Emma & Jaime LeBlanc

Recent happenings and BIG NEWS!

2012-01-26T20:23:00.000-08:00

I’ve really been slacking with the whole blog updating lately, but I have good reason for it. Lots of new and exciting things have been going on in our lives lately.

Baby McKay!

The first piece of news was the birth of McKay LaMar Davis on September 16^th to Andra and Dustin Davis. I was actually able to be present during the whole birth and it was such an amazing experience getting to see that sweet little boy enter the world. I thought I would get light-headed or grossed out or something, but it was awesome! I was able to be there for pretty much the whole day and labor except for when they gave Andra the epidural. (I’m glad they wouldn’t let us stay in there because I don’t wanna see monster needles going into people’s backs). It was the coolest experience to get to hold him just minutes after his birth. I know newborns are ugly, but he was so adorable even when he was screaming.

Davis Family with new baby McKay

Me and McKay just minutes old

Me and McKay about 18 hours old

He is now just over 4 months old and is loved so much by everyone. He is already the life of the party and loves attention from new faces. I get so excited everytime I get to see him! He’s got the cutest smile in the world. Sometimes he seems a little confused when Andra and I talk to him at the same time and he looks back and forth trying to make sense of things.

McKay smiling for Uncle Jaime

Happy boy

New Car

One day I woke up and had the feeling that it was time to sell my BMW. People who really know me knows how much I love that car so it was a big deal that I was feeling this way. I didn’t know if maybe something major was going to break down on it soon or what, but I decided to go ahead and post it on Craigslist and see what kind of attention it got. About a week and a half later, it sold for my asking price. (I was secretly hoping they’d lowball me and I’d walk away keeping my beemer, but they were fine paying the whole price.)

I’ve always had a thing for Lexus IS300’s so I decided to start looking at those. I figured my next car should still be sporty and fast, but have 4 doors for whenever children come along. GOOD THINKING! I looked for about 2 weeks and finally found the one I wanted (a black 5 speed!) all the way up in Bellingham. It even has some flashy rims on it that I didn’t think I’d like too much, but when I saw the car in person I fell in love with it. Actually I fell in love with it when I drove it!

Biggest News of all

Baby at 10 weeks

Some of you thought it may never happen, but after over 7 years of marriage Jaime and I are proud to announce we are expecting our first baby!! Now some of you probably think it had a lot to do with Andra having a baby, but honestly it had nothing to do with that. We have actually been kinda trying for a while and had to go through a heart-breaking miscarriage early last year. I knew I was pregnant way before the tests could say positive, but I waited and waited and sure enough, two lines showed up, not to my surprise. Jaime sure was surprised! I hadn't told him about my suspicions because I didn’t want to get his hopes up if I was wrong. It was very hard to keep a secret but we did for as long as we could.

I am about 13 weeks along and just starting to get some relief from morning sickness. Morning sickness is a bunch of crap!!! What a miserable way to feel ALL the time. The term “morning sickness” was probably made up by a man or a woman who’s never been pregnant. It should be called ‘24/7 sickness’ or ‘what did I get myself into sickness.’ It’s nice to kind of feel a bit normal again even though I still don’t have my energy back. But enough complaining, we are super -duper excited about this baby! Jaime is convinced it’s a boy and I've had feelings it’s a boy as well, but I’m not out buying monster truck toys like he is….yet.

I had my first ultrasound at 10 weeks and we got to see our little sour-patch-kid wiggling around in there. What an unexplainable feeling! I mean, I went through a lot of this stuff w/ Andra but it is so different when it is YOUR little baby in there. And just this last week I had another ultrasound done and we got to watch the little baby jump up and down in there like I was a trampoline. It’s amazing how much it moves and that I can’t even feel it yet!

Head shot - 13 weeks

Looking down at top of head . Jaime thinks the baby looks like it's holding onto handlebars in this picture.

It's pretty ironic....back when we first got married, everyone asked "when are you guys gonna have kids?!" To keep people off our backs we replied "hmmm....maybe in 7 or 8 years." We were mostly kidding, but it looks like that's how it worked out after all.

We have possible names picked out but they will be top secret until baby is born.

We can't wait to teach our boy or girl to ride dirtbikes

P.S. I am taking weekly "baby bump" pictures. I have them on facebook but in a super-private album that you have to be invited to view (even if you are on my friends list.) If you are interested in seeing them, let me know and I'll add you to the list.)

The Holidays

I always LOVE the holidays!! I know a lot of people get stressed out and annoyed with them but I love it! I actually enjoy hanging out with my family members! For Thanksgiving, we were able to go to both our families activities which is always nice. Same for Christmas! Unfortunately I had to miss out on the huge Jex Family Christmas party because I was at home throwing up all evening with this baby-growing business. Jaime had to fly solo and reported back to me that it was a great time with the largest turn out in years.

Sadly I didn't take very many pictures at all this season. Thanks for this one Nicole!

LeBlanc Family Christmas brunch

Mt. Hood Trip

About a month or so after Bon’s birthday, we finally got a trip planned to go down to Mount Hood in Oregon for the weekend. Me, Jaime, Bon, Brent, Aaron and Luke went down there and stayed in this super cute cabin close to Timberline. We spent a great blue bird day snowboarding on the mountain and then headed back to our cabin to soak in the hot tub for a while. I love going to Mt. Hood! Always a good time.

And to end this post, here's a few random pictures of some other things we've been up to lately

Me and Jaime at a beach in Bellingham

Out riding in Ravensdale

Jaime going through puddle

HDR of group at Ravensdale

Labor Day Weekend - Oregon Coast

2011-10-16T15:17:00.000-07:00

We were very excited to have such nice weather in the month of September this year, especially considering the weak-sauce weather we had the rest of the summer. As Labor Day weekend approached Jaime decided he wanted to take me to the Oregon Coast and I just can't turn that down! Since Andra was almost at her due-date, I was very hesitant about going 5 hours away and risking not being here for her labor. Thankfully, the place we were staying understood our situation and let us make reservations knowing that if we had to bail at a moments notice, we wouldn't be charged.

We also treated this trip as our 7 year anniversary trip even though it wasn't for a couple more weeks. On Friday we headed down to Oregon and decided to stop off and stay the first night in Lake Oswego. We stayed at the same hotel as we did 7 years ago the night before we got married, right by the Portland Temple.

After checking in and walking around the temple grounds, we went to dinner at the restaurant (Oswego Grill) that we ate at immediately after our wedding. It was great time to reminisce of our wedding day.

The next morning we continued our trip down the coast to Surfrider Resort just north of Depoe Bay. I love this place! I've been her many times even when I was a kid and it is one of my favorite spots along the Oregon Coast. Our room was just perfect with a spectacular view and I wasted no time putting up my hammock on the balcony.

Once we got situated in our room, we headed down to hang out on the beach for a bit and play in the waves. We couldn't have asked for better weather!

Staircase down to the beach

I love the Oregon Coast

Waves hitting the rocks

Me playing in the waves. (This is the exact spot a sneaker wave took me out about 24 years ago....and my whole family laughed at me. Now this beach is called "Not-Funny-Beach" because I screamed at them to stop laughing at me and that it wasn't funny!) Now I try not to turn my back on the ocean. =)

Being cute on the beach

Jaime flinging seaweed at me

Beach smooch

Haha...check out this ghetto gazebo.

Going to check out what's so "dangerous"

Jaime walking on the rocks at Boiler Bay

I LOVE this picture

Holding hands

Coming back onto the "safe" side of the fence

One of the things I love about Surfrider is their restaurant. It. Is. Amazing! And reasonably priced too which is hard to find along the coast. It also has the most amazing view overlooking Fogarty Beach. We went to an early dinner to assure we'd get a table with a view and we ended up having the restaurant to ourselves. I got the seafood platter and ate oysters for the first time since I was a kid. So nasty! Thankfully I had tons of other seafood goodies to eat.
After dinner, we drove into Depoe Bay to get some food for the next couple days.....or so I thought. Once we got out of the car, Jaime went straight to the candy store. Figures. We bought enough salt water taffy to last most people 6 months.

