Gone Fishing

I hear some of you have stopped checking my blog because I haven't a updated it in a while. :) Don't give up on me I have just been swamped. I am now in Hawaii on vacation after finishing up two classes at WSU, training for and completing the Honolulu Marathon and being super busy with work so I sit with my feet up looking at the ocean and posting our fishing trip to Idaho back in October.

We go and visit Mom and Dad when they are over in Lewiston, Idaho in October. It is always very beautiful over there and we have such a fun time. I usually get out in the boat fishing once or twice with Dad and Norm. I like being in the boat and seeing the scenery but I find it hard to keep any fish we catch. I was pretty thankful that most of the fish we caught when I was in the boat were wild and they had to be released. Swim free little fishies or in some cases big fishies and then Dad and Norm were really bummed. Anyway, the following are some pics from the day out in the boat. I usually just take pictures and let the boys fish.

The boys always give Mom and I such a hard time for all of the items we have when working on craft projects yet look at all the stuff they need for fishing. All those colorful floaties don't look much different then my bead collection. Please also note the pink yarn in the top right corner of the tackle box.

We did have luck with a few fish the day I went out so have to show the pictures to go along with the fish stories.


Will's Uncle Ken caught his first fish of the day. Look at the smile!




Yeah Will!! Was this the one that got away?? Sorry sweetie had to do it.




They are fast and it is hard to get them in action so this is the best pic I got.



Yeah for me he was wild so we got to let him swim free!!!!

 After a hard morning of fishing and coffee break we must stop for lunch. The planning of the food is almost more important then the fishing but they never go hungry and everyone on the river is jealous for sure!! We had to share a few cookies with Ken and John.

After a long day fishing they get to show off their catch to the camp or maybe just Mom and Rosemary but we did have a few jealous fisherman who were not so lucky that day that came over to say they had to see what a fish actually looked like. It was pretty funny and Dad and Norm are awfully humble about their fishing skills. They have it dialed in to say the least.

I  had to use the stick because I can't stand to touch them. So slimy!!

Here we are packaging up the fish. They have quite the assembly line figured out. Very efficient.

It was fun to get out in the boat with Dad, Norm and Will. More blog posts to follow I promise with more adventures in Idaho. Cheers and until next time.

JET

I Love Potatoes!

I can't believe it has been since August since I posted last. My life has just been crazy between work and going to school I have very little time to do much else. Today I finished my last of three tests I had to take this week and I decided to work on something I wanted to work on, hence a blog post.

Last weekend my friend Amanda mentioned that there was a festival in downtown Mount Vernon for Oktoberfest as well as they were trying to set a Guinness World Record for cooking and eating the most Au Gratin potatoes. As soon as I heard potatoes I was in. I love potatoes they are probably one of my favorite foods.

We went down on a Saturday afternoon in anticipation of eating a lot of potatoes. We were shocked at how many potatoes there actually were. All of the ingredients used in making the au gratin potatoes were from local farms too which was very cool. The following are a few pictures that I was able to take on my phone when we were there.

Once the potatoes were ready we purchased our potatoes and brought them home to share with Will. Once we got to our house we were so excited to eat them but they were not done. :( I am not surprised given how big of pan they were cooking in and the amount of potatoes there were. Amanda took some home and she had to continue cooking them for an hour longer before they were finished. It was a fun day and definitely an experience. Another fun random event in Skagit County. I think these outings are just too fun and one of the reasons I love where I live! I hope you enjoyed my post and I hope to get more out in October as I have a vacation coming up so some time to myself. Yeah!!! Cheers and until next time.

JET

Who Says This is Fun?

My friend Nicole and I signed up for the Lake Padden Duathlon. This race was minus the swimming leg of a triathlon which I was totally cool with. We had to run 2.6 miles around Lake Padden, ride our bikes 14.5 miles from Lake Padden around Lake Samish and back and then another 2.6 mile run around Lake Padden. We thought this was a doable task and set out with our training. We soon found out that even though the course might seem short it is quite hilly which was challenging. We set a goal for ourselves of completing the race in two hours. Since neither of us had done any sort of multi-sport race this was all new to us. Lets just say it was an experience.

We arrived at the race, which was a beautiful day, and were checking out the competition. We were getting a bit nervous because people seemed to look a bit professional. Nicole and I just get out on the weekends to mostly so we are not diehards by any means. We are, in Nicole's words, Weekend Warriors. We like to have fun and feel a sense of accomplishment for completing an event. Just to give you and idea this was a Bellingham Parks and Recreation event which cost $15.00 so we thought it was going to be totally low key. As you will soon read..... this was very much not the case.

Here we are getting our bikes set up before the race:

Next it was off to the start line. We were a bit nervous but more excited than anything. As you can see we are so not serious but notice everyone else. They were super focused and as we were waiving at Will some of the people were probably half way around the lake already no joke. There were only 150 racers total so you could really tell where you stood amongst the group at all times. I will definitely keep you posted as to our status as we go on.

