Wednesday, September 22, 2010

Sore

Some of you are aware that I have been walking for years. I have added other things here and there because I need to but I can't seem to keep doing them. A friend of mine told me about a boot camp that some ladies go to in my area so I went and wow, what a work out.

Lunges, skipping, grape vine, jumping jacks, sprints, jogging, walking, running the bleachers, weights, planks, crunches......the list goes on and on. Every day something different, three times a week. I am sore!

Tuesday, September 21, 2010

Bones

In a previous post I mentioned that we watch a lot of TV. We also love Netflix instant play. I like to watch past episodes of different series and watch all the way to the present if I can. One of the many series I am at the moment hooked on is Bones.

I am now on season three and so far I really like it. Why you ask, well Temperance Brennen makes me laugh. I like it for her honesty, She just tells it like it is. I think the world would be a better place if people could just be honest. I will say that I don't agree with everything she says or does and I like other characters but she definitely makes the show more interesting to me.

Now before you start worrying that I am wasting too much time, let me reassure you that I am not just watching TV, I am crafting at the same time and of course eating ;-)

Monday, September 20, 2010

Highlights summer 2010/ Parents 50th and Family Reunion

On June 29th, around 4 in the morning, Me, Jackie, Tayler and Emma headed to Angels Camp, California. It was a long day and a little scary especially when we were in Eugene, Oregon and our GPS started doing weird stuff and telling us to exit in places there weren't any exits and then kept "recalculating" for miles and miles, luckily I had a map and it was a pretty straight run for us.

The moaning cavern was close to the resort so we went to check it out. I had a good time. It was fun to be there with family. I forgot how scary a dark cave can be to little kids. Heidi's kids handled it very well and we all had a good time.

Cute picture of Emma and Kara!
We all took a day and drove to Yosemite National Park. There was this rock that had to be conquered.
Yosemite falls was awesome! I wish I could remember numbers to wow you all but I can't just believe me it was gorgeous.
Chance and Jaxon had to conquer this rock. It was a day full of conquering :)
Emma, Jackie and Marc up close to the fall. I couldn't believe how wet we got just standing at the base of the falls.
Emma and Jackie close to the Yosemite falls.
This is us walking to a lake, I think mirror lake. It was hot and muggy but we all had a good time. Below my Dad and Judy enjoying the freezing water.
At Yosemite there were so many huge mountains with big bare rock faces and the one called El Capitan was on Jackie's picture taking list so every mountain I saw I would say "Look El Capitan" Jackie didn't think it was funny and I am sure nobody else will find it funny but I was amused so I am sharing. (Pictured below not El capitan)

In the picture below is a brown bear out in the meadow, hard to see but it was a highlight of Yosemite.
Kellie, Tayler, Chance, Cody, Jaxon, Emma, and Kara. The 7 musketeers.....they ran around all over the place together.
Alyssa, Jackie, Katie and Ashlee.....Don't know where Cortnee or Krissie are but they had a fun time together.
We were in the famous Calavares county (The jumping frog of Calaveres county by Mark Twain). There were frogs everywhere. On the sidewalks there were squares with a year and the world record length the frog had jumped. One of the world records was 0 feet 0 inches, I thought that was funny.
Josie, Emma, Amanda, Kara at the parade on the 4th of July.
Lora and Emma at the resort.
On our last Monday in California, we all got together and had a Family Home Evening. We had so much fun in California, I always have such a good time with my family and the kids just love their cousins. It was so much fun and the fact that we were there to celebrate my parents being married for 50 years made it even better.

Highlights summer 2010/ Wilson River and Saddle Mountain

On the way to the coast you can see a river. People are playing in the water and look like they are having so much fun. So I had added floating down the Wilson river to my things I want to do list. Sid called and asked if we would like to go so off we went. The water was so cold but it was hot that day so it made it very enjoyable. It was a nice break from the massive amounts of TV watching and facebooking that had consumed most of my children's summer.





Another thing that has been on my to do list was to hike Saddle Mountain. I didn't want to go alone and sometimes it is hard to get my family to leave the comforts of home (i.e the computer and TV) and go venturing in the great outdoors with me......so I used my Birthday to make them all feel like they needed to say yes when I know deep deep down they all wanted to say no. So the day after my birthday Me, Emma, her friend Hannah, and Tayler went hiking :)
This is us on top of the mountain, we should have been able to see the ocean but alas we didn't. I think we saw the Columbia river and Astoria but there weren't any signs telling us what we were seeing so I am just guessing. It was a beautiful hike, I hear it is spectacular in the spring, so I guess I will have to go back and do this hike again. Next time I will drag the rest of the family along.

Highlights summer 2010/ Ape caves and Lava Canyon

We were invited to go to the Ape caves and Lava Canyon on Labor day. Tayler had hiked the ape caves years ago and has told us repeatedly that we needed to go so when we were invited we jumped at the chance. The picture above is us coming out of the cave and the one below is us before we went into the cave. It was interesting no tour guide and lots of climbing over sharp rocks but cool. We went with the Steele family and the Cutright family.

A good friend of mine told me to go to Lava Canyon while we were there. The force behind a volcanic eruption is amazing! We were very close to Mt. St. Helens.
There were signs like this all over the place.......Look below and you will see two crazy men that did not stay on the trails.....I think I won't say anymore about that.



The suspension bridge at Lava canyon was fun, kinda scary but made the trip exciting. Need to go back when it isn't so cold.