Jaime found candy

Then we headed back to our hotel just in time for the sunset.

One of my favorite places to read in the whole world.

The next day the weather was not as good. It was super clear when I first got up in the early hours for a morning run on the beach, but by the time Jaime crawled out of bed the fog had moved in.
We decided to go on a drive to try and escape the fog and find a sunny beach somewhere. No such luck..but we did find some cool spots to hang out at for a while including a beach that had tons of surfers we watched for a while.

Cool deserted beach we found near Devils Punchbowl.

This beach had some pretty cool caves we explored for a while.

After a day of walking around

After exploring and spending the day at numerous beaches, we were both pretty worn out so we headed back to our room (which had big jacuzzi tub) and enjoyed a nice warm soak while watching a movie. Then I passed out in front of the fireplace. (It was turned on, but you can't see the flames in the picture for some reason)

I love sleeping by fires

It was a great enjoyable weekend and I can't wait to go back. Kudos to Jaime for coming up with the idea!

Forgotten Post

2011-10-11T10:37:00.000-07:00

My last post was an "End of Summer" post and I just found a couple more pictures from the end of summer. So here they are!

Suntop Lookout

Anyone who knows me really well knows that Suntop Lookout is a very special place to me. I have very fond memories as a kid going up there in the middle of the night to watch meteor showers, and going up for day trips with my family. Even as a teenager, I took friends up there (and some dates) to enjoy the amazing views and sunset. See?? This is what I'm talking about.

Anyways, another reason why this spot is special to me is because this is the spot our family scattered my Grandma Alberta's ashes back in 1999. She always loved the Cascade Mountains of Washington. It was a very special day and one that I will never forget.

And the final reason why this spot is special to me is because this is where Jaime proposed to me in August 2004! (also a day I will never forget).....I just realized I've never blogged about the story behind his proposal...so be on the lookout for that post in the near future! It's a good one.

Jaime, Dad, Mom, Donna, Brent, Jerry, and me (Aaron taking the picture)

My Aunt Donna and Uncle Jerry (Mom's siblings) were in town for a while in August so we decided to plan a quick day trip up to Suntop Lookout to visit the site where my Grandma's ashes are. Coincidentally, this day we chose in the end of August was also the 7 year anniversary of the day Jaime proposed to me up there! So it was a doubly special trip for me. We got donuts and chocolate milk (in memory of Grandma Alberta) and had a nice little meal up there and reminisced about her.

Donna, Mom, Dad, Jaime, Me and Jerry. Donuts and Chocolate milk

Exactly 1 mile above sea-level

Dad enjoying the breeze

HDR - Aaron, Brent, Jerry, Jaime, Me, Donna, Mom, Dad

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After Labor Day the lifeguards quit for the summer, so after work Jaime likes to take his ramp and "lake-jumper" bikes to Lake Wilderness. He sure draws a crowd of kids and onlookers.

Love the girl in the background. Haha

Bye Bye Summer

2011-09-21T16:07:00.000-07:00

It's time for an end-of-the-summer update.

Camping

Our last camping trip of the summer we went to Naches (of course) and found an awesome new campsite pretty close to the river. I didn't take too many pictures this camping trip so here are the few that we took.

Riding Jaime's bike around camp.

I think it's about time I get a bigger bike!

Reading in the hammock

Getting ready for the morning ride

Ready to ride!

The view from our private beach on the river

Spending some time on Lake Wilderness with our double tall air mattress set-up.

Who's the creeper in the raft? Haha

Bon, Me, and preggo Andra

Me and Bon feeling baby boy Davis moving around.

The Mustang

Jaime is constantly buying and selling cars..."cycling them through" as he calls it. His newest addition is this 1966 Mustang. It's definitely one of the nicest classics we've owned! He had to sell his beloved Lexus and some other odds and ends to pick this up but I'm sure glad he did. It's been a fun car to cruise around in.

We bought the Mustang in West Seattle on that ONE night that it was dumping rain all evening long. Thankfully the drive back to Black Diamond was going smoothly because I was pretty worried about driving a car that hasn't been driven in a long time for that long of a distance. I was about 1/2 mile ahead of Jaime in the truck and he called to tell me he had a flat tire. We were only 2 miles from our house!! We almost made it! Turns out the rear tires are pieces of crap and this tire blew out in like 10 different spots. Our nice neighbor let us borrow a spare and we changed it and got it home.

The next day, we took it for a spin after putting a brand new rear tire on and we didn't get more than 2 miles from our house and the OTHER rear tire blew out! I was surprised, but Jaime was pretty much certain it was going to happen and got it changed out in like 3 minutes. Stupid shiesty foreign tires.

Of course I had to take it for a spin.

I love driving old cars

Jaime waxing up his new baby

Boeing Company Picnic

Our family went to North Bend to attend Boeing's company picnic....and boy, do they know how to picnic! There was tons and tons of free food including unlimited ribs, burgers, ice cream, sodas, chicken, and many others I can't remember right now. There was also a car show and many other activities for kids and adults. Plus the weather was perfect! It was a great day.

Leave it to Jaime to find a bike to ride around

He was probably the only guy doing tricks on this thing. I wish I would've got a picture of his bunny hop. Haha

Jaime and Brent about to race the bikes.

It was pretty hot that day, so once we all ate our fill of unlimited food, we packed up and headed out towards the Middle Fork River to cool off.

Jaime found a buoy while exploring

Dad, Aaron, Dustin and Brent

Andra's Baby Shower
Bon and I had been planning Andra's baby shower for a couple months and the day came quickly! But we were ready and excited to spoil this little boy she's been carrying around.

Bon made this amazing (and perfect) cake. It tasted really good too.

Opening presents

Presents!

We happened to have a watermelon so I thought we'd take a "twin" picture.

That's all for now. I've got much more but that's all I've got time for!

Black Bear at Mt. Rainier

2011-08-18T09:34:00.000-07:00

Here is the video I was talking about in one of my last blog posts. This is the black bear we saw at about 4:30am up near Sunrise at Mt. Rainier. He was walking across the road and then hung out here on the side of the road once we pulled up. He was pretty big and didn't seem to mind us watching.

The LeBlanc life...

2011-08-04T22:19:00.000-07:00

Alright....I've got some time so I think I'll continue with my update on our lives so far this summer....if you can call it that. It's kind of more like a long spring. Anyways, here's more of what we've been up to.

Washougal Motorcross
We have been excitedly awaiting the weekend when the Nationals moto-x would come here to Washington. As soon as Jaime got off work on Friday, we headed down to our Vancouver hotel. We ended up getting stuck in ridiculous traffic from Fife all the way past Olympia. I thought I was going to ram someone with my car, and I very seldom get "road rage" so it was bad. Sometimes I wonder if I should have a concealed pistol license. Haha...anyways, once we got out of that traffic, we cruised down there pretty quick. We checked-in and had some pizza delivered and just had a nice relaxing night.
At 2:00am, I woke up to Jaime leaving the hotel room and returning a few minutes later with a bag of ice to his stomach. He was in a lot of pain for some reason....Bad pizza? I don't think so, because I felt just fine. The pain got worse and he couldn't lay still. I got online and looked up the closest hospital thinking we were going to have to go to the ER and most likely miss the race the next day. He said he could handle it, so I left the hotel and drove around looking for a store open at that hour to get some medicine. I finally found a dump gas station with a creepy attendant who was more than excited to have some 'company.' When I got back, Jaime was still in rough shape so he took the medicine and then we went for a walk around the hotel grounds. The hotel workers forgot to lock up the outdoor pool gate and I really wanted to go for a swim!....but Jaime wasn't up for it. After walking around for an hour or so, he seemed to be feeling a bit better. So we went back to bed at about 5:30am. 7:00am came way too fast and it was time to get going to the race in Washougal. Thankfully he was feeling a bit better and we didn't have to go the ER.
Once we got there, we met up with Andra, Dustin, and his brother Bryan. The Washougal MX track is so awesome! It's like 2 miles long and has some really cool terrain. Here's some pictures from our day at Washougal.