Here we come into the transition area. We are so tired already after sprinting, for us it was sprinting, around the lake to try and catch up with people. We came in to find less than 15 bikes left in the transition area. This was a bit discouraging but no time to think about it just had to keep going. At this point I was so on a mission to not be last I wasn't really even thinking about our 2 hour goal.
  

I thought it was faster to run up the hill than get on my bike. :)

So we were off on our bike ride. The first part of the bike ride is uphill which is not so much fun. Nicole and I spent much of it catching our breath and laughing about how crazy we were and that we have never gone so fast or pushed ourselves this hard in our life. Like I mentioned we are usually out for a stroll and today was so very different.

Will and Amber followed us around the course which was very cool. We were the only people with course support out on the ride. Thank you Will and Bebe for cheering us on we needed it!!

Back to the transition area we come. This is always the fun part because your legs don't really want to work after riding up hills let alone run. It feels like you have heavy weights on and even though you are picking up your feet it feels like you are shuffling along. We came in and much to our dismay had to run past many people who had already finished. Ugh!!

I look beat but look at Nicole racing in all ready to go on the second run. You go girl! Great form. :)














So now off on our last leg of the race another run around the lake. As I mentioned above our our legs didn't want to work and we spent the first quarter mile or so laughing about how heavy they felt. I also did a lot of talking to myself during this race especially since it was a bit humbling to be in such a small group of very good athletes that is was very noticeable that my skill level was lacking compared to theirs. We did however finish and we were only 2 or 3 minutes past our 2 hour goal so that is definitely an accomplishment. Our hubbys, friends, family, etc. were very proud of us and that meant a lot that they were there for support. I think if you asked either one of us if we would do it again we would say yes. This must be why we signed up for the 25 mile Tour de Whactom the weekend after this race. :) Yes, pictures and our adventure will be posted next.

Chloe was excited to run across the
finish-line with Mommy!!

Yeah Team Lake Padden Duathlon we did it! Can't beat the early morning weekend rides, talks and running/walking. Thanks Nicole for motivating me to get out there!

Hope you all enjoyed my latest adventure and check back shortly for our Tour de Whatcom pics. Cheers and until next time!

JET

Singing in the Rain

Rain is not really what I want to be blogging about in July but this was something else. Will and I were just having a lazy Saturday afternoon and we were playing cribbage. I was winning in case you were wondering. Anyway, we just kept looking around us through all the windows in the house and it kept getting darker and darker. We had heard some thunder and were debating on if we were going to get a major storm and would the races at the Skagit be cancelled. Well...... we did get a major storm and the races ended up going after with a bit of a delay. I tried to capture as best I could with the camera the torrential down pour that followed. During this time we were also seeing who could get the best picture of a Hummingbird otherwise known at our house as "hummers". I will do another post of just hummingbirds but I have a very cute picture of a little hummer after the rain.

Before:

Looking a bit like a storm huh?

 During:

Looking out our Living Room window.

After:

Our landscaping is running away. So sad!!!!

You can see just where the water traveled and washed away the mulch.

 Hummer:

Our little drenched hummer. Isn't she cute?? I think it's a she. :)

Drowned Hummer

This was our adventure yesterday afternoon. We had fun and it was a good reason to be lazy and stay inside. I am off now to finish beating Will at cribbage. I am ahead four games so hopefully I don't choke. This morning Will cleaned up as much of the driveway as he could but looks like we will be making a trip to the dirt store for more mulch. Cheers and until next time!!

JET

Survivor

What did I survive???? The Survivor Mud Run! You might be thinking "So what! It was a run in the mud." I am here to tell you it was cold, rainy, wet, muddy, smelly, dirty, slimy, tiring and so much more. I am not sure what I was thinking but I somehow convinced by two friends Nicole and Tara to participate with me so there was no backing out. Will's family was signed up and I figured if they could all do it I could do it. The problem is they all had a blast and would do it again and I, at least at this point, have checked that off my list of things to do although I don't know that it was ever on my list, and will never do it again.

The event was called the Survivor Mud Run and it was held at Remlinger Farms in Carnation, WA. We had a lot of fun getting ready for the event. We decided that we wanted to go into the start looking cute. Costumes were definitely welcomed so we went for a pink motif with argyle socks and tutus. People loved us and thought we were cute. They may have just been making fun of us but we did look cute so it didn't matter. Nicole and I went shopping and got our inspiration from what we could find at Target. She later went and picked up the materials for making tutus and made us rainbow ones which were fabulous!

