Great News!

Great news everyone! On Christmas Eve, Eric asked me to marry him, and I said YES. I would tell you how it happened but I kind of blacked out and can't really remember.

What I do know was that we were at Jack & Mary Anne's house (friend's of Eric's that he visits every Christmas Eve). When everyone sat down around the Christmas tree to open presents, I wasn't really expecting to get much.

Eric really fooled me. The first present he gave me was a package of really nice soaps. Then he gave me a little white box. I knew it was jewelry, but it wasn't the shape of a ring box. I opened it and it was a beautiful necklace. It is aquamarine, which is the same stone as the earrings as he gave me on Valentine's Day. I thought that was all I was getting this year. I couldn't even imagine getting more.

Then Eric handed a little bag to Riley (Jack & Mary Anne's grandson). He told Riley to give it to me. Riley wanted to help me open it, so I let him. He handed me another little white box. I opened it and it was a ring. That is when I blacked out. I'm not really sure what happened after that. I'm sure that I was crying. I was told later that he got down on one knee, asked me to marry him, and I said yes.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/GqosqJDktMDR6t6j9

Santa's Little Helper

Have you ever seen a dog guard the presents under the Christmas tree? Well this dog does. This is Riley (Jim & Lynn's dog). She is twelve years old, and is so smart that she knows exactly which present under the tree is hers. She will guard the tree and her present until Christmas morning when she gets to open it. She really helps Santa to make sure that there is no peaking until Christmas.

New York

Well, it is finally here, the story of our trip to New York. I am very sorry for the delay. I came back from New York with over 500 pictures. So it to a long time to decide what pictures to post, edit them, and then figure out the names of what they were. Make sure when you read this that you click the links. If you don't click the links you are not seeing everything there is to see. There were too many pictures to put on one page, so I had to develop a whole new set-up. If you have been to or have a story about one of the places that we went to, feel free to leave a comment by clicking the comment button beneath the post. Well, here it is!

On Wednesday, October 5 Eric and I headed to the airport hoping to make it to New York. We were given passes by Eric's friend Gary Rice, who is a pilot for Alaska. Unfortunately there were no flights left going into the Newark airport that night. But when we got to Sea Tac they had two standby tickets left for Boston. So we flew into Boston at about 7:30 AM on Thursday and took the Amtrak Train to Penn Station in New York.

When we finally came into to New York it was quite overwhelming. There are so many things to see and so much going on. It was difficult to decide where to go and how to get there. So we decided that it would be best to buy a ticket to ride on the double decker tour bus. With that we could ride on all the loops that it took and hop on and off any time we liked. While on the bus we saw Midtown, Times Square, Central Park, the Upper West Side, the Upper East Side, Greenwich Village, Gramercy Park, SoHo, Chinatown, the Seaport & Civic Center, and Lower Manhattan. We were able to see so many beautiful buildings with amazing architecture and fascinating sculptures. You could spend days just looking at the buildings. The pass was good for 48 hours, but we certainly rode it for longer and they never checked the ticket.

The cost was $70 each, but I think it was worth it because it showed us all the good places to go, and we didn't have to worry about how to get there. You could just hop off and another bus would come in about 15 minutes.



Our pass also included tickets to the observatory of the Empire State Building, to take the ferry from Battery Park to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island, and the New York at Night tour. The only bad thing was that it rained a lot while we were there, and sitting on top of a double decker bus in the rain is not the most comfortable thing.


However, they were nice enough to give us rain slickers. Well, it's really a garbage bag with holes for your head and arms. But we survived.

In addition to touring the city and seeing so many fabulous buildings, churches, and bridges, we hoped off the bus and visited a number of places.


We stopped off at a number of restaurants and bakeries and ate great food. We experience a little bit of Beatlemania throughout the city, and since I am a Beatles fan it was pretty exciting for me.
We went to see the Broadway show The Producers, and the American Museum of Natural History.

It was a great trip. We saw so many things in only five days. You could spend five weeks in Manhattan and not see everything that there was to see. In the end we were totally exhausted. On our way home Eric said to me "I'm glad we went and saw it. But those New Yorkers, they can have it. I want to go home." It was amazing, but certainly not relaxing. I think the hustle and bustle was a little bit too much for Eric.

When you look at the island of Manhattan (which is 23 square miles in area) it is so drastically different than Vashon Island (which is 37 square mile in area). It does make you appreciate home a little more.

