About a Fence...

Some of you may remember our old rickety fence that we had in the backyard...

Well, its been replaced! :) YEAH!

So, A few months ago I was out in the backyard playing with Tucker, and the little old lady who lives behind us came over and started telling me how sorry she was about the fence, and how her dog almost gets through to our side, and how she wants to replace it, and yada yada yada... So I tell her that my husband works for a vinyl fence company and we could get it done at cost and split the cost and yada yada yada. She seems very excited about this, so I send Ben over there a few days later to talk to her about it. She wants nothing to do with him. She tells him like the exact opposite of what she had told me, and sends him on his merry way. Well, a few weeks go by, Ben and I are thinking that we are just going to have to replace the fence ourselves... Well, one morning last week, I open the blinds to find that the fence is completely gone! And sure enough, later on that afternoon vinyl fence posts start popping up and the next day we have a brand new vinyl fence. Its not the kind that I would have chosen, but its brand new and we didn't have to pay a dime for it--and I'm definitely down with that. :)

Thanks little old lady that lives behind us.

To Burn or Not To Burn...

So last night we had a little scare. The area where my parents live, called the Dishman Hills, was evacuated due to a pretty scary fire. My parents were out of town, visiting my grandparents, and we were at the softball games at the Stake Center when we got the news. First off let me say that yesterday was one of the windiest days I have ever been in. Me and my sister-in-law tried to take our little ones to the park and ended up going to the mall to eat our lunches, because EVERYTHING was blowing away at the park, like really bad. Anyway, A fire had started on the other side of the mountain and it was when we had gotten to the Church Softball games that we were notified that the fire had crested the hill and was now coming down on our side, right where my parents live. The area was being evacuated and no one was being allowed back up to get their possessions or anything. So my sister-in-law and I booked it up to my parents house, and my brother and his fiancee were already there trying to get as many things out of the house and getting the sprinklers on the roof going. The police were roaming the streets on their loud speakers telling everyone to evacuate, but of course, there are the few who stay and we were just trying to get as many valuables out as possible, and not only that, but my dad has lots of cars worth a lot of money, so we were trying to figure out how to get those all out, because we knew once we left, we wouldn't be allowed back up. Anyway...it was pretty scary, at one point the fire was just 2 blocks away! So last night everyone camped at our house to wait, and just hope and pray that my parents home was still there the next day. We woke up to some good news. The fire is pretty much contained now, and this afternoon people were let back up into the neighborhood. 13 houses were burned in total--very sad!

I took this picture on the way up to my parents house-just billows and billows of smoke...

At my parents house (ash was like raining down)...

Nathan on the roof, getting the sprinklers going...

The church just down the street from their house was like the Fire-station 'headquarters'. I took this picture as I headed back down with my car-load of valuables...

And this is the picture driving away from the fire. Seriously, right on the other side, were beautiful blue skies, you would never have known that anything was going on...

But this isn't the first time we have had to evacuate due to a fire. In 1991 many of you might remember a little thing called 'FIRESTORM'! :) Very similar situation, we had to be evacuated, everyone running around in a frenzy getting sprinklers on their roof, having to pack our big huge van full of all our valuables. I just remember sitting in school at Horizon Jr. High, and some kids were literally finding out during school that their houses had burnt down, and my name was then called over the loud speaker to go to the office, and I just started bawling. Luckily, my parents were just coming to pick me up so we could all be together. Firestorm '91 burned 114 houses and lasted for days and days, so this wasn't quite as big, but traumatic none-the-less!

Click here for the slide show that they had on the news and for some more crazy pictures of the event:

http://www.spokesmanreview.com/media/slides/?k=dishmanfire

River Front Park...

Spokane has the best little, well, big park right downtown, with a beautiful River running through it and a TON of things to do. Nathan and Angie both had the day off, so we decided to head down. Unfortunately, Ben had to work-so he didn't get to join us.

We fed the ducks...

And rode the Carousel...

(and of course, got shaved ice)

Rode the train...

Played on the big red wagon...

Tucker likes to climb the slides, rather than slide down them...

Played in the water (not really in the water, but around the water)...

And of course, went to the beautiful Falls, they are huge this year because of all of the snow we had this winter.

Paisley Lane Giveaway...

I am in love...I just bought the cutest jewelery from my friends on-line jewelery shop, Paisley Lane. If you love hand made, funky, unique, WAY cute jewelery, I suggest you check it out! She is actually having a giveaway right now-so hurry and enter to win!

Thank you Natalie! I love love love my jewelery!

Check out her blog at:
http://paisleylane.blogspot.com/

Our Summer Days, so far...

Our Summer really only has been a few weeks now, but so far...

We've been doing a lot of this...

(who knew that lawn maintenance was so time consuming...)

And a lot of this...

(Ice cream is the best on hot summer days, enjoyed with good friends...)

And just one night of this...

with these cute girls (and many more)...

(staying up until 3am, TPing, dancing and talking about boys... I felt like I was 16 all over again! Isn't that what YW sleep-overs are all about?) :)

And, for some reason, getting some looks like this...

(none of which I deserve--I am a perfect mother)

We have been doing a TON more, but I haven't been as diligent with my camera as I usually am. I promise to be better in the future! :)

Nathan & Angies Engagement Pictures...

A few weeks ago, I took Nathan & Angie's engagement pictures. Since the invitations are out, I figure I'm pretty safe to post these pictures now. :) (I hope) Anyway, it was so much fun, and they turned out so good, I had to share. Photography is something that I've been dabbling in a little lately, and absolutely love. My mom has a Nikon D80 and I love it, so I'm saving for one right now, and as soon as I get my own, hopefully things will pick up. So, if your interested in getting your pictures taken, I won't charge ya, and really want to build up a portfolio, so let me know! Anyway, I just wanted to share these cute pictures--I'm not claiming that they are magnificent, its just something that I enjoy and am trying to get better at, so we'll see where it goes. :)

(Some of the heads got cut off when I made this collage, but they are not like that in the real pictures, I couldn't figure out how to fix it.) :)

BFF's...

We went to the mall today with my friend Meg and her 3 little chitlins. These two are only two weeks apart and absolutely LOVE each other. Owen is pretty chill and easily entertained, so Tucker loves making him laugh. Its so cute to watch them together. I see a life long friendship forming here. Meg, Owens mom, by the way is also one of my oldest friends as well, and by oldest, I mean that we have been good friends since we were 12! She was one of my very first friends when we moved up to Spokane when I was 12. We fell out of touch for a few years during the college/mission/newly married phases in our lives, but since she moved back to Spokane a year ago, its like we haven't skipped a beat. Don't you just love friends like that?

Meg forgot something at Bath & Body Works, and instead of hauling all 4 of them back into the store with the tiny isles and little bottles everywhere; where they not only hate it, but make a complete mess, I stayed out with them in the hall. They found the cars and just had to take'm for some test drives.

Just a mere two hours later, we noticed that the noise level had dropped significantly in the van and turned around to see this:

I'd consider this shopping trip successful! :)