Here is what we looked like before we got started:

AKA Mud Princess

When we got to the start area we were asked to be in the costume contest but in order to do so we had to start the race 45 minutes early. This was fine with us as we didn't want to wait around but we were concerned about losing our cuteness in all the mud. After the first few obstacles it was all over. There was no way we were going to make it back by the time the contest started and we didn't look anything like when we started as you will see shortly. Nonetheless we were off and running. The course was a 5K with 12 obstacles to get over, under, through or in some cases around.


Here we come! Nicole is all smiles at this point.

So what were the obstacles?? Here ya go:

1. Plank of death
2. Cobweb
3. Mud crawl under cargo net
3. Tire run with three walls
4. River run (brrrrrrrrrrrr it was cold!!!)
5. Wall climb (10ft wall)
6. Slime walk/crawl through a culvert
7. Wall climb (10ft wall)
8. Log swim/crawl with mud hills
9. Cargo net climb
10. Angled wall climb with sinking mud
11. Mud crawl under cargo net
12. Mud pit swim

Are you thinking you want to do this next year??? Will was able to catch us at the mud pit and get some priceless pictures. For those of you who know me don't ask. :) I don't know what I was thinking this is sooooo not me.

Here comes Tara and I. Ewwwwwwwwwwwwwwww!

There we go. We look a little defeated and worn out huh??

Once we finished we were so beat but the carrot was waiting for us. We got to go have a drink. Everyone of age was greeted with a beer or wine and a brat. Before we did that though we attempted to clean off. They had a couple of tents made of pipe that had water coming down from a faucet but it didn't do a whole lot for us. We had mud everywhere and I mean everywhere. We ended up using some baby wipes that Chad and Nicole had in their car and even they didn't help much. We were pretty much a hopeless cause. We sat on the back of our tailgates freezing and eating cupcakes in all of our muddy glory. Also as you will see from our after pictures we had no chance of winning any costume contest.

Great mud bath!

My name has rubbed off my bib and you can see the grass hanging from my shirt and safety pins. Oh my!

The Survivors!!! We lost all of our color but hey we are smiling, I think. :)

The car ride home was long. I had to sit in all of my muddiness for two hours. I was so thankful to see the shower when I got home. I stood in the shower for 25 minutes and still found traces of mud in my ears for two days to follow. It is a great story now and of course one of the reasons for doing the race was for bragging rights and boy did we earn them. We had some war wounds to show off and even as I write this a week later some of the bruises are now turning a deep shade of purple.

Nicole and I decided next year it was Will and Chads turn. Tara said that her husband Bruce is definitely not interested and I can't blame him. I hope you enjoyed seeing and hearing about this latest adventure! Cheers and until next time.

JET

Peace Health Gala

It has been a while since I have been able to post anything. I have so many things to share and many pictures to show you all but my time has been very limited. Because I have a quick second before I start my next project at home I wanted to post a few pictures of our latest adventure.

Our friends Lexy and Peter invited us to go to the Peace Health Gala a week ago. This was a fundraiser and awards banquet for the hospital in Bellingham. They are going to be building a new Cancer Center. Whidbey Island Bank was a major sponsor which is where Peter works so we were fortunate enough to get to go and sit at their table. Will's mom is on the Foundation Board for the hospital so she was there too. She said she didn't invite us because we were not big enough spenders. At least she was honest. :)

Anyway this event was like getting ready for prom. It was black tie optional and Lexy and I decided that we would have our boys wear suits. Well, easy for Lex as Peter already has a few suits but Will on the other hand does not. I am lucky he owns a few ties. Anyway, Will and I went shopping and for those of you who know us and Will's opposition to looking cute, meaning clothes that are not shorts and shirts, it can be a challenge. I am pleased to say we were successful in finding him everything from shoes to shirt, suit coat and matching pants and it did not result in any wars. I will admit we had a fun time and I think he did too. He was a good sport and kept an open mind about it. All put together Will looked quite handsome so we had to have Chris take some pictures of us. It was a beautiful day too so we lucked out. The event was in a big white tent in the area of where the new Cancer Center will be. I decide it was like a scene out of a movie. It was probably the fanciest event I have been to in Bellingham. We had a great time! Enjoy the pics....

Don't tell Lexy I put this out here she will kill me but she looks amazing!!! :)

As you can see we had a great time and it was fun getting all dressed up. I love these types of events but don't get to go to them very often. Cheers and until next time which I hope is sooner than later!!

JET

Tip Toe Through The Tulips

It is tulip time in Skagit County! My friend Amanda and I went to Mount Vernon for a day of Tulip Festival activites. We started off at the arts and crafts fair and then ended up with a trip to Tulip Town. This was Amanda's first trip out to the tulip fields so it was fun to show her how beatiful they all were. As you will see by the pictures it was very wet, muddy and some tulips were not yet blooming but there were many others to see and the colors were amazing!!

This little guy was having way to much fun in the mud!!

Hope you enjoyed viewing our tip toe through the tulips as much as we did. Cheers and until next time.

JET