The Blazer's

Scripture Reading

2011-03-15T20:32:00.001-07:00

To go along with this years theme in Primary, the Primary Presidency challenged the children to read their scriptures EVERY day. To encourage them, the children get their own chart for each month and get to add stickers to a large board in the Primary room. At the end of the month, if the kids have read everyday they get to pick a prize out of a prize bucket. D has been REALLY motivated to get something out of that prize bucket so we have made a point of trying to reach this goal of reading every day. So the other night we were reading and D all of the sudden pointed to a verse and said "I can read that!". He preceeded to read about 5 verses. I was so proud of him. He knew most of the words and was willing to sound out the ones that he didn't know. It was awesome considering before he started 1st grade, reading was a bit of a struggle. It is so cool to seem him progessing and becoming more independant. Then tonight as we were going about our bedtime routine, he was quick to remind me that I didn't need to do the reading...that he could do.

Dinner Conversation

2011-03-08T20:03:00.000-08:00

D: Melanie, how many words do you know in German?
Me: I used to know a lot but not so many any more.
D: What words do you still know?
Me: Fraulein
D: Fraulein, that means lady
Me: How many German words do you know?
D: hotdog Fraulein
Me: Where did you learn that?
D: from Jonathan (boy in his primary class)
Me: How does Jonathan know German?
I get "The Look"
D: He has a German hat.

Well, duh on me!!!

MeRrY ChRiStMaS

2010-12-24T16:57:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from our family to yours. May you all have a wonderful holiday season.

Allie

2010-11-13T11:11:00.000-08:00

It was a sad night at our house last night. We had to make the decision to put Allie down. She was old and had really slowed down the last few months. She got sick suddenly and we didn't think it was fair to her live out her days uncomfortably. We knew that she wouldn't be with us much longer but it hasn't made it any easier.

We got Allie as a puppy. She was like a child to us. She followed us everywhere we went in the house and even slept in our bed. That was her most favorite place to be...as you can see from the pictures. =0) Look how comfy she is!

She even loved to snuggle with Milo when we brought him home. Milo loved her so much. He would whine and cry when we would have to take her somewhere (usually the vet) and leave him behind. If he only knew she was just getting poked and prodded in place he probably would not appreciate being poked and prodded.

Allie was a good companion, protector, outdoor adventurer, exercise partner, entertainer, and snuggler. We loved her and will miss her terribly!

blogging...

2010-10-18T21:52:00.000-07:00

I have decided that I am not very good at this blogging thing. I get really excited about new picture I have taken or things that have happened and am all ready to blog about it and then I just don't take the time. Slacker!!!

I just did a couple of posts about summer. Maybe I will be better now??? Enjoy!!

other stuff we did this summer...

2010-10-18T20:52:00.000-07:00

We hiked.

We went fishing,

D lost more teeth.

D played outside as much as possible.

D roller skated.

More hiking.

More fishing.

We went to the beach.

We had a pretty good summer. Too bad it is over.

Lost Lake

2010-10-18T20:13:00.000-07:00

This summer we really wanted to do some camping. So we did some research and decided on a place called Lost Lake. We loved it there. We ended up going there twice this summer. We had a great time fishing, swimming, and hiking around the lake.

Great veiw of Mount Hood from the north side of the lake.

D and I hiked around the lake to the view point on our first day there.

D posing with Big Foot in front of the general store at the lake.

D loved swimming and throwing rocks in the lake. I don't think this one went very far.

This is the view of Mount Hood on the way home from the Lost Lake...so beautiful.

D's Birthday

2010-10-18T19:51:00.001-07:00

D turned 7 this summer. We had a little party at the house with family and friends.

D opening presents.

The awesome fishing vest was a big hit!!

The birthday cake!!

Kindergarten graduation

2010-07-18T21:40:00.001-07:00

D graduated from Harmony Montessori School on June 14th. He had a great year there and we were excited for his graduation day. They had a very non-traditional graduation ceremony. No caps with tassels. The children sat in the "Friendship Circle" and walked the circle to their teacher when it was there turn to get their certificate. The teachers said a few things about each of the children. Teacher Kristin talked about how kind D is and how he was so good with the younger children in his class.

A last picture with teacher Kristen. On to the 1st grade!!!

School Play

2010-07-18T21:30:00.000-07:00

Right before the end of the school the aftercare children at D's school put on a play..."Small Cloud". D played the part of "Whistling Wind". Teacher Kristin made this awesome costume for D. We were so excited for the play...we had been hearing about it for weeks! D did a great job!!

Sleeping

2010-05-23T22:30:00.001-07:00

Sometimes D asks if he can sleep in the bed with Jack & I. This is why the answer is ALWAYS no...

Chickens

2010-05-23T21:53:00.000-07:00

Here is the coop with planting boxes on top for our garden...

Here are the chickens...

And our first egg...the small one.

The first egg was so little..it was odd. We now get normal sized eggs pretty much every day.

Happy St Patrick's Day

2010-03-28T19:57:00.001-07:00

I know it is a little late to be blogging about St Patty's Day but I couldn't resist. After putting D to bed on March 16th, I started experimenting for his green lunch. Just so you know, green food coloring does not turn apple sauce green...you have to us blue. Who knew??? So I came up with green apple sauce, green cream cheese (even though it looks yellow in the picture) for his bagel, green jello (I am sure school loved that one..."no sugary snacks allowed"), green apple fruit snack, and a green cup for the day. When I picked him up at the end of the day, I asked him about his lunch. He immediately giggled, "It was green!!!" Too cute!!

