Proud Auntie!!!

Since I am way behind on my posts I am going to lump all my baby news in one post. Wait.... no baby news for Will and I. :) I guess that doesn't quite read right but for those of you who do not know yet Amber and Jerad welcomed a little baby boy, Brayden Douglas Becker, into the world on January 26th. He was born at 4:53PM and weighed 7lbs 9 oz and was 21 inches long. I'm an Auntie and a very proud one that that!!!!

In November Mom and I had a Baby Shower for Amber and we had too much fun. Amber got to see several friends she hadn't seen in quite some time. It was a wonderful turn out and a great day. The following is my photo story from the Baby Shower to Brayden's Birthday and beyond. :)

Amber's Baby Shower



Amy Parsons, left and Amber "Bebe" Becker, right

 I had a fun time decorating for the shower. Mom did the cake pops above and they turned out so cute. Amber was doing an alphabet theme in Brayden's room so we stuck with that for the shower. The colors also coordinate with Brayden's room. Many of the decorations were gifts to Amber for his nursery.



Amber with all of her guests.

Happy Birthday Brayden Douglas!

The big day............ (January 26th, 2012)

Amber had a support team which included her ever so calm hubby, a very nervous Auntie as I don't do hospitals, an excited Grandma, an amazing best friend and a fabulous supportive cousin. The nervous Grandpa and excited Uncle played cribbage in the waiting room and anticipated our updates. It was a long day but 100% worth the wait and both Amber and Jerad did amazing. We are so excited to have Brayden in our lives that we can't get enough of him.

Welcome Brayden!!!

Play time with Auntie!

Of course Amber and I have been seeing all of these super cute photos of babies on Pinterest and couldn't wait until Brayden was born so we could have a photo shoot of our own. What we have found is that Brayden doesn't like to be naked, he is not a hard sleeper so we can't pose him and he likes to stretch out. What we have also found is that all of that doesn't matter because we have so many other cute pictures to look at we don't need the posed ones. The following are some pictures from our first photo shoot and Grammy was jealous because she wasn't here to have fun with the three of us.

I of course love his shirt that Amber dressed him in. How appropriate for a visit to Aunties. :) Brayden also loved the cow. Can't wait until he can see and talk to the real cows at our house. How fun will that be????

 Happy Easter our Little Easter Bunny!!!

He loved the Easter Bunny and Amber and I being goofy!

My first Easter basket. Oh Sponge Bob you are so funny!!!

 I am realizing that I don't have as many pictures as I would like to have of our little peanut. I think they are all on my phone so once I figure out how to get them off of there I will add more posts. We have had just so much fun over the last several months. Amber and Jerad may be getting tired of Auntie taking up every Saturday morning of theirs but that has been my time to spend with them and I have enjoyed every minute of it. Looking forward to many more smiles, milestones and adventures. Love you Brayden!!!

As always I hope you enjoyed reading my post and PS there should be more to come as I am taking the Summer off from school so am "free" so to speak. Cheers and until next time.

JET

Hoot Hoot ....... Owl Watching

Will's Mom, Aunt and Uncle had been up to see the Snowy Owls in Canada and told us they were quite beautiful. Apparently every five years or so the Snowy Owls come to Boundary Bay during the Winter from the Artic. They stay for several months before returning when they know they will be able to find food. Sounds pretty amazing the trip they make and that they know when to return.

The location in which they are at is only about 45 minutes from Bellingham so Will and I went up with Chris and Aunt Julie to see them. It was a perfect day not to mention an adventurous one. Without too many details I will just say we irritated a die hard bird watcher and had a run in with a Canadian driver. Will is not very patient as most of you probably already know. Besides all of that and a little bit of lens envy all was good. :)

My pictures while I took many I don't have many good ones to share. We saw a lot of the backs of their heads. I will have to steal some from Chris who had a lens that got closer to them and who had been before so had more opportunities for that perfect shot.

Some serious birders here.

This is Boundary Bay

Remember above my mention of lens envy? These people had lenses that probably cost more than some cars do. These people are serious about their birds and their pictures.

Here is my attempt with my, I might mention, borrowed lens from Chris which has a better zoom than mine. I think I need some more practice.

The owls didn't do much. For the most part they sat and would every once in a while move their head back and forth. There was one that flew away but silly me I had turned my camera off and couldn't get it back on in time once I realized it was off to get a picture. Darn!!!

There were probably 30 or so owls at most in the area in which we were. This photo shows you where the biggest concentration of them were. Beyond that they were either by themselves or groups of two or three.

Getting pretty for the camera.

I spy with my little eye an Eagle. Can you see him??

The road that gets you out to the beach was interesting. Not only was it lined with Eagles but it was swampy fields with run down barns, houses that looked like they were sinking into the earth, an airport, a links style golf course and houses that looked that this.........

The trail along the water in which we walked was very nice. I think it is roughly nine miles. At the start of the trail where we were was a few sculptures and since we were there to look at birds I took a picture of this one...

I hope you enjoyed the pictures and if you want further details about our adventures talk to Chris and Will. They made the day entertaining. Love you both!! Cheers and until next time.

JET

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