Mr & Mrs Marvin Fast

Here are a couple of photos from Grampa & Wilma's wedding. They both looked lovely and it was a beautiful ceremony. They are such a special couple and great together - I am so glad they found each other!

Love you both!

October Already

I can hardly believe it's October already - it's scary how quickly this year has flown past.

Yesterday it had been a year since I was granted my Green Card, hard to believe it had been a year already, but in some ways it was also hard to believe it had ONLY been a year... a lot has happened in the past year.

To celebrate we made a 'full English breakfast' meal for dinner, and I made a Red Velvet Cake for desert - since it's our green card birthday, we had to have cake... right?

Oh my word, that cake was so good... now I'm not saying that to blow my own trumpet, especially since I got the recipe from a blog I read all the time, but I'm saying it because it was... the ganache topping was so chocolaty and so rich that it was perfect... I hate to imagine the amount of calories in the tiny sliver of cake I ate.

Since it was so rich and there was so much of it we figured there was no way we'd get it finished while it was still in it's prime, so we cut two large chunks and brought them to our neighbours.

I'm in love with Nolan

Yep, you heard it here first.
I'm in love with Nolan...



No, no, no - don't go jumping to conclusions like a little busybody - Nolan is my new motorcycle helmet, and it's mine... all mine.

I've been using a helmet we borrowed from a friend for all the motorcycle rides we've been on but it really doesn't fit well and isn't comfortable, plus it's extremely heavy.

My main reason for needing a new helmet was my jaw and all that dental crap we've been dealing with. My lower jaw is weakened from the cyst that took control over my body so I didn't want to ride with anything less than a full face helmet. It just wasn't worth the risk (trust me) and I totally needed a new helmet anyway.

So, on Sunday after church we headed up to Beaverton and hit the Honda store there. They had the new Nolan 103 modular helmet in stock and after trying on a few others it was the one I wanted. It was light, a full face but also has the modular feature which allows me to lift the jaw section (not sure of it's technical name) and raise it up with the visor.

It's nice!

I haven't had the chance to try it out on a ride yet but I am itching to get out on the bike now... We're hoping there will be a sliver of a break in combining on Saturday so we can go with the Hillriders up to Seaside to the bikefest.

Oh and a big shout out to the Honda store up in Beaverton for price matching for us too - we got an awesome helmet at an awesome deal!

The Newest Mr & Mrs Fast

Erik & Krista were married on Friday evening. They had a lovely ceremony at a friends property in Wilsonville.

HUGE congratulations to Mr & Mrs Erik Fast... and welcome to the family Krista, Kaylee and Gavin!

A trip down memory lane

This weekend was the first anniversary of Cory's marriage proposal to me, so we decided it would be fun to head to the coast and visit the places that made our engagement so memorable and so very special.

We headed out of Mac early and as we were driving all the memories of a year ago came flooding back. I kept seeing the "swamp lantern' flowers all over the place (also called Western Skunk Cabbage because of it's foul smell). I hadn't seen them since the day of our proposal and it really reminded me of that day.

I had no idea what Cory had planned. I had only returned to Oregon mid-week and we were both excited to get to the beach, even though it was foul weather. It was raining hard, gusty and really cold, it was so powerful and it made the beach come alive - it was still beautiful. We stopped at many look out points along the way and I remember Cory asking me if I wanted to stop at Agate Beach. I was kind of excited to get to the lighthouse so I said "ummm, no"... little did I know that was where he originally had planned to pop the question. Whoooops!

So, we get to the lighthouse and it's raining and windy but we bundled up warm and got ready to face the weather. Right before we got out Cory said he wanted to take a 'before' photo. I laughed saying it was probably a good idea since we'd be looking like drowned rats afterwards. I even remember saying that Cory has a "cheeky" look on his face in the before photo.
Little did I know what he had in store for me.

We hopped out of the truck and started to the stairs for the cobble beach. Cory said he wanted to run back and get his camera so I walked on slowly - little did I know that his camera was already firmly in his pocket and he was going back to get my beautiful ring.

He caught up and we headed down the steps to the beach. I'd never been there before but I instantly loved it, even in the rain. The dark charcoal coloured cobbles were just amazing, and they made the most unique sound as the water crashed up on them.
We kept walking up the beach, it was cold and wet but we were having fun. They Cory starts talking, serious talking... I didn't notice at this point that he had taken the box out of his pocket and was starting to open it. Then he stopped me walking, right next to this large rock on the beach. It was there that he proposed and gave me my beautiful engagement ring.

I stood there, shocked, cold, wet and for once in my life I was completely speechless. I couldn't talk, I was just quiet and smiling and crying and hugging him. He had to actually ask me if it was a "Yes" and I some how managed to nod and mutter out my response. After putting the ring on me and savouring a few moments we got really cold and wet. We were the only ones on the beach that day, it couldn't have been more perfect. I wouldn't change it one little bit, not even the weather!

We got back to the truck and as we sat down Cory said "now for the 'after' photo" and it was then I understood. It wasn't because we would be cold and wet, it was our real engagement photos.
After calling (and trying to call) several people to tell them the news we headed to rogue for something to eat and to dry off...

So this weekend we did a similar thing. We went to Rogue for lunch and walked around a little then we went back up to the lighthouse and walked down on the cobble beach. It was a sunny day and it was a minus-tide, so naturally it was a lot busier than a year ago. But it was still special. We got to look around the tide pools for a little bit before we walked down the beach to 'Our rock'.
It was a really fun day and I am so glad we were able to get back down there. It's crazy what can happen in just a year, but I'm excited to see what the next 12 months brings our way!

Here's some pics from this weekend:

Of course we had to reenact the 'before / after' photos!This is 'Our rock' - the rock where Cory proposed and I whimpered a "yes!"