Advent Calander

2010-01-01T09:53:00.001-08:00

We put our Christmas tree up the day after Thanksgiving. As soon as we put it up, D started asking EVERY day if that day was Christmas. My solution was an Advent calendar. I figured it would give him a visional of how many more days until Christmas. This is what I came up with...

I had seen one like this on a blog and thought it was pretty cute. It was more work then I thought but it was fun to make and I think it turned out pretty cute. Oh, and it really solved the "How many more days until Christmas?" problem. He was excited every morning to see what was inside the little jar for the day. I just put candy in it this year but next year I think I will try to be a little more creative and find little toys onlong with candy for the jars.

Christmas Eve and Christmas morning

2009-12-31T22:21:00.000-08:00

We had a quiet Christmas Eve and Day at home. We had a nice but simple dinner of ham and potatoes. I used the china since it was Christmas dinner. D was very excited to use the "fancy" dishes. I on the other hand was a little nervous letting a six year old boy use the "fancy" dishes...but he did really good. After dinner, we opened up our one Christmas Eve presents...jammies for all!!

Then of course, we had to get a plate of goodies ready for Santa and his reindeer.

Christmas morning was fun. Santa brought D his own parrot!! He informed me about 2 weeks before Christmas that we need to get a real parrot because every pirate needs a parrot. The stuffed parrot seemed to do the trick. He was SO excited about it.

Jack and D both got Nerf guns...that to was a big hit. We have enough guns and ammo for all of us. Pretty fun!!

We spent that day eating left overs from our Christmas dinner, playing w/ the new toys, and napping. Overall, it was great day.

Midnight visitor

2009-12-15T22:46:00.000-08:00

So a while back we had a midnight visitor...

Ugly little thing it was!!

One night, after going to bed VERY late, I was laying in bed trying to fall asleep when I heard Milo making a weird scraping noise outside so I got up to see what the problem was and found him very patiently trying to get at the opossum that was sitting on the top of the fence post. I think Milo had enough sense to know that barking would scare the thing away. It was pretty funny!! The opossum just sat there for the longest time while Milo & I watched it. I even had time to go get D out of bed so that he could see it. He, of course, being the animal loving boy that he is thought it was the coolest thing ever to see a wild opossum in the back yard.

Utah part 2---very late

2009-12-07T21:11:00.000-08:00

So I have been a total blogging slacker. Although, I was having some computer issues so I do have a little bit of an excuse. Here are a bunch of pictures from our vacation to Moab...

Our caravan to Moab.

D on our first morning of 4-wheeling. We didn't get into Moab until about midnight and I think he fell asleep about an hour before we got there so he was not happy to be woke up at 6 am so that we could get out on the trail.

One of our many stops on the trail. Several people, including ourselves, had mechanical issues. Ours didn't survive for a 2nd day of wheeling. Better luck next year.

My sister-in-law, Jill and I took a sunrise hike to Delicate Arch in Arches National Park. It was a beautiful morning for a hike. We both got some awesome pictures.

Here we are at the end of our hike. You can barely see the arch behind us.

Later on after our hike, Jill & I went back to Arches with 2 of the kids and explored some more of the archer. Here is Joelle & Kenalee pretending to be falling off of the rock.

Silly girls!!

One of the many rock formations in Arches National Park...Balance Rock. The park was so awesome. I can't wait to go back and explore the areas that we weren't able to see.

We were all tired at the end of each day so much so that D fell half way out of bed and didn't even wake up.

When D was outside watching the guys load up the trucks on our last day, he found this Preying Mantis. It spent probably an hour crawling all over him. It especially liked D's hat.

On the second day of wheeling, Jack got invited to ride w/ one of the guys from Off Road Design. He had a blast!!

Utah Vacation Part 1

2009-09-23T11:28:00.001-07:00

So for the 2nd year in a row we made plans to attend the "Blazer Bash"...Blazer as in the truck not our last name...in Moab Utah. We didn't actually make it last year due to car trouble, instead we spent a week at my parents house. This year we prepared all year long to make it down there. Part of that preparation included purchasing a truck that was capable of towing our GMC Jimmy...aka The Beast. Despite all of our preparation, we still had car trouble and got stuck in Walla Walla again. But, unlike last year, we did end up making it to Utah it was just a few days later than planned and in a completely different truck than the one we started our trek in.

We arrived in Walla Walla on Labor Day. Paige, Doug, and the kids came over for the day to see us. Here is a picture of most of the kids, including Joelle (Jack's brothers daughter) and D. Too bad Miranda is looking the wrong direction.

Another one of the kids with their "goofy" faces. Notice Miranda is paying attention this time. Silly girl!!

And another silly one of Miranda. I think this is her zombie look.

The 2nd day in Walla Walla I took Joelle and D to the park for a picnic and we played in mom & dad's yard while Jack delt with the car issues.

Joelle on the bandstand at Pioneer Park.

D on the zip line at mom and dad's.

