The End of an Era

Yesterday, Nicolette moved.
Amazing friend for four years, maid of honor, sister.
There is sadness in her leaving, but to be honest,
I'm excited for her.
I know that while this is the end of an era here in Bend,
it's only the beginning of a new chapter in both of our lives.
I know she'll move back someday.
I know our kids will grow up together.
I know that this friendship is nothing less than supernatural.

Here are some memories I want to share with you:

I love you friend.
Thanks for sticking with me all these years.
The best is yet to come.

Photoshop, meet the Blog.

I've discovered Photoshop.
What a glorious thing this is!
Editing our pictures is going to be taken to a whole new level.
Here's how it happened:

Last night, I had a hot date.
I wanted to document this memorable night
with lots and lots of pictures. Mostly because I'm a big dork.
You have to understand something, however.
My husband doesn't just take pictures....oh no,
He will stinkin' spend 10 minutes positioning the camera
to get "the perfect shot".
I don't necessarily mind this.
1. It makes him really good at what he does for a living
and
2. You guys get blogs like this.


But moving on,
We got home from a very yummy dinner at Merenda's,
and I was so excited about our little date photo shoot,
that I convinced Eric to teach me how to use Photoshop
so I could edit our pictures right then and there.
Consequently, I spent the next hour or so (oh yes until after midnight)
messing with our pictures and discovering all the beauty that
that this ingenious little program has to offer.
The following is the fruit that bloomed from our
marvelous date and
Lindsay's first encounter with Photoshop.

The Christening of the Fire Pit

That's right folks!
We bought a fire pit.
It looks so lovely in our backyard
It's like it was born to be there.

Remodel Update

Hooray!
The bulk of the tiling is done, and our bathroom cabinet is in!
Almost finished.
What's left:
1. tiling the sink counter top and bathtub
2. mud and tape the drywall
3. Paint!
4. Get the plumbers and electricians back
and that's it!!!!
Here's the progress thus far...

Bathroom cabinet in.

Shower completely tiled (thanks Dane!!)

Bathroom floor completely tiled
(a little dusty but finished nonetheless)

Alright!
Keep checking back to see more progress.

Tahoe Baby!

We just got back from vacation.
Glorious vacation.
It was sunny.
It was hot.
There was a large body of water.
Need I say more?
Yes I think I shall.

Let's just say it's a long drive. 9 hours to be exact.
We just so happened to be driving through Reno
and decided to make a pit stop at
the one and only Golden Nugget.

One dollar is all we bet.
We lost it all.
I'm gonna win big someday....you'll see.
You'll all see.

We finally arrived in beautiful Tahoe.
The smoke from the fires in Cali made the sunset phenomenal.

We were so happy!

One evening we decided to go mini golfing.
This was the raddest putt putt golf course I had ever seen.
And yes, that is Eric sitting in the palm of a monkey's hand.
Three ladies sitting in a giant volcano.
Nicolette thought the dinosaur looked sad.
She sympathized.
We woke up one morning to Mekenzie's mom
telling us to come look at the bear with it's cubs.
Now that's not a sentence you hear every day.
Nor is this a sight you see every day, or ever really for that matter.
On our way to the beach!

What a beautiful sight this was.

Mekenzie's parents rented a jet ski and let us all take turns,
It had been a very long time since I had ridden one (remember dad?)
so I was a little scared.
It ended up being one of the best things ever! I now want one.

We celebrated Mekenzie's birthday
on the last night Eric and I were there.
So fun, and so yummy!

This is one of my favorite pictures from the trip

I'll leave you all with this....

The Buck Stops Here...Literally.

What can I say?

I'm just an animal person.
Actually that's not 100% true.
Don't get me wrong.
I like them, they like me.
We have a fairly amicable relationship.
But this was a little extreme.
A few days ago I walk into my office
to be scared/surprised at this:



Greg Kooistra so kindly informed me that
this was a five point buck.
I thought that was how many points you got if you shot it.
Apparently, it's how many points they have on their antlers.
Who knew?
Not me.

He was there when I arrived at 1:00
and was still there when I left at 5:30.

The animals are drawn to me.

9:45pm

This is what it looks like:
I love Bend in the summer time.
The days are so long,
the sun stays up until you're ready for bed.

(excuse the crappy picture, it was taken from my phone)