Wallowa Lake

This past weekend we rented a cabin at Wallowa Lake, near Joseph, Oregon for a little family trip. We had such a delightful time! I had never been there before, but had heard how beautiful it was. We will definitely be returning there. Here is the cabin that we stayed in.

This was the view after a 2 minute walk from our cabin.

Mylie, giving Blake some pretty serious posing instructions.

We got up close and personal with some wildlife.

Blake was determined to climb this tree.

We saw where Chief Jospeh is buried.

On Saturday it rained all day. We still had a great time hanging out at the cabin reading, watching movies, and playing. After lunch all four of us climbed into the big king bed and took a long afternoon nap. Mylie was snuggled up on one side of me and Blake on the other and as I listened to their quiet snores, I had to thank God for blessing me with this life.

After our nap, we decided to drive to the Hell's Canyon overlook. It was still raining .... (don't worry, Jeff was driving).

It was so foggy when we got to the top, that we couldn't really see anything.

Like, I could hardly see my kids!

Foggy family picture!

On Sunday, we decided rain or shine, we were going to ride the tramway to the top of Mt. Howard (8150 feet). Now, I was nervous about this as I have a bit of a fear of heights. But I told Jeff I would. Here was the base ...

And here was the top ...

Of course, I had to make the kids pose, whether they were freezing or not!

What a wonderful trip and a wonderful time spent with my little family. The kids were so good. Within the first 15 minutes that they were playing outside of the cabin, they made friends with the kids at the next cabin over. They were good in the car and thought the cabin was about the coolest thing ever!!

I probably sounded like a broken record (or like my mom), as I kept telling Mylie that some people live their whole lives and don't ever get to see the type of beautiful scenery that we get to see all the time. Though after about 90 minutes into the windy, foggy road to the Hell's Canyon overlook, and hearing me say that over and over again, Jeff and I figured if she could, she would say "lucky bastards." Haha!

Here's to many more long weekends at Wallowa Lake!

Graduate!

Miss Mylie graduated from Kindergarten last week! She had such a cute program at school where they sang songs for a half hour. Soooo cute! She looked adorable as ever. This is her getting ready to walk onto the stage to sing.

Her WONDERFUL teacher, Mrs. Blackaller.

Daddy, Grandma, and Mylie. Daddy was so cute and brought her flowers.

Mylie and Mommy.

She had such a wonderful experience in Kindergarten! I am so proud of her!!

Oh Blakey

I was looking through some pictures on my computer today and this one just made me laugh out loud. Jeff is putting Blake up on his shoulders, but with the mischevious look on Blake's face, it could almost look like he is about to toss him over the fence!!

Speaking of Blake, it has become hilarious to ride in the car with him. There are four things he is obsessed with: Carl's Jr, gas stations, motorcycles, and bicycles. So every car ride goes something like this, "Mom, mom, mom, MOM!!! I see Juniors." or "Mom, mom, mom, MOM!!! Yook, a gas station." and most comonly "I see cycle-vroom - no hemet (helmet)." or "I see cycle-vroom - hemet." - and repeat that same conversation with bikes.

Would you like to guess how many Carl's Jr, gas stations, motorcycles, and bicycles we pass in any given time period in the car? Let me just say that there are a lot. If you are wondering just how many, you are more than welcome to drive around with him for an hour. :)

Growing up.

Not only will my firstborn graduate from Kindergarten next week, she also learned how to ride a bike without training wheels today. It is kind of strange, because she is doing/learning things that I can remember doing. I totally remember my dad teaching me to ride my pink bike. Dad, remember? There was a large yellow dumpster involved? Or remember how I would just jump off to stop. Sigh. The good ol' days.

I'm so proud of her!! While she was riding she said "Dad! You are the best bike riding teacher!" So cute!!

Hunk a hunk a burnin' love!

This is the hunk a hunk a burning' love that I woke up to this morning.

Summer of George

Do you remember the Seinfeld episode, Summer of George? If I remember correctly, George had lost his job and was going to have a summer to do what he wanted to do before going back to work. I still have my job, but am enjoying a much needed break today after a very busy semester and before beginning to prep for summer school. I am calling it, The Week of Stephanie.

Today I slept in until 9:30 (Jeff dropped the kids off at school for me), took a bubble bath, went to lunch with Jeff, went shopping at the craft store, went to happy hour to get a ginormous diet coke, picked up the kids from school and came home. Unfortunately I got bombarded with more school work as soon as I turned the computer on, but think everything is done now.

Other activities I have planned for the week of Stephanie: scrapbook class, lunch dates with friends, volunteering at Mylie's school, maybe visit the old pennitentiary to photograph it, scrapbook, read (just started Water for Elephants - going to see the movie next week), and play with the kids - hopefully outside and in the sunshine!

Yay for the Week of Stephanie!

Beautiful!

It was a beautiful weekend. The sun was shining and I am done grading papers (whoo hoo!) I only have about two hours of work standing between me and a couple weeks of summer break. Mylie had her last soccer game of the season yesterday. It was so nice to be out in the sunshine. We were only there for an hour and a half, but my arms got totally sunburned.

I tried to take some pictures of Blake waiting for the game to begin. This was the reaction I got.


And then this glare.

Mylie, of course, has no qualms about the camera and loves to pose.

She played awesome yesterday, in fact, probably the best she has played all season (figures it is the last game). I was so proud of her and she had a lot of fun. This is her on one of her many break aways.

Yay for sunshine!!