The Beach

2009-09-22T22:08:00.001-07:00

While Kelly was in town we took a day to go to the beach. We were suppose to go the day we went to Multnomah Falls but the forecast said it was suppose to be cold & rainy at the beach. Kelly ended up staying an extra day & I pulled "D" out of preschool and we headed for the beach on Tuesday instead of the Saturday before. It turned out to be a really fun day. It was rainy & cloudy on our way there but it ended up being a good day for the beach once we got there. It was cloudy but warm enough that the kids put on their swimming suits and took a dip in the ocean. "D" had never played in the ocean before. We couldn't hardly get him out. And of course, we all had a great time playing in the sand.

The kids jumping the waves.

"D" gathering sand for our sand fort.

"D" holding a crab he found in one of the tide pools.

"D" picking at the barnacles.

Kelly and Kaden.

Multnomah Falls

2009-08-21T21:38:00.000-07:00

One of the days that Kelly was visiting we decided to go to Multnomah Falls. It was kind of a cold, cloudy day but as we started up the trail to the top it quickly got warm.

The kids before we started our hike...mostly happy. We started up the trail because the sign said it was only 1 mile. We thought no problem. Well, at the bottom of the trail it tells you there are 11 switch backs...at the 1 mile marker we still had 4 more switch backs to go. Kelly & I both say they lied about the 1 mile thing. We decided to head down once we realized it was quite a bit farther to the top. It was a good thing we headed back. "D" was tired and hungry...he had refused to eat the yummy breakfast cassorole that I had made that morning...I think he would have reached complete meltdown stage, if I had forced him to go any further. He was much happier once we got some lunch in him.

After the falls, we headed a little further East to the fish hatchery and damn. We had a picnic lunch, toured the grounds and watched the video about the yearly fish spawn. It was pretty interesting. I can't wait to go back during the salmon run. Here is D and Mac checking out the trout.

After the fish hatchery, we took a quick trip over to the damn. We saw a few fish fighting their way up the fish ladder and through the area where they count the number of fish that are going through. The boys thought it was pretty cool to see the big fish up close.

Kelly's visit

2009-08-15T08:25:00.001-07:00

Last weekend Kelly and 3 of the kids came to visit. Wehad a great time making cards, eating good food, playing games, and just spending time together. My friend at church told me how to do "glitter" toes. I thought it was a perfect activity for us girls to do after the little boys went to bed. I think they turned out pretty cute!!

Our new friend

2009-08-11T23:15:00.000-07:00

For those of you that don't already know, we have a new "friend". On our blog he will just be known as "D". "D" has been spending a lot of time at our house. We have been able to go on lots of fun outings this summer. This picture is from the trout farm where we caught 3 fish in about 3 minuntes. It was the first time "D" had been fishing....he was thrilled with the entire experience.

Keep It Cool

2009-07-29T14:04:00.001-07:00

Keep It Cool
Originally uploaded by metini

It has been over 100 degree for 3 days in a row here in Portland. This is unusually high for this area so most homes, including ours, don't have air conditioning. Usually a few box fans in the windows will cool the house down enough so that we can at least sleep comfortably. Monday we all slept ok but not great. When we came home from swimming at 7 pm yesterday it was 88 degrees in the house. The house had been closed up for the day so I decided to open it up and turn on the fans. Very quickly the temperature went to 89 degrees. Not good!! I just didn't know how we were going to sleep. I knew that we had a small window air conditioner in the garage but I also knew that it was too heavy for me to carry to the back of the house & lift into the window...oh and Jack was at work. I had almost resigned myself to the fact that it was going to be a miserable night, when the phone rang. It was our friend Matt. He wanted to come over & put the air conditioner in for me. Hallelujah!!!! Matt, Cindy, and their 2 boys showed up a bit later not only too install the air condition we had but with another bigger air conditioner that we could use for the summer. Double Hallelujah!!! An hour or so later the house was on the on its way to feeling so much cooler. We slept great and have had a much cooler day today. Huge thanks to Matt!!!

Happy Anniversary!!!

2009-05-31T18:41:00.000-07:00

Eighteen years ago today Jack & I were married in the Portland Oregon Temple. Look how young we were. What were we thinking?? We didn't have 2 pennies to rub together but we were "in love". We had met about 9 months prior to getting married at an Institute class in Philadelphia PA. A nanny job had taken me across the country and the desire for a date had brought Jack..a local boy who always knew a date could found at the local singles ward due to the high nanny population..to Institute that night. He made a point of meeting me that night by "accidentally" dropping his Hardy's (like McDonald's) bag in the hallway after class so that I was forced to stop to help pick up his stuff and introduce myself. We exchanged #'s that night and never really dated anyone else after that.
It has been an exciting, fun, and adventures time. Even after all this time Jack still makes me laugh and I love him for that. My sister Paige & I always said that was one of the most important qualities for a husband to have...of course there are other that are important too. =0)

California Part 3

2009-05-31T18:30:00.000-07:00

One last post about our trip...We spent Thursday at Univeral Studios. It was a fun day...wish we could have spent more time there.

Cast members from the "Terminator" 4D show. We bought a "front of the line" pass so we didn't have to stand in the long lines in the hot sun and we got to meet the cast members after some of the different shows.

Shrek & Fiona

The "Law"

California Part 2

2009-05-19T16:04:00.001-07:00

The second & third day of our trip we spent down in San Diego. The first day we spent at Sea World.

