Together again

It's been a few years since we have all been over to Grandpa Neal's house all at the same time, meaning both Toby, his brother Scott, us wives and kids. This year Melissa and I made sure it happened and I think it was one of the best Christmas present we could have given him and ourselves. It was nice to get together and catch up. It seems like life passes by faster than the speed of light these days and taking the time to slow down and make time for those we love and cherish is so important. We made taco's for dinner and enjoyed homemade almond roca and caramel corn for dessert. Hopefully we can make this an annual trip out to NP or even better, bi-annually. These are all special people in our lives and love every moment we get to spend with them!

Merry Christmas to all!!

As you may have noticed we did not get cards out this year and I apologize for being a slacker. I am hoping to be back on top of things by next December :-) After all, it's just right around the corner.

This year was my first year off work in the past 4 or 5 years and we enjoyed every moment of it in LG with my family. We spent Christmas eve at my Aunt Maxine and Uncle Vic's home and always enjoy time with them. Their home brings back wonderful childhood memories for me. After sharing stories and laughs and stuffing ourselves with Chili and bread we went headed home to open the "Christmas eve jammies". Then we got back in the car and drove around town rocking out to Christmas music and looking at the beautiful lights. It always amazes me how much effort people put into their lights and decorations. Some beautiful, and some grizwaldy, but all fun to look at. So a huge thank you to those who took the time to decorate their houses for us to enjoy this Christmas season.

The next morning we were awakened by Lex at 5:57 informing us Santa did indeed come and left all sorts of stuff in our stockings. I think we were all out of bed by 7am enjoying the gifts the big red man graciously brought for us. The rest of the day we enjoyed my parents Christmas program at church, opening gifts and spending time with grandmas and grandpas and nieces and nephews. We all had a wonderful Christmas and loved all the gifts we were given and time spent together. The kids received kindles from Santa and are excited to start getting books for them. They also got bean bags, clothes, and new basketball bags from mom and dad, a guitar, wii game, candy, gift cards,and other fun stuff from grandparents. They were very grateful for all their gifts and for time with their cousins and grandparents. Another Christmas has come and gone and although I enjoy them, they unfortunately seem to come quicker and quicker each year. I have searched for ways to slow down time, but haven't come up with anything yet. If you have any ideas please let me know. Until then......

We Wish You All A Happy 2012!!

Coach Toby

A week ago Tuesday, Tob was loitering at one of the high school basketball games when the Superintendent of the school came up to him, introduced himself and promptly asked him if he would like to coach the JV boys basketball team. Tob still had the "deer in the headlights" look the next morning as he told me about the offer. We discussed the pro's and con's and he quickly accepted the position the next morning. It's been a fast paced week and a half with early morning practices and his first tournament this past weekend. It looks like all his (i mean our) weekends are booked now through March but that's ok. I may be a little prejudice but Toby is the guy that always puts 110% into everything he does (well, maybe not the dishes, but most things anyway), he loves basketball, he is so patient, a great teacher, and really cares about the kids.....and that is why he's going to be the do a great job!!

The winter hunt........

.......Christmas tree hunt, that is!

Hunting always includes playing too. A little snow skating, sledding, and snowball throwing. We indulged in hot cocoa, and snacks. The only thing missing in my opinion was a bon fire (next year I suppose)

The kids help packed the extra branches for the wreath, although they struggled a bit with the actual delivery of them back to the truck.

We found a not so full but beautiful white fir this year.

and most importantly shared the adventure with great friends!
We just got the tree put up tonight and I have to say......
"It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas"

Time to eat!!

Myah and I completed Kiley's virtual Thanksgiving 5K this morning! We ran 3.87 miles in 37 minutes. The weather was ideal in the 40's with sunshine and no wind. It actually became t-shirt weather about 1/2 way through the run. I attached the bib to my running partner which reads "can I eat now?" but she was more interested in the fox that ran by at that moment. Now it's time to shower, watch some football, cook some food, and eat! Happy thanksgiving to all!

To one of my best friends.....

on one of the most memorable, beautiful days of her life!

Yesterday on November 6, 2011 Sandy and Karl officially tied the knot . I was honored to be able to spend the day with her helping get her ready for the big moment when they said I do.

I am glad they found each other and are truly a perfect match!

After the ceremony the festivities began. Nojah wasn't brave enough to get up and dance but Alexyss couldn't get enough of it. She danced with dad.....

She danced with mom......

and then she kicked off her shoes and just danced. After 4 solid hours of dancing she fell asleep on the way home and slept hard that night.
Congratulations to Sandy and Karl, it couldn't have been a more perfect day! I love you guys!

