This Week at the Brennans’

Hello hello from my new family website! It’s taken me a while to find the time to update this new site, but I hope to change that soon! For those not understanding WHY there is a new site for my family posts, let me tell you why: I am making changes to my main food blog so that it is solely recipes which meant I needed a new home for my family and travel posts. So, I just threw this very simple site together. I will be updating this site time and time again, so you can check back here as you’d like.

I love looking back on the memories and photos we have made, so it is my hope to get back to updating this site weekly! ANYWAYS, here is what has been happening:

This Week at the Brennans’

Well, I finally got my act together and ordered my kids school photos. Ha! They were taken in September, but I remembered in MARCH to get them ordered. I luckily was able to get the digital prints (which is all I ever really want anyways), so thankfully those were delivered right to my inbox. I do have Brooke’s school photos, too, but she doesn’t want me sharing them online, so you lucky people don’t get to see them.

Two weeks ago, I was able to go to Sun River, OR with a group of girlfriends for a super fun girls weekend at a friend’s vacation rental home. It was a quick two days, but much needed! Also, there is some incredible food to be found in Sun River! It’s about a 4 hour drive away from my small town which I didn’t realize until we were in the car and I was driving. Ha! We probably should have a left a little earlier. The weather was sunny and warm (for Oregon in March). I found the cutest swim suit for the hot tub and spent lots of time chatting with my friends.

I am in the process of making some pretty significant changes in my professional (blogging) life that are slowly taking shape. I’m putting things into motion and while this might not make much sense to you now, it will in a few months when I spill the beans. Be on the lookout mid-May. 😉

Speaking of blogging, I’ve been busy testing recipes for the blog. Lots of yummy Easter treats that have found their way onto my hips. Ha! Porter still goes to daycare 3 days/week which he LOVES to do, so those are typically my bigger workdays. But occasionally, he will be around when I’m having to test a recipe which he also loves to “help” with. He’s a great tester.

I finally decided to run the NYC Marathon this year! I have been on the fence for a while because it’s truly a huge commitment. Plus running certainly isn’t a passion of mine. Like at all. But after the 2020 marathon got cancelled (the original marathon I was supposed to run), they randomly assigned me to run for 2022. The email to officially sign up was in my inbox for a good 10 days before I committed but now that I did, there is no turning back! It’s a bucket list item that is a really hard thing. But just because it’s hard, doesn’t mean I can’t do it. Plus, it will be a good excuse to go back to NYC with my family and see all our friends 🙂

The biggest news I have to share is Gordon and I have been working really hard at demo-ing the beach house this past week. Gordon took time off work and I went with him so we could make some huge progress. While we spent most of our days working, we tried to leave a little time to enjoy each other and the fact that we had NO KIDS with us. We went out to dinner, walked around town, window shopped and even had the best sushi on the beach in the back of Gordon’s truck during sunset (Gordon’s idea). Sometimes he can be romantic.

We were able to remove all the flooring in the house, all the baseboards, trim and doors plus the whole kitchen. I painted 80% of the top floor, I ordered cabinets and picked out the flooring. If you want to see a bunch of before photos of the beach house, click through to this post. I will hopefully post all the in-process photos of the work we’ve gotten done soon. It’s a lot of work to complete, but we are obviously willing to put in all that work to make it exactly what we would want in a vacation rental. We will obviously share more when we have more to share.

Here’s What’s Happening This Next Week:

On Saturday, we plan on bringing our kids to the beach house to show them the progress we’ve made PLUS show them a fun little spot on the beach we found where we can build a fire, play on the rocks and enjoy the ocean. It’s a great little spot that’s secluded off the main drag which we are loving.

This weekend also marks General Conference, where we listen to prophets and apostles from our church for uplifting messages about Jesus Christ. My kids call this ‘home church’. I will most likely make cinnamon rolls Sunday morning.

Next week, I am joining another group of girlfriends for a long weekend and we are going to Disneyland! My friend Kristin is turning 40! She has never been on a girls trip EVER (can you believe that?!) so we are making her 40th count. We will only be in the park two days, but will certainly make it memorable. 😉 Don’t tell my kids I’m going without them. Ha!