Me and Jaime at one of our many viewing spots

Andra and Dustin in one of the tunnels that goes underneath the track.

Me and my 8 month pregnant twin (her tanktop says 'Reed Fan')

Watching the race from the shade

Me and Andra snapping pictures during the 250 race

Nice tank-top! Someone let her cut into the front of the food line because of her shirt.

First race of the day about to start.

We got pelted with chunks of dirt at this spot.

Me and Jaime

Pano of the part of the track

Twins.....and baby boy Davis

Poor Jaime still wasn't feeling all that good.

Justin Barcia!! Can't wait till he steps up to the 450's.

We walked all over that track checking out the views from different spots. We finally found the perfect spot to watch moto #2. We could see the gates and see who got the holeshot, and then we had a view of a few different sections of the track including front row to horsepower hill.....A long steep hill after a huge jump.
Here's a short video of lap one of moto #2 going up horsepower hill. They shook the ground!!

Moto 2 about to start!

One lap two, Trey Canard wrecked hard right in front of us. It was surreal. I can't believe how hard he hit the ground. I felt so bad for him! He was laying there yelling and crying. I had a feeling he re-broke his femur, and that ended up being exactly what happened to him.

Trey Canard is DOWN. Poor guy broke his femur again.

Here's the medical crew taking him away to get checked out.

Lots of people!

My Washougal bling

Chad Reed

TwoTwo

Little Naches camping

Most weekends we try to get out of town and go camping. We've been lucky enough to go a few times already.

Jaime getting ready for a ride

Leave it to Todd to gather some firewood!

Jaime going off a little jump he made in the campsite

Me and Aaron with his new gopro

Brent, Jaime, Aaron, Me, and Dustin

We had some fun with aresol cans on the fires too.

Jaime's 31st Birthday

Jaime had his golden birthday this year! He turned 31 on July 31st. When I asked him what he wanted to do for his birthday, guess what he said......yup! Dirtbiking. So we gathered up some friends and family and went over to Greenwater/Naches area.

Before we left, I took Jaime out for his birthday dinner to Cheesecake Factory and gave him his birthday presents. He had been talking about this silly dirtbike GPS thingy called the "Trail Tech Voyager" for months and how cool it is and blah blah blah. Well I looked it up and found out it's actually a pretty nifty device. Soooo.... I bought it for him! Everytime he brought it up, I'd shrug it off and say "that's way too expensive, maybe we can get it later" "let's wait for the 2nd generation one to come out" "maybe you can get it for Christmas" etc etc. But I really had it for him already. When he opened the present, you should've seen his face! He was so excited!

Happy Birthday Boy and his Voyager

Jaime at his birthday dinner....I can't take him anywhere.

The next day we headed out to the mountains. Instead of taking Chinook Pass over, we took FS Road 70. If you don't mind hundreds of potholes or driving slow, its quite a bit less miles. We found a sweet campsite right on the Little Naches River with room for plenty of people.

Brent and Jaime going for a night ride.

Saturday morning I woke up with a huge migraine. I could hardly walk without stumbling over myself. I was pretty bummed because everyone was about to leave on the big ride for that day. I took some medicine and laid in my hammock for about 45 minutes. I started to feel a little bit better so I decided to go for it! I could always turn back if I puked inside my helmet. Haha.....thankfully the more time that passed, the better I felt. It ended up being one of the funnest rides I've ever been on! Aaron, Brent, Jaime and I rode all the way over to the Cle Elum area. Here is the spot where we turned around. I needed to get back to the river to work on my tan! =)

Brent, Jaime, Me (Aaron taking picture)

Amazing views from up here.

Back at the river with everyone else for some fun in the sun.

View from our river spot.

Franco, Jaime, Aaron

Me and Jaime cooling off

That water was freezing!

River set up

Our bitchin truck...with some photoshop. Just a little.

Jaime riding around

We all piled in a couple cars and headed up to Ravens Roost for the sunset. We got up there just in time to watch the sun slip behind the horizon. The view up there is amazing....I highly recommend it.

Piled in the back of the truck. Gotta keep Bugs warm!

Jaime, me, and the sunset

I love Ravens Roost

Sunset smooches

Me, Bon, and Bugs. She's not very good at picture-taking

Bon and her baby girl

Jaime and his birthday cake (brownie with a lit match)

On Sunday morning, Jaime and I went for a drive up some logging roads. We saw a huge herd of elk including about 5 baby elk. They were so cute and we got to listen to their moms call for them. Eventually, we came to a huge washout high up this mountain and were forced to turn around.

We look pretty haggard after camping for 3 days.

All loaded up and heading back over FS 70 to Greenwater.

When we got home, we headed over to my parents house for pizza, birthday cake, and story telling. I'd call that a very successful Golden Birthday weekend for Jaime.

Where are you Summer?!

2011-07-27T21:27:00.000-07:00

Don't even get me started on the weather so far this summer. I'm very disappointed. With the lame winter we had I thought for sure we'd have a nice hot summer in store for us. I was wrong. But.....I can't complain! We've had some good times so far this year even with the unseasonable weather.

27th Birthday
Andra and I turned 27 on June 26th. Thankfully, that fell on a weekend so we were able to get out of town and really celebrate. We decided we wanted to go camping with the whole family (minus Damion who's in Utah). Unfortunately, Aaron's lame boss made him fly to Kentucky or something right before the weekend. If I ever meet that man, I'm gonna kick him in the shins for pulling that stunt at the last minute.
Everyone else made it including Mom and Dad!
We got one of my most favorite campsites out there, right on the river with a beach that has 15+ hours of sun exposure a day.

Dustin, Jaime, me and prego Andra wishing she could ride.

Dustin, Jaime, me and Brent about to go for a ride.

View from the campsite on the Little Naches River.

Jaime and Dustin playing in the river.

Boys doing their firewood thing

Our sunbathing area

Dustin and Jaime racing sticks down the fish ladder.

Little fire ring on the shore

Little snake. I got him with his tongue out! Super macro focus...he was so tiny!

Jaime and Dustin being bored and making up things to do. They drug this tree over to the river to make us a bridge.

Uhhh...that didn't work.

Hinckley's love hanging out in the sun.

Heaven on earth.

Hanging out on the beach

Brent, Andra, me. Andra is about 7 months pregnant in this picture

It was a great successful trip! I crashed my dirtbike pretty bad and got my arm pinned between my rear tire and fender. Burned my elbow on the exhuast pipe and some other bruises. However, I was thankful my arm was pinned there because it held me up on the trail. I was dangling off a steep rocky slope that fell way to a cliff. Gotta love those Naches trails!

4th of July
I am so mad at myself for not taking more pictures!! I carried it around in my purse the whole time and only took it out once or twice. The day or two before, Andra and I got to have a "raft day." This is when we blow up the raft AND the double tall queen air mattress and then spend the day on Lake Wilderness swimming, talking, eating, chilling, reading, etc. Twin time......These days are the best.

Me blowing up the raft

Me doing all the work while Andra stands around being pregnant. =)

Our sweet set up. We oar across the lake and tie up to a log.

My festive 4th of July sparkle toes

On the night of the 4th, we had a BBQ over at Kevin and Christie's. It was pretty awesome, especially because the neighbors all compete to have the best firework show. So we just sat back and enjoyed. While Andra and I were at the lake, Jaime, Brent, and Aaron went to the reservation and spent a bunch of money on even more fireworks. I swear we have enough to last us for next year too.

