Our last day of school.

This is when we first got there. LOTS of more people came. We had this whole area covered up with families. It was really fun!
Julia, Macy, Sierra and Alina - these are her best friends. All from church, but unfortunately go to a different school.

Yesterday was our last day of school. After awards ceremonies, getting yearbooks signed, and giving some farewell hugs, it's time to play! It's not 90 degrees here, like it is in L.A., so it's kind of weird that it's "summertime", but it's still nice to be off - no schedule, no homework, just lazy fun times.


So, tradition here is for a bunch of people from church to meet at the river for a picnic on the last day of school. We drove out to this river, about 15 minutes away, and were amazed to see our own little "beach". It was great! And lots of people came, so we had our own end of the year party. Wasn't warm enough to swim, but that didn't stop anyone from getting their feet wet, playing games, and just enjoying each other's company.

Oh my gosh... and can you believe it? We now have a 7th grader, a 5th grader and a 3rd grader! Still two more not quite in school... but gosh, I'm feeling old!

Special Shout Out to Jenny & Tara!

Aunt Susie, Jenny, Uncle Bob, Robby and Annie
Macy, Me and Jenny

Just wanted to give a shout out to Jenny and Tara, two of our niece's who graduated from High School this year. Tara graduated from Oldham County High School in Kentucky, and Jenny graduated from Hayes Freedom High School, here in Camas. Macy and I were able to go to Jenny's graduation, and we just wanted to let both of them know how proud we are of them! It was great to be at Jenny's graduation! She sang the national anthem (what an amazing voice she has!), and she gave the class farewell speech. She did an awesome job, and I was such a proud aunt! Wish we could've been at Tara's as well. We are so happy for both of you and look forward to seeing what you do with your amazing futures! From my high school graduation, "the future's so bright... you gotta wear shades!" We love you guys!

Our basement.

Ok, so for those of you dying to see how our basement is turning out... here it is.

This is the main living space. It will be a playroom when all is done. I'm hoping to get cubbies or something and moving the majority of the kids' toys down here. For now, the area where everything gets dumped. Notice the air hockey table upside-down on the couch?
Ok, so this is currently the bone of contention. The picture above is from the entryway to our new media room. Notice the nice square on the wall? As of yesterday, that was a pass thru in the wall that Derrick then decided didn't make any sense, so he covered it up. Our dry wall guy is going to show up tomorrow to find a covered up patch, and wait for it... what else did D do? See below... He decided that we needed a half wall that will be turned into a bar where we can place stools below it. At least he's handy... even if he is somewhat crazy. The doorway that I am standing in front of is going into the media room, then that bar area will have cabinets to house the popcorn machine, microwave, refridgerator, etc... and the door behind leads into the bathroom.
Picture of the media room/guest room. No light in there yet, so not the best pictures.

Bathroom. Shower in the corner. All the plumbing is run, but we can't install anything until the walls are done. They should be done this week.
Chad's brand new room. This makes up the space where we showed the first pics of the guys digging all the mud. New room. Walls all blue, except for the one where D is going to paint some sort of Star Wars mural.

Otherwise, we think we're almost done. We head to L.A. in 3 weeks, and I hope to have it all painted by the time we leave. (I have to do the painting, with whomever I can draft, so we'll see how long it really takes!). Then, when D gets back from L.A., he can put the trim in and hopefully get it carpeted. Yahoo! Almost done!!! Will post more pics as it gets closer.

Scouts.

Chad earned his Second Class ranking in Scouts the other night and we are very proud of him! He is one step away from First Class, and has also just finished his Faith in God award. He will be twelve in a few weeks and therefore will be moving into official Boy Scouts (not cute Cub Scouts anymore), so there were all these pieces we had to get finished up. We love you Chad!!!

Oh Canada.

