Milestones

John and I are celebrating 17 years of marriage today.  Yeah!!  Every year John sends me a rose for every year of marriage.  The tradition started with the gift of a beautiful vase that we have now outgrown. 17 years...wow.  That's a lot of roses!!  We were planning on stealing away for some camping and hiking for the weekend near Wenatchee, but John threw his back out and we ended up postponing the adventure until he could walk (an important part of hiking).   

Another important event - it seems that we have found Megan a horse.  After years and years of pleading, crying and begging we have finally made the leap (excuse the pun).  So it seems that in addition the all the kids I'm hauling around - I will learn how to haul a horse around, too!!  Her name is Rosie and she is a beautiful Red roan and seems to have enough spunk to keep our spunky Megan busy.

Family Bonding

We finally took a family vacation to Sandpoint, Idaho in July.  With the help of the "stick of negativity" that John employed on kids that were less than happy (you know...."beatings will continue until morale improves") we had a marvelous time.  We rented a home that was advertised as 200 yards away from Bottle Bay...hmmm...not quite the truth.  The house itself was pretty plain - but had a most memorable characteristic....the smell!!  A combination of 100 year old mold, Marlboro smoke and tacos!!  Yum!   The first day we spent the day at Silverwood, which is an amusement park with rides, shows and a waterpark.  The kids had a fabulous time.  We arrived at opening and left as they were locking the gates at 10pm.  The rollercoasters were the highlight of the day.  Emma won the prize as the most daring 5 year old around and went on a few sizeable coasters.  She said "It felt like I was falling and it was really scary, but then I liked it!"  Well put...   The next day we parked our fannies on the beach in Sandpoint.  Sitting on a beach all day is pure luxury.  The kids played in the sand and ate ice cream.  Another highlight was when Derek and I got scolded by the lifeguard with her all powerful bullhorn for having a good old fashion shoving match on the swim dock...hee hee!!  The last day there was my favorite (the kids all claimed that Silverwood won their vote).  We rented a ski boat and tube and spent the day on Lake Pend Orielle.  The kids had a blast on the tube and swimming in the lake.  The pinacle of day was when I took the helm with John on the tube and drove a little too fast...oops...and sent John sailing across the lake.  No worries though...Derek drove the boat later with me on the tube and got revenge for his beloved father. Later that night we had a great meal on the resort on the lake and made it back to the smelly house just in time for a magnificent lightening storm to roll through which knocked out our power.   We all piled into the living room and pulled the blinds and watched the storm, with our only source of light being Derek's IPOD.   A nice memory... 

4th of July

4th of July is great!  This year we spent the 4th in Portland with Travis, Mindy and their brood.  Little Brynley was being blessed.  She is such a delicious little chunk!!  We were excited to be able to be part of the event.  On the 4th we had a great BBQ and curbside fireworks (thank you Grandpa).  Luckily we didn't start any forest fires.   The night concluded at the firepit with smores and some good old fashion Grandpa ghost stories.