Climbing Chief Joseph with the girls.....

Thursday morning the 3 of us girls headed out for what would most likely be our last peak of the season, Chief Joseph, overlooking all of Wallowa county. It was in the mid 30's but it didn't really feel cold until we reached the summit at 9600+ ft. Over all it was a great day. Took us about 6 hours round trip and I got to hang out with 2 great friends. One whom's getting married tomorrow and the other who's been in Africa the past year! I love my friends, I love climbing mountains, I love beautiful views, good laughs, the pain after a great hike and the memories it leaves behind! Now bring on the snow!!

OSU vs UOU

This past weekend we made a "quick" trip to Salt Lake City (if you can use quick and SLC in the same sentence) to watch Toby and Lexy's beloved Beavers play some football. Unfortunately it was a terrible game on the Beavers part, but the whole college game experience was worth the trip. We drove down on Friday, shopped a little on Saturday and then went to the game. Afterword we drove until midnight to get us part way home, slept 6 hours and got up to continue driving since I had to work Sunday night. I believe we rolled into the driveway about 3pm.

Since it was a impromptu trip we weren't prepared with all sorts of beaver gear, so we did the best we could with what we had to support the beaves. Lucky for us it was Halloween weekend and orange and black happen to be popular colors for this holiday.

Well, some of us did what we could to support the beaves, others wore their ducks sweatshirt and was BOOed by the many beaver fans! Nojah was good about clapping for the beavers since they were indeed an Oregon team, however there sadly wasn't much to clap about this game. Hoping for a better year next year for them....

To add to the weekend of fun, I was snack mom for BOTH the 6th grade and 4th grade classes and whipped out haystack creatures (with my lovely husbands help), popcorn balls and provided peanuts and punch all with a mere 4 glorious hours of sleep and a few inadequate cat naps in a 24 hour period :-) I had to work Halloween night and was bad about getting picture of my kids but Lex was a dead bridesmaid and then I think she became a dead Dorothy with her dog toto, anyway she was something dead :-) and Nojah was a monkey! Both had fun trick or treating and are still munching on candy and sharing generously with mom and dad.

Slacker....

I have been a terrible blogger lately. I sometimes wish I could say it's because we lead a slow, boring not so interesting life and have nothing to share, but that's not it at all. The past couple weeks has been full of nightly football and soccer games, as well as work, and the weekends filled with out of town bachelorette parties, out of state hunting, and classes.

Tob has been in Idaho hunting with 4 of his friends the past 10 days and although he didn't come home with his own prize, they filled 4/6 of their tags and had a great time. He got home last night and spent a couple hours sharing stories and pictures. I am pretty sure he won't write and share his own stories, but I can at least share his pictures :-)

He spent most of his time outside of Stanley Idaho hiking in some steep country at elevations of 8000-9500ft where he saw a LOT of big bucks and quite a few bull elk.

He hung out with other boys in camo with guns. A group of guys who all became friends working as firefighters together on the Hotshot crew. Guys who are now spred out over 2 states and don't get to hang out often enough.

The temps were cold (low teens to 30's), sometimes with blue skies and other times with rain, snow and fog. Tob recalls not being able to drink water until about 10 or 11 in the morning because it was still frozen.

But those nights that they got in to camp before 2am they were able to enjoy stew and other warm meals cooked over coals in the dutch oven.

While out and about there was no lack of animal tracks. After noticing some spooked elk he noticed some fairly large wolf tracks that had been above them. Among wolf tracks they saw signs of cougars, bears, elk, and deer. Tob did have a wolf tag but never actually saw a live one to shoot.

However Josh did get a little black bear. Apparently at the time of the shot he was thought to be a monstrous good sized 200lb bear and in reality when they found him, he was more like a child's teddy bear. There are a lot of great picture of Josh with his trophy and they had a lot of good laughs as well. But 2 bulls, 1 buck, and a bear wasn't bad for the group and they hope to go back next year! Tob may not have brought home a cougar, wolf, bear, elk or deer but he did bring home 4 FREE tickets from his buddy Randy to a OSU vs UOU game next Saturday in SLC so we instead of a soccer jamboree and an otherwise quiet weekend at home we are off again. I will hold off on the bachelorette pictures for now but 6 of us girls went to Boise last weekend for a girls night out and Miranda Lambert concert. We had a great time and I look for watching one of my best friends Sandy, marry a great guy 2 weekend from now :-)

A little inspirational/motivational giveaway!

I am needing a little motivation and REALLY want to win one of Kiley's running videos She's having a GIVEAWAY and I am hoping to win. Check it out if you are in need of a little motivation and inspiration yourself, win the movies and then we can share ;-)


UPDATE: I WON, THANK YOU KILEY. LOOKING FORWARD TO WATCHING THEM. YOU'RE AWESOME!!