Our last stop before sailing home was Prince Rupert, Canada. Not a very exciting place, I'm sorry to say, but still quite beautiful. While we were there we went for a river float on the Skeena River. It was nice. Very relaxing, and we didn't have to do any of the work. Then we walked around town a bit. They have LOTS of totem poles everywhere. Not quite sure why... but if you get any of their tourist maps, it marks where all of them are. Must be the only tourist attraction there, or something. And there were also TONS of Eagles. Again, not sure why, but they were amazing! We also stopped for some Tim Horton donuts - a favorite of D's while he was in Nova Scotia on his mission... ooohhhh, and Poutine, a Canada thing. French Fries with cheese melted all over them, covered in gravy. Ok, so not good for the arteries.... but soooooo yummy!

Talk about ice cubes.

(Ok, so first off, I have to say that we got a new laptop and the space bar doesn't always work and it's driving me crazy. I have to double-check every thing I write to make sure it puts the spaces in. I've already had to fix it three times!)

Back to Alaska... the next day, Tuesday, found us sailing up (in?) Tracy Arm Fjord. Really beautiful and amazing, and like 40 gajillion ice cubes. We were in our room, looking at the TV which shows out the boat, and D thought that there were little boats around us, until we got outside and saw what it really was. Apparently, we were headed in as close as we could get to see a glacier, but the "ice cubes" started to get too big and to be too much so we had to turn around. Really amazing though.

Later that day we took part in the beanbag tournament and D totally got robbed on the gold medal! He just missed it by one point!!!

MUSH!

Skagway, Alaska

How the dogs are housed while they are at "camp". They all have mushers who love them and take care of them, and when the summer season is over they will go home. Our musher and his dogs came from Montana, right outside of Big Sky!
The one on the right is named "Vader". Pretty appropriate, wouldn't you say?

These puppies were 6-weeks old. I tried to convince D to put one into his pocket to sneak back on the boat... we were worried that it would freak out Rosalinda, our room attendant.These puppies were only 2 days old. Soooo cute!Actual Iditarod sleds.

Skagway was our next stop. We totally slept in, and missed getting excursion tickets on the boat, but luckily for us, there was a tour booth right off the boat (of course!). We decided to go dog-sledding. While in Alaska, do as Alaskans do!

It was really fun! Granted, there's not really much snow there right now, so you're really going dog-"waggoning", but it was still great! The dogs loved it so much! As soon as people would get close to their wagon, they would just start barking and get so excited. It was really neat! Then we got to go to "dog school" to learn all about being "mushers" and all about the dogs, and the Iditarod, and lots of other stuff. It was very cool! I think in my next life I might be a musher and race! There were TONS of dogs there, and they even had puppies that we got to play with.

Men (& Women!) in Trees

On the boat, cruising in to Juneau.
That's our boat out there,on the left.All ready to go! Aren't these outfits flattering?

Super D!
So excited... because I survived!

Ok, so now that we're home and have affordable and easily accesible internet access, time to blog all about our trip to Alaska. We left last Friday, sailed the rest of that day and all day Saturday, until we ended up in Juneau, Alaska on Sunday. D decided that he wanted to go zip-lining in Juneau. Although a bit apprehensive on my part, it was SUPER fun! We had a great time. The people picked us up at our dock, took us by bus to another dock, and then we went for a bit of a speed boat ride across the Gastineau Channel to an island. There, we got in these HUGE "Mug" (I think that's what their called) trucks - they're made by Mercedes - for a bit of off-roading. Once we were properly dressed and "trained", it was up into the trees (get the title now?) we went. We did 10 different zip-lines totalling almost 2 miles, the longest one being 880 feet. And there were two suspended bridges in the middle too! It was really cool! What an adreline rush! (And the best part was that twice while I was "zipping" I stopped not quite at the end and the guy told me it was because I didn't weigh enough. Can we say "new best friend"?) And then to end, we had to rappel down from the trees - this part was the scariest I think. We had so much fun! I would totally recommend this... and do it again in a heart beat!


