Were you dreaming of a White Christmas?

If you were dreaming of a white Christmas, you should have come to Seattle! We had almost a foot of snow and we are at about 450 ft above sea level. It is all gone now but we could get more this weekend. So much fun!

My month of travel

My month started out with a trip to Texas to see the newest member of our family. Kyle was born in the middle of October but I couldn't get there till the first of November so I sent Tim, to help Rushell with the "boys". They had a great time and I came for when Kyle was blessed. Needless to say it was the highlight of my month

I also traveled to Nashville for my Dad's 75th birthday. Karen met me there and we had a wonderful weekend with the "folks".

Next I went to DC for Jackie and Jake's wedding. Lisa, Katie, Mom and Dad, plus Karen and Ron were all there to celebrate. Kelly came and surprised us, Kim and her family came to the reception and we all had a great time.

We then were off for vacation in sunny Mexico. Ten days of nothing but sitting by the pool and reading a good book or 5 good books. We saw whales almost everyday!

As you can see I just moved from outside to in to read my books.




As one can imagine we were not anxous to get home but we did come back and can only hope that the next time we go it is just as wonderful.

Cabela's with the boys

I am here in Austin with Rushell's family. I took the boys down to Cabela's to check out all the fish and animals and give mom a break with the baby.

Tyler and the Elephant

Dylan running away from the camera, not the animals.

They loved this talking deer head on the wall.

They loved looking at the fish.

They loved riding in the elevator.

And they loved sitting in the boats.

Summer in the Northwest

We have had a very wet summer here in the Northwest. Our summer does not really start until late July or early August. It is now September and we are having beautiful weather. We have been busy this summer as we always are. I went to visit Rushell and Jeff for a long weekend in August. I know many of you will ask why not wait till the baby comes but I had time in August and needed to have a Grandma fix from two of the cutes boys on the planet.

I was home for 5 days when the real vacation started and we headed to Sun Valley to meet up with Kris and Julie for my Grandma fix with the other two cutest girls on the planet.
The trip to Sun Valley started out wonderfully with Tim and I talking and laughing in the car. We never drive to our vacations anymore so this was different for us. We were about 3 hours from home, in eastern Washington, when a young girl decided that she needed to be in the same

lane as us. Needless to say it did not work out so well.

After our hearts started to beat normally again, we assessed the damage and decided to turn around and come home so that the car could be fixed here locally. We arrived back in Seattle late and contacted her insurance the next morning. Just a plug for her insurance, State Farm, which took care of everything very quickly and we were back on the road by 11am. Well instead of taking two days to drive to Sun Valley we made it in one day and pulled into the condo at about 11 that night.
We spent a wonderful week with Kris, Julie, Emilie and McKenzie. We sat by the pool, did some swimming, sat by the pool, showed the girls the sites of Sun Valley, sat by the pool, read some books while sitting by the pool, and did I mention that we sat by the pool. Anyway, we had a great time but all to soon the girls needed to get back to school and Kris and Julie needed to get back to work. So we let them go and we headed back home.

Everything seemed to be getting back to normal and then Lisa and Cassie came to visit. Well when we have out of town visitors we have to show them the sites. They got here on Friday morning and took on Seattle. We met for dinner at one of our favorites downtown. Sitting out on the beautiful deck overlooking the water, we ate a good meal, and watch the sunset over the Olympic mountains. We of course talked until we were all falling asleep, so we brought them home. We needed to be up early to get to the BYU vs UW football game. We were dressed in our blue and white, and headed off to the game. We had a fabulous time, mainly because BYU won in a nail biter in the last 2 seconds of the game. It was GREAT!
After the game we headed to Puyallup for the Western Washington State Fair. It is the one of the largest privately owned fairs in the country. Well we grazed our way through all of the food and had to look at the sheep, cows, horses and other livestock. We then wondered around till our feet hurt and we were once again so tired we could stand up. Of course none of us remembered where we parked so it took us another 20 minutes to find the car. Lisa and Cassie left to go home to San Diego at 5:30am but we had a great time with them and only wish we could have that much energy again.
So now things are really back to normal except we still do not have our car but hopefully this weekend. We are back to being boring. Things should pick back up after Rushell has her baby though. We can't wait for the third cutest boy on the planet to make his arrival and make us Grandparents again. (Pictures to follow, when I get the time to go through them!)

Things we have been doing lately...

We have been so busy (ha, ha) that I just haven't sat down to blog, so here is everything that will bring you up to date.

