Summer

Summer has finally arrived in the Evergreen state. It has been a long spring with temperatures in the upper 50's and 60's. This weekend it hit 90! I know many of you are like "whoopdie doo!" This is big for us OK!

Jameson took this time to enjoy his favorite thing! Water!

He even snapped a shot of me!

We have been enjoying the weather. I have been taking him for rides on my road bike! He loves being in the trailer. It is nice for me to get out too!

Yard update

Here are some new photos of the yard. Things are coming along. We worked really hard on Saturday in the garden as well as the front yard. Dave enndured the heat all day. I of course was in and out with Jameson.

Salishan

If you are reading this post, I put them in the order of events which means if you skip down to the post labeled "weekend get away" you will be at the beginning.

Dave likes to stay busy when we are on vacation, so I offerred to take him golfing. I do not golf, but I know he loves it, so I could do it for fun. He said he would like to save the money and get massages. So we started calling around in Lincoln city to see if there were any openings. We ended up getting in to the Salishan resort. Dave who travels a lot for work knows that there are great deals to be found, so we ended up getting a room at the resort with a spa package which only cost us $100 more. We were supposed to stay at some rinky dink motel. So we played 18 holes of executive mini golf, watched glass blowing, and enjoyed the resort. Againts the advise of the hotel manager, we went to the local casino for dinner. BIG MISTAKE! The food was terrible!

When we got back to our room we had good intentions of playing a few rounds of dance dance revolution, but we passed out on the bed and I woke up at 1:15am face down on the bed with my feet haning off. I knew we must have been really tired to do that!

This morning we went to the spa over an hour early to take advantage of the pools that they have. I went in the outdoor pool. It was heavenly. Only 85 degrees, but with the cool sea breeze, it was incredible. Dave enjoyed the steam room, the rain showers and sauna. Then we went in for a couple full body massage! The whole time I was thinking of poor Christie and Todd taking care of Jameson in sacrament meeting! I can't wait to go back. It was amazing. If any of you find yourself going to the Oregon coast, you'll have to check it out. The bummer is I did not bring my camera, so I only have pictures of glass blowing.

Tillamook

I took Dave to the famous Tillamook Cheese factory. I have a good friend from there and have been there a few times, but Dave loves cheese, so I thought this would be a hit. He loved watching them make the cheese, and the ice cream is absolutely amazing. We headed up to Cape Mears light house after. It is so gorgeous up there overlooking the water. The light house is no longer in use. GPS has replaced the need for them, but it looks great.

Flying kites

Dave wanted to fly kites on Cannon Beach while we waited for the tide to got out so we could do the banana bikes. We went to the oldest kite shop on the coast and bought some good looking kites. I think the 5 drunk girls on the beach got more entertainment out of it than we did. We could not get these things off the ground to save us. Kids can do it, but not us. We resigned to lack of wind and decided to play frisbee instead. When the tide was finally out enough Dave and I went and rented the banana bikes. This was a blast. I highly recommend it. Just take my advice and don't wear gaucho pants! I spent the whole ride back trying to keep from giving a free show to anyone on the beach!

We had worked up a pretty good appetite by now, so we headed up to seaside where our hotel was for dinner. We checked in at the hotel and asked for a dinner recommendation. The lady recommended a place called Mckewen's. It was really good! Then we went back to the hotel and spent some time in the hot tub before bed.

Cannon Beach

I know this will end up being posted out of order. I forget that I have to reverse the order.

The next thing we did was drive down to Cannon Beach. This is one of the most amazing sites on the coast. I love the ocean. I think because I did not grow up around it, it just fascinates me. We ate lunch and walked through the shops and galleries. Then we went to Ecola State park. See next photos.

Weekend get away

This weekend I surprised Dave with a trip to the Oregon coast. It was his birthday on the 17th and I wanted to do something different and fun. I called his secretary about a month ago and had her schedule him some bogus meetings. Then I arranged babysitting for Jameson and got the day off for me.

I managed to keep it a surprise. I had thurs off as my normal day and packed the bags for us. Then fri morning I left like I had to go to work only I just headed over to Dave's office to wait for him. I leave early on Fridays so Dave takes Jameson that day. Only of course he ended up going to the dry cleaners and running some errands, so I waited a long time. Then he was in the middle of a business call when he walked in to his office. He just looked at me funny and kept on talking for like 20 minutes. Finally his secretary Sammi came in and told him to get off the phone and turn it off. That is when I got to tell him we were going on vacation.

