Kaitlyns thoughts....

Yesterday at school the girls had a veteran's assembly. As an extra Kaitlyn's 6th period teacher invited 2 veterans to come talk to the class. It was "enlightening" listen to Kaitlyn talk about these two gentlemen who served our country overseas.


Matt asked the girls many questions from "What do you think of the military?" to "Do you think you would want to join the military someday?".


After, Kaitlyn told us her stories and we talked about different aspects of military. Kaitlyn says "You know there's wars going on in the world, and we all live on the same planet....why can't we just all get along and not fight? "


It was a comment that we all ask ourselves from time to time. Matt did a great job answering her question and helping her understand that there really is no answer to that question and many people in the world wonder the same thing.


I just love the age that our girls are getting to and the conversations we have around our dinner table. Both girls are growing up so fast and they are realizing the world is much bigger than their backyard. I pray that Matt and I will guide them in the right direction in this crazy world....

The last few weeks

It's been a few weeks so I thought I'd better update this blog a bit.

On October 12 Matt and I celebrated 19 years of marriage. Matt took me up to Spokane for the night and we had a great day of hanging around the town, having dinner at one restaurant and dessert at another. ( Fondue at The Melting Pot-YUM! )

Dad and Debbie came to visit this last weekend. We had good time visiting the pumpkin patch. Got lost in the corn maze, shot some ears of corn out of air guns and of course got pumpkins!

Today Matt got his deer. Him and his buddy Randy walked all over the area up near Wilbur and finally came across this guy.

Fall Camping 2010

Last weekend we decided to go camping. Matt is heading hunting soon and he wanted to scope out some of the area where he'll be hunting. The girls and I tagged along to enjoy one last hooray before winter comes. We camped in Wilbur which is a little town about 2 hours northwest of us.

On Saturday we drove out to Jones Bay on Lake Roosevelt and did a little fishing and rock hunting. Matt and the girls didn't catch anything but it was nice just to enjoy the scenery and quiet.




For lunch we decided to drive to Keller and have a picnic lunch at the campground. The road going to Keller is steep and windy and had an awesome view of Lake Roosevelt at the top.

Matt and the girls enjoyed goofing around on the playground equipment....

Grace and Kaitlyn had fun just goof around...

That afternoon Matt, Grace and I set out on some public land to see if we could see any deer. Matt had bought Grace her own binoculars and she was VERY into looking for deer. Matt spent some time teaching Grace were to look and what to look for. She is excited to do her hunter education and get her hunting license next year and get herself a deer. ( Right now as I post this they are sitting next to me going through some questions that she will be tested on. )

We went through a little town called Govan and this was their school house. I thought it was pretty cool and had to take a picture.

We saw these 5 little yearling bucks on the way out of town on Sunday. All together Matt and Grace saw about 50 deer both does and bucks over the weekend. Praying that they will be out in a couple weeks when Matt goes hunting.

Brad Paisley Concert

Last weekend Matt and I headed up to the Gorge to see Brad Paisley.

We left early and took the trailer to Vantage and parked it at a campground there. Then headed up to Crescent Bar for some lunch at the golf course.

We got to the amphitheater at 4:00 when the "doors" opened. We spent the next 3 hours listening to bands, walking around checking out the sights and just enjoying our time together.

Both Matt and I had never been to the gorge before and it was quite amazing! What a place it was. We headed to our seats and we sat next to a couple from Port Orchard. The husband had just retired from the Navy. He was a HOOT to sit next too. The first thing he said to Matt was "Dude I love the hat". Matt was thinking either this was going to be fun or really annoying. The next thing out of the guys mouth was "cool goatee". Then we knew OK this guy was just having fun and trying to make small talk. They ended up being pretty cool people to sit next to.

Justin Moore and Darius Rucker opened for Brad. Darius is "Hootie" as in Hootie and the Blowfish. He played a few of their songs. Brad came out and I tell you what an AMAZING performance he put on. About halfway through the concert he made his was through the crowd and ended up on a ledge and sang to the people in the "cheap seats". Just him and his guitar. Then he paused and had a moment of remembrance for the 9/11 victims. Being Sept 11 it was pretty darn cool. Hearing him play our nations "songs" then he started playing How Great Thou Art and hearing all those thousands of people sing along...that was very emotional. What a great moment to pay honor to those whose lives were lost.

