The Bachelorette Party #1

WARNING: Some of these may offend...beware!

Terra & her panties!The whole crew!

Kimberly & I

Terra on stage with Darcelle!
Mom, Trista, Kim & Katie
The "Queen"
Darcelle's back side...

Thanks for serving our country!

I do...

So these past few weeks have just flown by. Terra and Ryan were married Saturday evening in a beautiful ceremony at Elk Cove Vineyards in Gaston, OR!

The excitement began on Thursday evening with the bachelor/bachelorette parties! The boys went golfing, to dinner and out to some clubs, if you know what I mean. The girls went to dinner at PF Changs first, it was very delicious I might add, and off to the party we went. Our next stop was Darcelles for their drag show. If you have never been let me tell you it was QUITE an experience. Everyone had a great time and Terra got some stage time as well. They sing and dance in many different outfits, it is quite a crack up! After this we headed out downtown stopping at the first bar we saw, Dixies. This is a country bar with all the fixins..girls dancing on the bar, a bull to ride, beer in a can, etc. :) Erin and I coerced Terra into riding the bull here, it was lots & lots of fun. She did very well, you would have thought she was a pro! Next we were off to our last stop for the night we were headed for Baracuda (a dance club) but got detoured along the way by a man bribing us with free shots at McFaddens, never one to turn down the royal treatment, we headed to McFaddens and danced our little hearts out. It was so much fun. Terra had a great time at least I hope she did. The guys evening ended sooner then the ladies...they were all "sleeping" by the time the girls got home.

Next was Friday the rehearsal dinner. The rehearsal went very smoothly. The dinner was at Grand Lodge (McMenamins) After doing a walk through at the vineyard, we headed over to the hotel for dinner. It was nice to meet the part of Ryan's family we had not yet, his grandparents and one of his aunt's and uncle's. Also one of his brothers and his sister Kristin and her husband James made it as well. We got home fairly early so we could all get a good nights rest.

The intent for Saturday was to go out to the Grand Lodge and check in early so the guys could play frisbee golf. We did make it out early, with enough time to grab a quick bite for lunch but no time for frisbee golf. We headed over to the vineyard to setup the chairs for the ceremony and the banquet room for the reception. Everything turned out beautiful. Then back to the Grand Lodge to get ready for the big event. The wedding was supposed to start at 6:00pm, however it got started just about 6:30pm. Terra was very beautiful in her dress. The evening was so much fun! It was great to be a part of such a wonderful, happy event. It was also fun to catch up with friends we hadn't seen in quite sometime! After the reception ended around 10pm we all headed back to the Grand Lodge for more relaxation time. We sat at the outside seating area for the most part, the weather was beautiful and we were in bed shortly after 1:00am. It was a great evening to say the least. We all went to breakfast Sunday morning with the married couple and off they were to the Oregon Coast for a quick honeymoon before returning to Michigan tomorrow afternoon. I will very much miss them I have seen them more over the past 2 weeks then probably the entire past 2 years. It was so great. They both got to see the babies as well.

Hope everyone is doing well. Darren's mom and stepdad headed home Sunday after helping us tremendously by watching our children off and on over the past few weeks. They will be missed very much. Darren's sister Stacy will be headed up Friday which will be so much fun. Braeden will be so excited to see her as are we. It should be a fun weekend. Kody's birthday party is Saturday afternoon and with Father's Day Sunday it should be a weakend full of excitement. We hope you all have a great rest of the week!
With Love!
Trina

Last but Certainly Not Least...

Here are the last of the pictures I thought you all may like to see...

Terra receiving one of her awards :)


The guys!
Twinsters!

The Engaged Couple just days before their wedding

The day of Terras Graduation! All dressed up!

Miscellaneous Pictures from our trip!

Well here are some of the other photos that at the very least deserve honorable mention...or that I just wanted to share :) Enjoy!!

Yep that sure is a cockroach, on our table at a restaurant in Utah...I should say that is the aftermath of the crockroach once my dad had a minute with him...my dad said "he (the roach) was staring at him"...hahaha!