We headed first down I-5 and over to Astoria, OR. for those of you who know Goonies, this is where that was filmed. We did not go to the house this time, but I have been there a few times. Nothing special...just a house. We did go to the Astoria Column which is built on the highest point and overlooks the Columbia river. From there you can see Mt. St. Helens, Ranier, and Hood on a clear day as well as Oregon, Washington and the ocean. Take a look.

Father's Day

Of course amid all this competition, I have to stop and remember the amazing men in my life that make this day a great one for me. I have an incredible dad. OK I am totally a daddy's girl, but he really is amazing. He set a great example for me of a husband and father. Now I have Dave who is every bit as awesome as my dad. He is a great compassionate husband and a fabulous father to Jameson. He looks up to dad in all he does. There is no doubt he has that Y chromosome! I also have a wonderful father in law Gregg who has taken me in and accepted me from our first time meeting.

So...we had a great day that started with Dave's favorite breakfast; the omelet. I got up early and made him a Ham, cheese, onion, mushroom and green pepper omelet. I did serve it to him in bed, but he brought it out to the kitchen to eat. After church we went for a tractor ride. Grandpa B made an attachment for the lawn mower so it can pull the wagon behind it. We rode through our neighborhood and down the equestrian trails of the next neighborhood and down to the falter's house. Jameson thinks we have no need for a car now!

Finally Sandy and Daren had invited us to their house for dinner and we spent hours out playing, eating and talking. The night ended with Jameson and Emmalee their little girl going missing. They just moved in to a 7,000sf house, so they could have been anywhere. We found them in the Jacuzzi tub taking a bath. At least they had taken their clothes off, but the water was ice cold. I kept telling Jameson it was time to go home and have tubs, so I guess he figured they had a better tub.

All in all it was a nice day. I love all the dads in my life and am thankful for them!

Happy Father's Day!!!

The finished product

I forgot to mention Friday night we went over to Grandma and Grampa B's. The Belnaps are a wonderful family in our ward who we feel are as close as we get to family up here. They raise rabbits and have over 350 at a time. Well for those of you who do not garden, this manure is the best you can get for your veggies. We spent several hours shoveling this for our garden. But since we do only organic vegetables, this is the only thing we add and it works great!

I didn't get any photos of me planting. Dave and I took turns riding the lawn mower with Jameson and working, so hopefully this won't count against me in the competition.

It is so nice to have it done.

The "Project"

My friend Suzanne who was a former companion in Taiwan recently sent out an email encouraging us to start and/or finish a project by June 16th. Dave and I have been trying to get our garden in for over a month, but darn Washington weather and "La Nina" has prohibited that from happening. We bought our vegetable plants and seeds a long time ago and the rabbits and slugs were taking a toll on them. So I figured this was the perfect project for Zanner's competition. The prize ( I failed to mention) is a Prada bag. Suzanne lives in Shang Hai, so they are either manufactured there or it is a cheap knock off and she is not telling us. Haha. Either way it was the right project for us.

I have posted a before and after photo of the 9 hour project. We have to use chicken wire around the boxes to keep the deer and rabbits out...oh yeah and Chancho and Jameson as well. Evidently Dave cut the wire very precisely. Of course we would not want to waste wire right?!? It took us 3 hours just to get the wiring done because we would get one almost done and find we were 9 inches too short so we'd have to undo that and try it on another one. We will make sure that we label them to avoid the hassle next year.

Another sneaky moment

I should have known with Dave out of town the past 2 weeks, that something would have gone awry. I have yet another mess to share with you. Last Thursday was my day off and I needed to get my garden tilled and planted. Normally we are well into the process by now, but it has been unusually cold here this year. We are still only in the 60's.
So Jameson and I got out and mowed the lawn first thing and just as we were finishing it started to pour. So we parked the "tractor" in the stable and headed in. Grandpa B called to tell me it would be too wet to till the garden today, so I resigned myself to an inside day. Jameson loves Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban has been the movie of choice lately. (Don't worry he went to the babysitter last week with a chopstick as a wand!) So in the afternoon the rain slowed down and I needed to get some weeding done, but Jameson refused to take a nap and he hates being outside when it is raining, so I figured we would have to compromise. I put him down in front of Bugs life and headed outside. OK, OK, I know your are all wondering what I was thinking!! I came back in to find Jameson "cooking" in the kitchen. (see pics) I had just cleaned my kitchen and mopped the floor the night before and here it was destroyed. I was only outside may be 30-40 minutes.
Well, my mom used to say "motherhood isn't for wimps." boy was she ever right on that one! And she did it 6 times!
I have attached some other photos of the recent yard adventures including Dave's early father's day present.