Dad and Linda's visit

Dad and Linda came to town for a week at the beginning of October.  We went to the Stone Mountain Chili Cook-off and went to Andretti's Speedlab.  We had a lot of fun.

Yosemite

Mike and I went camping in Yosemite in August with our friend's, Ashley and Nick.  We had a great time.  It is beautiful there.  Here are some pics, but they do it no justice.

Blog slacker....

Okay, I have been quite a big slacker on this blog. In order to get it back up to date, I am not going to add a ton of post with pics, I am just going to write one post on things that have happened since my last post.

April....in April we went to the Virgin Islands to see my dad for a week. Sara, Steve and Emily met us down there. It was a wonderful relaxing trip.....We got some great pictures of Emily on the beach. Mike and think that we are going to have to go back every year until Dad and Linda decide to leave. It is just too nice there.

Mike planted a garden in April with carrots, squash, cucumbers, tomatoes, strawberries, green beans, peas, okra, and green bell peppers. He also planted a few herbs for me.....basil, oregano, cilantro, parsley, thyme, and rosemary. I have really enjoyed cooking with all the fresh ingredients. I canned some okra tonight.....we will see how it tastes in 2 weeks.

In May Amanda and Brandon got married. We went back to Arkansas for the wedding Memorial Weekend. Amanda was a breathtaking bride. We had a great time.

In June I started a new job with a company called topsOrtho. So far it has been a lot of fun. I am really enjoying it. Less travel and less stress than the other place. I took a trip up to Maine and New Hampshire with one of the other trainers. It was so beautiful. I want to go back tomorrow.

In June we adopted to new Kitty Cat's. A little girl named Meeka and a little boy named Chef. They are wonderful. They have great personalities and Mike and I fall in love with them a little more each day. I think at least one of us says "I love our cats" once a day or more!

In July our friend's little boy turned one on July 2nd so on the 4th they had a big get together. We had a really good time. Lot's of food, fireworks, and fun.

In August we purchased a 2000 Scamp. Camping in style here we come! I really want to paint it blue and decorate it really cute inside. We are going to try to take it somewhere next weekend.

We had a big garage sale and got rid of a ton of stuff. Our couch, dining room table, end table, desk, and lots of other stuff are gone. We bought a new couch and chair, but are not planning on bringing it home until after we remodel our house....speaking of that :)....yes, we are planning on doing a little remodeling. New hardwoods, knocking down a wall, new dry wall, new paint, and some other things. We have gotten a few estimates and we now need to sit down and decide what we are going to do. Can't wait for it all to begin.

Spring '09

Mike really has done wonders to our yard. In the fall he planted 175 tulip bulbs. This spring he planted 5 cherry trees and on forest pansy redbud. The grass is as green as can be right now. We love chilling out on the hammock and enjoying the view. Here are some pictures from the yard a couple of weeks ago.

Oregon...3/5/09-3/9/09

Mike and went to Oregon for a long weekend in March. I was already there for work so he met me out there. We had a great time. It was one of my favorite vacation spot so far. The scenery was amazing. I can't wait to go back.

The first day we were there we went to Mount St. Helens. It was covered in snow and was beautiful drive up there.

The second day we went to the Oregon coast. We started off in Cannon Beach where the Goonies was filmed and drove south on the scenic PCH from there. We had clam chowder at Mo's, fresh crab on the Garibaldi Pier, fresh cheese and ice cream at the Tillamook Cheese factory, wine tasting at the Blue Heron Winery, and dinner at little place called Richens by the Sea. Our realtor, aka "our mom in Georgia" brother owns it. Do you think we had enough to eat?????

On the third day we headed up to Mt. Hood. It was an amazing drive. On the way we went to Columbia Park, Columbia River Gorge, Bonneville Dam, and Multnomah Falls. The falls were beautiful. I love how everything stays moist all of the time and causes moss to grow all over the trees. It started snowing on our way up to Mt. Hood. We could not see the very top because of the snow, but went up to Timberline Lodge. The lodge was built in the early 30's during the Great Depression. It was also used to in the movie the Shining as the outside view of the hotel. It snowed so much up there that the snow covered the second story windows and was level with the third story windows.

Timberline Lodge

Multnomah Falls

Columbia Park

Mount St. Helens

Oregon Coast

Fresh crab being steamed on the Garibaldi Pier

Cannon Beach....behind us is Haystack Rock where "One Eye'd Willey" stored his boat and treasure on the Goonies.

Emily's pictures...3/2/09

I took Emily to get her first set of professional pictures done while I was in Arkansas. Sara is so busy with work she never seemed to get the time so Aunt Lala to the rescue!!! She was not very happy about changing clothes every couple of minutes. She is normally the happiest baby alive, but I don't think she was feeling well that day. They ended up turning out great though. She is a cutie. We had them done at Picture People. I told Sara that I would not be surprised if they put some of them up in their store because she is so cute. Well, when Sara went back to view them they did just that. They asked her to sign a release so they could use the fairy wing picture and chef picture.

Under the Sea Night with Brynn and Connor....2/28/09

When I was in Arkansas I decided to have a fun theme night with Brynn and Connor. They have been such good kids with everything Lauren has been going through. We had an "Under the Sea Night" We made a cake that was green and blue swirls on the inside and resembled a sea floor on the top! Connor was the designer and Brynn helped place the decorations!!! We made apps that were crackers, easy cheese, and piece of pepperoni, and pretzels. They turned out looking like little crabs. For dinner we had green shells and cheese, aka green sea turtles, with a hot dog octopus on top. Ocean water, aka blue Kool-aid, was our drink for the evening. We had a blast!