Bumcrot Family

December

2012-01-27T15:17:00.000-08:00

December could count as our crazy month.

Let's start off with an amazing experience here in town. Our local San Juan Bautista mission was built way back when, 1797 to be exact. The missionaries who settled here had a pretty good relationship with the natives. So as they were building the mission the locals showed them where to build the mission. They helped so that on the Winter Solstice they could have the sunrise come through a window and rest upon and travel across one wall, with saints on it, and finally rest of the altar. Although, other histories suggest that the missionaries already knew where to place the church and that the "solstice trick" was merely a way to attract local native to the church.

It was beautiful. One of those moments that I thought I would probably never see. It truly was a spiritual experience. The hush of the crowd. The light moving across the wall at sunrise. The bitter cold of that morning. The natives chanting outside the church, summoning the sun for 30 minutes. The smoke, the drums, the whole scene as the sun slept and glowed behind those hills. The opening of the chapel doors to let the sun come fully in, down the aisle. It was amazing. I can't even really describe it.

Later on that night we opened our Christmas presents at home. We decided to travel home to Oregon and didn't want to take all the gifts with us so we just opened them.

Reid opened up some awesome gifts. He had a motorized four-wheeler under the tree from Grandma and Grandpa Bumcrot, and Justin bought Reid some "hickories," a staple for Oregon hillbillies. We loved Justin card that said they were for, "Missin' Bucks & Wreckin' Trucks." Also a must for Oregon hillbillies. It was a very funny card.

Christmas with Cassie's Family

We had a good time in Oregon visiting our families. Reid loved taking pictures. He doesn't always smile, but he always wants to see the picture on the LCD screen after the picture is taken. It's funny that he already knows how cameras work.

We took a lot of pictures with Myles, because he finally smiled with his teeth! Myles never shows his teeth. We were all pretty excited about it and all wanted a picture with him.

Nancy also never takes any pictures, especially smiling. But we got one....but she wasn't like Myles. One picture was enough for her. So Christmas Eve was spent in fun times. It was also the same day when Reid started showing symptoms of not feeling 100%, but we'll get to that later. Thanks Madre for ALL of these photos! We still are awful when it comes to taking photos!

Christmas with Robert's Family

We spent Christmas morning with Robert's family and also had a great time. There were a lot of cookies to eat. All of them were yummy!

Reid showing off another new ride from Grandma and Grandpa Bumcrot and sporting his hickory for Uncle Justin. He totally looks the part already.

Thanks to Lela for all of these photos too! Hopefully we get better at taking pictures soon before our baby is a grown man!

Reid was still showing signs of not feeling 100%, but was fairly active and happy when we started our journey home. It might be gross but his main issue was diarrhea. Maybe I shouldn't put that in a blog post, but it's true. We weren't incredibly worried about it at first, because we thought that it might be blamed on the increase sugar, different foods, etc. We thought it would pass. The worrying started on the drive home. His fluid intake was getting low and I started to think about dehydration. He would drink a little bit of milk but that was all.

Long story short we had a doctors the next day and we were told that the milk was probably making things worse. So we stopped the milk. We were warned that if he didn't start taking in and keeping down fluids he would need an IV. Little did we know that it would be sooner than later. We ended up in the E.R. that evening and spent the next two nights. It was an incredibly hard two days. Keeping track of an IV lodged into the crook of a little guys elbow is tough work. But everything worked out, and we brought home a healthy guy. Still had some belly issues that took almost two more weeks to resolve, but being out of the hospital was awesome!

Our anniversary and New Years passed without much fanfare. We were just so happy to be home that we didn't care to celebrate. A healthy baby is enough!

November

2012-01-26T14:50:00.000-08:00

I was excited for the month of November to get here. We had made plans with my parents when we knew we were moving to Cali to attend the Ducks and Stanford game. I was so excited to go to a game! It was an awesome game, and on a side note I loved the seating at Stanford. The new stadium was super awesome, except for the bathrooms.

Later that week we took a trip to Santa Cruz with my parents and I had a moment of road rage in the car, because no one was helping me with directions. But once we parked the car, we had a good time.

It was such a beautiful day...in November. It has taken me awhile to get used to this sunshine in months when I am used to none.

These pics with Reid were taken right as they were leaving.

My brother Troy and his wife Teresa were also around for the game, but I have absolutely zero pictures of them. I really am awful at remembering to take pictures these days. Someone has photos of us together. I know they do because I remember posing for one.

Thanksgiving

We went home for Thanksgiving but do not have a single photo to show for it. But I do have two photos from my mother's camera. She wanted to take a picture of boys and girls - shortest to tallest - and this is what we got. I think the boys photo could qualify for awkward family photos. None of those guys like to pose for the camera. Ha ha!

October

2012-01-26T13:58:00.000-08:00

October was much more of a happening month than September. We visited not one, but two theme parks. We drove down to Disneyland to meet up with Robert's sister at the beginning of the month.

There were two odd things about this trip. #1 We hardly saw Robert's sister, Lela, and her family at all and #2 Reid is allowed on a lot of the rides. We went on Dumbo, Pooh, Small World, Toad, Snow White, Haunted Mansion (which was switched over to the Nightmare Before Christmas!) - we had a great time. It was super busy, but we still had fun.

Either way we had a fun mini weekend road trip.

The second theme park we went to was Gilroy Gardens. We actually really liked it. And we thought Disneyland could learn a few things from this park. This park has tons of plants and trees to provide shade. A wonderful thing on a hot day. It was definitely an easier trip as it's right by where we live, it wasn't busy, and it had lots of things for Reid.

I call this one of Reid and the goat "Reid's sneaky smile." He is getting ready to do something crazy when he smiles at you like that.

October is not complete without a trip to the pumpkin patch! He loved the corn maze. He has been walking for awhile, but he finally had mastered walking on the uneven ground found outside. So this was heaven for him.

We fed a lot of animals this month.

We weren't sure how pumpkin carving would go...most of the little kids we know don't really like to carve pumpkins since they are slimy. We were curious to see how Reid would do, and he had a fun time with it.

Hunting for costumes is something Robert and I like to do, but we can never decide what to buy. By the time Halloween rolls around we typically are left without costumes because we just couldn't decide. However, Reid was kinda easy to shop for mostly because they didn't really have anything in his size besides the Hulk. And we think the Hulk is pretty cool!

But once we purchased the costume we realized that it's actually kind of hard to tell what/who he was supposed to be. Oh well! He hated that hat, but we were able to keep it on him as long as he was distracted. Which was actually most of the time. He enjoyed checking out other people's outfits.

Oh, and I turned 29! Wow! I don't remember what we did and there weren't any photos...we are really terrible at taking pictures of anything these days.

September

2012-01-26T13:15:00.000-08:00

Here we go again. Once I catch up I think I will be able to get back to a more consistent posting schedule, but as of right now it just feels like it's hard to catch up. Which leads to putting it off and making the task bigger. I'm a procrastinator!

Ok, well September was overall a slow, mellow month. Robert's parents were able to come for a visit and we celebrated Reid's and Robert's birthday a few days early with them.

Reid didn't want to eat his birthday cake, but he did like to smash it. So after it was all smashed it ended up here:

And we held our mini celebration at home with Reid on his actual birthday, and that was when we sang to him. He's a handsome guy!

August

2011-12-01T10:50:00.001-08:00

After the high school reunion in Oregon I convinced Pops to drive down south with me so I wouldn't have to endure another 11 hours in the car with Reid alone. It really should be a nine hour drive but with a baby and the needed frequent stops it ends up being a lot longer. The drive south was much easier with his help.

In order for this plan to work Pops had to stay with us for a week! We planned on having him fly home but the cheaper tickets were a week out. But we had a grand time. I took him to the aquarium and we finally got around to checking out things in our tiny town, specifically the old mission and plaza hotel.

I love all things historic, and the tours of the these places did not disappoint. My favorite room, surprisingly, was the saloon. It's completely in original condition...the floors, walls, bar stools, the bar itself. I was really awed by it all. However, I did have one complaint. They have these historical Gregorian Chants written on super old paper, but they just have them sitting in a regular glass box, and illuminated texts as well. They have no preservation system in place. I could easily break in and steal them tonight if I so desired. It irks me! Occasionally when I think about it, I want to send them a lengthy email about my concerns.

We spontaneously attempted a short hike with Reid and Pops of Fremont Peak (John Fremont and Kit Carson held a camp on the top ready to battle the Mexican Army, but they followed orders and left the area before a skirmish happened.) We made it this far but decided to turn back because it was really hot and we didn't have any water. At least we were able to get a good vista of the valley!

A couple of weeks after Pops left we visited Pinnacles National Park for a second time. This time to check out the lake (which is not suitable for swimming) and the caves. Reid loved the caves. It was actually a fairly easy hike, but it was made into a difficult hike due the the baby backpack. We were constantly taking Reid out of the backpack or Robert would have to remove the backpack. But still worth it!

On a much cooler day and with the proper equipment we again attempted Fremont Peak. And we succeeded! We call it Baby Reid's First Summit - Elevation 3,173 - I wasn't sure if we should go to the tippy tippy top at first glance, but it worked out fine. It was really hard to take pictures of the coastal view because the sun was just sitting in the right spot to cause a massive glare off the ocean. The one below was the best one I could get. It was so bright on top. We love this close up of Reid for even though it's the one picture that looks almost nothing like him in real life. But we love how it show his lack of hair. This guy is still so bald. We are hoping it starts to grow soon!

Other than that it's a party at our house every day!

An Attempt to Catch Up....

2011-12-01T09:53:00.000-08:00

So I have basically disappeared from the blog world, but I do want to catch up. I consider this blog more like a family journal so it's important to bring it up to date. I blame my absence on a few things but primarily I've just been a little lazy. Plus I have been hanging out with these guys. They are a lot of fun to have around and keep me busy.

Oh and I forgot to include Willie the pup! He is kind of an abused dog lately. Reid loves him already.

So lets jump all the way back to July. It was a pretty mellow month really. We did absolutely nothing for the Fourth of July! Essentially fireworks are illegal where we live.....like you can be fined $5,000 for the simplest of fireworks. We considered going out to watch the "legal" show....but Reid was asleep by about 6:00 pm so that was a bust. But we were there in spirit.

The real party happened at home with a measuring tape. Reid thinks it's the greatest thing around. Well that and sand. He has since learned that sand isn't all that great tasting, but it took a few times before he came to that conclusion.

Overall, it was just a lot of family time in July. Reid attempted to find his sea legs, but didn't take off on his own until the end of July at 10 months.

I took a week trip into Oregon for my high school reunion. I know a lot of people think reunions are dumb, but when you come from a small town like myself they really seem to be nice. My class went through some hard times and even those people you lose touch with are nice to see because of your shared experiences. And it's a gathering place for all those friends you have stayed in contact with but never get to see. I miss these girls!

These pictures were taken the same week. I love how dressed up some of us were and then Kristin and I showed up super casual. I had just finished a super long hard drive by myself with a baby who cried a lot. I was tired! I did cut my hair right after our first get together. I like it short in the summer time.

How could I forget "The Book?" This book shown above that Darby is looking at took quite a bit of time to assemble. It's essentially a book with all of my blog posts from 2008. I never print any of the photos I take. Never. And the more I looked at the blog I kept coming back to the idea that I should print it. It would take the place of photo albums and it would contain stories....not just pictures. So I found a site for self publishing (yes, it has an actual ISBN number. But it was privately "published" meaning it is not for sale. I just printed one for myself.) Was is expensive? Yes. Around $80. But it was worth it to me. It's a large hardback bound book that will last forever. I plan to do one for each year. It's like a family journal and I can see us sitting down as a family to look back through them one day, not to mention how great one of these things could be for family history. So $80 a year seems like a small price to me, especially since I never print any of our photos.

Commence Adventures in San Juan

2011-06-25T16:13:00.000-07:00

San Juan. That's what everyone calls this place. Everyone drops the Bautista in its name. It's a quiet little olden times town. Its original mission is intact. The streets have feral chickens. The main street strip has an olden days feel. It is right on top of the San Andreas fault. We are in one of the produce capitals of the world and there are fresh fruit stands and crops everywhere. It's a sleepy town with weekend visits from history geeks and tourists. We really like it so far. It's been sunny everyday. We can see the fog roll in from the coast every night. The fog just sits on the western hills; it never rolls over those hills.

