Good Luck Kelsey!!

Remember my cool sister I've told you about before?

Well that cool sister is headed here today . . .

You see, her ultimate goal is to be part of this awesome show . . .

(The Lion King Show)


. . . or perhaps even one of these.

(A really cool parade)

Regardless of what it is, she is attempting to make that goal a reality, and is headed to Disneyworld to try out.

How cool would it be to be able to say that my sister is a dancer in Disneyworld?!

So this is a good luck wish to her. I know she will do great!

(And who knows, perhaps this will lead to another family vacation in our near future?!)

Another Cabin Adventure . . . Part II

A little visit to the lake . . .

Another Cabin Adventure . . . Part I

Another weekend was partially spent at the cabin again.

Imagine that.

But this time, we had some very special guests with us.

And of course we had a great time.

We did all sorts of fun things, including taking a nice hike to show Connor a "secret meadow" that Joel had found. And boy did they have fun!

It's Bed Time . . .

It's no secret that Westin prefers to sleep in our bed. At any time of the day, if he isn't found running around or chewing on a bone, he is found lounging around . . . in our bed.

And his favorite spot?

Would be, of course, my pillow.

Figures.

Fathers Day 2011

A very special 'Happy Fathers Day' goes out today to my wonderful dad and my awesome father-in-law!

Happy Fathers Day!

Another New Car?!

Yes, it's true. I forgot to mention that we bought another new car a couple of weeks ago.

And yes, it's true that this is the second car we've bought in the last 4 months.

Normally, if I heard of someone buying two cars in that short of a time, I would secretly think "that must be nice."

So if that's what your first thought was, don't feel bad.

But trust me, we will have car payments coming out of our ears for the next million years (ok not really, but it will probably feel that way . . .)

We had been searching for a new car for Joel for quite a while actually. His SUV was starting to bite the dust . . . It had somewhere around 150,000 miles on it I believe and was starting to need some work. Things like the fact that it liked to completly shut down at traffic lights, not to mention the need for two new tires after a small mishap with a curb.

On top of this, it tended to eat gas like it was going out of style. It became a question of whether we should put some serious money into it, or start to look for something else.

It seemed to me that for someone who tends to drive a lot (like Joel), and with the gas prices doing what they are, it was becoming clear that the new car route was probably the way to go.

Plus, we figured that now is the time to have bills to pay, before some little kiddos come into the plan.

So we searched and searched, and after quite a bit of disagreements (details I won't even begin to go into), we found this.


A 2012 Honda Civic.

It's cute, it gets great gas mileage (up to 40 mpg on the highway), and most importantly . . . we both agreed that we liked it.

So because we tend to make impulsive decisions around here, as you probably know, we bought it.

So far it seems to be a good fit. Plus it's decked out with all sorts of blue tooth and technology "things" . . . perfect for a tech-savy kind of guy.

So needless to say, we shouldn't be in the market for a new car for a very long time. But that's a good feeling at the same time, as you know my thoughts on car shopping . . .

The Helicopter

Joel ordered a new helicopter online, and it arrived the other day.

And of course, somebody else thought it was pretty cool as well.

So together, they had quite the night, as I'm sure you can imagine . . .

And after some practice, even managed to keep it in the air.

5th Avenue Theater Awards

Last week, we took a day trip to Seattle.

As most of you probably know, my awesome sister, Kelsey . . .

Fishing Adventures

We traveled back at the cabin again over the weekend.

My goal is to get up there as much as possible this year. For the last few summers, it has been used maybe once or twice the entire season. This seems silly to me. Aside from food and gas, it doesn't cost anything to go up there, and is essentially a free way to get out of town (as we would probably be spending money eating out anyway staying here :)

So why not spend as much time there as possible? It's a way to get out of town. You can relax and not do much, or keep yourself busy, whichever you prefer.

So far we have been making fairly good use out of it. Seeing that I work every other weekend, we can only go on the off weekends. But for the last four weeks, we have taken advantage of those off weekends, and already have trips planned for the next 4 weeks-worth.

This last weekend was spent with Tommy and Terra. The four of us had a great time, and did a lot of fishing. I haven't been fishing for I don't know how long, years at least, and had forgotten how much I love it! Although we only caught 8 fish the entire weekend, we had a great time.

We went up Friday morning, and after quickly unpacking, traveled immediately over to Clear Lake (a lake about 15 minutes away from the cabin). Although our cabin is on a lake, without a boat to get you into the middle of it (which we don't have), the luck of catching something off of the dock in the cove is slim. By traveling to Clear Lake, which is much more open, we had a much better chance. Nevermind that it's absolutely beautiful.

So once we get everything put together . . .

. . . we headed out on our little adventure.


Overall, it was a successful, fun day, and they even tasted good in the end.