We went to the Dolphin show...
...the Sea Lion show...

and the Killer Whale show. They were all fabulous!! We had a lot a fun and managed to stay mostly dry even though we were technically in the "soak zone".
Then on our second day in San Diego, we went to the San Diego Wild Animal Park. Two of the fun things we did there was feed the Lorikeets and we went on a tour of the park on Segways.

At one point, I had about 7 Lorikeets on me...one even tried to eat my earring.

The Lorikeets eat nectar...you can see the little container of nectar in Jack's hand.
We look awfully goofy in out helmets with our hats underneath but it was REALLY hot out that day and we needed the protection. Jack would have had the funniest sunburn on his head!!
This was a fun time of year to visit the park because there were lots of baby animals...giraffes, elephants, and tigers to name a few of what we saw. Our friend Peggy braved her fear of heights and went on the 3/4 mile zip line that is new to the park. It went right over the area of the park where we took our Segway tour. We might have to try that next time.

California Dreamin'

2009-05-19T10:30:00.001-07:00

I have been asking/begging Jack to take me to California for years. He had made a vow to himself never step foot in the state so it was a hard sell for me. A few years back we had saved a little money and had a choice on how to spend it....a new big screen tv or a trip to California. Some how Jack won out on that purchase. I knew that I couldn't convince him on my own so I started recruiting people. Lucky for me one of Jack's good friends,Mark, and his wife, Peggy, are California/Disneyland freaks. I think they have been there a million times. Mark started working on Jack. He sent home Disneyland promotional dvds, emailed advertisments, everything Disneyland he came across he gave to Jack. It finally worked!! Yah for me!!!! We spent 7 days there...Jack survived and had fun. Jack & I outside Mainstreet U.S.A. We spent the first 2 days in Disneyland and California Adventure.

Here we are in California Adventure in front of the water rapids ride.
Jack in front of one of the stores in California Adventure.

Jack & I...I with my Minnie Mouse ears...on the Mark Twain Riverboat.

I got to meet Mickey when I visited his house. Jack missed this. So sad for him!!

It is hard to say what my favorite part of Disneyland was but I definitely LOVED Mickey's Toontown. So fun!! We explored all of the buildings, rode on the Roger Rabbit ride and ate lunch there on Friday. The only thing we didn't get to see was Minnie's house. There was always a long line there...gee I wonder why??? We will have to see that on our next trip. I made Jack promise me we would go again.

We spent Friday at Disneyland & California Adventure also. We ate dinner at the Blue Bayou Restaurant which is inside the Pirates of the Caribean ride. We waited for a table by the water so we could see the fireflies, hear the cricket and watch the people go by in their boats as we ate dinner. The food was SO good. I had Jambalaya for the first time....YUMMY!! Jack had lobster and steak.

We had so much fun on our trip. It was a great get away. I didn't think or worry about anything at home for the entire week. I guess that is what the "happiest place on earth" does to you!!!

I love the smell the fresh cut grass..

2009-03-21T19:28:00.001-07:00

...and the look of a freshly mowed lawn. Today the weather was finally nice enough to mow. I didn't post a picture of our yard because it doesn't look too pretty. The grass was about a week past needing to be cut and it got rained on earlier in the day. Thus mowing left it not looking so good but at least it got mowed. It will look better next time.

Mowing got me excited and exhausted all at the same time. Excited about Spring and all the yard work that comes with this time of year. I LOVE working in my yard and get great satisfaction from making it look good but it is a LOT of work. That is where the exhausted part comes into play. It is absolutely exhausting keeping up with it all. But it is a good kind of exhaustion.

New paint in living room

2009-03-16T19:12:00.000-07:00

Back at the beginning of the winter, when it first started into the rainy season, we had an issue with the roof which resulted in water leaking through the roof and into the living room. I ended up having to peel paint off of some the areas in order to get the water to drain. So I needed to repaint.
I had been contemplating repainting the beam in the living room anyway after seeing what my sister-in-law did in her living room. She used three different colors to highlight the architecture in the room. I loved the way it looked. When I originally painted that living room I didn't know what to do w/ the beam...I guess I thought I needed to make it blend in (it was painted the darker of the 2 colors on the walls) but after seeing my sister-in-laws living room I got a different idea about it. I think that the "Coffee Bean" color looks great!

72-hour kit

2009-02-20T15:41:00.000-08:00

Jack & I..well, mostly Jack...has been trying to get our 72 hour kits in order. I decided my contribution could be homemade firestarters. I have been wanting to make these for a long time. They are super easy & cheap to make. All it takes is cardboard egg carton (I used the carton from my Costco eggs...you get three w/ each bulk package), dryer lint, and candle wax. It cost me less then $6 to make about 50 of these big ones that are pictured. I also made mini firestarters from the part of the carton the sticks up. I tested out a mini one in the fireplace...it burned for about 5 minutes. I thought the mini ones would be great to put in a backpack for a hike. Here in Oregon we are forever hearing about people getting lost in the woods unprepared. Not the Blazer's....we would have fire!!!