Here are some of our adventures in our first two weeks.

Local San Juan

We walked along the original El Camino Real Road to the mission. The original road isn't really marked it's just a dusty dirt path that we followed. Robert is standing on one of the carriage stops for the stagecoaches, and it also shows off the San Andreas fault line in the background.

There are those wild chickens. They wander everywhere. These chickens are the most controversial political topic of the day in these here parts. Many of the locals are concerned about the population. We think they are kind of fun. We came across a small jewelry store called Mrs. B.'s Z Place in the downtown. If you look down the street behind me.....that's basically the whole town.

Monterey

We haven't fully been able to explore Monterey as of yet. So far we have only visited Cannery Row and the Aquarium. The standard tourist stops.

The aquarium was altogether amazing and even awe inspiring at times. We even signed up to be members. We thought it would be worth it since Reid and I are at home all the time.

A school of fish swimming together is mesmerizing. I can just stare at them. The fish are so seamlessly together. It has a mathematical feel to the way they move and stay so in sync. I don't believe they are stupidly and blindly just following the leader. Their movements have purpose.

Reid enjoyed himself for the most part. Surprisingly, he was actually interested in most of the exhibits - unless there were other children around. Reid loves to watch other kids.

It's hard to take photos in an aquarium. Reid and I are in the photo to the left...and the other pic was our best picture of the jellyfish. They are so bright. Beautiful. Reid liked this exhibit too....he started to stand up in his stroller.

We eventually left early without seeing everything because Reid was getting sleepy. Oh well....we're coming back someday.

Carmel to Big Sur

What a gorgeous, gorgeous drive. Maybe the most scenic drive I have ever taken. We had to stop and take in the sun and sea. Reid needed a break from our antics to keep him entertained in his car seat.

Pinnacles National Monument

Robert thinks it's funny to take pictures of me doing weird things. Like deciding whether or not the outhouse is ok.

We decided to hike into a cave at Pinnacle but upon arriving, after a long drive, I realized I didn't pack any diapers. It was too far of a drive back and the heat would kill us if we didn't start early...so we went for it. I dug through the goodwill donation bag and pulled out a few cotton items that we could use to make some homemade diaper contraptions. It worked wonderfully. The boy had a great time and so did we.

We made it to the caves but the cave climb was something that could not be done with a baby. You have to crawl climb and slide your way through. If your kids can walk it would be lots of fun...but we had to turn back. We are still glad we went. We learned that Reid can handle a five mile hike, but that's pushing his limits. It gives us a place to start for our summer activity plans.

Our Last Two Weeks in Oregon = Busy Times!

2011-06-25T14:48:00.000-07:00

Alright we are going to fly through these events, because they all happened so fast.
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South County
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This was the last weekend we spent in South County before the big move. We squeezed a decent amount of things in....Robert went riding with his family, went to graduation and partied with Shyra for her birthday. We are very proud of Shyra and her accomplishments!

Visits

Roxanne and I were able to hang out one more time with our kiddos. We were shocked to find out that Reid was taller than Seneca. A first! She has always been taller. We love these little people.

The grand finale (the day before we load the moving truck):

Robert's Graduation, Last Day of School, and the Stewarts.

A special thanks to Lela who took most of these pics at graduation.

The last day of school was also the same day Robert's graduation ceremonies were taking place. I had to be packed up, grades done, 100% checked out of school before I left on Friday. Normally we have a grade day to help the teachers finish up the many things we have to do at the end of a school year. But not this year - thank you budget cuts.

I had Reid at school with me for the last two hours because Robert had be in Corvallis early for all the preparations. So once school was over I ran home changed into some nicer clothes, dropped Reid off for the night (because the boy falls asleep very early), and exceeded the speed limit on my way to the ceremony.

I didn't think I would make it, but I did. I was a tad late....but not really. Some of you may know I used to have a speeding problem. I drove fast all the time....it's a problem. However, for many years I have been doing great at obeying the posted speed limit...well except out South Myrtle. Driving that fast again was kinda fun....I didn't even know the RAV4 could go that fast. It might be a dawning of a new era for me....the speed era. And since we are now in California it might be useful.

Graduation was fun. These hard hats they wear make me laugh. It looks like a fake graduation. I guess since they are construction engineers the program wants to wear those ones. The civil engineers just wore the regular caps.

I am very proud of Robert and all that he has accomplished. We are very thankful for all of our blessings. He was able to earn a wonderful education, received the most fantastic scholarship in the world - we would never be able to pay that foundation back, received a handsome offer from his favorite construction engineering company, and he has the coolest family around. Not bad for a Beaver!

Teeth!

2011-05-31T20:44:00.000-07:00

Reid's teeth came in a little bit ago, but he is getting harder and harder to photograph. Because of this difficulty I have been making more videos, but they aren't very good at all. Perhaps even worse than the photos because you have to listen to my lazy sounding voice.

(G-mas: If you click on the close up of his face you can see his teeth.)

His upper teeth must be coming in. His irritability is on the rise as of late, paired with excessive night waking. A few things to say about baby teeth: they must be sharper than adult teeth. They must. They get a little taller everyday. He likes to try to use them for chewing purposes and loves to watch his mommy chew her food. He ate some Indian food this weekend and is starting to try all kinds of foods. Surprisingly, Reid seems to like them all. Reid loves to watch us brush our teeth, so we let him have some fun too. He gets a funny looking look on his face when he gets excited...like the one below. Robert has been home with Reid for the last month and a half....and he has the boy all figured out. He is great with Reid.

For those of you keeping track, we leave in less than two weeks for Monterey Bay. We will be living close to Santa Cruz and Hollister right on top of the San Andreas Fault. I know awesome, right? I probably won't blog until our move is complete. Big changes ahead...be prepared.

Weekend Riding at the Coast

2011-05-31T20:35:00.000-07:00

Robert went and played at the coast a couple of weekends ago with friends and family. Robert is the one with the huge white helmet on his head. Robert's head fits into a large sized helmet...we had no idea his head was that big! We thought he'd be a medium or even a small...but a large....talk about the surprise of the year.

A Lucky Lady

2011-05-08T19:51:00.000-07:00

Cassie: I feel happy to be a mom today and everyday. I am thanful for my Madre! She is fabuloso....and she likes my spanish words! We are thankful for all the mom's in our lives.

Robert: Thankful for Mama B. and all she has done for us and that she has a great Mother's Day!

Reid: I love my mommy too!

Willie: I would like some more attention please! This crawling baby is stealing the show.

Spring Time

2011-05-02T18:58:00.000-07:00

Since we are moving soon we have been trying to hang out with out families on the weekends. We have been able to hang out for the last three weekends in the row. Robert and I always forget our camera these days so almost all of these pictures are from my mom's camera. (Thanks mom for posting!) The baby in the picture above is not Reid....don't want to confuse you. That's Aiden. We need to get some pics of the Bumcrot family soon.

We went to the Duck's spring game and it was pretty full. It's not normally very full, nor is parking typically such a problem, but it was this time. We were running late (note the messy hair and no make-up) and ended up walking quite a ways to meet my parents. We got to put the Baby Bjorn to good use.

Once we finally made it to Autzen we were walking to go meet my parents, Sara and Myles but Reid hated the noise. He started crying and trembling. He was particularly bothered by the announcer's loud speakers. So we had to move seats. All the speakers are on one of the end zones....and we wanted to move as far away from the speakers as possible so we went to the other end zone. I felt bad that my fam gave up their good seats, but we still had a good time.

And then the rest are just some fun pics from home with my boys. Reid has terrible excema lately and can officially crawl!

A Change of Plans

2011-04-14T21:15:00.001-07:00

So I know I just recently announced that Robert accepted a Portland offer....but we have just recently accepted an offer from San Francisco. Robert had been interviewing with the SF company a few times (they flew him down for the interviews, etc), and we knew it was a hard company to get in to...so we didn't put a lot of stock in it. It was Robert's favorite company and it will give him the right amount of growth for his career to be able to take off relatively quickly. The offer came Monday night and we took it Tuesday night. We will miss our Oregon family and friends, but with the help of lots of praying we know we made the right decision.

Not quite...

2011-04-09T20:11:00.001-07:00

but he's getting close. Ignore the tv...Robert was watching something about sperm whales. So if you listen too closely, you will hear the word sperm far too many times for one day. I even considered not posting the video.

Update on other things:

Robert took a Portland offer from Harder Mechanical as a Project Engineer. A lot of people have asked about why he's is working for a mechanical contractor and not a general contractor. Well, Harder does more than just mechanical work is the short answer. Robert's first project is at Intel. He will be engineering in clean room construction for things called wafers. I still don't know what all that means but he tells me that it's important for all things related to Intel manufacturing.

I am in the middle of track season and I love track. I am only coaching part-time this year because I wanted to be home more with the little one. I can't wait for summer time when we get to hang out all day long!

March Madness was a bust! I think most people suffered the same amount of devastation in their brackets as we did. However, Robert always picks Butler to make it to the Final Four and this year he didn't since they have always let him down. Little did we know it was Butler's year to make it to the final game, and then choke.

Giggling

2011-03-06T19:16:00.000-08:00

I've been trying for awhile to get any form of a laugh from Reid on video. He is still just so distracted by the camera. If he's laughing up a storm and we pull out the camera, he just stops. So this was the best we could do....he laughs harder than this but you gotta take what you can get.

We think Reid's hair has a red tint in some photos....but I am convinced that he doesn't have any red hair at all. What do you think....do you see any red? Reid is growing a mohawk....it is getting fairly long along that center strip. I think we will style it with some mousse sometime.

We had just woken up from a nap...and Reid looks a little more awake than I do.

We are planning on moving over Spring Break. Not sure exactly where yet, but we'll keep you posted. As of right now there are job possibilities all over the place for Robert. (Maryland, New Mexico, various parts of Cali, Oregon, Las Vegas) We are waiting to hear from a couple of companies, and know we will end up where we are supposed to be.

Rolling

2011-01-30T16:55:00.000-08:00

Reid is TOUGH....he has nice bicepts.

Holidays and Catching Up

2011-01-23T18:28:00.000-08:00

Greetings Blogging World! Happy New Year!

So let's start with a smattering of photos.....

These first photos are from December. He's a growing boy. Very alert. Very content to just hang out.

This is probably one of the last time he ever slept on Robert's chest. He doesn't like to do that any more. He grew into his Oregon onesies, and likes them!

One night we tried all of his different hats on....big, small, ugly, cool. These were the better pics.

Christmastime - we had a great time with both families. Reid did very well traveling and meeting everyone. Robert and I both became a little obsessive with two puzzles.

Reid never smiles for the camera. If he sees the camera he fixates on it, just staring blankly wondering when it will flash red or bright white lights. He's a hard guy to photograph and we forgot to take out our camera most of the time. We didn't get very many photos at Robert's family's party. We were busy cleaning up a blowout....it was pretty bad.

He met our friends Brandon, Tali, and the Beeby fam. We see these friends every Christmas. Somehow we just always make time to see each other for lunch or just a stop by the house. (Tali- I never got a copy of the photo of you and Reid...send one my way. I won't post it though if you don't want me to.) He also met Jeffry last weekend, but we have to wait awhile for those photos to arrive in the mail. I'll post them later.

Happy New Year! We spent the New Year sleeping, but this guy was ready to party.

Swimming with Roxanne and Seneca......and Reid fits into his Beaver gear now too. (Remember Robert is a Beaver!) Reid fell asleep while swimming. He's just a calm little guy, and swimming wasn't exciting enough to keep his interest.

And guess who finally smiled for the camera last night! We have also been using cloth diapers full time for the last week. We like them. So far so good. They aren't as bad as you might think.....and coming from someone who easily dry heaves at the slightest smells and sights that means it's pretty good.

He had his four month check up and he's a petite man. (33rd% for height, 26th% for weight...it would be higher if you used his due date) But he's growing! And I miss him while I work. Robert's taking his last classes and starting to work part-time. So this next month will be super busy. Hopefully we can keep up with it all.

A Happy Baby

2010-11-28T18:17:00.000-08:00

Reid is doing lots of new things lately. He talks to us and smiles lots. It's been a good month.

