiday is about click here) is less than 2 weeks away! Soon I’ll be listening to Christmas music and planning shopping trips to Portland!

Yes, these are good days and this is the best time of year! I plan on enjoying each day that is left is great month! I love October!

Getting “crafty” to keep up with all the celebrating!

It seems like 50% of the people I know have birthdays in the month of October. On my husband’s side of the family we have 3 October birthdays and 1 early November birthday. At church I can think of at least 4 students I know with October birthdays and on my side of the family, I have 1 October birthday. That means lots of celebrating in the span of a month! Good thing I like cake and general birthday festivities!

Friday started off what we’ve deemed as “Birthday Month”. Jeremy and I headed down to Portland to celebrate with my sister-in-law, Beckie. We went to see The Dark Knight Rises at OSMI. It was certainly an experience. We didn’t have time to get dinner before the movie so we purchased a large popcorn for each couple. Jeremy and I’s popcorn was gone before the movie started. Who knew we could polish it off in a half hour of waiting. Oh well! The movie was good. Jeremy and I hadn’t seen it, so that exciting to see a new movie on the OMNIMAX screen, which is 5 stories tall! After the movie, we went to a burger place called Brothers and gave Beckie her birthday present. It was a fun time to hang out with family in Portland and of course, celebrate another awesome year of Beckie!

Memories of meeting Mason for the first time!

Saturday kept the birthday party theme going! My dad and I drove up to Puyallup to celebrate my second cousin’s third birthday. This meant that I had to miss a bridal shower at the church. I was sad to miss the shower, but at the same time I knew I needed to prioritize family. Since I couldn’t make it to Mason’s 1st or 2nd birthday, I felt like I really needed to try to be there for the 3rd. Mason was great to watch open presents. Each gift he LOVED and was so distracted by that he completely forgot about the other presents. He was a little slow to open the gifts, so his cousin, Lincoln, who is not quite 2 years old, jumped in and helped with the opening. It’s sweet how at that age how they don’t care who opens the gifts. We had the traditional cake and watched the little boys run around the house doing laps. It’s so weird sometimes to think that the next generation is here. I am going to parties for my cousin’s kids! Since I didn’t get to see my family a lot over the summer, I feel like I’m making up for lost time and I’m trying to hit as many events as possible! It was nice say that I would see them all next weekend at my cousin’s wedding reception.

Sunday was lunch and games with my sister and brother-in-law. April and Andrew’s work schedule makes hanging out with them sort of hit and miss. I hang out with April quite a bit (it seems in spurts), but all four of us just hanging out doesn’t happen all that often. It was a nice treat to have them over after church for some laid back hang out time. We threw together a meal of pasta and homemade french bread (made by my hubby) and we ended the meal with some lovely cake truffles (pretty much cake pops without the stick). Once the meal was finished, we dove into game time. It was really fun, despite the fact that I didn’t win any of them! I know that April and Andrew are family, so it’s kind of different, but I’m really trying to learn laid back hospitality. I didn’t super clean my house before they came over. In fact I wasn’t even sure what I was going to feed them until less than an hour before they came over. It was more about just opening my house in whatever condition and my refrigerator whatever the contents and saying “You’re welcome anytime.” I might not be anything compared to Shauna Niequist, but it was a baby step for me in the right direction!

These October weekends have been great for family time and the upcoming weekend looks like it’s going to follow the same trend! We’ll celebrate my cousin’s marriage on Saturday and then all the Oct/Nov Scott birthdays on Sunday. In fact, we’ll have all the Scotts under one roof, which hasn’t happened since before Brinley, my adorable niece, was born. It will be great to be all together and keep the birthday month party going!