Beautiful Wyoming on our way home...can you tell I am a fan??

This was spotted in our little stint through Iowa, just after the Missouri border. My mom spotted it on the way in, we had to take a picture to prove it really existed :) For those of you who can't read the fine print too clearly it says..."Nude Dancing - BYOB!"

My future Brother-In-Law @ a pub he should own :)...you gotta love him!!

Just us being us :) Having a great time on our vacation!

Boys will be boys!! Before & After

OR, ID, UT, WY, NE, IO, MO & Back Again!

Graduation Pics!

The family...most of it!

Darren and I at Terra's Awards Banquet.
Terra and Ry-Guy!
Dad, Dr. Terra Lorenz, DO :) & Mom!!

Road Trip Pics!

Sunset in Missouri
Sunrise in Wyoming
Sunrise in Oregon

On the Road Again...

I can't believe it has only been about a week since my last post..it seems like it has been over a month. Things around here are very, very busy. We left last Wednesday to head to Missouri to see Terra graduate from medical school. Darren's mom and step-dad came up on Tuesday evening to do us the HUGE favor of taking care of our babies while we were gone. We left early (4:00am) Wednesday morning. We drove just over 15 hours the first day. When I say we I mean Darren and my dad! I offered to drive but there were no takers. It worked out wonderfully though they drove in shifts! 15 hours or so landed us in Rock Springs, Wyoming. We went across Idaho, Utah and about an hour or so into Wyoming. This was the best time for us to stop as we lost an hour each day of our travel. So there we were arriving in Rock Spring...which sounds like a beautiful city, but is quite the contrary. I shouldn't judge I guess and definitely can't say for the entire city, but the area we encountered was definitely a "pit stop" kinda town. We got in between 7 & 8 pm checked into the only hotel that had 2 rooms available (smoking rooms none-the-less). Dropped off our luggage and set out to find a restaurant for dinner. We ate at the Flying J's (truck stop) restaurant and the rest of the evening was quite comical as was our cross country drive for the most part. Let's see they were out of EVERYTHING, their microwave broke apparently in the middle of our dinners being "cooked", so they told us it would take a bit longer to make all of the food...this may tell you of the quality of the food itself! After dinner we were off to shower and sleep for our whole 3 or 4 hours until the next morning. Let me tell you morning couldn't have come soon enough....
On day 2 we (they) drove another 15 or so hours. Because our progress was much better than anticipated we made it to our final destination in Kirksville, Missouri. Luckily the hotel we were staying at had our rooms available for the extra night and we were very happy to be settled at least for a couple of days. Two of my favorite parts of the trip happened this day and that was seeing very distinctly and openly the sun rise in Wyoming (it was GORGEOUS) and seeing it set in Missouri....Made the road trip completely worth it. I saw many things I would have never seen flying. We arrived in Missouri just before 7pm, checked into our hotel and awaited seeing Terra. We were are very tired from our travels. On day two we had finished traveling through Wyoming, crossed Nebraska, touched in Iowa and made it down through Northern Missouri. We had beautiful blue sky's and mild traffic on the way there.
We got to relax a little on Thursday evening with Terra, explore Kirksville's just a little bit, get some dinner and then off we went to the local watering hole "Dukums" to meet up with some of her friends as well as see Erin and Barbie! The four of us (mom, dad, Darren and I)were so exhausted we barely made it past an hour at the bar! We went to bed just shy of midnight and got almost our full 8 hours of sleep.
On the 3rd day of our trip, we got up early, to the surprise of us all, had breakfast, did some shopping. Ryan arrived just in time for us all to return to the hotel to get ready for the Awards Dinner. We got to be there when Terra receive two awards! That was very exciting, I am sure she was embarrassed, I always have my camera in one hand! After dinner we headed out to another hang out, but we were all beat, so the evening was short lived. Mom and Dad retired a bit earlier than us but not too much.
On the last day we were in Kirksville, we went to breakfast at the hotel, got ready for Terra's graduation and off we headed. Her graduation was at 11:00am at Truman State's Auditorium. It was a fairly timely graduation, which we were all thankful for. It was the reason for our entire trip, but you know how some commencements drag on and on...this was indeed not one of those, thanks goodness. The weather was beautiful for outside pictures. We did a little more shopping, spent some more time with Terra and Ryan. We got to take a tour of Terra's school and see where she studied for those 2 years and then see the museum for Osteopathic Medicine which was very interesting. Off we went to get ready for our last night in Missouri, we had dinner reservations that evening at Il Spazios (one of their favorite restaurants) for that evening and I can attest their pizza was delicious...
We left for home the next morning at 4am. We drove 18 hours the first day so we could have a shorter drive Monday. Also, we didn't want to stop in Rock Springs again. We made it to the best hotel of the trip in Ogden, Utah it was a Comfort Suites. For any of your road trip travelers out there this city and hotel are a definite recommendation! The city is very big and the hotel was VERY nice....after dinner, we got to enjoy it for all of 3.5 hours, but it was great.
We drove 12 hours on Monday and arrived home shortly after 6pm. We were so very anxious to see our sweet boys. Brooklynd had a rough night getting adjusted, but is back to normal and Braeden was excited to see us, but enjoyed his time very much with his grandparents. We are very happy we had someone here we completely trusted so we could go through that adventure! Overall the trip was a lot of fun. I will post pictures on the next few blogs! Hope you all enjoy!
As for this week, we are very busy again. Terra and Ryan flew into town yesterday morning. Darren had another softball game last night, they lost by one...what a bummer! Tomorrow is the bachelorette/bachelor party, Friday is their rehearsal dinner & Saturday will be the beautiful wedding. Kody's birthday will round out the week, he will be 7 on Sunday! Darren's mom Marcia and Step-dad John are visiting Crater Lake currently, but will be watching the boys for us for the wedding festivities, we are very lucky to have such helpful families.
Hope you are all well!
Loves.