I have to say it had been about 15 years since Matt and I had been to concert together. ( I got to see Tim McGraw a few years ago) We really enjoyed our time together and Brad was amazing to see. He had 7 guitar changes and what an amazing guitar player he is.

Matt and I are looking forward to taking the girls here next year to experience "The Gorge".

Things

I can't believe it's been a few weeks since I've been on here to update how things are going. Life has gotten very busy. First, I got offered a part time temp job working through Babcock out at Hanford. I am filling in for a gal on maternity leave. And of all things I know her! It's been good. I work 3 days a week for 9 hours a day. The days get long at times but I am enjoying it and it's great experience for me. We'll see where it leads me.

Matt, Jeff and Drew took off last week on their annual Salmon fishing trip. They had a great time and came home with a TON of fish. The biggest salmon was 26 pounds. Matt got one batch of smoked salmon done. YUM!

While the boys were out playing Teresa and Haley came for a visit. We LOVED having them here. We took in the fair and of course had some yummy Mexican food.

It was time for haircuts for school. Both girls got a good trim and were ready for Day 1.

Monday was the first day of school. There was some nervousness with it but both did well. Kaitlyn had a little bit of a hard time. Change isn't something she does well but as we come to the end of the week things are going much better and she is finding her way around her new school. I'm SO proud of them and how well they are doing.

Today I found out the girls needed their instruments and music books tomorrow. So off we went to rent Grace her clarinet. I tell you that girl is SO excited. She can already get some notes out and I'm having a hard time getting her to put it down! I'm excited for her to learn her first song.

Matt took off yesterday for Georgia. He found out Tuesday about this trip for work. He is flying home late tonight. But then leaving again in the morning for the weekend. He is meeting his dad, John, Zach, his uncle and cousins son for a weekend filled of grouse and bear hunting. Jackie and the girls are headed this way to hang with us for the weekend. We are SO looking forward to them being here.

All in all things are going well and of course we seem to come to the end of each day and wonder where the time went. Stay tuned for more adventures ahead!

Leavenworth!!

Yesterday Matt and I got a bunch of chores done in the morning and decided we needed to take a road trip to Leavenworth. It is one of our favorite towns to visit. So we got there about mid afternoon and we went into all our favorite shops....The Hat shop, The Taffy shop and the Christmas shop just to name a few.




We went to our favorite restaurant for dinner~ Adreas Keller. Gracie has very tired from her sleepover the night before and VERY hungry. So to stop the grumpies Matt made a bet with her. If she ate one piece of pickled herring he would buy her a webkinz. Now if you know Matt he is VERY against webkinz so Grace knew this is a BIG deal. She rose to the challenge and get this....she LIKE it! She even had another piece. And yes she did get her webkinz~ a brown bear!

So Matt feeling good about getting one child to try something new and her liking it to boot! So he tells Kaitlyn he will give her $10 to try some red cabbage kraut. The funny thing is she didn't want any of us to watch her but Matt said NO WAY how would he know she actually ate it. So he fed it to her! She did not like it but we are SO proud of her for trying it. She even tried a little piece of pickled herring too!!

We had such a great time visiting our favorite town. It was fun to be spontaneous and just enjoy and day together as a family.

Cousins

After a week in the Puget Sound we headed back to the Tri Cities. Grace got to stay and hang out with Ryleigh and Zach while I took Sierra back with us. It was a blast having Sierra and I think the girls enjoyed just hanging out without their little siblings.

We took the girls ice skating. Sierra had not been in a long time but she did VERY well. It was fun watching the girls and just hanging out with them!

After 3 days it was time to switch kids. We met Jackie, Zach, Ryleigh and Grace in Cle Elum at a park to make the switch. We enjoyed just visiting and letting the kids play and have some time being all together.

Cousins are the best gift from God!

Trying to get settled

We have been home for 2 weeks now and we are slowly settling in. Matt was home for 5 days then headed back to Canada to finish his job there. While he was gone the girls and I headed to the westside to visit family and friends.

We met my friend Jo at Bellevue Square for lunch and little shopping.

Our first stop on our trip was Thom and Christines. We had a great time celebrating Grace and Thom's birthdays. On Friday we got to have Sophie hang with us for the day. The cousins had a blast just hanging out together.



Our next stop found us at Point Defiance Zoo. We met Jackie and the kids there along with Jackies sister, nephew, mom and Jackie's sisters in-laws. We had a great time seeing all the animals and watching all the cousins have a great time just hanging out and being silly.

