Jon and I went back to Eugene last week for my dissertation defense. I was so nervous for the entire month before my defense, but it went well, I passed, and I am now officially Dr. Meendering! The last year of nonstop work on my dissertation was challenging in so many ways and I can not even describe how good it feels to be finished. Jon and Nicole surprised me with a party at Pegasus Pizza after my defense and had invited all of our friends in Eugene.
In the same trip back to Eugene Nicole and I threw a baby shower for Stephanie, David, and Baby Swayne. We outdid ourselves with mom-to-be friendly drinks and a beautiful spread of food. We played a game where everyone had to taste baby food and guess what kind it was. I am now second thinking ever feeding our future kids processed baby food. After the baby shower, Nicole and I met Grant, Jon, and Sean at a beatuiful winery just outside of Eugene and enjoyed some wine and the beatuiful scenery for the rest of the day.
We also went hiked up dog mountain in the columbia gorge. It was super hard, but a lot of fun.When we were hiking up there were all these people hiking down in full winter weather gear. We thought they must be crazy because it was warm and we were all in shorts and t-shirts. After we got past the tree clearings at the top we realized why.....we were freezing and the wind was whipping around. After hiking we had a great bbq at Nicole's parents house with her familly and Grant's parents. We had a wonderful time, but it was not to hard to leave this time because we will be going back in 3 weeks for graduation!