He officially grew out of his preemie outfits awhile ago....and is now getting ready to outgrow his newborn outfits. However, those three month outfits are still far too big for him. Not sure what size he might be but we're trying to figure it out.

We blessed Reid last weekend and this was a portion of his outfit. He looked handsome.

Oh, and this was Willie's hilarious Halloween costume. That's a cave man riding him. Found it at Target and loved it. Reid was Superman...kinda. They don't make brand new infant costumes. We bought one, but it is meant to be worn by six-twelve month old baby. Maybe he can wear it next year.

And last but not least, I am attempting to post my very first blogger video. Fingers crossed.

Just Reid

2010-10-14T15:45:00.000-07:00

Catching Up

2010-10-11T11:56:00.000-07:00

It's been such a long time since I have posted......so you're just gonna get the highlights.

Summer Time

Friend Times

In July I was able to see a few of my favorite people. We went to the Riddle fireworks together......I haven't been to the Riddle fireworks since jr. high.

Pregnant Times

Roxanne and I were able to hang out a couple of times and compare our growing bellies. I gained weight in my face and neck.....we call it the puffy face. Watch it grow.

Helping Times

In August I was very busy with moving my classroom back to my original middle school. I was also busy with helping out as much as I could with this: http://www.columbian.com/news/2010/jul/09/rescuers-called-dougan-falls/

http://keaupdates.webs.com/

I coached this boy in track. He is a great runner and hurdler. He works hard at anything athletic....his resilience does not surprise me. We saw it during practice all the time. We were very happy that he made a miraculous recovery.
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Billy Idol Times

No pics taken...but it's enough just to say it.

Jeffry Times

We visited at the end of July. We had a great time. (The pregnant duck shirt is one of my favorite maternity shirts.)

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Baby Time

Reid Elden joined us about three weeks before his due date. Sept 28th......a day before Robert's birthday! It was a long labor (5 hrs of pushing), but we're happy he arrived.

Stats - 7 lbs 4 oz and 19.5 inches long.

My puffy face begins to shrink!

Day 1~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Day 2

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Day 4 - he had a hard time learning to feed....so I have had to pump a lot. But things are good now. He knows what he's doing now.

Baby Gear

2010-06-19T22:18:00.000-07:00

We are not due to have this baby until October, but we feel as if this baby (whom by the way is a BOY) is already taking over our mini-tiny-baby-house.

I think I am 22 weeks here.....I am going to be a big bellied pregnant woman.

So for my mom's viewing here are a few pictures of things we have already accumulated from friends, family, and our own garage sale finds.

The BOB Stroller..Robert really wanted one ----------The high chair was a hand-me-down!

Found the bed stuff just today at the Laurelhurst Garage Sale.....all of it for only $40. It contains a lamp, a light switch cover, bumper, comforter, crib skirt, pillows, window valence, a hanging diaper thingy, and a mobile. I think it's pretty amazing; especially for $40!

The bassinet for $10 -----------------Various items from wonderful people.

On a side note........

Shyra turns 17....how crazy is that?

And Uncle Reese comes to town with his wife Missy and daughter Lauren. It was fun seeing them and Robert was able to finally meet them.

Pole, Pedal, Paddle and a Wedding

2010-05-23T15:41:00.000-07:00

POLE, PEDAL, PADDLE

We had a fabulous weekend in Bend participating in the PPP. We had to switch things up this year since I couldn't compete as the Nordic skier. (Doctor's orders)

So the competitors were:

1st leg - Aaron B.; downhill snowboarder

2nd leg - Robert; 8k Nordic skier

3rd leg - Pops; 22 mile bicyclist

4th leg - Tricia B.; 10k runner

5th leg - Aaron B.; 2.3k kayaker

6th leg - Sara L; 1/2 mile sprinter

We had a grand time and I was the team coordinator. Here are the few pics we took.

Pops warming up....and Cassie forgot real shoes!!

Robert finishing up and Pops is off.....

Tricia giving out high fives and Aaron showing that other kayaker who's the boss.

Sara running for the first time in forever (If you look really closely I am pretty sure Pops is laughing at her from the side lines....but I am not sure)

The team was two minutes faster this year!

SMITH ROCK

We went climbing before we drove home. I didn't do any climbing; just hiked around and watched the boys.

WEDDING

My good high school friend was married this weekend and I was really excited to go. Roxanne and I are both pregnant and she is due five days before I am....so we think that is crazy and fun.

It rained a lot during the ceremony. Afterwards Leah, me, and Roxanne posed for a pic. (My knee looks crazy)

Time to Announce....

2010-05-01T09:36:00.000-07:00

That we are indeed pregnant. I am officially 16 weeks along and am starting to show just a bit....which is odd since I have only gained a little less than 5 lbs. (BTW, all of it appears to be in my face and neck) We are due Oct 15th and it should be fun.

We also proud to announce that Robert has decided to take his summer internship with Lease, Crutcher, and Lewis. We will be placed in either Salem or Eugene. We are hoping for Salem for a plethora of reasons. (ie: moving while pregnant (x2), changing doctors, finding places to live, switching wards, and just moving even if I wasn't pregnant (x2))

We haven't been doing much since I have been pretty tired. I'm busy. Robert is busy. And we just forget to take our camera anywhere.

Things seem to be slowing down. Robert is done with his multidude of interviews. Mid-terms are over. I am in my last few weeks of teaching. Track is almost over....only two weeks left. I really love coaching track. I told Robert that I want to do it still next year. I just love being out there with those kids. This year has been a lot of fun. Kids that I have been working with for the last three years are getting ready to move on to the high school and it's been cool to see their growth. (I have a boy that can run his 100 hurdles in 14.7 seconds, and a groups of 7th graders that are going to be awesome next year.)

We are having a happy time.....even though we don't have a lot of pictures to show it.

Rose Bowl Action

2010-01-18T19:03:00.000-08:00

It took us many hours to actually make it to Pasadena. We actually stayed in Lake Elsinore with my Aunt Karen, my cousin Tyson and his new family.

I love my extended family. I hardly ever see them, but they are fabulous. I hadn't seen Tyson in about 12 years and I wondered if I would still click with him; and we did. He gave me the best hug when I first saw him. I loved it. He is a tow-truck driver so that's why he is so reflective right here.....and we both kinda look funny because of the shadow action from the flash....our heads have an odd shape.

Rose Parade Decorating

Pops grew up in Pasadena and on New Years Day in our house it was always a big deal to watch the parade. My dad would tell us how the floats are covered in flowers; that literally every single inch was covered with some organic material. I, of course, never believed him. "It's not possible," I would say......actually, it is possible. It was beautiful. I was amazed at the creations and artistic ability. I could create a whole post just on the decorating....but I decided to keep it to a bare minimum.

Us with some monkeys with oatmeal faces.

The Tuskegee Airman had a float and were even signing autographs. We all stood in line to briefly meet them. If you don't know who the Tuskegee Airman are.....please go look them up!

Many of the floats used seeds to cover the surface. The artwork on the right is entirely made up of mustard seeds. The one on the left is a combination of seeds; the black seeds were an onion seed.

Someday I am going to return and volunteer to decorate. AMAZING STUFF!

This is the street my dad grew up on. I had to take a picture because I love streets like this one. It was quiet, and trees lined the street giving it the perfect arch over the street. Pops would probably make fun of me if he knew I took this picture. He would respond by saying, "Cass, it's just a street. It's like any other street.....nothing special." Still, I just really like it.

The Bitoni's Pizza Joint!! These are old Pasadena friends. Their Italian names make you want to sing out cool sounding songs. We ate there twice....meeting different old friends each time.

Pep Rally and Game Day

I Love My Ducks

The pep rally was in Santa Monica....and it was raining. But it didn't stop Oregon from having a good time. Pops met the Zoltar from BIG.

Pops and Troy with their Duck wigs.....it was too hot to wear them for the game, but they still looked good.

I hardly took any pictures of my Uncle and sadly this is one of them. He is behind us as we walk the 1-2 miles to the stadium. We didn't have seats with everyone. The seats came in pairs so we had to split up. Sara and I sat together. We were on the edge of the end zone...row 14...woohoo. We had a good time....even though we lost. We still love our Ducks.

5 Year Anniversary

I missed Robert while I was gone.....and it was sad to spend the day apart but I know we have had a wonderful time thus far and it will keep getting better.

This is what Willie looked like while I was gone.

This is what Robert looked like while I was gone.

Old Friends!

2010-01-18T18:56:00.000-08:00

Jennifer was in town from San Diego, and we were able to schedule a quick little get together. We haven't all been together since high school....so it was really great to see them all at the same time. I love these girls.

We met at the sports bar in the casino.....they stayed out much later than I did. I had to leave for Pasadena the following morning but I wish I could have hung out with them more. I found out that Leah lives in Salem and we'll definitely get together sometime.

Kristin lives in Roseburg, but I never see her anymore since she doesn't work at the chiropractor. I miss seeing her as often as I used to.....happy times!

Lindenmeier Christmas

2010-01-18T18:43:00.001-08:00

My family's Christmas certainly had a Duck/Rose Bowl theme. My parents didn't put up a big tree just this little one.

We had a good time. My dad here is extra happy.....it's Christmas, we are leaving for the Rose Bowl in a couple of days, his birthday is around the corner, and he's retiring. Happy 2010 for him!

Brad & Tina ~~~~~Joe & Dana

Shyra and Madre - Shyra bought mom the coolest present ever!

Robert, Wayne, & Nancy (Nancy doesn't like her picture taken, but she was very nice to me that night....and she looks great.)

We we're getting ready to take a big family photo and I thought it was funny that my dad was standing there in the middle of the room with an Oregon Santa hat....it's kind of like "Where's Waldo?"

Madre held up a photo of Jeffry and he's on the phone.....so it's like he is even there!

Bumcrot Christmas

2010-01-18T18:24:00.000-08:00

We spent early Christmas Eve with Robert's family. Justin's big old Ford truck broke down and he was really dirty. Well, actually Justin is typically this dirty. He just likes to preserve water.
We spent the night of the 23rd there and I spent much of my time reading. Every year Robert and I buy each other a book, and you have to finish it before the next Christmas. I was really dragging my feet on last year's purchase. (But I already finished my 2010 book...woohoo)

Let the festivities begin. The whole fam was there, except for Amy B......next time she'd better be there.

Drew looked through his new book and Rick looked through his new tires.

Lela showing off her new fabric scissors and the boys......being boys.

Justin replaced his old hat and Leighton tried out the new bike, but she really liked trying on Finley's presents. Finley waves at me quite often......maybe she likes me more!

Chase and his grandpa are going to be building a go-kart. That's a pretty awesome 6 HP engine!

Does Rich seem more excited about his pumpkin pie than Mama Lela does about her new boots?

Mac Court Basketball

2009-12-13T13:02:00.001-08:00

I really like to watch basketball games....maybe even more than football?? I am not sure. There is just something about basketball that gets me going. March Madness is one of my most favorite times of the year; I watch hours worth of basketball during that tournament.

The family has never been to a game at Mac Court. We have heard wonderful things about the venue and MacArthur Court will be demolished after this season so we decided it was time to go to a game. The Duck basketball team certainly isn't great this year, but it's ok....we'll watch the Ducks anytime.

Our trek to Eugene was slightly treacherous.....not really, but the weather forecast was bleak. We saw a couple of accidents, but never felt in danger during our drive. We met my parents, Brad, and Myles in Eugene for the game.

We had lots of fun....we had awesome seats, but we forgot the camera in the car. Pops retrieved the camera during half time. During half time they play BINGO. I love BINGO. I could sit in a BINGO hall all day. I did not win, but I was just so dang excited to play BINGO at a basketball game.

We only took pictures during the second half.....at which time the Ducks were playing on the opposite end of the court. It was still great.

I didn't realize that Madre knew so little about basketball or I would have explained some more things to her. There's always a next time.

And by the way...it's OFFICIAL, I am going to the Rose Bowl with my parents, sister, uncle, and aunt. Robert is staying home. We will be apart for a whole week. Seems really weird.

A House Divided?

2009-12-03T08:53:00.001-08:00

Oregon's big Civil War game is tonight. Oregon vs Oregon State.
We are a house divided.