After that, they returned us to the "mainland" and then we took a tram ride up the side of the mountain to tour Mt. Roberts. I just have to say, it sure is beautiful in Alaska! And, there are TONS of eagles all over the place there. It's amazing!


We spent the rest of the afternoon walking around and touring Juneau, buying lots of little trinkets for the kids and just enjoying ourselves. We missed seeing the Mendenhall Glacier... so that's for our next trip to Alaska!

Boy does time fly.

Ok, so I was just reading my friend, Jenny's blog, and she "tagged" everyone, so here goes...

1. What was I doing 20 years ago today (May 20,1988) - hmmmm.... this is really hard. I was a Junior in High School, Beverly Hills High School - Go Normans! I was a cheerleader, but it was the off-season. I was on the gymnastics team, so we were probably getting ready for a meet or something. I worked at the Beverly Hills Public Library. I know, quiet little me working at the library. I had a great time there. I got lots of my friends jobs there(Hi Tweetie & Caleb!)!

2. What was I doing 15 years ago today (May 20, 1993) - getting ready to get married! Can you believe it? Derrick and I got married June 24,1993. Crazy! I was working at Future Graphics, doing accounting, and just enjoying playing with friends and the fact that I would soon be married.

3. What was I doing 10 years ago today (May 20, 1998) - ok, it just gets crazier! I had just had my second child, Luke, in March. Chad was almost 2, and I had JUST (May 13, I think) started working at The WB Television Network in the Finance Department. D and I had been living in our house in Lake View Terrace for about a year, and we were just enjoying being a happy family.

4. What was I doing 5 years ago today (May 20, 2003) - still working at The WB. I now have 3 kids - Chad, almost 7; Luke, 5; and Macy, almost 3. That's about all I remember from 2003 - pretty sad, huh?

5. What was I doing 1 year ago today (May 20, 2007) - ok. I just had baby #5 - can you believe it? I sure can't! Chad is almost 11; Luke 9; Macy almost 7; Haley, 3; and Reed, 1 month. We are now living in a new house, in a new state, with Derrick having a new job. We are loving our new place and really enjoying the wonderful family atmosphere that we have moved to. I was waiting for some of my sister-in-laws and my mother-in-law to come and visit for Memorial Day weekebd so that we could have women's weekend and bless our sweet baby Reed. Busy year for us!

Ok, your turn. Now you post on your blog the same things!

Stop the insanity.

Only 5 more days. That's it. Then D and I are headed on a cruise to Alaska. All by ourselves. Alone. None of those other 5 short people are coming with us. I love them. But currently, at the moment, I'm ready to trade them all for a pet monkey. I always wanted one as a kid. I mean really, who doesn't? I know that monkeys can be messy, and tend to throw poo, but right now, thinking those two things aren't too bad. (You know you all feel this way at times too. Not just me. And really, whose baby hasn't thrown poo at them at some point anyway?)

So anyways, back to the original thought. Grandma and Grandpa get here on Thursday night, and D and I head to Seattle on Friday morning for a 7-night cruise to Alaska. In honor of our 15 year anniversary next month. I'm so excited! Haven't really wrapped my brain around it yet, but still excited. Still trying to deal with the fact that our basement is torn up. Perfect time to go on a vacation, huh?

Bye Mommy. Bye Baby.

So yesterday I'm changing Reed's diaper. All done, he crawls away, and I say, "Bye, Reed". He stops in his tracks, turns around, waves his cute little chubby hand at me, and then continues on. So cute. He totally understood. He's getting so big... my baby.

Happy Mother's Day... only a bit late!

The past few days have been busy. Mother's Day was lovely! Got a date night with D on Saturday night, which is always fun. Breakfast in bed, lots of homemade crafts, love, hugs and kisses on Sunday!!! Laying in bed watching reruns of "America's Next Top Model" all day before church. On Saturday I was surprised to have flowers delivered to me by the Young Women in our ward, sent by Grandma and Grandpa Huckvale in California. What a lovely surprise!!! Thank you so much Grandma and Grandpa! Then we all headed to Heidi's house for a nice dinner made by all the men on Sunday night.