Alumni Game

We had our WWU Alumni Softball Game. We lost, but we only had 10 alumni's there. All of us old people were tired by the third inning. But it was still a great time. For those of you that weren't there -YOU BETTER BE THERE NEXT YEAR! Besides you missed out. Lonnie gave us all new T-Shirts, and the whole gang went out to Bob's for a burger afterwards. It was great seeing everybody. (Back Row - Dani, Nancy, Rhonda, Me, Kim, Darcy, Megan Front Row - Hadley, Adrienne, Candance)

https://photos.app.goo.gl/AtQ9n42ForKs3S18A

Rainbow

Eric took this picture after a rain storm the other day.

This boat was out in front of Docton Park. Pretty Cool!

What is this the Discover Channel?

For some reason I have seen a whole bunch of animals all over the place lately. Here is a squirrel I saw out at our property. I think he has a nest in a tree that is near our campsite. Isn't he cute!





On our way into Wenatchee (coming back from our property) we saw a whole herd of these. I think they are Ram. You can see in the small picture that some of them have big horns that curl back. There must have been at least 30 of them. Cars were pulling over everywhere to get a look at them. It was really cool.



Then the other day I went fishing down at Pt. Robinson and I saw a seal. He was in the water watching me. And then he rode a wave in and decided to sit up on the sand next to me. It was the strangest thing. He is so cute though. I just wish he would stop eating all of my fish. I still haven't caught one this year.

Congratulations Rich & Sena

Here is Eric holding Hugh Richard Wheeler, the son of Rich & Sena Wheeler.

He is just 10 days old here.

Visiting the Property

We had a chance to make it over to the property again. We only went for 1 night, but it was good to get back over there. Of course, while we were there Eric got a lot of work done. You can see here that he did more burning. But the exciting thing that he did was that he moved a whole bunch of sand onto the upper bank. It looks really nice. He did it all by scooping the sand into a bucket, and then hauling up the bank.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/5zjjhopK8pDvVG7u5

Zender Shoes

For those of you that do not know, Zender Shoes is a Horse Shoe tournament. It is an annual event held at the Zender House. In case you didn't know, Eric is a pretty serious horse shoe player. He even has a pit at our house. He has been to this event many times before. However, this was my first time there. I was not going to enter into the tournament, but Carrie convinced me to join her. She had never played either. I didn't do very well, but I did end up winning one match. Eric however did really well. He lost his first match, but because it was a true double elimination tournament, he went on to play in the losers bracket. He then won about 10 matches in a row. He even beat Rochelle, who is a returning champion and one of the tournament directors.. Eric ended up coming back to take third place. The tournament directors did an awesome job. Everyone got a T-Shirt (even me), and the winners got a little horse that hung around their neck like a medal. Thanks Rochelle and Zender! It really was fun. Winners of the singles tournament. Eric got his 3rd Place, Zender for 2nd and Ken for 1st.  Winners of the double tournament, yes it went into the night, were Sam and his Dad, and Simon & Rochelle.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/VT8SDBTwpBpe6DvX6

Labor Day on the Farm

This Labor Day, the girls came down from Bellingham to visit Eric and I on the farm. For those of you who don't know who the girls are, Rhonda is on the right, Darcy is in the middle, and Stephanie is on the left. I played softball with Rhonda and Darcy at Western, and Stephanie works with Rhonda and just became their new roommate. We had a great time hanging out, playing with the animals, listening to Rhonda play the guitar, playing horse shoes, and fishing. It's always great to see people from B-Ham.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/K2HzLzQxZubySwyj9

Hey There Gus!

Every time someone comes to visit us, the main attraction of the farm is always Gus. Gus is a goat. The owners of our property, Jim & Lynn Selig, are the proud parents of Gus and all of the other animals on the farm. However, Eric has been living on the property for 9 years, so he knows Gus well.

I'm not sure what it is about Gus that makes him so lovable. Maybe it is because he runs funny. Or because he sticks his tongue out. Or because he eats almost anything. Or maybe it is because he will stand up on his hind legs and head butt you. Who knows?

What I do know is that everyone loves Gus.

Looks it's Tina!

I have not seen the movie Napoleon dynamite, so I don't really get this. But when Rhonda and Stephanie saw the llamas they yelled "Looks it's Tina!" So if you've seen the movie, leave a comment saying that you get the joke, because I have no idea what they are talking about.

If you really want to know, the llamas' names are both Darrell.

Why? I don't know.

Gone Fishin'

We took the girls fishing down at Pt. Robinson, which is just down the hill from our house. We had really great luck fishing there last year. But things this year have been a little bit slow. But we took the girls down there to see if we could get anything.