(We took this picture this morning as soon as we woke. We are very sleepy.)

Robert's loyalty has long been questioned. He married a Duck family and I think he was a loyal Duck once upon a time. He wore the shirt. He stood and cheered at Autzen. He even listened to the game on the radio when it didn't have television coverage.

However, with his recent enrollment at Oregon State to finish his engineering degree his support of the Ducks has been wavering. He wore a Beaver shirt to our Christmas celebration last year, and my family being the accepting people they are, still loved him.....evidenced by mom kissing him on the cheek.

In Costa Rica he openly displayed his loyalty to the world as we trekked through the jungle and enjoyed tropical beaches. At this time I asked him why he didn't have a Duck hat......he purchased one when we attended the Oregon v Cal game, but he doesn't where it often.

So as a Duck fan, I profess my thankfulness for such a strong family to support me in this time of need. My husband doesn't support me, but at least my family does.

Will he break my parents hearts? Probably......but I guess that's why I will get a ticket to the Rose Bowl and he won't. My father has six tickets.....I just have to decide if it's ok to skip our anniversary (the 30th).....does that make me a bad spouse?

We Lost Someone Important

2009-11-30T09:24:00.000-08:00

Our Thanksgiving holiday was mostly spent in a hospital. John fell at work and hit his head on Tuesday evening. He was life flighted to OHSU where some wonderful nurses and doctors took care of him. Robert and I were the first to arrive at the hospital since we live so close. His closest relations live out of state so for the first day the Bumcrot clan was his family. We never saw him conscious.
...

As the days passed the reality of his head injuries were brought into focus. It was made clear that it was a severe head injury. It was strange seeing him in his bed on life support. He just seemed like he was sleeping. The first few days he looked good. He looked tall, very tall in his bed.....he didn't really look hurt if you could ignore his shaved head and all the staples. But as the days passed he looked worse. The pressure in his skull increased and it was determined that he had lost his brain function. His daughters were faced with a tough decision, and they decided to remove the life support and let him pass.
...

I never would have thought that I would know someone to be hurt like this.....these kind of accidents are for movies and tv dramas. I have always had a preconceived idea, belief, and thought about this kind of accident. I used to watch those movies and tv dramas and think that I would never want someone I knew and loved to be removed from life support. That I would keep them alive and wait for a miracle. But I now believe after five days of thinking and watching you will begin to rethink your original belief. I know that I changed my mind. The doctor said that he would probably pass naturally in a few days, but that it would involve......well let's just say it would be a less pleasant passing.
...

I was at track practice the day his son died after school, and Robert and I were in the room when they unhooked him from his machines on Sunday morning. It was strange for me to be present at both; I didn't know if I would be able to handle it. His room was full of people......12 loved ones were present. And I think that made it easier. We know he is in a better place and we know that his organs will be used to share joy with others.....particularly little infants. They will be receiving his arteries just in time for the holidays.
...

So our week was less than relaxing, but I believe that peace will settle in soon. It already has started and I pray for his daughters and other loved ones.

I don't have any good pictures of John. I will put up some better ones soon. He had a serious exterior but was really a funny, jokester kind of a person underneath it all. He loved Hawaii, riding motorcycles, and history.

Crappy Wedding Ring?

2009-11-03T19:28:00.000-08:00

So the other day my center diamond slipped from its prong. I took the ring in to have it fixed and was a little edgy about dropping it off.

The last time someone worked on my ring they chipped the diamond while setting it in the prongs. The company then replaced my main diamond for a sub-quality diamond.

Did I mention that they didn't bother to tell me about it?

So when I picked the ring up I could actually see a big piece of dirt floating around in the diamond and told them that it must not be my ring. That's when they came clean. I was shocked. Anyway, they ended up letting me have my choice of three different diamonds of the same carat weight (.5) and I definitely picked the best one. I looked at them under the microscope and everything. I guess giving me a better diamond was their way of apologizing.

When I realized that my diamond had to be sent in to be re-set in the prongs I was really worried. I actually didn't even want the company to work on my ring anymore, but since it's free and money is tight I didn't have much of a choice.

But the ring came back just the way it left....but with better prongs and it was all shiny and new again.

While I was dropping off the ring I couldn't help but wonder why jewelry stores don't have a loaner program. My little diamond ring is shipped off and I don't have a replacement? I think I should get to borrow a ring from the shop.....you know like when you get to borrow a vehicle when your car is in the shop. That seems to make perfectly good sense to me. But they don't have those kinds of loaners. I dug through my weak jewelry box and all I could find was my little fake dollar ring that was made in Guatemala. It's made out of a flimsy metal that I can bend with my fingers. I wore the ring for a whole week. And I have to note that I think some people may judge wedding rings.

Case in point: I had to attend the dreaded yearly women's exam at a new doctors office. Going to a different doctor makes things worse, but I survived. Anyway, the doctor asked her series of questions.

"How long have you been married?" the doctor routinely asked.
"Almost five years," I responded.
And at the moment her eyes glanced toward my 25 cent ring and I daresay that she wasn't impressed.
Did she think that my husband bought me a sub-par ring? I was floored. Yet, I felt guilty. Was I judging her.....what if I was read her cues wrong? Then I was the jerk.

Are we judged by our wedding rings? I cared about rings before I was married, but not so much now that I have one. But I just keep thinking about it......Do we judge or do we not?

Thinking Cap and Life

2009-10-31T21:08:00.000-07:00

THE THINKING CAP

Lately when I have been coming home from work I find Robert in the little office or on the couch wearing what I have deemed the "thinking cap." Whether he is working on advanced economics or the structural dynamics of concrete he wears the hat. He wears it almost every time he is doing his homework. I'm not sure why he wears it, and frankly he isn't too sure either. Although, I do have a guess: he really likes to wear his winter gear. If Robert has a fetish, winter coats and hats would be it. He is doing well in school, so maybe we all need to invest in a thinking cap.

LIFE

Life has been busy.

School was back in session. The Primary Presidency put together a wonderful Primary presentation. (We were glad to have Reva back from her South African safari and so was her first year law student husband, our old Bishop Johnson. Our president overcame the flu just in time to carry out the whole thing, and as a team we were wonderful.) Coaching cross country came to an end, and we had so many great runners.

I was looking at some of our Costa Rica pictures and realized that my life resembled our rafting trip. (Those were some class IVs....aka: tough)

Sometimes it seemed like it was too much to actually accomplish. That it was going to swallow me up.

Sometimes it swallowed me whole and I wasn't sure when I would climb out again.

But if I just kept doing what I knew I needed to do.....

Life was wonderful and is wonderful.

Relaxation came today.....it felt good. It was my birthday, the Ducks beat USC (a game I could have attended, but decided to hang out with my hubby), and a nice Halloween....

What more could I ask for?

Nada!

Recent Happenings

2009-10-10T19:05:00.000-07:00

It's been awhile since I have made a post so I am gonna mix the weeks together.

DUCK GAME

The Bumcrot's have had some very busy weekends lately. Let's start with the 26th of Sept. We joined my parents at Autzen Stadium for the Oregon vs. Cal game. Any Duck fan will tell you it was an amazing game. We knew there was a chance for us to upset Cal....but no one expected the blowout that followed.

I even saw a coworker from school. He sat right in front of us, and he was impressed with my Dad's "die-hard fan" attitude. Unfortunately, we forgot the camera....so there are no pics of the game. There are some on my phone, but I haven't figured out how to get them onto the computer. Another day, perhaps.

WEDDING

Right after the game we had to hurry up and get to Roseburg for a wedding. Robert changed in the car while I drove, and I was able to stop off at Robert's parents for about 10 minutes to change just in time. Glenn and Nichole were married at the courtyard near McMenamins.

She had a fun dress. She was as stylish as anyone could have guessed. She looked great!

I saw so many people I knew from high school. I didn't expect to know anyone there because Glenn is one of Robert's long time friends and Nichole is from Coos Bay. Anyway, since Nichole cuts hair she happens to know many many people. It was weird how many of my old friends use Nichole as their stylist. It was a pleasant evening.

Robert and Glenn....it was getting late. This photo is the only one of me for the entire evening...and it's so abstract.

We were able to spend the remainder of the weekend with my parents and saw many people at church. We like seeing people from the home ward. It's always fun.

BIRTHDAY

Robert's birthday was on the 29th......a Tuesday. We had a mellow celebration at home and ate Thai food. He had a busy first week back to classes so we knew it would have to be a low key event.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!! WOOOHOOO!!

PUMPKIN PATCH/CELEBRATION

During the weekend we went out to the pumpkin patch and hunted for the perfect pumpkins. We found many.....the pics speak for themselves.

I was obsessed with finding baby sized pumpkins. I wanted to make a family with them. Drew also loved the little pumpkins, so I had to let him keep his favorite ones. He liked them more than I did anyway.

Robert's parents made it up on Sunday. We hung out and explored and ended the day attending Chase's baseball game. The fall weather was perfect.

Conference was also wonderful. It was tricky to watch due to family coming and going...but we made it work. It was actually kinda nice to explain conference to Robert's family a little bit more.

LAZY SATURDAY

Today we had another lazy day. I cleaned house all day on Friday......you know all that extra nitty-gritty cleaning that just has be done every once in awhile. It felt good. We checked out Minto Brown Park and enjoyed it. We plan to go out there again in the future.

Robert climbed a tree and he threw some stuff at me...that's why he looks like he is about to shake someones hand. Anyway, it got stuck in my hair, and I didn't even know.

This picture was taken once we got home....I know - it's a weird one. But it makes me laugh. We were playing around with the camera (don't worry we don't do this often...it was just a simple waste of time). We were supposed to guess the other person's emotion. (I know...lame) Robert's face was the angry one and I was supposed to look serious. And it came out looking so funny....look at Robert's crazy eyes.

I guess....

2009-09-21T22:13:00.000-07:00

I guess this is what I look like at work. It's a Friday......I'm grading a big stack of papers.....I can't go home because of the big motorcycle accident on I-5.....It's late; about 6:30 pm.....and Dana V is taking pictures of all of us who are stranded at school.....but somehow I am smiling. I must be a nice teacher huh?

That and maybe because I was waiting for Robert to pick me up for a concert at the Crystal Ballroom and an evening downtown. Yes, that just might be it.....

Costa Rica

2009-08-28T16:41:00.000-07:00

Note: I know this post is ridiculously long.....our families really want to see some pics and hear some stories. I thought it would be easier and faster to do it on the blog.....but I am pretty convinced email would have been quicker and easier. But it's too late now......I'm going to post it anyway. Sorry to those who were not interested in such a long vacation story.

Day 01

We left late Saturday night and met the Beeby's in the Denver airport for our connecting flight to San Jose. By the time we saw the Beeby's it felt like our vacation had really began. We didn't land in San Jose until about 5:30 in the morning. We thought that we might be really tired, but we weren't at all.

We had another plane to catch by 9:00....but it was at a different airport. It still in San Jose but just not at the international airport. We had a driver from the airline pick us up. He took us out to breakfast at a little soda on the side of the road. Sodas in Costa Rica are little cheap restaurants, that seem to always be outside, and they only serve "typical food," meaning beans and rice. We ended up having beans and rice for breakfast quite often....and it was actually quite good.

Once we arrived at the airport we checked in, although we tried to do it kinda quietly because they had mass going on in the airport; it was a Sunday. Natalie has a hard time flying, and when she saw how small the airplanes her nerves peaked. She ended up drinking a glass of wine before we took off. I was worried that she might not be able to do it.....but she was a champ. The planes were so small.....you could actually see into the cockpit and no more than 15 passengers would have been able to board.

The flight was beautiful. The windows were so huge that you really could see everything, and it was such a perfect day.

The landing was also amazing. The runway literally starts at the water's edge and as the plane made it's approach it felt like we would be making a water landing. The airport was definitely the smallest airport I will ever fly into; it was a single airstrip, with no buildings, with lots of grass and trees. It reminded me of a movie where people smuggle drugs. It felt like we should be smuggling cocaine or some type of illegal goods.