This is when it all started to go astray. When we went to leave Heidi's house that night, we noticed that there was a puddle of something under the car. D had put some oil in the car that morning, so we thought (hopefully) that it might just be that leaking. So we drove home and decided to take it in the next morning.

When we got home and were getting the kids ready for bed, D left Reed, naked, on our bed to go and get him a diaper. When I came to bed later, I noticed a "puddle" on our bed. I said something to D about it, and he asked me how the laptop was because apparently when he came back with the diaper, Reed was sitting on top of the laptop, with the whole thing flat and open, just pressing the buttons. (Ok, so someday we will laugh about this... but not yet. Probably at Reed's wedding this will be one of those roasting stories.). Needless to say, Reed peed on our bed.... and got some into the laptop, thereby killing our much beloved laptop. We are now limited to only one computer (I know, most of you only have one computer... but this is a family that totally relies on their computers. We normally have 3 in working order. A desktop, which is currently shut down and under tarps in the basement. D's laptop, which is the best one. And my old one, which works... but is tempermental and tends to freeze a lot while on the internet.). So, posting may not happen too often.

Anyways, back to the car now. Just telling you the three things - you know, bad things happen in threes. So, first, car leaking. Second, computer being peed on. Third... on my way to the mechanic on Monday morning, one of my tires blew out. Completely! Had like a two-inch cut on it. Luckily, I was only about a block from our house and D hadn't left yet. So, I headed home and he changed the tire. Went to WalMart (tires now out-weigh leak), and spent $300 on two new tires, got my oil changed and all that good stuff. They also checked all my fluids and couldn't find a problem with anything, so I'm going to wait and see if my oil light comes back on and things start leaking again.

So, today it's Tuesday. New day. 3 bad things done. Has to be good, right? The plumber called and said he was coming, so that's good. Our project has been on hold for the last week and a half because we're waiting on the plumber. Granted, it's not the same plumber, so they have to re-bid the job and see if they can come in with the same numbers. Keep your fingers crossed!

Happy Birthday Grandma Helen!

Grandma Helen is 70 today!!! Can you believe it? She doesn't look a day over 39! We wanted to have a huge birthday bash for her... but unfortunately, she is in L.A., and we're not, so it's a virtual bash! We love you Grandma, and are so thankful to have you in our lives! We hope that you have a super day, and can't wait to see you in a few weeks!

We train them early at our house...

Ok, Robert Kovatch and Tanya (Rich) Tiemann, this will bring back fond memories of our college days... this is what happens when Reed is left to his own devices. And, notice the sweet smile, thumb in the mouth and blanket placed so strategically... to represent innocence? Yeah, it's all a farce! He got an entire roll unrolled! Pretty good... and he thought he was so cool!

In the news.

Ok, so totally random. Up here, on the local news, when it's your first birthday or first anniversary you can submit your photo to be on the local news. So, we totally forgot to do it for Reed's birthday, and I got really mad at myself, so we sent his picture in after the fact and told them that his birthday was today, so that we wouldn't forget. So, sure enough, at 7:26, his cute face was on the morning news... and the news anchor even said, "What a cutie!". What a proud mom am I!

Granted, this picture is from December, and he has WAY more hair now... but still a cutie none the less! (Notice, May 1st, and the temperature, 44 degrees. Just a bit chilly!)

And see whose birthday it is today!

She turned the big 4! Can you believe it? Her preschool went to the zoo today, so she got to do that as a fun thing on her birthday. Then, on Saturday we are taking her and 4 of her friends to Build-a-Bear. Totally fun!

Also Happy Birthday to Grandpa Ali and our niece, Kendra. Hope you both have a super day!!!