Finally, we made it to Grandma's house. Janet and the girls along with Matt's mom Marcia come over for dinner and visit. We finally got to meet Sharlet and I got my baby fix!! The girls and I enjoyed 2 days of visiting with Grandma and doing our special Dairy Queen treat.

Last on our stop was Dad and Debbies. Kaitlyn have fun taking care of the horses with Debbie and decided she wanted to try riding Sunny again. She did a great job and was feeling very confident. But she decided to canter and Sunny got excited and took off. Kaitlyn panicked for a moment, lost her sturps and got bucked off. She was OK and is ready to get back on a horse at her next lesson.

Later in the day, Dad and Grace went on a 6 mile bike ride. Grace is quite the bike rider and kept up with dad. She was tired when she got back but really enjoyed just getting out there and spending time with Grandpa.

The next day Dad and Debbie took us out the Bloedel Reserve. It is a 150 acre "plantation". It has a few different gardens and a beautiful mansion. We all enjoyed walking around and just enjoying the different plants and sights.



Our trip ended with Janet and the girls coming over for dinner and one last visit. It was fun to get all our girls together.

It was so wonderful to go home and see everyone. It was a fairly quick visit moving from place to place but I am thankful that we are only a few hours away and we can come back for a longer visit and have our family and friends over to our house.

Gracie is 11!!!

11 years ago today God blessed us with our second daughter.

I enter the hospital on July 28 @ midnight. She was taking her sweet time so I spent the day just laying around waiting. Of course my favorite story to tell is come the afternoon and having nothing to eat all day I was SO hungry. I had this thing for Milky Way bars so I convinced Matt to go get one and let me have just one bite. When I did finally get that bite who walks in just then~ yep my doctor. I was caught red handed!!

At 10:00pm things were still going slowly so my Dr decided she was going home. The nurse had me turn over and I fell asleep for a bit. I woke up, which felt like just minutes later, with some BAD pains. Sure enough she was coming and there was no waiting. The nurse kept telling me to hold on and wait but OH MY this little girl was NOT waiting for anyone! My Dr arrive just and Grace entered the world.

She was SO little with this dark curly hair and these big blue eyes. The moment Matt looked at her she had him wrapped around her finger. She was so calm and peaceful. But when she wanted to eat, watch out!!!

Fast forward 11 years, here we are with this young lady who has a mind of her own. Who knows what she wants and is full of life. Grace has taught me so much over these last 11 years. I have watched her be a friend who just loves a person for who they are and never tries to change them. She works hard and does the best job she can. Hockey has become a big part of her life. She loves to watch and play it. One of her dreams is the play hockey in college.

These last 11 years has been a great adventure and it's been fun to see what God has created her to be. I can't wait to see what lays in store the next 11 years!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY GRACE!

Our trip home to Washington

On July 16 we left Tiverton, ON on our journey west to our home in Kennewick. It was an emotional morning for us. Our friends who live along the highway out of town were out with signs to wish a good-bye. We had a great day of travel. No wait at the boarder, thanks to our Nexus cards, and no hassle about coming back into the US with all our "goods". We went as far as St. Joesph, MI. We stayed in a KOA that had a large jumping pillow. The girls and I had a blast playing on it.



Our second day of driving was a LONG day. We went from St. Joseph, MI to Jackson, MN. It was a 13 hour day but we will did well.

Our third day we went from Jackson, MN to Rapid City, SD. We took a little time and stopped at a neat rest area that had this HUGE buffalo. Grace thought it was the coolest. And of course there was a horse for Kaitlyn.






Day four was Mt Rushmore day. I had been waiting since I was 14 to visit and I finally made it. It was everything I could have imagined and more! The best part of it was the evening program. I learned so much more about Lewis and Clark and why the sculptor picked these 4 presidents for his monument. It all ended with the lighting of the faces and all past and present veterans being called down the stage for the lowering of the flag. A boy scout troop from Minnesota lowered the flag. It was quite emotional to watch.

Our fifth day took us from Grand Rapids, SD to Butte, MT. It was another LONG day but we took some time and went to Cabelas and had a nice sit down lunch and dinner.

Day six we finally made it home to Kennwick!! It was so great to be back and there was a peace that we felt.

We have been busy unpacking and organizing. Matt heads out Monday morning to go back to Canada for a couple weeks to finish his job there. Then he will be back and start his new job at Hanford. We are so thankful for the blessings God has given us during this time and can't wait to see what He has planned for us next.