Our driver Alex picked us up and drove us to Santa Teresa...it was about a 45 minute drive. The second portion of the drive was all dirt. Alex acquainted us to the crazy driving that takes place in Costa Rica. Alex did not speak any English and I was forced to test out my Spanish skills. I was really really worried about my Spanish, because I haven't tried to use it in about 6-7 years, and even when I was Spanish - it was in a superficial method. I only used it during class for a grade. However, I was very surprised how much of it I actually remembered. I had a hard time recalling all the different tenses of conjugated verbs.....but I could remember the verb and that was really important.

I was excited to practice my Spanish. This trip made me realize how much I'd like to finish out my Spanish skills to a fluent level. I was getting close in college.....I could read smaller novels and write papers in Spanish, but I always had a hard time speaking and listening. The people who I spoke with in Costa Rica told me my Spanish was good. Some even said they were impressed, and that I wasn't telling the truth when I would tell people that I only spoke a little. They said I definitely knew more than a little........so that helped out my confidence and I was willing to speak more.

Once in Santa Teresa we fell in love with our hotel. It was a little hotel with only seven rooms, and it was awesome. The owners lived across the courtyard and helped us in many ways. Their little girl Naya, just one month shy of three, was a fantastic swimmer. She didn't need any help at all. I was worried when she first jumped in, but she could really swim. I wouldn't have believed it if I didn't see it.

We saw our first wildlife too. Fireflies. Dogs. Iguanas. Monkeys. And I might add that the first monkeys we saw tried to pee on us. One also pooped and threw it at Robert and Aaron. We all laughed and escaped unscathed.

(This was our pool....we swam in it everyday....sometimes 2x a day)

Day 02

We took an all day trip to Isla Tortuga for snorkeling. We had to take a 45 minute boat ride to get to the island. We left from Montezuma. What was strange about the boat ride was that neither Montezuma or Isla Tortuga had a dock. The just backed to boat up to the shore and you had to load in between big waves. But it was fun. Our driver drove the boat as fast as it could go the whole way. Robert said he felt like he was on Miami Vice.

The snorkeling was the worst I have ever experienced.......but that was to be expected, it rained the night before.

But the trip was still entirely worth it. The beach and swimming were wonderful. We played some beach volleyball with some foreigners from France and Spain. Watched an approaching storm. Saw a wild pig/boar (I'm not quite sure what it was really). Robert and I were both thoroughly cooked by the end of the day. Our sunburns were painful.

Our driver Alex shared a sad story with us that day. We drove by a cemetery on the way to Montezuma and we noticed that there were workers digging a grave. Natalie mentioned the word death, one of the Spanish words she knew. Alex then told us about his friend, who was also a cab driver, who had been shot and killed the night before. His friend had three Nicaraguans in his taxi and they held him up for $70 and shot him head. He left behind a wife and two children, 8 and 10 years old. The funeral was to take place the next morning. He said all the taxis in the area would be present. It was a sad story. It was a moment when I was thankful for my Spanish skills. I was able to listen and respond with care......we were able to offer our condolences and it felt important to be able to do that. Our driver was such a wonderful person. One of our most favorite people we met.

Day 03

This day was one of my favorites. Early in the morning Robert and Aaron decided to go surfing.....Malpais is supposed to some of the best surfing year round. I wouldn't know.......I never tried. I don't think I swim well enough to try surfing.

Aaron went down to the beach with all the gear, while Robert and I walked into town to take care of some errands. Afterwards instead of going straight back to the hotel I decided to walk to the beach with Robert to watch them surf for a little while. As we were walking up to the beach we saw two guys in the water with a huge fish of some kind. We actually thought it might even be a baby shark.

As we walked closer we realized it was Aaron and some other guy we don't know with a dolphin. Aaron found it on the beach. Him and the other guy were trying to take it back out to the ocean. Robert and I ended up helping too. The poor dolphin was bleeding. He washed up on a rocky portion of the beach and rolled along the rocks. We tried to get him back out to the ocean about five different times.

He would swim out and would always get hit really hard by the last wave. He always looked so close clearing the surf. And then he would wash back in. It was sad. He had to be sick. Some local ended up calling a marine biologist in the area. I left to go tell Natalie where we were, because we had been gone for awhile.

Aaron and Robert ended up coming back to the hotel as well once the marine biologist showed up. They had spent at least an hour down there keeping the dolphin from getting beaten up by the rocks. We all hoped the best for our dolphin friend, but also knew we could do no more for him. We wanted to stay, but it seemed like the marine biologist needed to have some room. By the time Aaron and Robert left they said the area had become crowded and they didn't feel like they were helping.

So we continued on with our day, ate some lunch, made some plans, and rented some bikes. The bikes were super old and rusty.....I was amazed the chain stayed on. We rode our bicycles to the end of the road in Malpais because we wanted to explore the area further.

There was a pretty beach a the dead end with a mellow surf. We sat and enjoyed it. We were the only people there. We all commented that the beach would have been an ideal spot for our dolphin friend. And in that moment a red truck pulled up, backed up onto the beach, and in the back was our dolphin friend.

It was so cool to see him again. And know that things were getting better. It's hard to put into word how it felt to be one of the first to find the dolphin and worked to help him, and then to be the only people there when the marine biologist showed up with him. It was like bookends and a wonderful ending to the story.

On our way home we ate at a wonderful cheap place right on the beach. We climbed on the rocks for quite some time and found few fossils, and a nice old bike someone burned in a fire. Robert thought it was funny.

That evening we made saw the biggest bug ever. It was a cicada. He hung outside our rooms for the night and we named him Tank. He was huge.

Day 04

Our last day in Santa Teresa. We worked in a little bit more exploring and ate some of the best falafel we have ever at a tiny outdoor Israeli restaurant. Now that I think about it.....we always ate outside everywhere we went. Alex took us to the airport. There was no security, no building, and only one worker.

(the airport and our taxi driver Alex)

We flew back to San Jose for the night in order to be picked up by the rafting company the next morning. We spent hardly any time in San Jose, but from what I saw it's a crowded and dirty city.

Day 05

We had to drive a long ways to start our rafting trip. I believe we were able to see the Caribbean and Pacific Ocean within a 24 hour period. It was neat.

We met our guide Albert at the river.

He had a white boat. We were the only white boat on the river and we liked that; everyone else had yellow boats. He taught us some basic things, made sure we were comfortable, and then we pushed off. This was my very first time rafting ever. It made me nervous, especially since I am not a confident swimmer. Our first day of rafting didn't include any of the class four rapids. It was nice to get a warm-up day prior to the big rapids.

Once we arrived at the jungle lodge, where we would be staying for two nights, we had to help carry up our gear, luggage, and food. Everyone was supposed to help. There were two groups: Us and Justin (a guy who we met rafting and we were in the same raft) made up one group and Euros made up the other group. We were the only people there. And guess what those Euros did? They didn't help carry up anything. They walked up and started smoking right away. There were probably six of them and they watched me and Natalie carry up three loads a piece and just watched. Natalie told them that there was more to carry and a few of them went down to help. While Natalie and I were carrying up the gear the boys were hauling the rafts up. Only one of the Euros helped. It was the weirdest thing ever. By the time we were finished carrying up all the stuff we were joking about starting a fight at dinner with the Euros, who we found out were from Italy.

The lodge it a really cool place. You can only get there by rafting in, and only leave by rafting out. There is a trail that you can take to get to a dirt road, but that takes three hours for even the quickest hiker, and once you hit the dirt road you are still miles from the nearest home. It's a very remote place. There are no windows, just screens, and the electricity is from a generator and is used only during certain hours. It is turned off by 9:00 p.m. But we always went to bed before then. It gets dark in Costa Rica by 5:00.

We got to know our other guide better that night. His name was Ronald. He was in a boat all by himself for the day, carrying all our gear. It looked like a tough job. He hung out with us the whole time we were at the lodge.

Day 06

The jungle is a loud place. The bugs go all day long, and then continue all night long. But somehow I still found it all very peaceful. The Euros left to continue rafting and we were glad that they left. Once they were gone......it was just us and Justin. So it was even more peaceful.

We zip-lined and hiked a lot that day.

We hiked to a couple of different waterfalls that you could swim in.....we also went to a waterfall that was a water slide. It was so much fun. We were all really tired by the time we arrived back at the lodge. It felt like we went on a fitness vacation.

That's me and Robert on the waterfall-slide.

At night I would be really excited to write in my mini-journal, but I would quickly get sleepy as shown. I was very sleepy the last night in the jungle. We hiked so long that day, and then swam for hours. I slept pretty well.

Day 07

We did our final exploring and left for our big day of rapids by about 11:00. We rafted for about 20 minutes and stopped at another waterfall for some more swimming while we waited for more rafters but more importantly for the safety kayakers.

In order to go through class IV rapids you must have a safety kayaker go first. Just in case anyone falls out there will be someone there to help you out. It made me feel much safer. Robert fell out once while we were surfing. Surfing in a raft is when you row upstream into a rapid and make the front end go down. It essentially blasts you with a lot of water and you just get stuck for awhile. I didn't necessarily think it was fun. I think it's more fun for people in the back of the boat.......because the only people who really seemed to like it was Albert, the guide, and Justin, our new rafting friend, and they were both in the far back.

Anyway, while we were surfing......the boat was about ready to flip and we were all supposed to move to the right, because the left side was being sucked in. Robert and I were on the left side. So we had to let go of the rope and reach pass the people on the right and grab that rope. Well when Robert let go of the rope to move he got hit with a lot of water. He said it felt like Andre the Giant shoved him in the water. He said it's hard to describe. But he was ok.....because we surfed right above a mellow spot. So he was safe.

The class IV's were intense, but a lot of fun. To be honest, I was scared sometimes, especially after we made it through one of the biggest rapids. Albert told us the rapid had a big hole at the end of the rapid and that it would be really important to keep paddling. And let me tell you, it was a huge hole.

We were the first raft to go through, and I think that was actually helpful for me. Because if I would have watched the other rafts go through I think I would have been terrified and probably would have screwed up. In the mellow water at the end of the rapid we watched other rafts come down the rapid. Tons of people fell out of the other boats. One of the boats lost everyone but the guide. We had to help rescue three people out of the water.

We didn't lose anyone until the last class IV rapid of the day. Justin the guy behind me was launched out. I didn't know he was in the water until I hit him in the head with my paddle. Robert and I helped pull him back in.

The Pacuare River was amazing. Supposedly, the Pacuare River is one of the best rafting river's in the world according to National Geographic. Robert thinks it's because the river always has some type of rapid. There aren't very many spots to actually take a break. If there was a slow spot it was very long.......maybe the length of a football field at the most. We ended up rafting a total of 20 miles. After a whole day of hiking followed by a whole day of rafting, we were exhausted and completely depleted. But it was all worth it.

Day 08

The Beeby's flew home in the morning and that left me and Robert all by ourselves. It felt weird not having the Beeby's around. We headed to Quepos and enjoyed the scenery of the long drive.

We were told that Quepos was a sketchy place....but everything turned out just fine.

Once we arrived and settled into our place we had the most lazy day of our vacation. After all the adventure and tiring jungle treks it felt good to just relax. We explored town and got acquainted with our daily walk to town.

Robert also had a fever, so I think it was important for us to rest. We even started a puzzle, and I hate puzzles. But somehow sitting there on the floor putting a puzzle together felt just right.

Day 09

We explored the city of Manuel Antonio, but not the national park......because the parks are closed on Mondays.We checked out a butterfly farm and animal refuge, because some people told us that I would be able to see the blue morpho butterfly at the refuge.

I fell in love with the blue morpho butterfly in the jungle. It was so pretty. It was also very hard to get a picture of, mostly because of it's irregular flight pattern. It always looked like it was going to run out of steam and crash to the ground. Something about it was elegant, fragile, and klutzy looking. I can't quite describe it, but I was mesmerized by it. I watched them in the morning for about an hour each day in the jungle. They fascinated me.

The butterfly farm was perfect to see them up close. They were everywhere, and they loved Robert. They landed on Robert all the time. I loved it.

We also looked at the reptiles and learned a lot about caimans and crocidiles.

We ate at an airplane resturant called El Avion. It's a major touristy kind of a place, but I was interested in it because of it's history. I don't think anyone else even cares about the history. They just think it's cool because it's a plane. It's a plane from the Iran-Contra affair in the late 1980's. It was a cargo plane that the U.S. sent to help rebels fighting against the Cuban allied Nicarguan government. It's a cargo plane the US only sent two cargo planes. The second cargo plane is the one that made the news when Eugene Hasenfus was shot down over Nicaragua. At that point the US had a huge cover-up created and the other cargo plane sat in San Jose until around 2000 when it was purchased and transported to Manuel Antonio for the resturant. It's an interesting story.