Andra and me playing catch

Aaron nailed this picture. It's my favorite!

Big seal bomb! Those shook the ground.

Jaime recklessly shooting rockets.

Amazing shot Aaron took with moon and palm tree firework

That's all for now....I'm tired. I've got quite a bit more to update, so stay tuned.

Chad Reed is amazing

2011-07-17T21:43:00.000-07:00

This is incredible....to say the least. I still cannot believe this and I've watched like a thousand times. And he gets back up and finishes the race?! This is yet another reason why he is my favorite rider.

Beemer photo-shoot

2011-07-09T09:04:00.000-07:00

Aaron and I headed up to Mt. Rainier at 3am to watch the sunrise. But the main purpose of our trip was so Aaron could take some awesome photos of my BMW.
On the way up there, it was still dark and there were a few spots along hwy 410 with huge elk just standing by the road. Pretty scary since I've hit a deer before and knowing elk are like 3x bigger than deer. At one point, we slowed to a stop and saw a huge bull elk with like 10 points on each antler. I've never seen an elk that massive! He sat up and watched us for a few seconds and then off into the woods he went.
Further into Mt. Rainier National Park, we saw a black bear!!! I've never seen a bear in the wild before so I was pretty excited. (Thankfully I was in my car or else I would've been scared out of my mind). Aaron got some pictures and even a video!....which I will have to post at a later date.
It was surprisingly cold up there and I was very glad that I wore a hoodie, gloves, and shoes. I almost left the house in my normal summer footwear.....flip flops. I would've been very upset with myself. Anyways, the sunrise was very pretty. Not a cloud in the sky! Thankfully not many crazies go up there at 3am so there was no traffic and I was able to park my car in the middle of the road for pictures. Here's a preview of what Aaron's done! I can't believe how awesome they turned out.

This one is probably my favorite

Me and Mt. Rainier

Aaron taking some pics of the mountain

I think he should sell these to BMW or something. Too bad my car is considered "old" so they'd probably have no use for them. Kudos to Aaron for the amazing pictures.
Click here to see more of Aaron's Beemer pictures
I've got some other blogs to catch up on! We've been very busy so far this summer.

Pawsi the wildcat

2011-06-22T15:36:00.000-07:00

Pawsi has been meowing his head off everyday when I get home from work and standing by the door. This means he wants some outside time. (He's not an outdoor cat because of his breed, Pixie-Bob, his wild instincts will take over and he'll most likely never return. So if he goes outdoors it has to be on a harness/leash.)

I don't like to take him outside too often because he turns into a little prick. If you get near him, he hisses and growls, even at me and Jaime. He just wants to sniff everything and be a "wild cat." I've learned from experience to always wear long sleeves (biting and scratching) for when I do have to pick him up and bring him in the house.
Anyways, I took him outside after work last night since he was annoying the living daylights out of me with his constant screaming. As soon as he saw me go for his harness he stopped meowing and just starred at me waiting for me to put it on. He had a great time outside exploring all the summer scents. It wasn't until it was time to come back inside he started getting all crazy, so I took out my phone and caught a few good photos.

This one is my favorite!! He looks SOO crazy & mean! What a tough guy.

Another good one of him being cranky

Here's a sequence of Pawsi and "Baby Feast" who is a feral cat that roams our neighborhood....which I feed so she's in our backyard very often.

What a jerk! That's no way to treat a lady.

Once he's back indoors, he immediately turns back into the lovey-dovey, cuddly cat that he truly is.

Cuddled up with Jaime

Lexus, our other pixie-bob, likes to stay indoors. She is the textbook "scardy-cat" and would probably have a heart attack outside. She just likes to watch from the window.

Wow, I'm a nerd....blogging about my cats. Maybe one of these days we'll actually have kids I can blog about.

My stalker

2011-06-18T09:49:00.000-07:00

It's come to my attention that I have a stalker. I've seen him that last week or so at the same time after work watching me from the backyard. He used to try to stay hidden and was very timid at first. Now he is getting more gutsy about being seen out in the open.

Here is my cute little stalker watching me as I do dishes, waiting patiently for some food scraps.

He waits patiently on his perch until I come to the sliding door with some food. He likes chips, bread, crackers, and he hates hot dogs.

Smiling

Posing

Catch-up Post

2011-06-07T16:18:00.000-07:00

It's been a while since I've posted a "normal" post, so I need to catch up on all the things we've been up to in the last couple months. Overall, it's been a good winter/spring and we are trilled summer is finally here!

This picture should've been in my last post. This was taken Christmas morning at the LeBlanc Family get-together at The Gibeault's. We missed Todd and Tim, but it was still a good time.

This winter was pretty decent for snowboarding and I was able to get up to the mountains a handful of times to go snowboarding. I only had my camera with me on two of those trips. On one of those days, Andra called in sick and we went up to Crystal for a twin-date. It was a lot of fun and I think we should go just me and her more often. No boys to slow us down and make us take breaks.

Us all geared up and ready to go.

Riding up the lift on a perfect blue bird day.

Rock on!

Me attempting a 180....I totally didn't land it. Haha.

These ones I did land!

Andra enjoying the sunny day

I also went up to Steven's Pass one day with Bon. We didn't take many pictures. We boarded for about 6 hours straight, no time for pictures!
We've added a couple new cars to our fleet since the last time I posted. The first one is our 1969 Nova. It's in pretty rough shape (interior) and needs quite a bit of restoring. Jaime's done a little work on it but he's been more caught up in the 1968 Chevelle.
We also had a bit of a loss in our vehicle situation. Jaime and I were on our way to a cabin in Easton during the winter and decided to take the old Bronco in case we wanted to do some 4-wheeling while we were out there. When we got into North Bend, it all of a sudden started shaking violently on the freeway going about 65 mph! It was really scary, but Jaime was able to get it to an off-ramp. We had to get it towed back to our house, and then we switched cars and headed back out to the cabin for a nice relaxing weekend.

The Bronco needs a new motor so we'll probably scrap it. We got our $200 worth of fun out of it, besides Jaime has enough projects as it is.

Here are a couple pictures from our weekend trip to the Easton cabin.

View of the partially frozen lake from the state park at Lake Easton.
Here is the cabin we stayed at. It snowed 7 inches over night the first day we were there.

Went for a walk around the lake and forgot sunglasses, here's Jaime squinting. haha.

With the loss of the Bronco, we needed a vehicle to tow our bikes so we started looking into getting a truck. We've still got the old '66 Chevy, but its not the best truck to take across the mountains for our summer camping trips so we needed something more practical. I've always been a fan of Toyota trucks! They're pretty much bullet-proof and they look good too. We decided to save up for a while and put a good down payment on a 2006 Toyota Tacoma SR5 4x4. We got a 4 door for whenever little rugrats come along. It's a sweet truck!

As many of you know, Jaime and I are both huge fans of Supercross. This year was INSANE! It was the craziest season of Supercross I've ever seen, in a good way. Don't even get me started on James Stewart and how ridiculously lame he is because I can go on for hours.

Our annual Supercross party for the first race of the season.

Supercross came here to Seattle in April and it couldn't have come quick enough. We spent all day in Seattle hanging out in the pits and watching some qualifying races.

Me sporting my team Two Two hoodie! I've always been a huge fan of Chad Reed and even more so now that he has started his own team with his own money. That guy has got more heart than almost every other racer out there. Plus, out of all the bikes he could be riding, he chose a Honda! These sold out really fast and I was able to get my hands on one for both me and Jaime.

Me and Jaime all bundled up before the race starts at Qwest Field.

Ariel view of the pits at Seattle race.

