Cousins

This was taken when we went down to visit Trent's sister Renea for Thanksgiving. These two boys are her sons', Tucker and Austin. All the rest of their cousins are collage age and older so these two are special for the simple reason they are more fun to play with.

Great Kids

Deer

Now that we no longer have Lou, deer have been showing up more often. I snapped this picture the other day as they where starting to leave, I wonder what other animals will show up.
-Hailey

Quadrilla

Caden and I had a great time putting this Quadrilla set together. Not easy without directions! He's still a bit young for it but in a year I predict he will really enjoy this on his own. For anyone wondering if this is worth the money....it is!

Whistler

The Olympic symbol

We went on our yearly trip to Whistler again this year, two weeks prior to the Olympics. We thought it'd be very crowded but we were pleasantly surprised that the village was empty. People are so afraid to travel anywhere near an Olympic events, even two week prior, that no one visited the area.

Our intention was to rent out our unit this year but at the last moment when we found out no one was renting it we decided to travel up. We packed quickly and there we were! Since we hadn't planned on going the kids had to bring their homework.

The view from this window is beautiful. Elissa made this her permanent homework area.

We did let the kids have some snow play.....

Trent took the girls skiing but since I didn't go I have no pictures of this. Next year Caden will be able to ski so I'll be free to take lots of pictures.

Our trip was pleasant and relaxing, just as it should be.

Catch-up Post

I had no idea haven't written since September! I need to post pictures of the kids just so people will recognize them again!!

In a nutshell, Thanksgiving was spent down in Oregon at Trent's sisters house. We had a GREAT time and plan on invading her home again next year! Hang on Renea!

Christmas was very relaxing this year. I told the kids we were going to stay close to home and not plan so much so that Mom isn't running around screaming most of the time.....no, I NEVER do that!

I received my all time favorite gift this year, an iphone...they really are all that.

Told you this would fit in a nutshell!

Fast forward to this last week (January and February were uneventful) and I'll tell you we had one hell of a week. We began the week (Monday) with Trent bringing home great news of being offered a permanent job at Clearwire in Kirkland. Nothing is set in stone but as the paperwork is being worked out I'll keep everyone up-to-date.

Tuesday we have our homeschool co-op were I found myself explaining to the ladies why I hadn't put our beloved dog, Lou, to sleep yet. You see, he has cancer and this cancer grew so large on his left leg that it outgrew the skin. Pleasant thought I know, but he didn't seem to be in any pain. Since he couldn’t stop licking or biting the unpleasant area he had to wear a "cone", always. This had been going on for several months. This is a dog that was still chasing balls, wagging his tail...not even a limp. So, here I was explaining why I'm putting up with the blood and smell since blood isn't the most wonderful smell once dried, when I decided that we needed to make a decision. I talked to my vet, who was at the table since she is also a homeschool mom and also one of my oldest homeschool friends. She gave me a name of a surgeon in Issaquah, the best with cancer. I called and made an appointment for Friday morning. You have to understand, if he could even operate, he would have to take all of Lou's leg. How do you do this to a dog? How do you make him understand that your doing this to prolong his life? We love this guy!

On Wednesday I took Lou to the groomers as he smelled so bad that I just couldn't stand it another day! Staci our groomer was great and when I picked up Lou he looked just like our old dog again! What a treat to be able to hug and kiss him again! That evening around 7pm or so Lou started crying and pacing. I assumed it was the antibiotics since they can upset a dogs stomach. We just loved him up and then went to bed. Around 4am he was so miserable that I just sat with him. I noticed that his stomach was hard as a rock so I called our vet and explained the situation. She new immediately that Lou's stomach had flipped and no air could escape. This is called Bloat and is one of the worst ways for a dog to die and he would die of this within 6 hours or so. It was strange to have something other then cancer be our wake-up call. We raced to the vet's within minutes and watched as our dog relaxed and fell asleep forever. He was never meant to loose a leg to cancer.....he will be missed.

Reno - 2009 Tomato Fight

Our recent trip to Reno was filled with unusual events and sights. First of all we drove down and did it as quickly as possible with a stop in Bend Oregon to visit our good friends the McDoles.

We arrived in Reno late on a Friday night and just sat around Saturday and played in the pool.

The best part of Saturday was going to downtown Reno for their first ever "Tomato Food Fight". We're talking 5 tons of tomatoes dropped in the middle of the square where people paid $10.00 to enter and throw food. The money went to charity.

As we approached the area we realized (wisely I might add) that this could get out of control so we went up two stories in a parking garage that overlooked the whole area. This way we could keep the kids safe and just enjoy the commotion.

Here are a few choice photos:

The begining

The rush

The middle

The End

We really felt safe up there in the parking garage watching all the "crazy" people. That is until a tomato came flying by and almost hit us. The crowd below was getting a bit tired of easy targets and chose to try and hit anyone out of reach. Picture the carnival game where you try to hit the clown with one ball....that was us.....the clowns.

We were hit several times but the kids loved it and enjoyed throwing the tomatoes back into the crowd below. Hailey had a great shot at one of the guys below and it was fun to watch him get hit and wonder who it could have come from!
If anyone gets a chance to see something like this I say "GO". It was a lot of fun.

Carlota

We rescued Carlata about 3 years ago when she was around 9 years old.

I have never seen a dog depressed before. She had had the same owner all her life and within a year of her owner being put into a home due to age she had just found herself at our place and her second home in a very short time span. I was told that if we didn't work out for her then Purebred Dog Rescue was going to put her on "Dogie Downers".

Let's just say that it took a year for her to adjust (which is normal for most dogs). Since Standard Poodles are known for how smart they are we were very surprised to find she wasn't. At least that's what we thought. It dawned on me one day that she was raised in Mexico and that she must not understand us. I called my mother to ask how to say sit in Spanish, you know, a test to see if she understood Spanish. We were very overjoyed to find out that, yes, our dog spoke another language. She really was smart, she just had to learn English!

I had a stranger ask me about her and she had some very insightful words. She said that "Carlata's music had changed and that it must be very hard to adjust to another song". That has helped Trent and I understand what she needed from us. Lot's of love and patience.

What we loved most about her was her connection to Caden. Right from the beginning she mothered him. Whenever he would walk into a room she would come up to him from where ever she was to get a hug.

That's why we were so sad when we found out her kidneys failed and we had to put her down the same day.

This is our goodbye to a very sweet dog. You will be missed.