Eagles

2009-02-11T16:23:00.001-08:00

My sister lives in a pretty rural area up near the Canadian border. It is absolutely beautiful up there. The weather was really nice while I was there. The most amazing thing is the wild life. They have a big pond across the street from their new house that always has big flocks of birds hanging out. They also have bald eagles everywhere. We saw tons of them during the 2 days that I was there. Some were right in the trees in their yard but most were in the trees across the street. It was cool to see how big they were even from far away you could tell that they were huge. We even saw one in a field eating on something that it had caught. In this picture you can just barely see 2 eagles perched in the top trees across the street from Kelly's house.

These two are of the same eagle in a tree right in Kelly's yard. It was really neat to see one so close in the wild.

Weekend Trip

2009-02-11T16:02:00.001-08:00

I took a quick trip w/o Jack up to my sisters house for my nephews missionary farewell. He is going to Monterrey Mexico. He gave a GREAT talk on the history of missionary work in sacrament meeting on Sunday. We are so proud that he has chosen and is worthy to serve a mission. Up there the whole week and didn't get hardly any pictures...not a single one of any of the nephews. I posted a few below...

Mackenzie, Kyla, & Kelly

Kyla & Mackenzie

Snow..then rain..now wind.

2009-01-18T13:56:00.000-08:00

It has been a crazy Winter for us so far. The latest is the wind. The wind coming through the Columbia River Gorge for the last 24 hours has been brutal. There was a 70 mile per hour gust reported in our area last night. Tiffany was here visiting and we came home from the mall last night to the main road to the house closed (found out later a tree had fallen across the road) and a completely blacked out neighborhood. Thank goodness Tiffany was with me. It would have been scary to be in dark all night by myself. We had no power off and on until 10 o'clock this morning.

These trees are in the park just 1/2 a block from our house. We also lost several other trees through out the neighborhood.

This house is around the corner from ours. As you can see the tree from one propertey fell across the fence into the other property. You can't see if very well but there is a shed underneath the fallen tree.

We are lucky so far the trees around us have held strong and we haven't lost any shingles off of our roof

Whose in charge here?

2009-01-18T13:50:00.000-08:00

This was the scene from the sun porch yesterday morning. It cracked me up that Dora has one whole half of the loveseat all to herself and both dogs have crammed themselves into the other half. I always tell people the Dora is "the Queen". I guess this proves that she is.

Out with the Old...In with the New

2009-01-18T13:34:00.000-08:00

Old Freezer.

New Freezer...bought at Sears a week ago. Inside. Tons of room!!! Costco here we come. So the options for Christmas this year was a Wii or a new freezer. We decided that we should do the practical thing..even though it was the more expensive thing..and get a new freezer. We bought the old one used for a $100 in 1997. It still works great but we had out grown it. Every freezer we have was packed. I always worried if the frozen food I bought at the grocery store was going to fit. No more worries! I moved everything from the old one into the new one plus moved stuff from 2 other refridgerator freezes and I still have tons of space. I love it!!

Snow Day #3

2008-12-22T13:19:00.001-08:00

I woke up this morning to find more snow. At 6 o'clock this morning, when I got up to call work to let them know the I would not be in due to the weather & road conditions, there was no snow on the Tahoe. I got up for the day about 2 1/2 hours later to find this. And the weather man said no snow for today??? It continued to snow until about 11 o'clock at which point I decided to get out of the house with the dogs so I dusted off my snow boots...haven't had to use them in years...got out my heavy coat, scarf, and gloves, and layered on the clothes.

The east wind had blown the snow up against the front door. I had to push real hard on the screen door to get out. See how deep it is. The is about 2 inches between the top of the front porch and the thresh hold into the house. I was able to get this shovel but I didn't even try to shovel the walk. There is just SO much snow. I started to shovel the driveway so that Jack could get the X-Terra out of the garage to go to work but I noticed that there is a layer of ice under the snow so I stopped because I thought it might make it harder for him to get out especially since it is up hill to get out of the garage. We will have to re-evaluate one he tries to get it out.

The dogs had a good time running around in the deep snow & catching snowballs. They haven't been out too much so it was good for them to use some of the pent up energy. I was going to walk them down to the far end of the block but the snow was so deep I had a hard time walking through it. So we just walked to the neighbors boat.

This is a picture from the back yard. Notice my black compost bin & the fence are almost covered.

We were outside for about an hour while it wasn't snowing. Almost as soon as we came in it started snowing again.

There is so much snow that the city is having a hard time keeping up with the removal. The Mayor of Gresham has declared a state emergency because fire, police, & ambulances are having a hard time getting around the city.

At this rate, we will have a white Christmas. It would be our first since moving here.

Taser fun!!

2008-12-21T17:40:00.000-08:00

The week after Thanksgiving we went to Utah to visit Jill & Keith. We had good travel weather...not a single snow flake even in the mountains. It was great being able to spend time together.

One morning Kenton & I painted while Jill was busy tidying up after the morning rush to get kids to school.

The night before we left Vince & Rusty came over. They are 2 guys that Keith & Jack have been friends with since they were all teenagers...they have been friends forever!!! It is always fun when old friends get together. While Jill & I were talking about what color to paint the master bathroom the guys had broke out the taser for some fun.

They wanted us to join in the fun but we both refused. I was fine just watching. Joelle was the only girl brave enough to participate. What a trooper!!!

Now Vince, on the other hand, he is just plain crazy. He is always the first one to step up & try some crazy stunt. Years ago, he let Jack try his paintball gun out on him while wearing just a t-shirt. He had HUGE welts on his back from that.