Day 10

We finally went to Manuel Antonio National Park.

We saw lots of wildlife and swam at the beach.

We loved the monkeys. We sat and watched them for a really long time. We were able to get so close to them. And they were so cute. I also really loved the sloths. They always looks like they are smiling and I like that.

Day 11

We relaxed until 1:00 and finished our puzzle. Then we caught a bus to San Jose to spend the night because our flight was early the next morning. We met the only super annoying guy during our whole trip on the bus. He just wouldn't stop talking and complaining. We were glad to say goodbye to him.

Day 12

Good-bye Costa Rica. Hello Denver.

We had a 10 hour layover in the Denver aiport. It's the price to you pay to travel cheaper. While the layover sucked......it essentially is the reason why this trip ended up being something we could pay for. But it didn't turn out too bad. The Denver Airport is huge, and just exploring it keeps you occupied for quite sometime. They have wonderul pictures of Native Americans spread through out the airport. Robert was also able to meet up with an old friend from high school who took us around downtown Denver (Adam). So it didn't feel too long.

Finally, we made it home. There is nothing like your own bed, a pizza, hot tamales, and a bowl of cereal.

Coolest Hike Ever!

2009-07-31T17:12:00.001-07:00

Myles and Darby came to visit this week. It was filled with hot weather, lots of swimming, museums, and other outings. However, the coolest thing we did all week was hiking Friday morning. We packed up, and wore our swimsuits and hats.

We have been wanting to hike the Oneonta Gorge for a long time. We are normally always there when the water level is too high or the water is just too cold. But since this week was so hot, the ice cold water was perfect. This hike is so unique.....we found it once when we were hiking around the top half of the gorge and noticed some people at the bottom of the hundred+ foot gorge. So we figured out how to get in. And it was a treat.

But first - we went to Wahkeena and Multnomah Falls. They are just regular water falls; Multnomah Falls is easily the most famous waterfall in Oregon.

Ok.....now the Oneonta Gorge. It starts off by climbing this huge log jam. It's not officially a trail; probably because of the log jam and also because you have to actually walk up the stream that sometimes comes up above your belly button.

The log jam is the most dangerous part.....the logs are pretty slippery when they are wet, but the logs are actually firmly in place. They do not budge. But we made it through without any problems and saw many other people make it over without a problem. They look scarier than they actually were.

If you click on that picture you can see a boy finishing the back end of the log jam.....it was a big pile of logs.

When you get over the logs it is all worth it! The scene is beautiful and you're amazed you're able to visit such a site. The water is clear and cold. The air is moist and warm. And you can just smell that outdoor smell.

And you just can't help playing the whole way there. Climbing rocks.

Wading in waist deep water. Jumping over logs. Picking up logs.

Just when you didn't think it could get any better, you see the waterfall.

Robert and Myles got in with there shirts off. They said it was pretty cold.

I couldn't decide which pictures showed the hike well, so I decided to put a lot of them up. It was so much fun and I recommend it to all. Well maybe not old people or babies. But we did see some people with kids still in diapers. If you need directions just give me a call.

Cars and Robert

2009-07-23T19:11:00.000-07:00

So we just bought a new car. We didn't think we would do it for a couple more months, but everything just lined up and there you have it. It's a Toyota RAV4. It's actually pretty cool....sunroof, climate control, definitely the coolest car I have ever owned.

But that's not what I am really blogging about. I am blogging about Robert and his car snobbish behavior. He is not as excited about this car as I am.

I am not sure if car snob is the right word to describe Robert, but he likes specific things about cars.

For example, we knew we wanted a mini-suv type vehicle. Just in case you didn't know, the new buzz word for these vehicles: crossovers. Cool, eh.

Anyway, I wanted a car with good gas mileage, and Robert really wanted 4x4. I still don't understand why he wanted a car with 4x4. We aren't going to go driving off road with the thing, although I know Robert secretly wants to see what it can do. If Robert could pick out any car right now, it would be an early Bronco.

Even right now while I am writing this post, Robert doesn't like the photo that I found. He had to find the right one and email it to me. Here it is.

But only recently did it dawn on me how specific he is when he talks about cars. And Robert isn't one of those people who sits around talking about cars. He never brings up the topic. But when we see one I always ask if he likes it. Here's an average conversation.

Cassie: "Do you like that one?"

Robert: "No, it doesn't have rally wheels."

Cassie: "What about that one?"

Robert: "It's a '75 so the headlights are different....I like the headlights on the '69-'71."

Cassie: "That one looks ok, right?"

Robert: "Cassie, that's a Nova....it's nothing like a Chevelle."

I should have noticed all this before, but for some reason I didn't. It all should of clicked when I first met Robert. He used to own a '71 SS Chevelle. When he bought this car. He had to have a 4-speed vs an automatic and the list goes on and on.

Again another example of his snobbish behavior: As I was writing this he had to correct me that he doesn't like just ANY rally wheel. They have to be Corvette Rally Wheels. Which he also informs me, is what he had on his Chevelle.

In Robert's single days he made good money and spent it quickly. He decided he didn't want to go to school right out of high school. So he worked and traveled the world. Australia, Fiji, New Zealand, Thailand, etc. (For our church friends, Robert did not serve a mission......he is a convert. He became a member at 26.) Do you remember on Dumb and Dumber when they go out to get, "just the essentials?" That is the story of Robert's life. He spent his money on some of the most ridiculous things.

Robert eventually sold his Chevelle to get money to go to school (before I met him.......I never actually rode in it). I think it was hard for him to sell it. Ironically, he now has more than enough money to go to school. He received a scholarship that covers 90% of his tuition and cost of living. But he probably wouldn't have received the scholarship if he kept the Chevelle.

Anyway, my point? Robert has a hard time buying logical things. For example, right now he is showing me a Bronco online that we could have purchased for the same price. It's hard to change your spending habits......especially when your name is Robert.

You never know at the Oregon Coast

2009-07-22T12:16:00.000-07:00

You never know what you are going to find at the Oregon Coast. Sometimes you see a little baby seal on the coast waiting for his mom to pick him up. You can sit about 20 yards back and just watch the little guy (I didn't have the camera on me at the time).

And then you'll find a whole bunch of them just hanging out together.

Further down the beach you might find a dead sea lion. It was weird.....but there it was. Everyone was just passing by.....people still flying kites. I had never seen a dead on the beach beach before....so I thought it was crazy.

Robert has a thing about bridges......he thinks they're cool. His engineering passion is basically just that......designing bridges. He likes the one in Newport.

6 Unimportant Things That Make Me Happy!

2009-07-12T14:47:00.000-07:00

So Stephanie tagged me and I was surprised that she wanted to learn more about me....but I think it was also fun. So here are the items in my life that are unimportant but make me happy. I am going to tag Chelsea, because this made me really think. It was so hard to decide........and I know she would enjoy the thinking and analyzing of her unimportant items.

#1 - My Hobo International Wallet

I have never really enjoyed owning a wallet until I found this one. When I met Robert, I didn't own one. Well maybe I did, but it just stayed in my drawer at home. Anyway, I love this wallet. It was a spendy purchase for me.......I felt so guilty about buying it, at first. Robert actually was the one to finally buy it. He saw me looking at it again and again, and went back and bought it for me. And the silly reason why I love this wallet so much is due to one reason: that change purse. I love it. I love being able to pull out my change purse from time to time. Somehow it makes me feel cool.

#2 My Allergy Pillow Cover

For those allergy suffers out there...you will understand this pick. It's just a simple cover to put over your pillow, but it saves me from so many allergens. I have a lot of allergies..... grass, trees, weeds, dust, dust mites, cats, dogs, mold, just to name a few. I get three shots every two weeks, because I am trying to build immunity to some of these items. It actually seems to be working - but this pillow keeps a lot of those gross allergens out of my pillow. It makes my nights and mornings happier.

#3 The Display On My Car

This one sounds weird, so let explain. I have always driven older cars, without much in the way of electronic features. I didn't drive a car with electric windows until just a couple of years ago. Anyway, in our newer car the little display on the left under the tachometer tells me all sorts of things. Like what the temperature is, what kind of mpg I am getting at that specific moment, and tracks my average mpg. What's the coolest thing it does? It tells me how many miles I can go before I run out of gas. It's a little dangerous at times, because I underestimate how far I am traveling. But I love watching all those little gizmos working.

#4 Camelbak Water Bottle

This water bottle was weird at first because you have to bite and then suck on the straw. But it has grown on me, but I'm still not a huge fan. This water bottle makes the list, because I am pretty sure I consume twice as much water when I carry it with me. Not because it's a just a water bottle.....because I own a lot of water bottles. I think the fact that I don't have to unscrew a lid or pop a topper off to drink makes me more willing to take a drink. I guess that might make me lazy. But I am pretty sure that whole bite and then suck on the straw idea makes me drink more water. Weird, eh?

#5 Redken Mousse

I have weird curly hair. It's not even really super-duper curly. It's kinda in between curly and wavy. However, it is really frizzy. So this mousse here helps keep my frizz under control. I am grateful for its aid.

#6 My Anarchy Sunglasses

I have a very hard time looking for sunglasses. I looks really funny in all most every pair of sunglasses I try on. My husband could definitely verify that report. It took me years to find this pair that look ok on me. It's a hard brand to find....but alas REI had a pair. It's been nice having them around.

Coldplay Concert

2009-07-11T11:35:00.000-07:00

Sorry that the photos don't look fantastic - our camera was dying.

What can I say.....it was wonderful. I have always had a belief that Coldplay might not be very good live, mostly because of Chris Martin's singing style, the multiple instruments they play, and then the dynamics of the sound - loud, soft, building momentum, the entering and exiting of the different instrument, you get the idea. It just seemed like a lot to create for a live audience without studio mixers, etc.

But I was wowed. They did a fabulous job, they are a gracious band, and interacted with the audience well. They came off stage twice to play various songs on platforms away from the stage. We had a good time.

Oh but it did take us almost three hours to travel from Salem to Vancouver (which should have been maybe a little more than an hour at the most.) We thought we were going to miss the concert. The traffic was awful. Robert was getting a little stressed, but we made it. And it was all worth it.

We did get the cool free cd at the end of the concert. You can't buy it anywhere, except maybe ebay. It's fairly rare. I looked this morning there were 16 copies on ebay. Some people are willing to sell them for .99 cents if your interested. It's called Left Right Left Right Left.

The band is that little spotlight behind us, above my head.

"Lovers in Japan/Reign of Love" was my favorite song - they shot out butterfly confetti; Robert's favorite was "Fix You." On honorable mention we have "Yellow," which they had lots of giant yellow balloons coming from everywhere and also "Politik" - which Robert said, "had strobe lights that could melt my face off." Robert made an accidental video (we forget that our camera has that capability) when they were singing there own version of "Billy Jean." So enjoy our accidental video.

Don Quioxte and July 4th

2009-07-09T14:29:00.000-07:00

Robert and I traveled to Ashland to watch Don Quixote on July 2nd, and it was a lot of fun. I love Ashland. I think it has a fabulous downtown area, Lithia Park is gorgeous, and the Shakespeare Festival is always good.

We weren't supposed to take any photos inside the Elizabethan Theater, but I just wanted a few contraband photos. I took them before the play actually started, so I didn't feel too bad about them. We both liked Don Quixote, but we also thought it was a hard screenplay to probably write. If you have read the book, you would get what I mean, but it was ok. Not my favorite play, but I loved the props, and the acting was wonderful.

We spent the weekend with Robert's family and mine, and quickly returned to Salem for the actual 4th celebrations. We've been taking less photos lately.....this time there are none of my family. Oh well.

Robert's family lives off the North Umpua by the college, and it always makes the weather feel cooler. Even on the hot day, the breeze and the river just make the weahter more bearable.

The nephews like the motorcycle and took turns posing.

Leighton's 1st Birhtday

2009-07-08T16:49:00.001-07:00

Just Photos!!

That's the Popeye look.

