Snowflakes.1.2012

Since it is Wednesday and still snowing I have decided to skip ahead of many other posts I need to do and do a Special Edition snow post. We are going on day five and we are now up to 14 inches. I can't say enough about how pretty it is. I told Will that today I can pretend we live in a lodge looking out over all of the snow covered trees. It is beautiful! I honestly don't think that any picture I could take would do it justice.

Will and I have had quite a fun time in the snow from sledding to playing cribbage and watching the snow come down to a couple adventures out of the house for some photo ops and food.

Snow Accumulation:


Sunday Morning (Before)

 

Wednesday Afternoon (Current snow status)



Just shy of 14 inches and yes it is still snowing!!!

Sledding:





Yes... Will is wearing shorts.



I of course am in head to toe ski gear because I freeze!!!

Winter Drive:

The road out in front of our house.


Skagit Valley at Sunset



Depth of snow in our driveway. (Tuesday Evening)

 Random Snow Pictures:


Our new outdoor seat cushion. A pillow of snow.

Our House



View

I hope you are enjoying the snow as much as I am or at least enjoying how pretty it makes everything. I can't say I like to venture out in it by any means but I sure like looking at it. Cheers and until next time!

JET 

Idaho Activities

Homework is done for the week so.......... I sit and look at the snow outside with the fireplace on, Riley (the cat) sleeping, Will cooking dinner and I with a glass of wine, fun pictures and my blog to update. Could it get any better??? I don't think so.

Sticking to our trip to Idaho I still have some fun pictures to post. What could we possibly do for a week in Lewiston Idaho? Lots! At the time I was training for the Honolulu Marathon which I will post pics for someday. I need to get caught up and most of my posts are definitely not in any date order. Anyway, we rode our bikes, I ran and I ran and I ran some more, we hiked, shopped and decorated for Halloween. It is just so nice to be really without reality for a week. Life really can be simple and at times it is quite tempting and makes you think hard about the craziness of the daily routine. Anyway, enjoy some pics from our other fun activities in Idaho:

On a hike to see the Columnar Basalt. Pretty impressive!

Yes it is a weed but I thought it was cool with the grass growing up through the middle.

Pumpkin carving. Pumpkins from Norm and Rosemary's Garden. They were perfect!!

Spoooooky! The park does a Haunted Hayride and the cemetery was one of the stops. We went in the daylight.
Yes we are wimps!!!!

Ladies project. It was cake pops for us. Fun and tasty but a bit frustrating. Mom is on her
way to being the cake pop master now. In future posts you will see what I am talking about.

Wouldn't be a camping trip without a little Geocaching. Please note the obvious round rock underneath
my right foot is what I am looking for. Mom had found it on a previous day so she thought it was
pretty funny that I kept stepping over it and here basically sitting on it. Nice hiding spot to the
people who own the cache!!!!

There is nice trail along the river and someone had hid many cache's with a story about Lewis and Clark so
mom and I went on a nice stroll and found many of them. Here Mom is logging our find. I am Keystone Campers WJCR and Mom is Ladybug 2010 in case you are Geocaching you can look and see if we have been there.





Last but not least we come to Idaho to look at the pretty fall colors. The leaf colors are amazing. They were a bit behind this year but we did catch some of them.

Here are some reds for you.

I hope you enjoyed our trip to Idaho as much as we did. Let's see what is next to come for my blog????? I might just skip to Hawaii but I do have Amber's Baby Shower and Thanksgiving and....... Such choices. Cheers and until next time.

JET

A Step Back in Time - Kendrick, ID

So another adventure on our trip to Idaho. The boys took a day off from fishing and we drove to this little town called Kendrick. There is about 400 people that live in this town and if you blink as you drive through you will miss it. It is a very sleepy little town and people open their shops when they feel like it. Mom, Dad, Norm and Rosemary had been there before so they were hoping to take us to a little bakery they had been to for lunch but when we got there it was closed. We went into the local Hardware Store and the owner told us we should try Archies. It was quite an experience and I don't think anything had changed since it was originally opened. Actually I believe that goes for all of the stores we visited. I am always looking for  photo opportunities and there were plenty of fun things to look at. Enjoy!

First stop was the Hardware Store as I mentioned. Dad can't pass up visiting a Hardware Store and many of them actually are quite cool. Since it is pretty much the main store in most of these smaller towns they carry a little bit of everything. From greeting cards, to used books, to tools, pop and dishes. Many items look like they have been there for years and years but they are stocked just in case someone might need something. By looking at the owners desk I couldn't even tell you the last time they probably balanced their books or did inventory. The paperwork was piled so high. He was as sweet as could be though and it as fun to talk to him and hear how the railroad used to come through the town and Kendrick was a stop and they used to store the dynamite from the rail cars in the safe in the Hardware store at night. That is the extent of what I remember of the story as he was telling Dad but it was a pretty cool fun fact for the day.

Next stop and the purpose for the trip was lunch. Oh boy! Imagine sticky vinyl seats, stale air and local scenery. I will admit I was not very adventurous and went for what I thought had to be a safe choice and had grilled cheese. Dad is still giving me a bad time about that. You do however need to check out the appetizer menu below to imagine what our lunch choices were. Seriously...... Fried Chicken Gizzards? Who eats that???

Okay, the breaded mushrooms or sweet potato fries were probably good.

After our experience at lunch and oh..... by the way next time you see Dad ask him how to dine and dash. He didn't quite get away with it but tried unknowingly. Mom and Dad had a little mis-communication and the waitress had to track us down on the sidewalk. Love you Dad!!! :) Anyway, we went for a walk and looked at some of the little antique stores and of course stopped for photo opportunities. There was an old garage/antique store which is where the rest of the photos were taken.

Kind of fun to imagine how simple life must be in a small town like this. Everyone was very nice and probably excited to see visitors comes through. Not sure I will be back to Archies anytime soon but wouldn't mind driving back up just to see the fall colors on the trees and visit the little antique stores. Who knows next time maybe we will check out the local bar................. or not. Cheers and until next time!

JET

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