Sunday, September 28, 2008

Kade's Blessing

Today Joel stood in Kade's blessing circle at church. Bev's brother Bryan (who was one of my best friend for years in high school) blessed Kade. All of Bev's brothers and sisters were here, and it was so good to see them all. They are like my second family. The Woodard's were are neighbors growing up, and were such good friends to me and my brothers. We have all been through so much together. I wish we all lived closer, so we could get together more often.


Demarco, Bev, and Baby Kade)

(One big happy family...all of Bev's family)
(Joel and I after Kade's Blessing)

Tuesday, September 16, 2008

Enjoying Time with Maveric






Maveric is my brother Eric and his wife Jenny's little boy. And he is adorable. He is just starting to recognize his own laugh, which can make for some cute long giggles. Eric and Jenny did the Great Urban Race with us last weekend, and my mom came down with us to babysit Maveric while we ran around the town of Portland.


(Grandma and Maveric)

After the race we all went back to the hotel and Joel and I were able to spend some time with this little guy.


(Uncle Joel and Mav)


(Aunt Jen and Mav)

(Maveric and Mommy)

It is amazing how fast they grow. Each time that we see him, he looks a little older.
We sure enjoy spending time with him!

Saturday, September 13, 2008

GrEaT UrBaN RaCe...


Today (Saturday, September 13, 2008) Joel and I did a race in Portland, Oregan with my brother Eric and his wife Jenny. We really did not know what to expect - we knew that it was like the TV show the Amazing Race scaled down to a day - but it was great and so much fun. They gave us 14 clues that we needed to figure out and then take pictures at the sites that the clues led us too. It was so much fun to spend time together - All four of us worked well together -Jenny was great at figuring out the puzzles, Eric was great with the maps, Joel was great at locating all the objects we needed to find, and I was just enjoying the race and people watching - and helping out occasionally.

(Us getting ready for the race to start - We have to give our friend Stacy a shout out and a big THANK YOU for helping us make our sage monkey shirts...Thanks Stacy)

(Eric and Jenny getting ready to take off to our first clue)
There were prizes for the best dressed (in costume) group. Several groups took it upon themselves to dress up, but I thought the next picture was the group that should have won. Joel said they were dressed as an 80's band - Whip It music video - or something. I had never heard about it, but Joel loved the 80's.

(My favorite dressed-up group at the race)
They gave us all a clue sheet that had 14 clues on it. They were puzzles and riddles that you had to solve. They took us all over Portland. The trick was that you were not allowed to use any form of transportation except on foot or the bus and trolly system.

(Joel with our clue envelope - he is a little excited)

(Our clue sheet)
Most of the clues led us to places, and asked you to take a picture on your digital camera. We had to turn in all of our pictures at the end to qualify. The next pictures are some of the many picutes that we took along the way.
(We had to find a small cupcake shop in the middle of nowhere, and take a picture of one teammate feeding the other a cupcake. Joel was nice enough to get fed - he said that it was the best cupcake ever)

(Some random elephant statue we had to find)

(We had to take a picture of at least four people doing cartwheels in the sand - notice Joel trying to do a cartwheel at the end)


(We had to find yogi bear walking around Portland in a large radius of blocks - It took forever...but we finally found him)

(We had to tell jokes on stage at a comedy sports club. We had to keep telling jokes until the audience laughed. Good thing Joel knows some lame jokes that a few people find funny!!)

(We had to leap frog over each other with this famous water feature in the picture)

(Don't worry...we finally made it across the finish line)
They said it would take between 1 1/2 hours to 5 hours to complete the race. We did it in 2 hours. We all thought that was pretty good since we do not live in Portland. We came in 50th place out of 120 teams.

(Eric and Jenny at the finish line)

(All of us after the race - We had a blast!)
I would recommend this race to everyone. They have them in large cities all over the united states. Just google Great Urban Race to see all the locations.
Have fun.






Wednesday, September 10, 2008

Spokane Fair

Joel and I went to the fair yesterday with my brother David and his wife Maria.
I have been feeling under the weather the last few weeks, so we really did not do much at the fair. We walked around and looked at the vegetables, and the crafts. David and Joel eat the horrible fair food, and then we went home. It was nice just to get out and walk around.


(Joel and Jen by a tracter)


(Dave and Maria by a tracter - Dave sure looks excited...he was not trilled about the picture)

What is it with guys and tracters? They were both so excited to look at the tracters and neither have land or farms. All-and-all we had a good time just spending some time together.

Tuesday, September 9, 2008

Labor of Love

Joel has been working so hard on the yard and garden this summer.

He started the lawn from scratch (seed), and has added such beautiful flower and vegetable gardens throughout. I am so impressed with how great it looks. I am so thankful to have married such a wonderful man. I could not ask for a better husband, friend, and companion.


(Joel working on the yard...he added slate stepping stones to the garden - It looks so good!)

Joel has also been making a tomato sandwhich almost every day. Our tomato plants have gone crazy lately. We also made a stew the other night using potatoes and carrots from our garden.
I must admit... it has been fun to actually bake with food that we personally grew.

(A few items from the garden - Yum)

Little Gage

Welcome little Gage Anton.



(Jill and her new son Gage)

Joel's youngest sister Jill just had a baby at the end of August. He was premature and had to stay in the NICU for a few weeks, but he was just released a week ago and is doing great. When he was born he only weighed 4 pounds and now he is almost 6 pounds. Both Jill and her husband are so excited to have this cute little guy home.


(Gage Anton at Grandma Anderson's House)


(Erika holding Gage - what cute cousins)