Adventures at The Antone.

Delayed post. I know… I suck. Honestly though, who has time to upload photos!!? It is annoying.

LAST weekend I was invited to go to the Antone Ranch. My discipleship leader, lovely lady Jan, took our group out there to “camp,” horse back ride, 4-wheel, boat, play, pray etc.

I place “camp” in quotes because is it really camping if there is a bed in your tent? I say not so much. BUT it was seriously the most fantastic place. It almost didn’t feel real. The ranch is a mix between Jurassic Park, Indiana Jones, Hey Dude, Wildhorse Canyon and Disneyland.

You know what? You can decide:

We made it! 

Everybody up for the sunrise.

Sunrise at the Antone.

Don't let the sunny smiles fool you. These ladies are speed demons!

Clearly, I do not look natural on a horse. 

Water sports 'til the sun goes down.

This was so fun! Out crazy driver, McCoy, decided to go as fast as he could on the windy roads back to camp.

Dust shield. So hood.

View from Antone point. 

It was special to be there with Lauren.

Sunset from the fire tower.

Lady Jan has a magical skill. She can do all water sports without getting her hair wet. 

Liz shreds.

Holding on for dear life! 

My favorite part about our time at the Antone was the fact that we really got to spend time getting to know one another. Before last weekend, we spent early mornings once a week, sharing our hearts and faith without having personal relationships with each other. Now we will start next year with fresh friendships and excitement. It is going to be a game changer for how we support each other in our journeys to follow Christ.

Who am I kidding… my real favorite part was playing in the sun! I can prove it. My nose is peeling.

How badly do you want to go to the Antone?!

My mom's Christmas card is done.

My sister just sent us these pictures from when our family was at Black Butte. I am sure it is a huge relief for my mother, as she frets over her Christmas card for weeks! Honestly, maybe even months. As it turns out, most years she can't even find a picture. So after agonizing over the potential card, she ends up not sending one at all! She is so crazy. Yet, I love her so much.

Here are some of the good ones!

We were dancing!

Had to throw a back-handspring shot in there too! 

Please excuse my bad form in the back-handspring. I had just eaten a large meal and my jeans weren't stretchy. I know... excuses. 

That is all for now. Enjoy your weekends! 

They got married in McCall, ID.

This past weekend I went to McCall, ID for a very special wedding. I am at the age where I am going to a number of weddings, and I will say that this wedding was one of the most genuinely joyful weddings I have ever been to. There was so much love from everyone it was almost overwhelming. All of the love and joy wasn't just coming from the couple, but also from the families. It was a very special day.

My favorite parts of the evening were the vows and the toasts. You may be thinking “Really? Those can sometimes be cringe worthy.” I hear ya. But it did not apply at this wedding. When the vows and toasts are genuine and filled with love nothing can beat them.

I will just let the pictures speak for themselves. Also, can we please ask ourselves one question? HOW did people plan weddings and parties before Pinterest!? Amber killed it with the details!

Look beyond the signs at the beautiful backdrop. 

See the river back there? It was beautiful. 

Sam and Am are man and wife!

Didn't I tell you!? Joy!

Spence and Mama Jo. My sassy parents.

Do you see the campfire? There were s'mores ready for us to roast and the sign read: "s'more love?"

The bride read a letter that she wrote to her future husband in 2007. They married a “short” 5 years later. It was seriously the sweetest thing I have ever seen at a wedding. I will promptly be writing my own letter with the hope that I too will get married at some point… I better get writing if it will take 5 years.

Lastly, note how blonde my hair is. It is officially true. Blondes have more fun. This is the blondest I have ever been and all three of the Strahan women had way too much fun this past weekend. It is also true that misery loves company. Sayings are sayings for a reason.

Congrats Sam and Amber! Enjoy Switzerland!

McCall on Dwellable

Woop woop! Leaving on a jet plane!

Woohoo! TGIF!

Why am I so excited that it is the weekend?

Well, I am off on one of these:

To go have some of these:

Moscow Mule and Bloody Mary. Two of my favorites! 

To use some of this:

No wrinkles here!

While spending my time here:

Have great weekends everyone!

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“Here’s to the sisterhood of the traveling pants.”

That was Cameron’s cheers to the fact that Marina is a traveler. We found her cheers incredibly hilarious, especially because I don’t think she even really knew what she was saying. So yes Cam, here’s to the pants... and Marina.

This weekend we had a send off for Marina. She is leaving us for 6 months for an amazing career opportunity. I am sure she will have an awesome experience and it is very exciting! Alas, I am selfish and I am going to miss my friend. I have not fully accepted that she is leaving. But that is just how it goes I guess. I think the day I text her and say “lets get fro-yo tonight” and she says, “dude. I am currently living in MT.” I will probably have a meltdown. So… anyway. We had a fab going-away send off for her. One of our favorite things is going to second Saturday at East Burn. Why? Because DJ Gray Matter breaks it down with the kickinest hits for us to boogie to. Think Whitney Houston, the Dougie and a giant dance party. You clearly missed out. But no worries, you can just go next month. You better make it though, because the next one is the last!

Send off Champy

Umm these next photos are going to come with a warning: View at your own risk! We were very sweaty from all of the poppin' and lockin'.

Music, dancing and friends are three of Marina’s favorite things (if only we could have incorporated her 3-legged cat into the evening). I can’t think of a better way to send her off into the great unknown.

Farewell Mar. Somebody is gonna miss you.

Tea?! You must be one classy broad.

This weekend I went to tea at the Heathman with my friends Libby and Tracy. I would do a brunch review for it, but it wasn't brunch. It was seriously tea! I have never been to tea before. When I realized that it would be dainty tea food (aka small bites) I was freaking out a bit. We were going at noon and I hadn't eaten all day. I was ravenous and nervous that I would stay that way for the next couple hours, expecting that this “tea food” would be good but that I would still be hungry at the end of it all.

Boy was I wrong! The tower of food was delivered to our table and it looked delicious. I was still skeptical, but by the time we were half way through the second plate I was getting uncomfortably full. If you really think about it, it was 3 plates full of food and there were 3 of us! Duh. My reasoning skills are clearly not the best.

All in all, it was really fun to get dressed up, drink tea and act like classy British ladies for the afternoon. Well, we were only classy until we were super full. At that point we turned into nasty slothy American gluttons.

Don’t worry, we revived for photos:

Yummy Bellini!

I had no idea tea was such a fun activity! I will probably be doing this more often.

Portland on Dwellable