Exploring Oregon: Holleigh's Birthday Weekend

Holleigh Woodward, one of the people from our Crash team and one of my really great friends, had a birthday this weekend! Holleigh has a really fun time with her birthdays; she likes to celebrate the whole month! Okay, that is an exaggeration, but she does like to celebrate her "birthday week."

While Saturday wasn't technically a birthday celebration for Holleigh, we started the weekend at Spencer's Butte. We took a hike up Mt. Pisgah last weekend (blog post here.) and while that was beautiful, Spencer's Butte is a whole other kind of beautiful. Once you get to the top (okay, confession time... I did not go all the way to the top. I blame that on my grumpy troll mood that day) but even so, once you get above the tree line, you can look out and see the Three Sisters, Mt. Bachelor, and some other mountain that we were not sure the name of. It was the perfect sunny and clear day for a hiking trip like that, if you know anything about Oregon weather, you know how that goes. 

So Sunday was her actual birthDAY, yes... Super Bowl Sunday... but we pretty much left the day open to whatever she wanted to do and the day turned out to be one of my favorite days in Oregon so far, and with Nick and Brandi Longshore being in town this past week, the day was all the more fun! First we started the day at church. We have been attending University Fellowship in Eugene. It is definitely not Lifepoint, but it is a great church that we feel will have a vital role in the church plant we are planning for downtown. After church we went to eat at a place called the Beanery which is such a cool atmosphere. It's basically deli-style food with REALLY good coffee.

After lunch, we all met back up at our house and headed to a local vineyard/winery called Sweet Cheeks. The view from there was just gorgeous, and we were lucky to have another super sunny and warm day in FEBRUARY! 

Next stop, King Estate Vineyard/Winery. This place, I have to say, was probably more beautiful than Sweet Cheeks. The building looks just like a castle. 

Thanks to our friend Ethan Holub, we received the VIP treatment! Someone from the staff picked us up and took us to a semi-secluded part up on a hill where we could look out and see the whole vineyard. It was amazing! 

After this, we all came back to our house to play games and eat junk food! Of course the game Quelf had to be involved... and then a little late night 90's Trivia Pursuit. 

All in all, it was an awesome weekend. Birthday's away from home are hard (I imagine... I have yet to experience it.) This is Holleigh's second birthday since she has been in Oregon. Not being able to see your family on what you consider to be the best day of the year takes a toll on the spirit. I am so glad we were all here to celebrate her birthday and make it something special!