Father's Day

2009-06-23T19:01:00.000-07:00

Robert and I went to visit our fathers this weekend, but somehow the only thing we actually took pictures of were our shooting adventure. We loved seeing our families. It had been awhile.

My dad has recently gone on a handgun adventure. My family has always been a gun family. However, my mom wouldn't allow my dad to own any handguns while there were kids in the house. She thought that even when handguns are locked up that they pose a threat to children. So when we were younger my dad had to stick to rifles and such.

Now that we are grown up and out of the house my dad has been able to purchase a few handguns. My parents have even earned their concealed handgun permits. They love shooting.....and guess what? My mom is a better shot than my dad. Go figure.

Robert and my dad go shooting virtually every time we come for a visit. I decided it was about time for me to have a turn. So I asked and my dad brought down all the guns. I have never shot a handgun before so my dad made sure I knew what I was doing. Loading, cocking, checking the barrel, safety features, laser sight, etc. It took awhile since the guns were all different. He had a 9 mm semi-automatic, 38 snub nose, and a 40 semi-automatic.

And then I was ready. We placed the targets 15 yards out.......a lot longer than it sounds.

We all shot at the same two plates. So we are not sure who hit what.....but I am pretty sure that I made one of those shots.

(note: Yes, I have a band aid on my face. I had a mole removed and the four stitches were just taken out. Stay tuned for an update on scarface.)

Summer Plans

So now it's summer time and we have much to do. We plan to rock climb a lot and even got started today. Smith Rock looks like it will be in our future.

I signed up for a gym membership, because I'm taking the summer off. Normally, I take classes or work....which I probably should be doing again this summer, but I just didn't want to. Working out will keep me from getting bored. Robert is taking summer classes.

But don't worry even though most of our summer will be taken up with summer classes, we still have plans. We have concerts to attend, plays to watch in Ashland, and a trip to Costa Rica with the Beeby's for 12 days in August. So if we slow down on our blog responsibilities......don't worry we will return.

Summer Haircut

2009-06-01T18:34:00.001-07:00

I went short for the summer time. Just decided to do it one day. We'll see how it goes.....

Mini Garden

2009-05-29T21:02:00.000-07:00

Meet Farmer Robert and Farmer Cassie!

Robert and I have been really wanting to garden lately. So on Memorial Day weekend while everyone was eating some yummy BBQ, Robert and I were figuring out if we could make a planter box. And we did! It's little.....only a 4x4 box. But it was a lot of fun to make and actually super easy. Robert put it together in about 10 minutes. It took us longer to add the dirt than it took to assemble the box.

We don't have a water spicket.......we're not sure why or how that's possible, unless our mini house was once a shed. Anyway, while we water we let Willie run around the yard.......we thought he looked like a scary dog here so we wanted to scare people.

I think we went a little overboard on the planting. Here is what we planted: Yellow Zucchini, Mini-Roma Tomato, Buttercrunch Lettuce, Big Jim Pepper, Red Pepper, Sweet Yellow Bell Pepper, Scallions, Basil, and Rosemary. We found out that the zucchini alone needs four feet spacing, which is how big our box is - so we might have some problems. Maybe we will have to remove some of the plants, but we did put the zucchini in the corner and people have told us that we can have it grow over the edge of the box. So we will see what happens. Who knows, maybe it will all work out fine.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

We have also acquired a new Japanese Maple called Sister Ghost. Some of you might be unaware of Robert's fondness of Japanese Maples. He didn't always like them......only since he met me and took a few strolls around my dad's nursery. We have six now all in pots, all different types, all are rare, and all are waiting to move into a real house to be planted.

I was essentially responsible for this last purchase. I found it at the Saturday Market in town, and it was really cheap.....and only grafted last year. (Out of the 6 maples we have, 5 of them cannot be planted by seeds....they have to be grafted to an existing tree start. Then you just hope they make it passed five years.) I really like the Sister Ghost's texture. It has a snake/vein look that I like.

The AirZukas Survive!

2009-05-25T22:17:00.000-07:00

The Pole Pedal Paddle was so much fun. We all plan to do it again next year. We are not sure if we are planning on doing the same legs or if we want to switch it up. But here is the breakdown. Oh, and I forgot my camera. So these are the pictures I was able to get from my mother.

Team AirZuka: Natalie, Aaron, Robert, Pops, Cassie, and Tricia

Friday we picked up all of our stuff and found out that we were in the 18th wave of competitors out of 25 waves. Every 5-10 minutes a group of 50 competitors would be released from the mountain in order to lessen the likelihood of crowding on the course. This year the Pole, Pedal, Paddle had over 900 teams with 3,000 competitors. Teams have a few as one person to as many as seven. We had six team members. We also found out that our number was 1156 and we were officially the AirZukas.

(Just showing off our shirts, and the fact that I do not have a neck in this photo)

Robert's parents were also able to come to Bend and cheer us on. We were really excited that they were able to come and that they brought John H. with them. They looked liked gangstas on their Harley's.

Only the team members participating in the first three legs were allowed to come up the mountain. So that included Pops, Robert, and myself. We snuck my mom up the mountain for good measure. We arrived later than we wanted, especially since we had to be rerouted through Sun River to make it to Mt Bachelor. As soon as we pulled into the parking lot we split up. I didn’t even have time to tell Robert good luck. He had about 30 minutes to get his gear together and ride up the mountain. I barely had enough time to point my dad in the right direction and get my gear on before Robert came down the mountain. I thought I was going to miss my handoff. The area was really packed and sometimes confusing.

We think Robert’s leg barely took about five minutes. He did really well for coming down on a snowboard. Skis are way faster than snowboards, but Robert was probably the third fastest snowboarder down the mountain. He said the hardest part was running the 100 meters up the hill in all of his gear to where his snowboard was staged, and then some parts of the slalom were a little rutted – but all in all, a good leg.

(Robert isn't actually in this photo - this is from the newspaper......the 2nd photo is just a shot of the mountain....it was a gorgeous day; I think the high was 85 degrees)

My parents didn’t even get to see our handoff, and it was messy. They had these chutes set up that specific numbered teams were supposed to ride through. After Robert cleared the chute, I was supposed to enter the chute and get going. It was actually a little scary. The people coming down the mountain were going so fast and they couldn’t slow down that well, and I was supposed to step into said chute. I saw a lady get knocked down by a skier probably going 20+ mph. It was insane. But I made it out without getting hit.

(This is at the finish line.....I was really tired. I had to take off my skis, without help, and carry them until I found my dad)

My leg was hard. And I know I am going to sound like a whiner but it really was hard. The conditions were terrible and we forgot to wax my skis the night before. Which is completely my fault, but the conditions……..I don’t think I could have prepared myself for them. The five miles of trails were super slushy, rutted and crowded. You can tell from the picture just how slushy the trails were…..being in the 18th wave I should have expected the conditions to be what they were, but I didn’t really think about it. The handoff with my dad was pretty simple. I had to find my dad in the chute and then he was able to take off.

Robert, Mom, and I quickly tried to come down the mountain. My dad actually finished his leg before we made it back into Bend. I know all these pictures are of us on the mountain, but we didn't even find parking back in Bend until after Tricia's leg, which is the leg after my dad's. Aaron was in the water by the time we arrived back in town.

Pops did super well. He even called us while he was on the course to let us know that he was only five miles from his finish line. We all laughed pretty hard imagining my dad making a phone call on his bicycle. But my dad did awesome. He finished the 22 miles in 50 minutes; with a top speed of 43.7 mph and an average of 23 mph (I am not real positive on the average). Pops had one goal: not to be passed by a girl. He informed us that he was momentarily passed – but that he smoked the girl. We were all real impressed with my dad. A lady told us that a time of 45 minutes is considered top notch in the bike leg – and we think 50 minutes is pretty dang good for a 62 year old man.

(Good Job Pops. ~ He isn't in this photo, we never actually took a pic of my dad on his bike)

Tricia was the next leg…….yes, Ricky B dropped out of the race and my friend from work was gracious enough to come run the 5 miles for us. She even brought her husband, Scott, whom I was very happy to meet, because I had never met the man before and it was about time. The run/kayak/sprint area was so crowded that we didn’t see Tricia until the finish line. She had a good race, thinks she can do it faster next year, and didn’t even know she had finished until after she crossed the finished line and saw Aaron. Tricia was originally supposed to help push Aaron’s kayak into the water, but things were rearranged and Natalie pushed Aaron out into the river.

(Meet Tricia and her husband Scott, yes we are still all in our pajamas)

Aaron had a good leg in the water. It looked really hard to paddle upstream and the other kayakers weren’t always so friendly. We saw this super old lady push a younger girl into the bank and then just run over the top of her. It was ruthless. Aaron had a few moments where he ran into people and then people ran into him. He said it was hard coming upstream because everyone wanted to be near the bank, which I learned is where the current is the slowest, and in order to pass you had to be in the middle of the river, which is where the current is the quickest. That makes so much sense, but I had never really thought of it before.

Natalie was our finale runner. She was pretty nervous about it, but she did fabulous. We are unsure of how fast she ran, because no one timed her. But I think she was faster than she normally is; she just looked a little faster.

Our official time for the AirZukas was 3:00:39……we really wanted to break into the 2 hour mark, but missed it by 39 seconds. But that is ok. When we were originally planning this we thought we would be around 3 ½ hours…….so we are very happy with our time.

After the race we hung out at Bill and Diana’s on the river for a BBQ. We will all be back next year for round two.

(BBQ Time)

(Madre wins the sunburn award)

A Mother's Day Thought

2009-05-13T19:12:00.000-07:00

So I didn't write a post for Mother's Day. I know.....I should have written something. So I have been feeling bad about it lately and as I thought more about it I wanted to recognize all the ladies in my life. Especially the ladies in my family.

I think that all the girls in my family taught me something. So I think they should all be recognized.

Madre - fabulous! She always handled my impatient personality well, and took the brunt of some of my moments - always very calmly. My mom can be crazy sometimes, but overall she is pretty mellow. She took a bunch of girls with extremely different personalities and somehow kept us all together.

Dana - The biggest sister, and my most even tempered sister. She has my mom's ability to calm a situation. From a young age I have been able to watch her be a parent, and I think she has done a fabulous job.

Sara - The athletic, body image focused, analytical, thoughtful, concerned, and feisty sister. Sara has been extremely supportive of the things I have done, and encouraged me to stick to who I believed myself to be. When I doubted who I wanted to become, Sara always told me she was proud of me. Always at the right moment, and she probably never knew.

Tina - The sister who I had an "I-didn't-like-as-a-child-and-now-I-do" kind of a relationship. We certainly didn't get along as children, because we both took turns torturing each other. But as we grew older we clicked more and more. I still think I have much to learn from and about Tina.

Shyra - My first niece. I can't believe she will have her license in June. Crazy! I had great fun with Shyra. I never hang out with her anymore, but when I was in high school I loved playing aunt and taking them out. She is now at the age of being too cool to hang out with me, but I still like her and think she is doing good things. Hooray!

When I continued to think about these ladies, I couldn't help thinking about my dad, Pops. Pops has helped my mother become who she is, and in turn, she has helped him become who he is today. It made me wish for a "Parent's Day" so we could appreciate their complimentary characteristics.

And in the end it made me wonder how Robert has, and will, help me grow. My mind wandered in the future and it felt cool, like glowing in the dark or something. The future is always so unknown, but that feeling of the future seemed so certain. I felt like I had an idea of what was ahead. I know that makes me sound like some weirdo, dreamy, unrealistic optimist.......but I'm not normally that kind of person. I guess today, I am. And I think, I'm ok with that.

Look! Even a cheesy picture to top it off.

Bend's POLE, PEDAL, PADDLE

2009-04-19T17:03:00.000-07:00

I haven't posted in a very long time. We have been busy. Every weekend since Spring Break Robert and I have been making Saturday trips to Bend to practice for this thing called the PPP (Pole, Pedal, Paddle).

The PPP is a huge relay race with six different legs. Let me introduce you to our team.

Meet Robert. He is will be competing in the downhill snowboarding/skiing leg. Robert's leg is a piece of cake. (Pun intended, Robert thought it was pretty funny). We doubt that he will spend more than 10-15 minutes competing. Robert will hand off to Cassie.