Trey Canard broke his femur in a practice race a bit before the race in Seattle. So since he wasn't racing, the Honda guys let people climb up and sit on his bike.

I'd probably kill myself on this bike.

Jaime is a big fan of Jeremy McGrath. Here's him posing with his bike.

Seattle was an ok race, even though weaksauce-Stewart got 1st. He's a fast rider, as long as he doesn't lose control and crash into other racers which seems to happen about 75% of the time. I was really happy though because one of my other favorite riders, Kevin Windham, got 2nd and Chad Reed got 3rd.

In the beginning of the season, I bought tickets for the Supercross finals in Vegas in early May. Thankfully I got them early, because they sold out pretty quick with the season turning out to be so dramatic. We took a little time off work and flew down to Vegas for a couple days. It was my first time to Vegas ever. The race was awesome but Vegas is SO LAME! I honestly don't understand why people rave about it so much! It's such a dirty, filthy, boring place. Maybe it's cause I don't drink, gamble, or "party" all night. Everyone there was drunk 24/7 and stumbling over themselves while yelling and getting in chest-bumping matches with other drunks. What a joke. If I ever go back to Vegas for another Supercross event or something, I will not be staying on the strip. We still had a good time and just had to ignore the stupidity all around us. It was good to go somewhere where the sun was shining!!! I think it was between 90-100 degrees the whole weekend we were there. Jaime got a little fussy, but I loved the heat.

We stayed here at the Luxor. We had an amazing room with a beautiful view of the city and mountains.

The Supercross race took place at Sam Boyd stadium. We got there at about noon and stayed until 10:30pm. Long day, but it went by so fast.

Jaime with a sweet Toyota dirtbike.

Watching the qualifying races, trying to keep cool in the shade and with ice slushies.

Me with a Thor Toyota truck. Too bad they weren't giving it away.

Old school Honda

Rockstar trophy truck
Jaime with an old Honda

Jaime in the classic bikes trailer

While we were walking around the pits, we saw Justin Barcia (who is my favorite Lites rider). I told Jaime to go ask him for a picture, but instead he did a creeper shot. He told me to wait till he was walking past him and then take the picture. Haha..it cracks me up. Jaime said he didn't want to bother him because he had just got done riding a qualifying race.

Ricky Carmichael and Ryan Dungey.

Ryan Villopoto ended up winning the championship title and my boy Chad Reed got 2nd. Not bad for his first year running his own team. We had a great time and hope to go back for the finals next spring!

All loaded up in the new truck on our way out to Tahuya.

Me, Jaime and Kevin taking a quick break. Brent and Aaron are just out of the picture.

Stopping off to eat massive amounts of food on our way home after a hard day's ride.

On May 14th, our 20 year old kitty Zolta passed away. My mom called me and said that Aaron had noticed her acting different, J'll spare you the details. But it was alarming enough that they took her to the vet immediately. This cat has only had to go to the vet ONCE that I can remember in her life. She's always been very healthy. So this scared me quite a bit knowing how old and frail she's gotten in the last few years. About an hour later I heard the news, she had to be put down. It was very sad. We've had this cat as a part of our family since 1992.

Here's the first picture we have of her after we found her wandering in our backyard.

This one was taken about a year & 1/2 ago and probably one of the last pictures I have of me holding her.

And here is a nice portrait of her. We miss her so much already but know she is much happier where she can run and play again. RIP Zolta kitty.

This year we found out that our regular spot for Memorial Day weekend wasn't going to work out. All of the dirtbike trails are closed until June 15th at the earliest because of all the late snow. I did some research and found there are some trails out by Lake Wenatchee that would be open up until you hit snow. A few weeks before Memorial Day, we drove out there to scout it out and look for campsites. The lake is gorgeous! But the beach is always very windy and pretty chilly.

Me and Andra hiding from the wind.

Memorial Day weekend this year was a huge success. Everyone was all worried about the weather which turned out to be just fine. We had a few times where it sprinkled for 10 minutes or so and that was it. Party cloudy the rest of the weekend.

Here's the truck loaded up on our way over Stevens Pass.

Ree & Leanne's truck and ours.

Pit stop at Safeway for morning doughnuts.

We ended up finding a better site than the one we originally found a few weeks before. The new site was right next to the trailhead of the trail we'd be riding most of the weekend. It was also large enough to fit the 20+ people that were coming out. (Believe me, its not easy finding a campsite that large!)

Here's part of the site where we called "tent city." And this is only about 1/2 of the tents.

Sitting around the campfire.

Dustin, Jaime and Franco working on one of the bikes.

Jaime about to take Elliot for a ride. Ree holding Matthew who was patiently waiting his 50th turn.

Jaime and Matthew. This little boy is crazy!! I love him! He wanted to be riding on Jaime's dirtbike the whole time. I've never seen a little guy love riding on a dirtbike that much. He's fearless.

Brent, Jaime, me, Leanne and Aaron on a ride (Aaron taking picture) Leanne hadn't been on a bike since 2008 and she did amazing!!! I was impressed with her skills after taking a few years off.

Brent and Jaime.

Me and Leanne in background.

Jaime popping wheelies in the camp site.

Good thing he did this before more people showed up because this whole area was covered in tents a couple hours later.

On Friday, the weather was nice all morning and then out of nowhere, a huge wind storm came through. It lasted only about 7-10 minutes but it knocked tons of trees down. It actually knocked a tree down about 25 yards from our campsite!! It literally shook the ground when it hit, it felt like an earthquake. I have to admit I was a little scared after that watching all the trees above us swaying and hearing trees going down all over the place. Thankfully the storm was short-lived.

Here's the guys hauling the tree out of the woods that fell near our site. It was dead and dry so we used it for firewood!

We found out a few hours later that the storm knocked down trees on the Forest service road to get to our campsite. Jaime saved the day with his chainsaw. Him and the guys drove down there and started hacking away at the trees.

Here's an awesome HDR photo Aaron did that shows how pretty the Lake Wenatchee area is. This picture was taken along the trail we were dirtbiking on.

That's all for now....Here's a picture of me and Jaime from a couple months ago. I don't straighten my hair often so this is a rare photo!

Days 23 - 30

2011-05-31T21:07:00.000-07:00

Alright, I'm going to finish off this "30 day photo challenge" thing so I can get back to blogging about normal stuff.

Day 23 - A picture of your city

Day 24 - A picture of your desktop

Day 25 - A picture of the weather

Day 26 - A picture of you doing something physical

Day 27 - A picture of you with beautiful scenery

Day 28 - A picture of something you despise

Day 29 - A picture of something you miss

Day 30 - Anything!

Day 21 and Day 22

2011-05-18T10:10:00.001-07:00

Day 21: A picture of your favorite video game

I am NOT a fan of video games......at all. I think they are a waste of time, so I do not have a favorite video game. I like to be outside doing "real" activities....not pretending.

Day 22: A picture of someone from your favorite sports team

I'm not going to choose a traditional "athlete." With Supercross season just ending and Outdoors motorcross just starting, I'll go with Chad Reed of TwoTwo motorsports.

Day 20

2011-05-14T20:53:00.001-07:00

Day 20: A picture of your favorite meme

I had to google what a "meme" was because I had no idea. I don't have a favorite, but when I looked up google images, this one definitely got a smile out of me.

Day 19

2011-05-13T11:26:00.000-07:00

Day 19: A picture that means a lot to you but not many people will understand.

Day 18

2011-05-05T08:05:00.000-07:00

Day 18: A picture of a celebrity you find attractive

Bradley Cooper is a good-looking guy! He reminds me a lot of Jaime with those perfect blue eyes.

Day 17

2011-05-03T17:45:00.000-07:00

Day 17: A picture of your favorite movie

Call me a dork if you want, but I LOVE "Dumb and Dumber." It can always put me in a good mood and make me laugh.