As many of you know we had Emily here with us for about 5 months. It was different to have a teenager in the house again after almost 10 years. Plus Tim had to find where he had put his robe. Another story all together. Anyway while here she went to what we call the "Mormon Prom". As you can see it was quite the deal and the kids from the ward and the 5 surrounding stakes had a lot of fun.

We also took Emily (or Milly as some of us lovingly called her) to Seattle to see the sights. It was a rather cloudy day but nice. I know that it being cloudy in Seattle is shocking to some of you, it was to us too.

Emily left us to go back home on June 27th after spending a week at Girls Camp with the other girls in the ward. I was told that it was a very tearfull good-bye.

Here are some of the girls before camp.

We then spent our 4th of July weekend in a town named Port Townsend with friends.

As you can see we had a very relaxing weekend! We hope you did too.

Tulips in the Spring

We finally got a taste of spring so off we went to see the tulips. We had to show Emily that you can find tulips outside of Holland. Some of you may recognize the area since we did visit this same tulip farm last year with Karen, Ron, Rushell and the boys. It was such a nice day and the colors were absolutely vibrant.

New York, New York

Rushell and I went to New York City last month for a long weekend. We were met there by Karen, Amy, Katie and Jackie. We had so much fun that we have decided to do it again every year. Although we think that next year we will meet somewhere a little warmer. It was very cold in New York in March. We saw a Broadway play - "Wicked" - which was very good and we highly recommend it to everyone. The music was lovely and meaningful and the sets and costumes were great. We then shopped and saw the sites. Rushell and I stayed an extra day to see a tennis match between Roger Federer and Pete Sampras at Madison Square Garden, or as the New Yorkers say at the Garden. It was a wonderful weekend and we had a great time getting reacquainted with some of our family.

Spring Time in Seattle

It is spring in Seattle and we are wondering what the weather is really thinking. Just when you think it is going to let the flowere come up and the trees get their buds blossoming it does something like this. We have actually had snow or hail or both every night since last Wednesday. One would think we were back in December not starting April.

Mount Rainier

As many of you know, we live in the shadow of this beautiful mountain. This picture really does not do it justice since you can't see the top of the mountain. I took this picture a couple of weeks ago. It is lush and green almost all year long. We are not called the "Emerald City" for nothing. Though to dispell the rumor, we get less rain in a year than Houston Texas. It is just that Houston gets all of its rain in about 2 weeks and ours is spread throughout the whole year. A little every day. ;)

Tim has been skiing on the mountain since January. He has rediscovered that he likes to ski. He is going to be taking Emily up snowshoeing in the next couple of weeks though. They really need to hurry before the snow gets really soft and icey. Just thought I would show you what we get to see on nice clear days.

Christmas in Nashville

We arrived in Nashville very late on Friday, December 21. So we spent Saturday just catching up on some sleep and getting the "getting to know you" part out of the way. We of course went to church on Sunday where we heard Mom sing in the chior. The program was very nice. As you can see we all got the red top memo.

On Monday, Christmas Eve we set out to see some of the festive sights of Nashville. We of course forgot to bring the camera so this funny picture at the "Grinch" ice sculpture is all that you can see from our fun day. This ice sculpture is all of the characters from the book. It is very cold inside the structure so they give everyone coats to wear to keep warm. As you walk in they take your picture in front of a green screen and super impose the background later. As we are walking up to take our picture Tim says, "Everyone put your hood up" So we all did. All except Tim, hmmmm, it just so happens that he is the only one that looks good in the picture. Hmmmm!

That night for family home evening Tyler and I told the Christmas story with a nativity scene that I had brought to Mom from Mexico. The figures were just the right size for Tyler to use to tell the story. While Tim and Dylan looked on.

These are the two cutest little boys in the whole world. WE are not prejudice in anyway. We always have so much fun with them.
And of course they have fun with us!

On Christmas day Santa was very good to the "Boys" of course. One of Tylers favorite things came from Grandma and Grandpa. He got a Harley Scooter, complete with helmet, elbow pads and knee pads. He had a great time with it as you can see.

"Grandpa, save me!"

Grandpa was supposed to save me!

So we went on to other good times at the park. This was much safer!

The next day we met up with Wendy Dennison, used to be Ross. She lives in Atlanta and was on her way to see relatives in Kentucky so she stopped for the day in Nashville. As you can see the little people were instant friends.
We had a great time with friends seeing the sights of Nashville.







All in all we had a wonderful time and are so blessed that we can see each other so easily. We are only sorry that Kris, Julie, Emilie and McKenzie could not be with us.