Canceled Again

2008-12-21T14:05:00.001-08:00

Yes, church was canceled again. This time I think it was a little more justified. It snowed most of the day yesterday. It is a little hard to tell how much we really got because it was windy all day also. As you can see from the pictures we have big snow drifts in the back yard. The front yard is the same. We have places were we can still see the grass but it is so piled up on the front porch that we can barely get the front screen door open. Early this morning the freezing rain started. So now we have a thin layer of ice covered everything including the snow. The dogs have had a fun time playing in it. They don't seem to like the cold. They only like to be out for a few minutes & then they are ready for their warm cozy inside beds. Can you say "spoiled"???

"Church is canceled"

2008-12-14T11:29:00.000-08:00

I woke up this morning to a little bit of the white stuff. Wasn't surprised because they have been talking on the news about the impending snow for 2 days. It wasn't snowing very much..I could still see green grass... so I proceed to get ready for church. Just as I am getting ready to get my dress on the phone rings. It was my visting teaching partner calling to tell me that church has been canceled. Really??? It made me laugh. Portlander's don't deal with snow very well. Everything shuts down at the first sign of a flake. Anyway, I made a phone call to my visiting teachee and we both had a good laugh about it. Then the home teacher called. While I was on the phone with him I took another look out the window. This is what I saw....

A Blizzard!!! It is suppose to snow off & on all day with high winds from the Gorge. Needless to say, the grass is now covered. But still not a "ton" of snow. Still makes me laugh.

Milo is very interested in the snow but everytime there was a wind gust he would come racing back into the sunporch....it was funny.

Thanksgiving

2008-12-05T17:03:00.000-08:00

Paige, Doug, and kids made their way to Oregon for the Thanksgiving holiday. We had a great visit with tons of yummy Thanksgiving food.

Here is Jack preparing the 2 turkeys for frying. YUM!!!

Then Jack putting the 1st turkey in the fryer. The fried turkeys are great. They take no time to cook and are really yummy and moist. And also frees your oven up for other cooking.

Here are the kids ready to eat our feast. We had fried turkey, ham...both because the 2 turkeys were small...fryer can only hold a 10 lb turkey, along with funeral potatoes, sweet potato cassarole, Paige's homemade rolls, raspberry preztel salad (it was my favorite...and the kids too...it was the only thing I didn't have leftovers of on friday), cranberry sauce...from scratch..no canned stuff at our house...stuffing, and broccoli. All SO good!!!

We were greatful that Paige & Doug could come visit. We had a fun time & were so glad to have them.

Another Four-Wheeling Trip

2008-11-08T07:46:00.000-08:00

Yesterday, we went four-wheeling in the Tillamonk State Forest with 3 of Jack's co-workers. We have had some pretty wet days over the last 2 weeks so it was a muddy trip but luckily it didn't really rain too much yesterday. Mostly just drizzled. And it wasn't really too cold either.

As we were driving down one of the trails we came across this little off shoot of a trail that was super muddy with lots of big holes but no rocks. Jack decided that he wanted to try it. I was in the truck the first time he tried and then got out to video the next 5 or 6 attempts. He ended up not making it up. It was so muddy and there was this huge hole he couldn't get past. By the last try the tires were so caked with mud you couldn't hardly see the tread on the tire and it was so slick that the tires were just sliding along the ground when he put it in reverse. We had chunks of mud flying all over when we got back on the gravel trail.

After lunch, we tried to find the Rock Garden trail (see the first video of The Beast) but we had a hard time finding it but we did come across a trail called "The Waterfall". The trails are each assigned a difficulty rating, like snow sking trails, with blue being the easist and triple black diamond being the hardest. Well, The Waterfall is a double black diamond. At the top of the trail we stopped to check it out (we didn't know what trail it was and the difficulty level because the maker was at the bottom and we were at the top) mostly to see if 2 of the stock rigs we were with could make it down. We quickly figured out that those 2 rigs would NEVER make it down but Jack thought "The Beast" could and that his buddy John could make it down in his Toyota. So they took a shot at it. I opted to be the vidoegrapher for this run. I think I would have wet my pants if I had been in the truck!!! It scared me just to watch. Maybe next time I will be brave enough to ride along. Jack of course had a BLAST!!!

Waterfall Part 1

Waterfall Part 2

We ended the day with lots of mud on The Beast and a couple new dents...can you see the new ones? It was a good day!

Jack's Mosaic

2008-10-20T18:43:00.001-07:00

I decided Jack needed a mosaic also. Same questions...some different answers, a couple the same. Can you guess which ones?

Melanie's Mosaic

2008-10-19T19:18:00.001-07:00

My creation
Originally uploaded by blazer713

I saw this Mosaic idea on another blog. I thought it was fun so I did one for myself.

Each box answers a question about myself. Do you know the answer?

1. What is your first name?

2. What is your favorite food?

3. What high school did you attend?

4. What is your favorite color?

5. Who is your celebrity crush?

6. Favorite drink?

7. Dream vacation?

8. Favorite desert?

9. What do you want to be when you grow up?

10. What do you love most in life?

11. One word to descibe you?

12. Your flickr name?

2008-10-11T22:11:00.000-07:00

Milo has always had this thing for flying bugs. When he is outside he loves to chase them and catch them in his mouth. The problem w/ this is he doesn't know that some bugs "bit" back. He has gotten stung on a few occasions. We like to tease him when he is in the house and ask him where the bug is. He always searchs for it flying above his head and gets frustrated when he can't find it..thus the whining. He is a funny dog!