Chicken 4-H

Meet one of the newest members of the chicks-n-buns 4-H group.

We transported flower in the cat carrier to the school library for the kids first meeting this evening. I didn't do 4-H as a child so this is all new to me, and even though it looks like a lot of work, I think it's going to be a lot of fun! The kids range from 4th grade to seniors in high school. Some of the kids in the group brought their bunnies and a few, their chickens. I hear at the upcoming meetings we can expect ducks, turkeys, and guinea pigs to add to the excitement. The kids and parents will learn the anatomy of their animals, how to handle them, show them, take care of them, know their breeds, diseases and everything and anything else there is to know by the time we are done with this!
Also to add to the fun the kids have to know both chickens and rabbits and be able to show both as well.

In preparation for Flower's first big debut, Lex wanted to bathe her, and so we did! We started with a tub of warm water and a wash cloth and used mild dog soap on her, washing her the best we could. I have to admit I was not impressed with our work, but we learned a few tricks at 4-H and will do better next time I am sure.

After her bath, Lex snuggled her in a towel for a bit.

Then proceeded to blow dry her feathers. She really didn't seem to mind any of it. I have to say she's a pretty laid back chick! The drying process is SLOW, thus, she will be hoteling up in the cat's crate tonight because she's still mildly damp and it's too cold outside. I'm sure she has enjoyed her pampering for the day but will be released back to her coop in the morning. Hopefully she's a sound sleeper.......so I can be too!

My Weekend........

........ consisted of making 18 quarts of applesauce, 7 quarts and 7 pints of peaches, 9 pints of crab apple jelly (which failed due to lack of instruction reading) 4 loaves of zucchini bread to freeze, and mixing up some muffin mix to have on hand. No bike riding, no hiking, no running, not much outdoor time besides picking my apples. Now I am back to work for 3 nights with a pounding headache and exacerbated allergies. Next week 40lbs of pears should be ripened and ready to can, more apples will be picked for apple pie filling and dehydrating in between soccer matches and football games and I think I will make some time for a hike, run, or bike ride or I may go crazy and no-one wants that :-) Hope everyone is enjoying this beautiful fall we are having.

First day with his clarinet.

Nojah started out the school year with a pair of sticks for percussion. He soon realized that percussion may not be all it's cracked up to be and gave up the xylophone and sticks for the clarinet. I think the dog preferred percussion. It is kind of long but the first couple minutes are entertaining.

Where to begin.....

I am pretty far behind on my blog updates so I will try and be short, sweet and to the point. Tob and I's anniversary was August 28th for a whopping 12 years of marital bliss. He got called out on a fire that morning so we didn't have much of a date. This happens most years so it's not out of the norm and I wasn't real surprised. I have to say I love the man and he warned me prior to getting hitched this time of year.

The kids started school a couple days before labor day. Nojah is in 6th grade and Lex in 4th. It's amazing how time flies. It hardly seems fair that they can already be this old. They are great kids and lots of fun to watch grow. Nojah is playing his first year of football and enjoying every moment of it. Lex is playing soccer again and is quite the speed demon. She is becoming more coordinated and turning into quite the athlete. I thought for a moment I had gotten out of coaching this year but the team was too big so now I am committed to helping one of the other mom's again this year. It's always fun to coach as long as I get to see Nojah's games as well. I don't want to miss out on anything!

In between homework, sports, school, and chores the kids have been training for their first big triathlon. They signed up with one of our friends kiddo's, Logan who is on the high school swim team and Nojah committed to the biking portion and Lex to running.

Well, the race was today and it was a success. Nojah biked 13 miles and Lex ran 3 both in record time for them. Tob went along side of them due to traffic and it being their first "adult" race and he said they "jibber jabbered" the whole way. After the race I was convinced if they knew how to swim they could have done the whole thing, due to the abundance of energy they each still had. I also did the race and placed 1st in my age group and one of my best friends Sandy placed first overall. She's such a rock-star. It was only 31 degree's on our way up to the lake so I was a little nervous but all turned out well and my feet were almost thawed out at the end of the run! I may consider it again next year, and I think my little rug rats feel the same :-)

(Nojah, Logan, & Lex (team 5) at the Wallowa Lake Triathon)

6 nights 7 days.....

.....of no cell service, no work, no bills to pay, grocery shopping to do, lawns to mow, chores to do, or responsibility to have. It's called camping :-) and I LOVE it! Especially when I am surrounded with my family!

Evening 1 and Day 2

Was all about unpacking camp and the fishing poles, pulling worms apart into small pieces, bating their hooks

and catching fish.