Meet Cassie, (me). She will be competing in the nordic skiing leg......she will actually be doing something called skate-skiing. Something she has only done five times, and she isn't very good. We just read a newspaper article that stated that the nordic leg is the most technical and most challenging. She is not too excited about that......and she really is pretty bad. Cassie's leg is an 8k race, roughly five miles. Cassie will had off to her pops, Jeffry.

Meet Jeffry, my father. He is the oldest member of the team, and we are pretty excited that he was willing to participate. He is the oldest member of the team, and helped raise our average age for competing. It brought our average age of our team to 36. WOW! Anyway, Jeffry will be competing in the 22 mile bike ride from Mt. Bachelor into downtown Bend. There is a substantial amount of downhill, but there are a few tough uphills to climb. The toughest is a climb of 150 feet in about a kilometer. But he is tough old dude, and we know he can do it. We decided to put up two pictures of my dad.....to show his serious side and his wild side. He is pretty competitive and when he is competitive you get a mix of both personalities. Also since he is the oldest, at age 62, he deserves some props. Jeffry will hand off to Ricky B.

Meet Ricky B, Robert's brother. He will be running a 10k around downtown Bend. Rick was originally going to be running the sprint at the end and his girlfriend, Mandy, was going to run this race. Some complications came up and we had to rearrange and he stepped up to the plate. He has been working on his distance abilities lately to get ready, but it's tough since they have their newer baby. So most of his exercise is in changing poopy diapers. Rick will be handing off to Aaron.

The next two legs are on one map so I decided to put the two competitors together.

Meet Aaron. A friend of ours, and a person who is crazy competitive. He was the master-mind of the race. Robert has been the essential organizer of the legs.....but the original idea to be a part of the race was Aaron's. We talked about competing in the race over the summer, finalized that we would at his wedding in San Diego (see previous posts...speaking of which, their slide show is up if your interested here is the address......http://www.defalcophoto.com/show/Maxwell/.....it has a wonderful song....and there is a bad photo of me......oh well....) .....and we all started planning. Aaron and Natalie will be traveling from San Diego to compete in this race. Aaron will be competing in the kayak leg. He will go upstream and downstream on the Deschutes River for about 2.5k. After which he will hand off to his wife, Natalie.

Meet Natalie. She will be running the 500 meter sprint at the end. She wasn't the original competitor....but she is going to do it. So thank goodness for Natalie......without her our team would be incomplete.

So that is our team. None of us are in stellar shape......to be honest, most of us are in no shape at all to compete. We are just hoping to finish. However, my father does want to win his bike leg for his age group. So if your rooting for anyone root for him. The race takes place May 16th and we are all in a mad dash to make sure we are ready. Let's hope we will be..........

Children's Museum

2009-03-24T18:40:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we really wanted to go to the children's museum. We have heard it is a really good one, better than the one in Portland. But we had one small problem: we don't have a child. So we borrowed one. Drew to be exact. He is our nephew.....Lela and Andrew's son. He is about 2 and half.

It was lots of fun. He loved the bubbles. We spent about 20 minutes just in the bubble room. In the next room he crawled through the stomach. It took a lot of coaching to get him to enter the stomach. Robert crawled in with him. We also made some chocolate chip cookies.

We finally made it to the safari room where people can dress up. I tried to convince Drew that it was fun to dress up. But he wanted nothing to do with the Tucan Sam 'git up'. I thought I might have some trouble getting my body out of the Tucan Sam suit since I have gained some weight lately. But it came off my body just fine. You might think horay she didn't make a fool of herself, but I am not done yet. Some of you might be unaware of how huge my head is.....but let me tell you it's pretty big. Tucan Sam actually got stuck on my face. Around my eyeballs and forehead to be exaxt. It felt like my eye sockets were going to pop out. Robert had to come to my aid.

This is what Drew calls a "big rrraaarrr"

One of my favorite rooms was this psychedelic room that transmitted your silhouette on the screen. This is me, Drew and a nice old man on the screen in a pattern formation.

The little man loves the slides. Some of those slides are quite long. Robert would ride down with Drew and was kicked in the back and the head occasionally.

In the little supermarket Robert found the funniest consumer goods we have ever heard of..........something called Tofurky. It's just fun to say and is borderline vulgar at the same time. It made us laugh, so we took a picture to share with you.

And yes I do look that tired. We had just returned from a trip of 20 hours worth of driving. I took a two hour nap afterwards.

ON A SIDE NOTE

Willie has taken on some human characteristics lately. He sits like a person in the chair and I recently found that he had fallen asleep while reading a book.

Take a close look......yes that is Sense and Sensibility. I guess he has good taste? (I had actually left the book out on that chapter, but he really did fall asleep like that.)

Visiting Jeffry

2009-03-24T18:20:00.001-07:00

Robert and I went to visit my brother this last weekend. However, we forgot to take any photos of our trip. We took photos inside the visiting area with Jeffry but we don't get to take those home with us. We have to wait until he can mail them home. So when we get those pictures I will post a copy. We planned on visiting Saturday morning and afternoon, and also Sunday morning.

We had a wonderful visit on Saturday. Robert and I didn't make it into Ontario until 3:30 a.m. My mom, my sister Sara, and Donna S. were already snuggled up in bed by the time we arrived. We met them for breakfast in the hotel. It was nice to see Donna. I hadn't see her in awhile, and she is a trooper. I am glad that she joined us on our trip.

My mom and sister are on this gluten free diet. It's actually pretty interesting and maybe I will tell you about it someday. However, for now let's just say that it made for an interesting breakfast. Sara decided to eat a hard-boiled egg with some butter, salt, and pepper. She carefully peeled the egg, but couldn't get the butter to melt just right. So she did want anyone might do......she microwaved the egg. It looked good. She took her fork and BOOM. Egg erupted everywhere. It covered Sara, my mom, and Robert. I can't quite describe the sound of the exploding egg but it was rather cool.

Later that night Robert and I were able to eat at Wingers. One of our most favorite places to eat. They have these things called sticky fingers and we love 'em. The next morning we woke up early, carefully supervised Sara and her use of the microwave, and were ready for our visit. We arrived only to find out that there would be no Sunday visits. The whole prison was on lockdown and that was all they would tell us. We still don't know what happened. Most likely it was a gang related fight that got out of hand. We will have to wait until we hear from Jeffry. So we left early and started our long journey home.

In Oregon they have these big wooden signs with historical information on them. You never know what your going to get.....you'll just see a sign that says "Historical Marker Ahead." Robert and I stopped at every one on the way home. Some of them are quite interesting and in the middle of nowhere. We were literally 60 miles from the nearest gas station and found one about the Bannock tribe. Good stuff!

Silver Falls

2009-03-01T15:46:00.000-08:00

Robert and I have been talking about hiking Silver Falls for awhile now, and we finally were able to get around to it. However, we didn't know there would be snow on the ground still. It was cold! We didn't last long out in the elements. We were brave enough to go behind the waterfall. We were really soaked on our hike out, but it was fun.

On a side note, Robert got a calling in our new ward. He is the Elders Quorum Secretary. Ironically, this is Robert's third time serving is this position. It's kinda funny because our current ward doesn't know that it was also his calling in our last ward. Fun times. What can I say......Robert is just an organized kind of guy.

Oh, I Forget About Coldplay!

2009-02-14T11:24:00.000-08:00

We bought our tickets yesterday for the opening night of Coldplay's North American Tour in Vancouver, July 17, 2009. We are in row 60, and yes we spent too much money. The most either one of us have ever paid for a show. But we feel ok about it. We haven't been to a concert for awhile......since our second Band of Horses show. And those tickets were cheap so maybe it's just making up for cheap tickets all these years. Hooray for good concerts.

Ode to Wilsonville

2009-02-14T09:04:00.000-08:00

So this isn't exactly an ode. It's not lyrical, nor is it a poem.
~

Wilsonville is above and beyond the best place we have ever lived. When we were living in Wilsonville, Robert and I became accustomed to seeing nice cars . They were every where. Some of you might think, "So, what's the big deal about nice cars?" This question is a legitimate one, and I will answer it at the end of this post.

We're not talking about BMW, Mercedes, Audi nice. Those cars are small fries compared to what we're talking about. Although, on a side note, I am a big fan of the Mercedes CLS 550, and Robert and I both are fans of the new Audi A8. We'd see these cars around town often and we like them. They are still nice cars, but they are dwarfed by other cars in the neighborhood.

Audi A8..............................................................................Mercedes CLS 550

The first nice car I saw in our neighborhood sat in the garage across the street. Our neighbor owned an older Ferrari 308 GTS. You know the one from Magnum P.I. Our mothers love Magnum P.I. aka Tom Selleck and were excited to hear this news. Our neighbor would drive it every Sunday. I think they are ugly, but still it qualifies as a nice car. It was the first time I had seen a Ferrari in real life, and after that all these other cool cars started coming out of these people's driveways. Crazy!

I must admit, I am not a car person. I don't know the specs of any of these cars. If you would have asked me three years ago to explain the difference between an Aston Martin DB8 and an Aston Martin DB9, I wouldn't have been able to tell you. It's a different story now since we saw these cars almost on a daily basis. For the record, I still don't consider myself a car person. I just can recognize them now.

There are too many stories to tell about how and when we first saw these cars. Here is a short one: imagine a girl wearing fuzzy boots coming out of the grocery store and getting into a Bentley. It was like the scene from Dumb and Dumber.

The stories are vast and not necessarily entertaining so we will not bore you with them. Instead we provide just this list of the cars we have parked next to, raced at a stop light (the little 1.8 Sentra never won), or just driven down the road with during our residence in Wilsonville.

Let's start off with the family cars. The Porsche and the Range Rover are the most frequently seen family car. However, there are about two of the Mercedes G Class. The picture makes it look kind of ugly, but it actually does look pretty cool.

Range Rover Sport ................................................................Porsche Cayenne

Mercedes G Class

There are a lot of Aston Martins so be patient. Aston Martins are probably my favorite. Robert likes them too.

Aston Martin DB9 ..............................................................Aston Martin DB8

Aston Martin Vantage......................................................Aston Martin Vanquish

These are the Lamborghinis. They are both the same car, just different colors. There were a couple of these in Wilsonville. We saw the orange, silver, black, yellow, and green versions. A girl I taught and coached for volleyball would get picked up in a yellow one.

Lamborghini Gallardo

We didn't actually see this Ferrari or Jaguar very often. On average we saw a Jaguar and Ferrari once a week or so. But these are just the nicer models.

Ferarri Modena ................................................................................Jaguar XK

~
It seemed like there were a lot of AC Cobras. They always appear in the late spring and summer. Robert thinks that the Ford GT might also be one of his favorites. He has a hard time making up his mind.

Ford AC Cobra ......................................................................Ford GT

Porsche 997 ................................................................Lotus Elise

~
Here are the final cars and probably some of the most expensive. The Bentley is also one of my favorites.

Maserati Gran Turismo ......................................................Bentley Continental GT

Rolls Royce Phantom (there is only one of these in Wilsonville and it only comes out every once in awhile)

We don't know exactly which cars are the most expensive. I used to think the Lamborghinis were the most expensive, you know since they are so flashy. However, Robert has set me straight and we think the Rolls Royce Phantom is probably the winner of the price tag. However, the Ford GT is surprisingly real close because so few of them were made. Who knows? Go ahead and share your two cents. You probably know more than I do.

I still drive to Wilsonville everyday for work, but since I don't run errands or go out to eat, we don't see these fun cars anymore. So you might have asked the question: "What's the big deal?" Well, the big deal is this. We only see the Acura, Lexus, BMW, and Mercedes now here in Salem. It's like watching the NBA and College Basketball and then being sent to only watch YMCA basketball at the local grade school. Sad world, eh?

Welcome Finley Reagan

2009-02-08T18:23:00.000-08:00

Robert's sister Lela and her husband, Andrew, welcomed their second child. Finley Reagan Bartels joined us this last week. I can't recall how much she weighed right now. I think she was in the high 7 lb range and she was almost 20 inches long.

Robert and I helped our at the hospital as much as we could. We were in charge of Chase and Drew. It was actually kind of hard to keep at 2 year old entertained while waiting at the hospital. We don't have a whole lot of photos, but here are the ones we have.

Congratulations to the Bartels!!