Well, we didn't have a lot of luck. Darcy did catch a Bullhead, but who is going to eat that crap? (left) I would say the biggest catch of the day is when Rhonda accidently hooked me in the butt. (right) It was fun though. We didn't stay long because it was kind of cold out there on the point. So Rhonda climbed in a driftwood fort to keep warm. The rest of us squeezed in there too. (below)

Mom's 50th Birthday

Every year for my Mom's birthday my family goes to Ocean Shores. This year there were about 15 people there because it was my Mom's 50th Birthday. You can see her here with her Birthday cake.

Like always we packed up all the cars full of crap and headed out to the Ocean on Friday morning. Once we were down there, we spent almost the entire time on the beach. While playing on the beach of course no one went hungry. My parents brought two BBQs, a picnic table, and 6 coolers full of food and drinks. We had ribs, clams, pizza, corn, smoked salmon, and plenty of snacks. In between meals we found plenty of time to go boogie boarding, golf, play Frisbee, fly kites and play in the sand. We really lucked out and had great weather for a couple of days, which doesn't happen to often at the ocean.

And of course at night there was a trip to the Quinalt Casino. Eric and I played Black Jack. But the big winner on the night was my uncle Jerry who won $95 on the quarter slot machines.

It was really a great trip. Check out the rest of the pictures.

The Gang

Here The Gang that made the trip.

(Left to Right)

Back: J.J., Dustin, Wes, Ashley, Zayne, Jerry, Eric, Tony, Carol, Taylor, Dean

Front: Christy, Doris, Ryan.

Taylor Rose Playing in the Sand

This is my cousin Taylor Rose. My Aunt Carol and Uncle Jerry adopted her last fall. She is the cutest thing ever. I am so glad that she was able to come along. She was definitely the center of attention the entire trip.

She had a great time chasing the seagulls, watching the horses walk along the beach, and she really like the stunt kite. Here she is rolling around in the sand. She was totally posing for the camera in all of these pictures. Isn't she just adorable.

Zena Princess Warrior

Yes this is Ryan (my younger brother Wes' good friend). Every year we bury him in the sand as something. Last year he was the lady on the bow of a boat. Two years ago he was one of the heads in Mount Rushmore. And three years ago he was Homer Simpson.





Of course I had plenty of help in doing this. Christi braided grass to make the braids in his hair and found the grass that he is holding as a weapon. Zayne (my second cousin), supplied the shield, which is actually his skim board which he made with his dad. And thanks to J.J., Dustin, Ashley, Zayne, and Wes we dug some huge holes to get all of the sand to bury Ryan.


Even though we torture Ryan every year, he keeps coming back. I don't know if he likes it, or just humors us because we always serve really good food on the trip and he just doesn't want to miss out.

Skim Boarding

Every year we go to Ocean Shores we do a lot of boogie boarding, but this year we had couple of skim boards, so the guys did a lot of skim boarding. If you don't know what skim boarding is, it is kind of obvious from the name and the pictures. You skim across the top of shallow water. It is fun, but really hard to do. You need really good balance to do it well. You can see Wes gliding across the water in the picture to the above.




But by far the best skim boarder was Zayne.




Him and his dad (which is my cousin Toliver), made a skim board at home. They cut it out, sanded it and then painted it. It's really cool actually, and worked really well.

Frisbee Marathon

The was definitely a lot of Frisbee going on during the trip. You see the guys playing flyers up in the water. It was pretty fun. But it was nothing compared to the marathon of Frisbee that was played the day before. Tony (my older brother), Christi (my cousin), and Ashley (my cousin J.J.'s girlfriend) played Frisbee for about two hours straight. Not only that, but the wind was so strong that their record before dropping the Frisbee was only two times around the circle. I guess it was fun though.

Eric

Just Hanging Out

(left) Dean.
(right) Taylor Rose playing in the sand.

(left) Jeff & Paula. (right) Wes & Zayne hanging around the campfire.

Enjoying the Water

(above) Jerry taking Taylor in the water.

(right) Dustin & Taylor. (left) Taylor, Jerry, Carol, Ashley, J.J., Doris, & Dean.

(right) Eric taking a dip. (left) Wes drenched from Skim boarding.

Eric's 20 Year Reunion

This summer was Eric's 20 year reunion. The had a 2-day event which included going to West-5 in a restaurant in West Seattle, a picnic at Jenson Park, Golfing, and the big party at Barnworks. Eric and all of his classmates had a blast. They had a really great turnout. I think that %80 of this classmates were there. Usually only %25 of people from a class return to their 20-year reunion. Everyone reminisced about the old days, and caught up on what is going on now. They had tons of pictures all over the place. Some of them were quite hilarious. Things were a lot different in 1985. I have included some pictures that you might think are funny.

Girls from the Class