Unfortunately the first couple days we mistaked some of the kids brook trout for the "endangered" bull trout and threw them back. This beauty Makenna is holding got a second chance at life.

If it wasn't for Grandma and her fisher-woman skills we probably wouldn't have been quite as successful :-)

DAY 3

Was all about a day hike up to main eagle meadow, enjoy each others company and introduce my niece the beauty of the wilderness.

On our way up to find bear lake, Lex had collected just enough flowers to do my hair so on our break I got my hair done.

Bear lake. I went ahead and found this lake, completely missing Culver the one we were trying to find but it ended up being a little too much for my niece who hadn't really ever hiked before. Honestly 10 miles was a good day for her and I am really proud of her.

Grandpa found this beautiful little creature in the meadow.

and after several pictures and kids gawking at him, he became quite irritated and urinated on grandpa.

DAY 4

Relaxing, huckleberry picking, bear hunting, and more fishing.

Tob showed up unexpectedly the night before and went bear hunting with Nojah in the morning. He's been working too much lately so it was a nice surprise.

Day 5

I got up early and was to the west eagle trail-head by 7:00am, ready to embark on a 21 + mile looped I had mapped out a couple days before. Since I started early I beat the sunshine up to Echo lake and I must say it was very pleasant.

Another favorite of mine is the beautiful flowers in the Eagle Caps. I am always mesmerized this time of year when they are blooming to the fullest. My pictures don't do them justice and if you would like to be mesmerized as well you must go see them for yourselves.

Two of my favorites, Echo and Traverse lakes.

When Myah and I reached Echo lake we were greeted by an over abundantly friendly somewhat familiar looking dog and it followed us around the lake much to Myah's dismay although I could sense she almost wanted to play with it which was weird. Then a boy from down below us yells "waffles" "Waffles get back here." Uh, believe it or not, I do know a dog named waffles and honestly there couldn't be 2. So when one of my best friend's son came running up the trail to retrieve waffles and told me I had already passed his mom, giving me directions back to camp I was so excited. I ran back to there camp and got to visited for about 15 minutes. I love it when you see your friends unexpectedly almost 6 miles into the wilderness when you're by yourself. However I did forget to get pictures of us in all my excitement and determination to stay on pace. The last time I ran into Dort randomly was at the Huston airport of all places on our way to Guatemala. I guess when you don't see your friends enough good things just happen.

After getting up to Wonker Pass about 9 miles into the journey my dog took off and chased some goats. She caused quite the ruckus trying to be a goat herself causing them to dislodge some ginormous boulders. I actually had to put my hike on hold another 5-10 minutes again to watch the goats and stay clear of the what could have been deadly boulders. They are SUCH amazing creatures to watch and I don't get to see them often so this was another treat.

The rest of the hike was beautiful and I was happy to be hiking through an area I haven't gotten to see before. I ran across 2 guys backpacking and a lady camped near the end of the trip but otherwise was pretty much by myself out there. The trail wasn't maintained for about 7 miles of my trip but we made it ok and hopped over a lot of down tree's. The views were amazing, the lakes beautiful and the solitude was kind of nice as well. My mom was concerned about me of course while I was gone so I didn't take many breaks because I wanted to make sure I made it out on time. It took me between 8-9 hours with an average 24 min mile pace and I made it out before they came to retrieve me.
After I got back and we went to get my car from the other trailhead, I came back to camp and washed up in the creek. I came back up to camp and found my poor dog pooped out from our journey, literally in a fetal position.

The rest of the family fished up and down the creek all day and so we had wonderful trout for dinner that night. A perfect ending to the day :-) YUM.

Day 6

Was another laid back day where we road motorcycles, went for bike ride up to the trail head and played in the river, played wiffle ball and card games.

Grandpa forgot grandma's battery for her motorcycle so we were limited to just grandpa's bike and short rides. The kids each got in 3 rides throughout the trip and loved every moment of it and I even got to go for a ride with my daddy.

DAY 7

Even though I have a million more pictures and I am sure a ton more stories I should just post this and get it done. Day 7 was mostly packing up and cleaning up camp and sulking about having to go home and go back to work.

I don't know if I worked her too hard but she kept stealing the butter. Pretty sure she consumed over 2 lbs while we were gone :-) I guess I won't be surprised if she dies instantly from a heart attack......I wonder what it would look like if a dog had a stroke?.....hmmm.


Anyway, we had a fantastic time, I love my family, wish my husband and brother could have been there, but it was good as it was. Thanks mom and dad for instilling the love of camping in me and for a WONDERFUL week. I love you guys.