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Since finding out that 2 of my 3 my brothers were going to be in Utah, we spontaneously decided to drive down for the reunion as well (sort of cutting Nancy’s visit to Portland short, but at least we saved her a plane ticket that she can use later!). So kindly hosted by the Leavitt family, we were able to spend 2 days and 3 nights and together, goofing off, catching up, playing games, sleeping not so much, bowling, eating (always), watching the super late night showing of Avatar (yay!) and visiting campus.

Fortunately we were also able to attend the baby blessing of our newest nephew, Max Barker. Of course we hung out with Steve’s brothers as much as we could as well, fun times!

James, Michelle, Steve & little Max

Brian & Heidi with Alli, Kate, Austin and little Max

There was much pinball playing on Brian & Heidi’s newest toy in the basement!

Lilly dragged (a very willing) Ashlyn around to play everywhere she went

They held hands everywhere they went (and Nancy’s hand here for street crossing safety)

Ethan wasn’t feeling well most of the time, but on the last day finally came back to life

Isaac hasn’t changed a bit, well maybe a bit taller

James is still a bullfighting ball of energy!

It was fun to finally meet Jaxon, who smiled on command, banana in mouth and all

It was imperative to do the Tree of Life photo as well

After the Tang & Barker fun, we headed up to Rexburg (did you know it was only a bit over a 3 hour drive?!) to visit Bryan & Danielle for a day and 2 nights. Steve wanted to take a walk down memory lane through the former Rick’s College campus, now BYU-Idaho. Of course as we walked around, not many memories were stimulated since much of the campus has changed dramatically since Steve attended back in 1993 and 1996.

One of Steve’s fondest memories

Rexburg temple

Bryan

We did some cheap indoor climbing one night, that was a lot of fun. Makes us want to climb again! I think it actually helped my hand and grip strength to do that! Another reason to do it again!

Steve

Peter with Danielle belaying

Bryan

Michelle

Danielle

Ivy

Christmas was a very quiet and pleasant affair this year. We had no squabbles, lots o’ good food, great company, late nights, and started a couple of new traditions (well, maybe its not yet tradition until you do it consecutively over at least two years time).

This green painting is the promise of something fantastic to come. It’s the start of an original painting by Steve and now that I’m posting it, now he’ll have to be accountable to finish it, right?

Steve was so impressed that I was able to go to the woodworking store and get him the exact low-profile angle plane that he directed me toward. Looks like a piece of chocolate in the photo, but his smile says it all! Good thing I got it right, eh? He was already looking for something to plane before we got to his next present.

Somehow we forgot to do the pickle in the tree before presents this year. But, after Christmas dinner, Steve’s mom hid it in their tree and guess who found it?

Back before I got laid off, some of the girls from my work helped out at one of the Boys and Girls clubs of Oregon. With many vendor donations and some creative ideas, we were able to help so many children create presents to give away at Christmas time. What a great event!

Michelle & Theresa

Our craft was to make magnets and pins…as displayed here

Missy, Theresa, Michelle & Juliette

One of our participants with her latest creation

Our table was a hit!

Here in Oregon, the weather watch is a big thing. When will the heat wave be over? When is going to rain? When is it going to stop raining? And most recently, when is the deep freeze going to end? I’ve come to the conclusion that no matter what the weather is, Oregonians will find something to complain about. Just a couple of weeks ago, we had a cold, dry spell. Much like Utah where it’s cold and nippy with blue skies and a shining sun, it doesn’t feel as cold as the thermometer says it is because of the dry air. I rather like the cold and dry in comparison to the rain & wet!

Mix a large abundance of cascading water with the freezing weather (only -14F I think) and you get this…frozen waterfalls!

We took a day trip to the Columbia Gorge to see the natural wonders.

Multnomah Falls

At the top of Multnomah, water is still coming down the falls

Horsetail Falls

At the bottom of the falls, you can see the falling water creating a crater at the bottom. You can walk right up to it on the frozen ice and snow that has packed down from the water freezing as it falls. Maybe this is what’s known as a Horspool! heh, heh, heh!!!

Along the rock wall in the summer this area would usually be full of water, but now the face of the rocks toward the falls is covered in a sheet of ice, so smooth that the rocks look fake.

…and then we went to IKEA for our cheap-o lunch of hog dogs!

Over the summer when the Steeds were here visiting, we went to the beach.  Jackson saw his opportunity to show us some cool dance moves on the skimboard dance floor

Jackson doing the skimboard shuffle (sorry, this one is sideways, tilt your head!)

The afternoon that we got back from our adventures in Florence, and before we were importantly scheduled to watch the BYU-Utah Holy War that our friends TiVo-d for us, we went to our favorite tree lot at B&M Acres in Sherwood to get the annual Noble Fir. I think we did a good job this year, Steve picked out a fabulous tree that looks great from all sides!