On a more serious note, I've always loved "Tristan and Isolde." It's like the perfect movie. It's got some "chick-flickness" to it, but also a lot of action and drama, and a great story line. If you haven't seen it, I recommend you go rent it.

Day 16

2011-05-02T11:21:00.001-07:00

Day 16: A picture from the last time you went out of town.

Lake Wenatchee - This last weekend Jaime, Dustin, Andra, Aaron and I all piled in the new Toyota Tacoma and drove out to the Lake Wenatchee area for a day trip. Since we found out that Naches ORV trails will be closed this year until June 15, we have to find a new spot to spend Memorial Day weekend. And that spot has to have trails to ride! We've heard Wenatchee has good trails so we went to scope the place out. It was a fun day and we spent a lot of time driving around Forest Service roads and exploring. Then we found a cool campsite and made a fire to cook some hot dogs before our long drive back home. Memorial Day is approaching quickly and we're all hoping for some warm dry weather out there!

Day 15

2011-04-17T16:05:00.001-07:00

Day 15: A picture of you today

Sunny Sunday reading in the grass. Hurry up summer!

Day 14

2011-04-10T15:50:00.000-07:00

Day 14: A picture of you and your best friend.

Causing mischief since 1996. We knew eachother in 5th-6th grade but Bon wore Lion King shirts and a sideways ponytail everyday.....so I didn't talk to her. hahaha. Then in 7th grade we were in the same math class and have been BF's ever since.

Day 13

2011-04-08T21:22:00.000-07:00

Day 13: A picture of you hugging someone

This picture was taken November 5, 2003, the day Jaime came home from his mission. We hadn't seen eachother in 777 days. We got married 10 months later.

Day 12

2011-04-07T19:00:00.000-07:00

Day 12: A picture of you with pets

My old grandma kitty Zolta. She's almost 20 years old!

Pawsi - he is a fierce wildcat on the outside, but on the inside he's just a big cuddler.

I love this picture of Lexus.

Me and Lexy hanging out on the bean bag. If you come over, you most likely won't see her because she's scared of everything. But she's super cute and has big ol' mitten paws.

Day 11

2011-04-06T21:27:00.000-07:00

Day 11: A picture that your hair looks nice in

Haha! Just kidding! This picture was taken in 1998 after a week at Girls Camp. I had my hair in tiny braids for the whole week and this is after I took them all out.

Day 10

2011-04-05T21:54:00.000-07:00

Day 10: A picture of you with family.

Day 9

2011-04-04T16:46:00.000-07:00

Day 9: A picture of you with friends

I decided to pick an oldie for this one. This picture was taken in the summer of 2000 or 2001 (I can't remember) at Coulon Park in Renton. We used to down there after hours and go for midnight swims. This was one of the nights we didn't get chased out by the police. Good memories!!!

Day 8

2011-04-03T18:27:00.000-07:00

Day 8: A picture with someone you love

Day 7

2011-04-02T19:52:00.000-07:00

7. A picture of you when you were little.

I love this picture of me...I was such a little cutie.

I hated dresses! But somehow my mom got us to wear these poofy dresses on Eater Sunday.

Day 6

2011-04-01T23:02:00.000-07:00

Day 6: A picture of what you ate today

My dinner tonight.... healthy huh?

Day 5

2011-03-31T16:38:00.000-07:00

Day 5: A photo of your Tumblr Crushes

I have no idea what Tumblr is......so instead, here's a cute kitten!!

Day 4

2011-03-30T17:06:00.000-07:00

Day 4: A photo of your favorite musician/band

This is a hard one. I have lots and lots of "favorite" bands and they change every 6 months or so. But here's two that are always in my top favs.

Day 3

2011-03-29T22:17:00.001-07:00

Day 3: A picture that makes you smile

Family summer vacations in the dodge van are some of my fondest memories. We went everywhere in that van between Seattle and the midwest. From the Oregon coast to the endless corn fields of Nebraska, the Redwood forest, Mt. Rushmore, coral pink sand dunes, just to name a few places.

This particular photo was taken in 1986 near Salt Lake City at the McEntire's house after a week or so of playing with cousins. I looked forward to these 2 week long road trips every year! Who needs airplanes when you can go 55 mph in the Dodge???

Day 2

2011-03-28T20:15:00.001-07:00

Day 2: A picture of yourself a year ago.

This picture was taken down at the Green River Gorge in late March 2010. We went down there with a group of friends/family, hiked around, and got caught in a huge rain squall. But it was a lot of fun to see what that area is like when the river is super high. Jaime and I both love the GR Gorge because it is where we spent a lot of time together when we first met and started dating.

Day 1

2011-03-27T18:50:00.000-07:00

I'm doing one of these "Photo Challenges on facebook but thought I'd join in on the ones on Blogger too. I'm having quite a bit of fun going through old photos and picking out which one to post for the category given.

So here we go!

Day 1 - Your current Facebook profile picture.

This picture was taken last spring sometime while riding up at the track at Ravensdale. It was an unseasonably warm enough day that we were riding in t-shirts/tank tops and shorts. Jaime and I were taking a quick break and talking to Bryan Davis (Dustin's brother) who was visiting from Nebraska. We had a group of about 7 people riding with us that day. Good times!

Here's the rest of the "days"

2. A picture of yourself a year ago
3. A picture that makes you smile
4. A photo of your favorite musician/band
5. A photo of your Tumblr Crushes
6. A Picture of what you ate today
7. A picture of you when you were little
8. A picture with someone you love
9. A picture of you with friends
10. A picture of you with family
11. A picture that your hair looks nice in
12. A picture of you with pets
13. A picture of you hugging someone
14. A picture of you and your best friend
15. A picture of you today
16. A picture from the last time you went out of town
17. A picture of your favorite movie
18. A picture of a celebrity you find attractive
19. A picture that means a lot to you but not many people will understand
20. A picture of your favorite meme
21. A picture of your favorite video game
22. A picture of someone from your favorite sports team
23. A picture of your city
24. A picture of your desktop
25. A picture of the weather
26. A picture of you doing something physical
27. A picture of you with beautiful scenery
28. A picture of something you despise
29. A picture of something you miss
30. Anything!

Valentines Day 2011

2011-02-28T10:44:00.001-08:00

Jaime and I have never been big on celebrating Valentine's Day but this year he really surprised me so I thought I'd write a quick note about it. It was on a weekday so I worked all day and I assumed we would just do something on the weekend or just let it pass by as another day of the week.

Throughout the day, I worked on a letter to give to Jaime just to tell him how much I appreciate him and all that he does for me. It was pretty lengthy and took the majority of my "in-between patient time" during the day to write it. When I got home from work, the house was completely dark and I figured Jaime was in the garage working on the Chevelle or Nova. I walked in the front door and the house smelled amazing! It smelled like a hot cooked dinner and scented candles (surprisingly the combined smells wasn't weird). He had cleaned the whole house and had candles lit all over. He had a candlelit dinner all set up for me and blue flowers.

I was kind of in shock but we had a really nice dinner together. Then he brought out a Dairy Queen oreo ice cream cake!! I think I may have squealed in excitement. We had a little bit of dessert and then he told me he wasn't done yet. He told me to head upstairs, there were rose pedals all over the floor leading upstairs and candles lit up to the bedroom (which he cleaned too!!). He had more candles and rose pedals in the bedroom, (I'm so glad he didn't burn the house down with all these candles) and hot oil massage stuff all set up. It was exactly what I needed after the long day at work.

Later we just watched a movie in bed and finished eating most of the ice cream cake. Now my gift seemed super lame, but I gave him his letter which he appreciated. It was definitely a Valentine's Day to remember! The last one I remember we did anything "cool" was back before we got married in 2004. I love him so much and am so proud of who he has become. I'm glad he is my husband and he chose me to be his wife.

