Happy Babies

Emry Laughing

Labor Day Weekend

Doug and I had been looking forward to my parents labor day visit for quite sometime, however, right before they came, Doug went and broke his leg (yeah, yeah... you know the story, greatest game ever played...). We were a little worried that this new injury would ruin the plans of seeing the sights, but I figured if Doug can go 3-6 on a broken leg, then he can sure as heck handle some sight-seeing!

My life as a cripple

Okay, so everyone should know by now that I broke my foot while playing softball but still went 4 for 6 with two doubles. While the glory from that story will always live on in my heart, truth is people forget and life moves on. For someone like me who got injured, I cannot forget because I am still in pain. However, illustrated by these pictures one can see that other people have already moved on and have enjoyed using my pain as a source for humor. First example is the video. The video shows my loving and caring father in-law pushing me up a hill in a wheel chair. If you have speakers you can hear by-standers mocking us.

In the next photos you can see I am on crutches but alone, the only thing helping me are signs pointing to handicap access ramps.

The fourth picture shows me sitting alone with no one around but the memories of my great softball game.

In an attempt to gain more sympathy, my new disability is not being able to see things from a far away distances. I got new glasses. One can only hope that my poor eyesight will not be forgotten like my great softball game where I went 4 for 6 with three doubles on a broken leg. This is Doug. Feel sorry for me.

The Greatest Story Ever Told

I want to tell you a story while it is still fresh in my mind. That way everyone will know what the truth actually was. I'm sure as I get older the story will get embellished and 10 years from now I will be bragging about how I batted 6 for 6 with broken leg and 50 years from now I will brag that I went 6 for 6 with two home runs and you could see the bone sticking out of my skin. Truth is.... I am a klutz and I was warming up for softball by shagging a few fly balls in the outfield. One ball went straight up and I back peddled to reach for the ball and tripped. As I fell I heard a "pop" in my ankle. Everyone around me started laughing, I admit if it was someone else I might of laughed too, but I needed to save face and instead of rolling around in the grass crying I decided to stand up and act like nothing happened. Truth be told it hurt like the dickens but I thought the worse it could be was a sprain. As the game started I hobbled out to right field but the coach caught up to me (it wasn't hard) and asked if I wanted to play catcher instead. I agreed that catcher might be the right decision. I played through the entire game and I did get 3 hits but every time I hit the ball I would cringe knowing I would now have to run to 1st base. After the game Nicole looked at my ankle which was the size of a softball but there was not a lot of time as I had to go to work that night, so I brought two ice bags to work and called it good. That night I made everyone do the work and sat with my leg on the desk with an ice pack on it. As the occasional work release resident walked by I would show them the ankle and they all said I should get that thing checked out cause it looked nasty. So with no sleep the next day Nicole drove me to the clinic. The Doctor agreed it was nasty looking and thought it might just be a severe sprain but wanted to get some x-rays just in case. As it turns out I did break my leg at the base of my fibula by my ankle, so I now I get wear this cool boot. It looks kinda goth like if I had another it would be a cool Halloween costume but I hope that doesn't happen. So that is the true story. Now when I tell this story in the future you can keep me in check and say, " Doug I have heard this story already and I reaaalllly don't think you ever mentioned the fact that you hit 2 grand slams while temporary paralyzed from the waist down."

HOT!!!

Doug and Nicole are HOT!!! As I am writing this (at 8:51pm) our thermostat says that it is 83 degrees indoors... and this is considered the "cool" day. Since temps rarely get this high in WA, few houses have air, including ours. We did have a fan that helped move a little air around, however Pepper got confused and thought the fan cord was a chew toy. We might have to look for a nearby lake tomorrow to help beat the heat!

MN Trip/4th of July

On Tuesday (June 30th), we packed our bags and began our journey East to the great state of Minnesota. We left after Doug finished with work at about 6:00pm, and decided to just drive and see how far we could make it. We ended up taking a short nap in the car somewhere in Montana, and then arrived at Doug's parents on Wednesday night around 11pm. We both decided that we would take the trip home at a much slower pace.

While back in Minnesota we were able to spend a lot of time with our friends and family. We had a great time camping over the 4th, and couldn't believe how much Greta and Afton have grown up since we have last seen them. It was so fun for all of us to get together for the weekend. Hopefully it works out to do that again next year! On the 4th we also went to Elbow Lake to spend part of the day with the Marihart's. It was so fun and relaxing to sit around and catch up with family while enjoying the beautiful scenery.

Since we pushed the trip out to MN so hard, we decided to enjoy our trip back and take a "mini" vacation. We made reservations at our favorite campground in the Black Hills, Rafter J Bar Ranch. We left Montevideo Wednesday morning around 7:30, stopped at the Badlands, Wall Drug, Hill City, and Mount Rushmore.

After a busy day of travel and taking in the sites, we sat back and relaxed next to a campfire. In the distance we noticed some lighting and thunder in the hills. We both agreed that it was quite beautiful. I even made the comment that "it would be kind of cool if it was thundering and lighting tonight as we were sleeping in the tent, as long as it doesn't rain." As we were enjoying the fire and each other's company, we noticed the thunder and lighting slowly getting closer and closer so we decided to call it a day and head for bed. About ten minutes after laying in our tent the storm hit. Huge gusts of wind, the loudest thunder, the brightest lighting, golf-ball sized hail, and rain were all coming down. I changed my mind about my previous comment, and was actually a little freaked out. After about five minutes of enduring the storm, our tent collapsed completely on one side (luckily it was the side our feet were on). We then went to the car, called all the local hotels, but had no luck getting a reasonably priced reservation. After waiting out the storm, we headed back to the tent and managed to stay semi-dry considering the circumstances. In the morning we assessed the damage and found all of our tent poles to be bent or broken, and a huge rip in the fabric of the tent. Unfortunately we will not be able to do anymore camping this year.

Before: Doug looks so proud!

After:


The final highlight of the trip was Saturday night. Back in February Doug and I purchased tickets to a Coldplay concert at the Gorge Amphitheatre. We had heard amazing things about the theater, and figured we better check it out. It was amazing, by far the most beautiful concert venue that we have ever seen. The majority of seating is general admission on the grass hill that over looks the Columbia River. The pictures do not due it justice. Along with the a perfect atmosphere, the concert was amazing. A great way to end a great trip!