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!

Mom, Grandma, and Sharie take on Seattle

June 25th marked my last day of school for the year, and my mom, aunt Sherie, and Grandma came out to visit us on my first days of summer vacation! They arrived on Thursday, and we had a lot of fun, food, laughs, and site-seeing until they left on Monday. These pictures help tell part of "the story." Sherie- I am anxiously awaiting the documentary that you filmed about the vacation :)

Bargain Hunter

At the beginning of "garage sale season" I always get excited about the potential deals I might find. Each year though after going to about five or six garage sales, I soon realize that other peoples junk does not equal my treasure... until this weekend! I decided to give a community garage sale and run through on my way to the grocery store and came across a gem! When we first moved into our home we were on a tight budget, and bough an old fashioned style lawn mower with out the motor. I volunteered to do all of the mowing so that I could count it as my cardio. After using the mower once, we decided that we may want to look into buying an actual lawn mower, with a motor! After doing a garage sale "drive by" I noticed a lawn mower, and knew I had to stop. After doing a little bargaining on the price, I made the mower mine for $20! The grass is a little brown now due to the record setting dry spell, but when the lawn is ready to be mowed our new purchase will come in handy!

Back to the Mountain

This weekend it finally felt like summer vacation was near as we headed back out to Mount Rainier to do some hiking. Or favorite hikes up at Paradise still have 9 feet of snow on them, so we did a new hike farther down the mountain where there was less snow. The second we stepped out of the car and started putting on our gear, it started to sprinkle. We considered waiting it out, but decided to go on anyway. For the most part the trees protected us from the rain, but we were pretty wet by the end of the 5 miles. Not a lot of great views due to the fog, but we had an awesome time being back out in the woods. We bought our annual pass to the park, so you can be sure there will be a lot of hiking posts to come!

On the way out to the mountain, we stopped at one of my all time favorite places to eat. The food is pretty good, but the atmosphere is awesome. It is on open air bar and grill with the most incredible views.

Go Twins!

This weekend Doug and I enjoyed a jam packed weekend full of baseball. Since moving out to Seattle, I believe we have only missed two Twins games at Safeco. Either we are bad luck or the Twins just don't play well in Seattle, because of all of those games I think we have only seen two wins. Even though our home team only won one of three this series, we still had a great time.

Due to lack of creative ideas left on our blog post (Sorry Dustin, your idea was bad), we did not make a circle me Bert sign. I truthfully didn't want to make one anyways because I hate being "that person" who desperately tries everything in their power to get on TV, including waving a sign, blocking the view of everyone behind you for the majority of the game. Instead of "circle me Bert" signs, Seattlites make signs about Rally Fries. Rally Fries are basically french fries covered with garlic. After the first game we went to in Seattle, we left nauseous due to the overwhelming scent of garlic throughout the stadium. The next time we went to a game, we thought we better see what these fries are all about. Now we can hardly go a game without spending $7.50 on the famous french fries.

Floors...Done!

We have finally finished the hardwood floors!!! After a lot of hard work and no play this weekend, we have completed our 3 month long project. I shouldn't say no play, we actually went to the drive in movies on Friday to see a double feature of "Star Trek" and "Angels and Demons." "Angels and Demons" was the second showing, and that was the movie that I was really interested in seeing. I figured if I took a half-hour nap through "Star Trek," I'd be able to stay awake to watch the entire "Angels and Demons" movie. I unfortunately fell asleep through the last hour of "Star Trek" and then woke up for the first half of "Angels and Demons," but was too tired to make it through the entire show. In my defense, "Angels and Demons" didn't even start until after midnight. Doug really enjoyed "Star Trek" even though he claims he is not an official "Trekkie," he reported that "Angels and Demons" was kind of boring and not nearly as good as the book.

Circle Me Bert

This coming weekend Doug and I are spending three days watching the Twins play in Seattle. We figured we should make a "Circle Me Bert" sign, but our creativity is lacking. Any suggestions of a cool slogan or idea for our sign...?

Where the Forest Meets the Sea

This weekend Doug and I packed our bags and drove south. After fighting the traffic and extremely curvy mountain roads, we made it to our destination on the Oregon coast around 8:30pm on Friday night. That night we quickly learned that we were not properly prepared for spring time camping on the coast...it was very cold! After unthawing Saturday morning, we drove down the coastal highway to Florence. We had heard about the sand dunes in Florence, and thought we'd see what they were all about. I have never seen sand dunes, and I never had imagined them to be what they were. We felt like we had entered the dessert. The dunes were huge hills/mountains of sand for miles and miles, some around 500 ft tall. It was like nothing we have ever seen before! We took a really awesome dune buggy ride, which was quite scary, but a lot of fun. After the dunes, we went to one of the largest sea caves (in the world or America...not quite sure, but it was large). In the winter, the cave is full of seals, but during this time of year most of them hang out on the rocks. I almost got kicked out for using a flash camera, but the pictures were totally worth it.

During the weekend we also enjoyed taking some hikes to some different viewpoints and beaches. We did see some gray whales off in the distance with the binoculars, but a little too far away to take a good picture.

Even though four days without showers got to be a little long, and the nights were near brutally cold, we had a great time and can't wait for our next camping adventure!