Jaime and I at Mt. Hood in 2004

Happy Anniversaries!

2011-02-02T12:21:00.001-08:00

Congratulations to my Mom and Dad on their 32nd Anniversary today!!

Here they are on their honeymoon in Cannon Beach, Oregon (Mom, don't you still have that beanie?)

Today is also Andra and Dustin's 4 year anniversary!

Here they are somewhere in the Arizona mountains right before he proposed. (Cool beanie copy-cat! Imitation is the highest form of flattery...haha...jk =)

So ready for Twenty-Eleven!

2011-01-16T11:06:00.000-08:00

As 2010 comes to an end, it's about time for an blog update. Usually I don't make a very big deal about the New Year, but this year I'm so glad to see 2010 gone and excited for what 2011 has in store for us.

Enduro-Cross
On September 12, Jaime and I celebrated our 9 year dating anniversary. And what better way to celebrate than going to the conveniently scheduled Endurocross! It is their first year coming to the Seattle area and we jumped on the opportunity to go.

Jaime and me with the track. We got amazing seats.
Huge pile up
Andra, Dustin, Jaime and me watching the race.
6 Year anniversary
Jaime totally surprised me one weekend with a trip down to Portland where we got married. We got a super nice hotel room and got to have a nice relaxing time watching movies and eating pizza. The weather was amazing for late September and we took advantage and went on a 2 hour river cruise on the Columbia River.

Then we drove to Lake Oswego, OR and visited the Portland Temple where we were sealed 6 years ago. The temple was closed but we were still able to walk around the grounds, take pictures and reminiscence about our wedding day.

For dinner we went to the Oswego Grill. We ate there right after our wedding with our families back when it was a Chili's. They had the most amazing food and I can't wait to go back there.

Maui Trip November 2010
Andra and I have been talking for years about planning a trip to Maui together, whether the husbands came with us or not. Finally we got serious and started talking dates and prices so the boys realized we weren't kidding around and decided to jump on board. Jaime was also able to talk his mom into coming along too. She's never been to Hawaii and he wanted her to be able to go before she got "too old to do anything cool."

Our rental car - 2010 Camaro SS
Andra and I got up early every morning and took a twin-walk down the beach while the lazy butts slept in.
Jaime and I having a night swim
I LOVE fresh pineapple!! I ate lots of it till my mouth burned
Me, Jaime, Shari, Andra and Dustin about to go to dinner at a sweet restaurant on the beach.
We spent a lot of time exploring cool beaches along the Maui coast. This beach is one of my favorites. Andra and me at Big Beach.
Here's another of my favorites. 505 beach just south of Lahaina
The 4 of us went on a snorkel cruise out to Molokini and a spot called Turtle town. Here we are leaving Molokini after an hour or so of snorkeling.
I saw probably 10 or more sea turtles that day. They are amazing creatures. And HUGE! I was tempted to grab onto the back of one of these guys and let it drag you around. But that is very against the law.
Diving down to get a closer look at the reef.
Jaime snorkeling
Dustin bought a spear gun while we were there and Jaime caught this crazy looking fish while snorkeling one day. You can't tell from the picture but its got crazy looking human-like teeth.
Dinner at Bubba Gumps during sunset.
Jaime and me on our balcony. We had an amazing view and got to enjoy beautiful sunsets.
Our last night in Maui.
This picture is kind of funny. This is how I have to fly. I hate flying SO much so I take meds and try to pass out, wake up 6 hours later and we're there! Apparently I woke up a couple times and had conversations and got up to use the restroom, but I have no recollection of any of it. Which is just the way I like it! Stupid planes.
Enjoying the Outdoors

Jaime and me out 4x4-ing in the Bronco.
Getting some firewood for the winter. Me using the chainsaw. Scary!!
We got the Bronco pretty stuck here.
Water was filling up the floor.
New mud tires!

Bike ride to Lake Wilderness

Cool shot of Jaime jumping at Ravensdale with Mt. Rainier in the background.

Me jumping out at the Ravensdale track

Me and Bon hanging around at the skatepark while Jaime skated.

Jaime and I out in Ravensdale
Fun in the Snow
When we got our snowfall just before Thanksgiving, Jaime and I both had a very stressful 3 1/2 hour commute home from work. Both of us got stuck but were able to get out and eventually get home. We didn't go to work the next day and took a fun snow day instead.

I love dirtbiking in the snow. It's challenging, but very fun. We geared up and rode in the mountain bike trails right by our house.
Innertubing up at Summit Central before the lifts opened.

Snowboarding up at Crystal Mountain
Aaron took this one of me with his fancy cameraJaime getting some air.
Me on the box.
At the top of Rex about to go on a run

Christmas
We continued our tradition of cutting down our Christmas tree.

Jaime cutting down the tree.
We had to cut a foot or two off to get it to fit in our house. But here's the tree all decorated!
I designed these T-shirts for all the boys' Christmas presents. "No Quads" shirts, they loved them!

Back of the shirt

Me all ready for the Apple Cup.....Huskies won of course!

Thanksgiving Family Photo

2010-11-29T17:12:00.001-08:00

I really need to update our blog with what we've been up to the last few months! But in the meantime, here's our Thanksgiving 2010 Family Photo.

Click picture for full version

Family Photo

2010-11-25T12:13:00.001-08:00

September 2010

Summer 2010

2010-10-19T10:22:00.000-07:00

Summer went way too fast, but we still had a lot of fun! There seemed to be a weird weather phenomenon this summer that brought lots of cold weather and rain. Not cool! And somehow the worst days seemed to always fall on the weekends. Well, we made due with what we were given and still had a great memorable summer. Here's some of the things we did.

One the warmer days we tried to spend as much time at the lake or river as possible. The Green River Gorge area and Lake Wilderness are always a favorite. We were even able to float the Cedar River quite few times, but I don't have any pictures because I didn't want to risk losing my camera along the way.

Jaime doing a cartwheel into the Green River. This spot is one of our favorites where we have to ride our dirtbikes to get to.

Jaime and Dustin about to go snorkeling in the Green River.

We were fortunate enough to go out on Lake Washington with some friends on their boat. Jaime and I both got to try out wakeboarding for the first time! Something I've always wanted to do! I absolutely loved it! It's very tiring but I did get up a couple times which I was totally thrilled about.

Getting me all ready to go.

Here's me getting up for the first time.

I wish this were me, but its not. This is Dustin getting some air.

Jaime and I hanging out on the boat.

Once we were all beat from wakeboarding, we went tubing!

Me and Kara trying to stay on. Nice shot of Mt. Rainier in the background too.

We got to do TONS of camping this summer which was great! When the weather was sloppy over on this side of the mountains, it was usually pretty decent over at Naches. So we'd pack up Friday afternoon and spend our weekend out there and head back for church Sunday morning. Here's some pictures from some of our trips to Little Naches.

4th of July Weekend. Jaime shooting me with roman candles.

Fun with sparklers and fancy camera

Hanging out at camp.

Labor Day weekend

While camping over in the Naches area, we did quite a bit of dirtbiking. On days where the weather cooperated, we did the long (but fun) ride up to Ravens Roost.

Brent, Jaime, and Me on the way up. (Aaron taking picture)

Jaime and I at the top!

We of course did lots and lots of dirtbiking this summer, probably more than we have any summer in the past. When we couldn't make it over to the mountains to ride, we ride the local trails here in Ravensdale.

Me up at the track, arm covered in mud from a deep nasty puddle.

Me, Andra and Dustin cooling off in the shade.

I crashed and had a nice soft landing.

Group shot after our ride from Greenwater to Naches.

Me and Jaime

I crashed again, this time I got a nasty puncture wound that bled for 12 hours straight.

One weekend we went out to the track at Straddleline and camped there. We had quite the adventure with a flat tire, but we made it there safely and still enjoyed the weekend.

