2012 DEER HUNTING

The deer Kim and I got, I was to embarrassed to be seen in the picture, hopefully something a little larger come elk season.

Kristal's husband was kind enough to allow me the "pleasure" of gutting, not so fun, plus that bladder is tricky!

Might as well continue with the life lessons, I was also blessed to be able to skin the sucker, FUN!

Last I got to help with the butchering (we are having ours done professionally thank goodness).

All in all a good weekend, hoping to get something nice come elk season, maybe something I will jump in the picture with!!

 

A couple of fun things that we've done lately.  (I'll leave out the dental surgery & the fact our family car was totalled - life is GREAT!)

                 We're working on the back yard.  Had fun doing the fire ring - idea from Pinctrus (sp?)  and       modified by Goodie, Luke, and the grunt (me).  Thanks for the help - I'll post more on finishing.
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We've also been watching a humming bird nest in our back yard.  Bree's interest in this got me going again.  I LOVE humming birds!  They're SO fascinating!  250 bpm heart rate at rest, over 1200 bpm in flight; can eat 1/2 to 8 times their weight every day! (and it's all SUGAR!! wouldn't that be great?!)  They visit over 1000 flowers a day and can remember EACH one - they know how long each flower takes to fill up again.  Super smart - largest brain and smallest body in bird family.  They're only found in the Americas naturally - Chile to Alaska.  Lay 2 eggs (we saw this, thanks Bree!) - baby birds will weight twice as much as the mother when they're ready to leave the nest (she gets FRAZZLED feeding and caring for them - sound familiar??).  I could go on & on, sorry.  Yep, were getting a feeder or two.  Here are the pics:

   The nest next to my thumb - size is amazing!  Nest is made up of bottle brush fibers, mother's feathers, spider lichen, and poop. 2 babies, laying end to end opposite of each other.

   Here's the two little guys almost ready to leave the nest.

Mom feeding her babies.  Is this cool or what?!!  They've left now :(

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We made a quick trip to Oregon to pick up the Caddy & spend time with Drew and Kim.  Had fun as usual.  It was cold - doors were frozen on the Caddy when we got ready to go on Saturday morning.  Oh, Mom & I bought a truck - probably one of the dumbest things we've ever done, but it was sure fun driving from Redmond to Kim & Drew's!  (Except when Mom suddenly stopped to look at a motorcyle and I almost plowed into the caddy - that would have been interesting!).  Here's the truck (love the purple!):


Yes, that's ICE on the windshield!

 We may never get it home to California (sorry Kim, you can use it for a planter, maybe), but the thought was fun.  Good trip home from Bend.  We appreciate all you do for us.  Dad.

Bathroom Remodel

 Gutting the bathroom.

 I don't even want to know what nasty stuff Dad was scrapping off the floor.  It looked DISGUSTING!!

 Barbie and Mom fighting over room in the bathroom so they could get it painted quickly.

 Dad created this awesome border that separates the paint from our handprints.

 Finished project

Mom and Dad got a sink that is only like 6-10 inches wide and it makes the bathroom look HUGE.  The end result was awesome.  So stylish and modern.  I love the colors and the tile backsplash and borders are very soothing.  Great work family!

Beach Trip May 5, 2012

 Skim board pros.

 Sun bathing beauties

 Trini's muscle shirt pose 

 Not sure what she was reading, but she was engrossed!

What a great weekend we had together!  Thanks everyone for coming and playing!  I am so thankful that we have such an amazing family.  I love spending time with all of you and am grateful for the closeness we share.

Sea World May 4, 2012

Lots of pics...Most of you were already there so not many words will follow.

 Eleanor just being super cute like she always is.

 Trini and Aslynn were convinced the turtle was stuck.  Luckily he started to move before we finished watching him.

 Barb watching the belugas with a sleeping Eleanor.  Barb was super cute in her new hat!

 Eleanor loved this tortoise.  She would have stayed and played with it all day long if we had let her.

 Ella watching the seals with Uncle Drew and Aunt Kim

 Group shot of the family watching the seals.  We just missed feeding time.

Barbie and Trini

 Doug and Sadie 

 Aslynn and Matthew

 Matthew and Aslynn

 Drew and Kim

 Watching the belugas from above (I think)

 Polar bears-he wasn't very interesting this year...

 Checking out the Atlantis shot before committing to riding the ride.

 No we didn't plan to dress a like, we are just cool like that.

 Trini having a blast rolling down the hill.

 Watching the killer whales.

 I love this with Shamu being what everyone is looking at.  This is my favorite shot from the day!

 The girls were super cute seeing all of the different sea creatures.  They were absolutely fascinated.

 Barbie and Aslynn watching the Shamu show.

 Note to self next time don't sit in the soak zone if you don't want to get wet.  Most of the group didn't move fast enough to avoid the waves...

 Michelle got drenched!

Drew walked away mid picture.  Most everyone got super wet.  Thankfully Barb, Z, and I moved out of the way in enough time to avoid getting soaked.  Michelle, Drew, and Kim I think got it the worst.

It was a great day!!  Thanks everyone for coming out and having fun.