Camping...Babies...Freezing!

So as you may have guessed our Memorial Day camping trip was quite the trip. We headed up with our friend Crystal towards McCubbins at just shy of 7:00pm. Arriving at the campsite just when dusk was upon us. After a quite a while of searching we found the rest of our party way, way back in the forest. Thankfully Jason and Trista had set up our tent for us and unloaded most of our stuff. By the time we got settled Braeden was fast asleep. We put him directly to bed and got Brooklynd ready for bed as well. The first night they slept wonderfully, much better than we did. Darren and I got all of about 3 and a half hours of sleep with nothing and no one to blame but ourselves. Besides staying up late and getting up early we also were FREEZING. I should have followed my own steps in getting the babies dressed and put on several layers, gloves and a hat. The next day the rain continued to hold out, but the temperature was no where near comfortable, in fact the adults were huddled around the campfire for most of the trip. Kody didn't mind the cold and our kids were just fine with it.

Soaking Wet!

So as you can guess by my title, the weather here in Portland has been quite wet lately. We have been having hail in some areas, thunder & lightning and lots and lots of rain. It doesn't look like it is going to clear up anytime soon. As for our camping trip this weekend for Memorial Day we are still planning to leave on Friday late afternoon. The weather where we are going (McCubbins) is looking to remain about the same as it is here. We have gotten a rain poncho, rain boots & a hat for Braeden....I can't wait to get some pictures of him in his get up that's for sure. I was going to get him the boots with the bug faces on the toes, but they were all kind of "girly" so we stuck with a basic striped pair, you'll get to see when I post some pictures later.......It should be fun as long as there isn't any thunderstorms while we are out under the trees and as long as our tent stays dry. Darren's softball game yesterday was cancelled as well, I always remember when I used to play ball this time of year the weather seems to be very inconsistent...rain, cloudy, sunny, thunderstorms, humid, then really cold....we have experienced all of that over the last week. Darren's mom and John will be headed up this way to watch our babies early next week, so it will be great for the kids (and us) to get to see them. We are leaving Wednesday morning on our road trip to Missouri. We hope everyone is doing well and keeping dry. Take care, with love!