Sunday Drive

After I took a picture of one of my favorite streets to drive on last Sunday, I thought I would show you another street I love to drive on... particularly on Sunday. We always take this road to church and just as we get off the highway and come up over the over pass this view lays out before me and I love it every time! (Unfortunately you can't see the full mountain range in these pictures)
I shot these pictures while driving my car. Not a closed course. Do not attempt this at home!

Bend WinterFest

Today we went to the Bend WinterFest which is a fun party they have downtown, and the weather was perfect!

I wish I had pictures of the x-country ski racing, but my batteries in my camera were dead. Sorry! They were very cool.
Enter- Brad with batteries.
This is Mrs. Snowberry who put on a 1/2 hour magic show prior to Frosty's birthday party. It was pretty fun. As you can see Ethan and Abby are entranced. This was just prior to the "Light Parade with Frosty" which meant every kid got a little keychain flashlight, turned them on and followed Frosty around the tents.
I thought this cauldron was pretty cool.
Here's one of the ice carvings
At 6:30 we finished up with the fireworks display. Not a bad afternoon/evening for FREE!

Maybe next year we will be cool enough to spend the money to get into the cool "Rail Jam" (a snowboard jumping/trick "extreme" sport) It looked cool, but you had to pay to get in and large items and banners were strategically placed so you couldn't see for free :-(

Flashback Friday- Valentines '94

So Brad and I aren't exactly the most romantic couple you've ever met. We're just not very good at it. One time we were sitting in a restaurant on vacation, got the bill and saw the date on the receipt and realized that it was our anniversary. It hadn't even crossed our minds! Anyway... so Valentines can be a bit of a struggle to find something... so I share with you my great Valentines gift to Brad in 1994

Doesn't this gift say "I love you" to you?

What are some of your favorite Valentine's memories/gifts?

What we were dancing to in Feb 1994
10 Whatta Man- Salt-N-Pepa featuring En Vogue
9 Amazing-Aerosmith
8 Found Out About You- Gin Blossoms
7 Without You- Mariah Carey
6 Getto Jam- Domino
5 The Sign- Ace Of Base
4 Choose- Color Me Badd
3 All For Love- Bryan Adams, Rod Stewart, & Sting
2 Because Of Love- Janet Jackson
1 The Power Of Love (1st week at #1) Celine Dion

Busted!

Last night we decided to go to Red Robin for supper. Brad beat us there and got us a seat and ordered an appetizer. The kids and I walked in only to find this guy sitting next to us

"Why is sitting next to this guy a problem?" you might ask. He looks nice enough... But, this is Fred, my trainer at boot camp!! We said our hello's and I sat down with Brad only to have our ONION RINGS show up! Yikes! I sheepishly ate a couple of onion rings, dipping them in the fat laden sauce, and figured... he shouldn't mind too much... it is just another month I will be paying him, right?? What do you order at a restaurant when your "trainer" is sitting at the next table? I decided to take my chances when I noticed it looked like he was almost through his meal, and ordered the burger. Phew! That was a close one!

My Second Home

Isn't it beautiful?

I wish!! This is what my second home actually looks like

Ever feel like you spend more time in your car than your home? I had one of those days yesterday, and I have a feeling it is only going to get worse as my children get older. I left the house at 3:30pm to pick up the kids so we could go pick up Samantha's friend to take them to their art class. After the art class drop off I had to drop Elise off at activity days, at which point Ethan needed a bathroom break, and we were close enought to home so I rolled into the garage, and he ran in the house, and came out a minute later. I didn't even get out or turn the engine off. We ran around doing more errands, then we had to go pick up Elise from her activity day, came home and realized we had been on the road for almost 3 hours, and poor Ethan hadn't even been home yet. Brad and I said hello around 6:15 when we both walked in the door, shoved in some chicken, gave some instructions for Samantha and off we went our seperate ways again 15 min later... back in the vehicle again. Not to mention the running around I did in the morning.

On the other hand my kids know the lyrics to all the songs on the radio. Abby in particular loves a jingle by a nutritional supplement store in town. The jingle is to the tune of "If You're Happy and You Know It". Now imagine Abby singing along at the top of her lungs

"If your flabby and you know it- Go get fit

Saddlebaggy and you know it- Go get fit

If you spread 'em when you sit

And you always feel like..... crud

If you're flabby and you know it- Go get fit

Go get fit

Go get fit

Go get fit"

Ethan's favorite is "Zooooka, Zooka tooth care for kids"

Maybe we should put better use to our many hours spent in the car? Like a book on tape or something....

Nah.... look at the great messages we're getting on the radio. We will stop off and get a dental cleaning at Zooka and "go get fit, go get fit, go get fit!"

What do you do with your time in the car?

Music to my ears?

Finger nails on a chalkboard... the squeak of styrofoam on cardboard... the sound of a rake across a rock, all send chills up ones spine. Something close to that irritating to me is music played incorrectly, or more specifically my children practicing the piano and playing it wrong! Something about the same piece of music being played over and over and over again, and then it being played incorrectly drives me BATTY!

I know I swore to everyone when we got rid of our old piano that I was going digital so my kids could plug in the headphones and I wouldn't have to hear it, but I succumbed to a "real" piano. There is just something about a real piano that is hard to duplicate. I thought I'd share a pic with you of our new baby.
Now when you hear the cries of "serenity now" you will know from whence the plea is coming.

Beautiful Quiet Sunday morning

I have a few streets I just LOVE to drive down, and lucky for me one of my favorites is the road to my house. If you click on the pic you can see it in better detail. Isn't it pretty?