’twas dragged in through the front door (looks kind of flat in this photo, doesn’t it?)

we realized it was just a tad too tall so Steve had to hack off about a foot from the bottom..darn it

and ta-da! It’s up! So, then a week and a half later when I was finally feeling up to it, I finally got the lights on after 2 nights of laborious branch wrapping (only 27 strings this year) and then a few days later the ornaments went on…only one casualty this year. Well, 1-1/2 if you count the plastic star where one of the points broke off, but I still used and hid the broken part against a branch.

Well this is how the tree looks in the day time, but I promise it glows in all it’s glory at night! Practically lights up the whole street when the neighbors have their tree lit up across the way (which has 67 strings of lights on it…how do I know? well, I helped perform that chore as well!)

Because of sickness…and nasty weather…our Thanksgiving camping weekend turned into a 24-hour camping outing instead. I’d never seen the dunes so we decided to drive down to Florence, Oregon to enjoy a bit of sandy scenery along the coast.

After setting up the tarp and tent and observing the local cuisine provided by nature…

…we set off to the first place, the John Dellenback Sand Dunes, named after the congressman who wrote legislation to establish the Oregon Dunes Recreation Area back in the 60s. It was extremely windy and the light was getting low, but wow that’s a lot of sand!

This was our Thanksgiving dinner

The next morning, we did a little walking tour around the perimeter of our campground, Lagoon campground, which is located within an oxbow lake in the Siltcoos Recreation area, just south of Florence.

Early the next morning, we headed to the trailhead for the Carter Dunes within another campground, not far from we’d slept the night before. We hiked in 1-1/2 miles through the woods, then over the dunes and desert to reach the beach. Turned out to be a GORGEOUS day and we were the only ones on the beach at that time so we had it all to ourselves to enjoy before heading back around the finish the trail loop back to the car.

Steve jumps

we tried a little dune jumping, but sadly we didn’t jump too far

Michelle \”jumps\”

…and you think white men can’t jump? well what about asian girls? not real good either!

Steve is one heck of a guy, here’s the latest completed fall project! I helped to dig out the foundation, but mostly filled up the wheelbarrow and truck mounds of clay and dirt from the side yard to the driveway. I also helped to paint the body and fascia board, but Steve did everything else.

In progress

Walls are up!

Shingles on!

Painted and…

Done!

and this is the pile of dirt we had to deal with after the foundation was dug out!

So my newest project in the realm of organization, is to start better digitally incorporating keepsakes into my scrapbooking. Today, I photographed all the medals I have ever received from running events since 2003 when I actually started “competing” in races. Not all races I’ve participated in are listed below though because not all races give out medals, so I’ve listed only the EXCEPTIONAL races that give you bling to show off!

It’s my blog, I can brag, right?

I’ve never actually seen all of them together. I usually stuff them into a little bag when I get home from the race!

2003
February: Las Vegas Half-Marathon
October: St. George Marathon

2004
August: Hood to Coast Relay

2005
May: Estacada Best Dam 10K Run
May: Vancouver Half-Marathon
August: Hood to Coast Relay

2006
May: Vancouver Half-Marathon
August: Hood to Coast Relay

2007
June: Newport, OR Marathon
July: Mt. Rainier to Pacific Relay
August: Hood to Coast Relay

2008
July: Mt. Rainier to Pacific Relay
August: Hood to Coast Relay
October: Columbia River Power Half-Marathon

2009
July: Foot Traffic Flat, Sauvie’s Island Marathon
July: Rainier to Pacific Relay
August: Hood to Coast Relay
October: Columbia River Power Half-Marathon

…and just a more bragging below…

2007 Newport, OR Marathon where I finished 3rd overall in my age group, yay!

2008 Columbia River Power Half-Marathon where I finished 3rd overall of the whole race, and 1st of all the women, yay!

2009 Columbia River Power Half-Marathon (last month) where I finished 1st in my age group, yay!

THE END

Once again, Al’s garden center had ALL their pumpkins, any shape and any size, on sale for cheeeeep, $1.49/each!!! So, we picked out our favorites and went to a pumpkin carving get-together with friends and this is what we created.

Ready to be lit for trick-or-treaters!

Steve’s huge pumpkin…he seems to be a fan of the very huge pumpkins

I have been accused of re-using the same mouth on my pumpkin face…but unfortunately we don’t have photos of last year’s pumpkins (maybe we didn’t carve pumpkins last year because I don’t remember doing it anyway) so the following photo is a recap of the pumpkins we carved in 2007 to make the comparison…

…the same mouth re-used? I think not!