My lastest project

2008-10-11T21:30:00.001-07:00

So I spent all summer doing crafts to sell at the local farmers market. Now that I am done w/ that I decided I wanted to do something for myself. I bought material almost a year ago to make a new scripture bag so I decided that it was about time I got it done. I spent the last 3 evenings cutting, pinning, and sewing it together. When I haven't sewn for a long time, I forget how much I enjoy it. And I am sure I would be much better at it if I did it more often. Anyway, I think my bag turned out pretty cute. I can't wait to take it to church tomorrow!!

well vacation wasn't a total bust

2008-10-01T11:29:00.000-07:00

We were all excited to going to Moab for the Blazer Bash but the new old car aka "The Beast" had different plans. We got to mom & dad's and discovered transmission fluid all over the back of our car due to a leak. One night at mom & dads turned into 3 nights...thanks for letting us stay longer then planned. Four days & $600 later we headed back home. We weren't going to chance getting stuck in the middle of nowhere on the way to Utah, as much as Keith wanted us to still come down, we just couldn't do it. There will be other Blazer Bashes.

So we adjusted our vacation plans. We spent a few days at home staying up late & sleeping in.

Then we went to the beach for a couple of days. It ended up being beautiful in Lincoln City...it was sunny, a little windy with just a bit of a chill in the air. We took a walk on the beach and then watched the sun set from the balcony of our room. While the sun was setting we watched a kid surfing...you don't see much of that in Oregon!!

I took this picture on my morning walk on the beach. It was another beatiful day and since it is now off season there weren't too many people around.

On our way home from the beach, we stopped at the oldest covered bridge in Oregon. It is located on private property but the owners welcome people to see it. The owners saved the bridge from be destroyed by the county. The county gave them the disassembled bridge and then they rebuilt it on an exsisting concrete bridge that crossed a creek on their property. It was a beatiful piece of Oregon history.

After the beach, Jack spent a couple of days working on the beast so that we could take it out 4-wheeling. We went out to Browns Camp which in the coastal range on the way to Tillamonk. We got lucky with the weather again and had another beautiful day in Oregon. It was sunny and warm!! And with the beautiful weather we got breathtaking views of the mountains. We are so lucky to live in such a beautiful state and live so close to the mountains and the beach. We had a GREAT time!!! I can't wait to go again.We totally didn't fit under this tree, lucky for us there was a alternate trail that took us around the fall tree, although that wasn't always the case.

As you can see here, we added a few new scraps to the truck...you can almost see the orignal red paint... and even brought some tree along w/ us.

We got the truck in couple of really tight spots. There were a couple of times that I really thought that we were not going to get through the maze of trees. At one point Jack told me to get out and guide him through a tough spot on the trail. I was really bad at it. I couldn't see anyway of getting the truck past these 2 trees. Thank goodness we had a couple of guys w/ us that knew how to get big trucks out of tight spots.

We decided that our vacation started out bad but it ended with a great time together with friends out in the wilderness of the beautiful state that we live in. It was all GOOD!!

4wheeling

2008-09-12T18:23:00.000-07:00

I went 4-wheeling...made Melanie go to work. (hehe).

This was actually work for me, I wasnt playing around...It was the official test run for the truck...everything went great...didnt get stuck and nothing broke..I repeat...it was not any fun

more pics...check out the mad flex

here's a vid of how I roll

Today pickin's

2008-09-06T17:48:00.000-07:00

This is what I got out of the garden today. Not nearly as impressive as Paige's picture of her veggies but I say it isn't too bad for an experiment in a couple of 1/2 wine barrels. The tomatoes are really starting to come on now and we will soon have TONS of carrots. The one lone strawberry is a second crop for the year...i have a few more that still need to ripen. We should have a good crop of strawberries next season. We also planted yellow peppers & cucumbers. We have one cucumber plant that is barely holding on. The other cucumber and the yellow pepper plant were destroyed early on by Allie. I was working out in the yard one day and I apparently wasn't paying enough attention to her so she started eating my plants. I hear this tearing noise and when I turn around I see her shredding one of the leaves to the pepper plant and all that was left of the plant was one lone stem sticking out of th dirt. I hoped it would recover but it didn't. She did the same thing on a different day to the cucumber plant. Gotta watch her like a hawk. Last night both Milo and Allie were trying to eat the green tomatoes that were growing over the fence. I had to scold them both several times and then I finally just moved the braches so that they were out of their reach.

The Princess and the Pea...the dog version.

2008-09-02T11:26:00.001-07:00

When Allie was a puppy she slept on the bed with us everynight. It started from the first night we got her. It was the only way to keep her from whining all night long for the first few nights and it just became how it was. It was Allie's favorite place to be.