Getting ready to get on the track.

Spinning dounuts in the gravel.

There was a meteor shower in mid-August. A group of us drove up to Suntop Lookout around midnight and watched meteors for a few hours until we fell asleep. We woke up covered in frost. Good times.

Andra, Bon and Me at Suntop Lookout

Jaime's recent new "toy" is our 1985 Bronco. He picked it up for super cheap and we've already gotten many times our money worth out of it. It's a great camping and 4x4-ing rig and has proven to be pretty reliable except for the tire blowout. We've taken it out on 4x4 trails quite a few times including the Naches trail from Greenwater.

We went with Jaime's brother-in-law Michael, and our nephew Collin in their Jeep. It was a really fun trip. Here's a picture of the rigs at a nice view spot.

Me, Andra and Bon posing for a quick picture at the top.

Jaime excited about the trail. The clutch went out about a minute after this photo was taken, but he fixed it in a few minutes.

Getting a better view of the mountains while Jaime fixes stuff on the Bronco.

Once we made it over to Little Naches, it was HOT!! It was one of those days that probably got up to 100 degrees. So we spent the majority of the day playing in the river.

Me, Bon and Andra after playing in the Little Naches River. Ravens Roost in the background.

Heading back to Greenwater.

4x-ing out in Ravensdale. Bon in backseat making smudges on the windows.

Jaime got his '66 Chevy truck going pretty good so we were able to go cruising quite a bit in the later summer. I love that truck! It's so comfortable and fun to just drive around in.

New wheels

Here's the trucks (Jaime's Chevy and Kevin's Ford) at XXX Root Beer in Issaquah. HDR photo by Kevin.

Andra and Dustin got a new kitten!! Here is me and Silver.

I had my golden birthday this summer, but Jaime also had a BIG BIRTHDAY! On July 31st, he turned the big 30!!! I surprised him with a weekend trip to Easton, WA. I rented a nice little cabin there in the woods close to Lake Easton and Lake Kachess. It was a total surprise to him!

Front of the cabin.

Kitchen area

Jaime getting comfortable in his "birthday throne"

He wanted to watch Dukes of Hazzard....of course.
The bathroom sink was amazing! I wanted to take it home with me.

I made Jaime breakfast in bed on his birthday

Lake Easton

Jaime got a wet-suit for his birthday! Something he's been wanting for a long time.

Testing it out in Lake Easton.

On a walk around Lake Easton. Jaime wanted to jump off this bridge to celebrate, but it was quite a bit higher than what's considered "safe."

Andra and Dustin came up to spend the 2nd night with us in the cabin and my parents came up and spent part of the day with us.

Group picture on bridge. Mom is not included in picture because she refused to jump the "No Trespassing" gate. Oh, Mom.....

Walking through the tunnel

Jaime and Dustin by the cool street sign. Rally Way. Silly boys.

Some little 13 year old girls were out riding quads by our cabin. They had a crush on Jaime so they let him ride their pink quad. Haha.

It was such a great summer!!! I'm already getting excited for the Holiday Season. I can't wait to see what this next year has in store for us!

Golden Birthday...Hinckley twin style

2010-09-02T14:47:00.000-07:00

This year, Andra and I had our golden birthday!!!! We turned 26 on June 26th. We planned a big trip down to the Oregon Coast to celebrate the occasion. At first, it was just going to be me, Andra, Jaime, and Dustin. But as it got closer to our birthdays, it turns out Mom, Dad, Brent, and Aaron were planning on going too! How awesome! The only thing that could've made it better was if Damion and his family could have made it out there. But unfortunately, it was too late of notice for them.

The whole gang (minus Dad who's taking the picture) on Fogarty Creek Beach.

Jaime bought Andra and I tiaras that said "QUEEN" on them to wear the whole weekend! You can't really see them too well in this picture.

We drove down the long way through Astoria to highway 101 so that we could stop at the Tillamook cheese factory. We got some ice cream, and stocked up on some squeeky cheese and then continued down the coast.

We couldn't have asked for better weather. As soon as we pulled into the parking lot at Surfrider, the clouds broke up and the sun came out. It was sunny the entire time we were there and the clouds rolled in as we left on Sunday.

We played on the beach, did some site-seeing, went whale watching, a little bit of shopping (lame! Not my idea.) and ate at some yummy restaurants.

Whale watching

Beach bums

Jaime making fun of people who do yoga on the beach. Haha.

We had some amazing ribs at this little BBQ place in Depoe Bay. I definitely recommend the place if you're ever in that area.

Riptide BBQ

Our birthday night was definitely one to remember. We first had a great meal in the Surfrider restaurant with the whole family with a spectacular view of the beach.

Group shot

Then we all went down to the beach and made a bonfire. We watched the sunset and hung out until the stars came out and the full moon rose. It was so beautiful!! I will never forget how pretty the beach was that night.

Fireworks!!

Yes, those are root beers we are drinking.

Once it got dark, I got this itch to go for a memorable night swim in the frigid Pacific ocean. At first, Andra was very VERY hesitant to join me and was like "There's NO WAY I'm doing that." I still decided I was gonna go for it. What better way to celebrate your golden birthday! So Jaime and Dustin went back up to our hotel room and got my swimsuit for me. (I would've just gone skinny dipping but I knew cameras were involved and some spectators so that wasn't the wisest idea.) When they got back to the bonfire, they had also brought Andra's suit for her!! After a few minutes, she decided she would forever regret not taking a midnight dip with me on our golden birthday. We changed, and in we went!! It was SOOO COLD!! But a fun great experience and I got my adrenaline fix.

Aaron even caught some of it on video. not many people can say they went swimming in the pacific ocean at midnight of their golden birthday under a full moon!..with their twin! If you have, HIGH FIVE!

After the swim, mom brought out a huge chocolate cake, ice cream, and whipped cream. Perfect. What an amazing birthday weekend. It will be hard to top.

Jaime and I at some cute restaurant along the coast.

The next day, we took a long way home and stopped for a few hours in Newport, OR to play on the beach. Aaron bough an insanely huge kite while we were down there. The kind that will literally lift you off the ground.

We all hung out on the beach, flew kites, and just enjoyed eachother's company and the beautiful Oregon Coast.

Overlooking Newport Beach, OR

Best birthday weekend ever!

Donate

2010-08-31T17:44:00.000-07:00

This incident just makes my heart hurt and makes me sick to my stomach.

Visalia, Calif. • A Mormon church official was shot dead between services on Sunday, and less than an hour later, the man suspected of the crime also died after a shootout with police.

Clay Sannar, 42, a lay bishop with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Visalia, southeast of Fresno, died after being shot in his office, said Visalia police chief Colleen Mestas.

Soon after the first shooting, a caller identified himself to police as the shooter. Police responded, and there was a confrontation with several shots exchanged, said Mestas.

The suspect was hit multiple times. He was taken to nearby Kaweah Delta Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead. He has not been identified yet. No officers were injured, Mestas said.

Tulare County sheriff’s deputies are taking over the investigation of the shootout involving the police officers. The sheriff’s department did not immediately return calls for comment.

Visalia police continue to investigate Sannar’s shooting, but have not identified a motive.

“We have several detectives out actively investigating this so we can come up with answers, especially for the family,” said Mestas. “It’s just tragic.”

Sannar was the general manager of Soil Basics, a fertilizer company in Visalia, according to the company’s website. He had six children, including a 6-month-old infant.

Here is a picture of the Sannar Family.

It makes my heart ache to see these boys that lost their father. I can't even imagine what this family is going through.

A fellow Latter-day Saint, Connor Boyack, has set up a fundraiser for the Sannar family. Click the link below if you'd like to donate. Even if it's only a couple bucks, it'll help.

http://pledgie.com/campaigns/12975#lds #utpol