me and mine: Austin's Busy Birthday Weekend

Austin turned 23 this last Saturday. His parents got him an awesome camera, but Maisie gave him the best gift! As he was kissing her belly she let out an adorable first laugh! No present could ever top that! We had a very busy, but overall very fun weekend. All the Lees went to the coast where we ate a delicious lunch at Mo's and then walked around the stores for a little bit. After dilly dallying around, we headed back to Salem where Austin and I then had our very first date post Maisie. It was so nice get out and to flirt like we were in high school again. We played a round of mini golf and even after tons of competitive talk it ended up being a tie game. 49 to 49 (since it was Austin's Birthday I let him win). We had a great dinner where we ended up talking about Maisie of course.

The next night we had a BBQ and birthday cake with his family. We stayed up watching movies until we couldn't keep our eyes open. The next morning we were going to head home, but we decided to hang around and walk downtown to look at all the shops. We walked around the Willamette campus and tried to find some ducks for Maisie, but no luck. Since it was a beautiful day we were planning on going to Silver Creek Falls, but we were so tired that a nap sounded much better than a hike. haha So we ordered Walleries and once again had a movie night.

I have always wanted to go by this sunflower farm (sunflowers are my favorite!) that we always passed whenever we headed to Silverton and since Austin got a super nice camera we thought it would be fun to take some pictures there. As we were driving I was waiting for it to appear on my right side and it never came. I was so bummed! Every year I would see it and then the one time we have a camera (and a beautiful baby girl) it's not there! So we got into Silverton and Austin noticed a sign that said "The Oregon Gardens" we were intrigued and followed the signs to what Austin called a little gem. Had we found the sunflower farm we would have never found this place. It was beautiful and we couldn't have gone on a more perfect day. It was so warm and the sunshine made the gardens glow. Maisie loved it too! She was loving all the colors. Austin took lots of pictures and I thought I would post a few.

We at least found a couple sunflowers!

Maisie and Daddy by the pond

Mommy and Maisie

Playing in the grass

There was no one around to take our picture so Austin wrapped his tripod around a tree branch. Haha

Hobbit House!!

Once again the handy dandy tripod helped with this one as well.

After throughly exploring the gardens and multiple photo shoots later, we headed to our friend Jordan's house where she was having a birthday/farewell BBQ. She is leaving to Seattle to finish up school and it was so much fun to see everyone. It kind of felt like a high school reunion in a way. I wish we could have stayed later, but Austin had to be back at work bright (not too bright any more) and early. Anyway, that was the conclusion of our busy (extended) weekend. To end this post I think I will add some pictures of our day at the coast. Enjoy!