We tried to put a stop to Allie sleeping on the bed. One thing we tried was moving the dog kennel into the room. We made Allie start out in the kennel but she always ended up on the bed sometime in the night. Then it got to the point that she figured out she had to start out in the kennel but we would let her finish the night off on the bed. Well, she would very obediently get in the kennel at bed time but even before we had the light out she would try to get on the bed. Smart little bugger!! Well then Milo came along and Allie was bigger. The bed got a little crowded and we knew that would only get worse since we knew Milo would be big guy. So we tried to put a stop to dogs sleeping on the bed. We did pretty good. Milo didn't care whether he was on the bed or not. The kennel was fine for him...although he looks pretty "comfy" in this picture. But it was still Allie's favorite place to be.

I took these pictures of Allie a few weeks ago...After all of these years and all of our attempts to break the habit...Allie's favorite place to be is still on the bed.

And you see no Milo...he still could give of take the bed. These days he likes to sleep on one of several dog beds we have around the house.

The new toy

2008-08-27T12:44:00.001-07:00

So here it is...the new toy...which I will be calling "The Beast" It is pretty rough on the outside..the only part of the body that doesn't have a dent in it is the hood and isn't the paint job attractive? I guess it will make for easy repairs to the paint job...just grab some spray paint. One really cool thing about it is the top. The back part is a soft top and it comes off but it has a bikini top underneath so you get the effects of a covertible but can still be out of the sun. Fun!!! I am sure there are other really cools things about it but I don't have any idea about that stuff. Jack will have to do a follow up post to explain all of the in's and out's. But apparently it has tons of great 4-wheeling parts. The people we bought it from built it from a stock GMC Jimmy. They showed us pictures of its transition and told us lots of stories of the great times they had in it. I felt like we were taking a member of their family from them.

Jack is currently trying to plan a time with friends to go out & test it out on some serious off road trails. If it is passes (which am sure it will...you should have seen the pictures of some of the places this thing has been...amazing!!)and it continues to do well as a daily driver for Jack, we will be taking it to Moab for the "Blazer Bash"...that is Blazer as in the truck not the name. Can't wait to go. Jack's brother went last year and had a great time so we are looking forward to the trip.

An afternoon of fishing

2008-08-23T17:54:00.000-07:00

We have tried to get out fishing some this summer...it is hard sometimes to get away w/ work schedules, weird weather, and projects around the house. A few weeks ago we took a drive up to Lake Harriet which is a small lake in the Mt Hood National forest.

We picked an excellent day to go. It was a hot & dry in the city and it was cool & quiet in the mountains. Since it was a weekday afternoon we had the run of the lake for quit a few hours.

Jack, being the master fisherman that he is caught TONS of fish. He even caught a couple using a spinner...the lake is stocked several times a year by the Oregon Dept of Wildlife w/ farm raised fish so they tend to be lazy and only like eggs. I, on the other hand, fed the fish a lot of eggs and ended up only catching one...but I swear it was the biggest of them all!!!

Really, the fish was "this" big!!

Dog play

2008-08-19T00:02:00.000-07:00

So tonight when I went out to feed the dogs, Milo was all about playing fetch...which is very unlike him. Allie is usually the one that is right there at your feet w/ whatever toy, no matter the condition, she has found. I had left the slider open. Allie grabbed her chewed up frisbee & headed straight through the slider & up the stairs. And there she stayed while I threw the frisbee for Milo. It was the strangest thing. Milo was very funny about playing fetch. The sunporch has three sliders and all three were open...it has been really hot here...for better air circulation, so Milo would come running full speed through one slider w/ his frisbee, of course, run across the sun-porch, still at full speed w/ frisbee in his mouth and then out the other side. He would quickly turn the corner so he didn't bust through the fence into the neighbors yard then circle around the outside of the sun-porch and back in through the third door. Again all at full speed. It was a little nuts. He is nuts! Just the other night he came running in from his 2 a.m. potty break and ran right into the closed slider. I heard the crash clear on the other side of the house. I thought for sure that either Milo or the slider was broken but both were fine. Apparently, he thought Jack had left the slider open even though Jack never leaves it open. Crazy dog!!

And here he is all settled down chewing on his frisbee after his play session. Finally, all calmed down.

New Roof

2008-08-16T21:37:00.000-07:00

So we recently had our roof redone. Exciting stuff!!! I had never seen it done so I was very fascinated by the "process". First they scraped off all of the old shingles into this big truck they brought. Lots of pounding & scraping noises came along w/ this. Some of the pounding even knocked loose one of my light covers...luckily it landed on carpet & not on the hard wood floors so it didn't break.

This is the truck when they first got started. I think it was pretty full by the end.

These are the singles! The picture below was the workers unloading the shingles from the truck onto the roof.

Once they got the old singles off they started putting on the new ones.

They worked long & hard the first day & got the main part of the roof completely done, including rebuilding the frame for the sky light that is in living room so that it won't leak this winter...that was one of the main reasons we had to have this done. They came back bright & early the next day & did the roof on the sunporch & a little section of the back garage. All done in 2 days! It was great. Thanks to our neighbor Steve for getting the job done for us!

The first entry

2008-08-12T13:43:00.000-07:00

So we have finally done it...created a blog. I have been following my sisters & their friends blogs for a few weeks now. I have loved seeing all of the pictures & being able to keep up w/ what it going on with everyone. It is nice to see lots pictures of my neices & nephews since they don't live close. We have had lots going on here so I will have some stuff to post and hopefully will be diligent about keeping up w/ it. Wish me luck!