Happy Late Birthday!

So this is a little late birthday posting but Happy Birthday to my adorable little niece Ashlyn! I can't believe you are already 7 years old. I won't go into any more detail but wow!!! time flies. Also Happy 21st Birthday to Garrett! Hope you had an awesome day.

It's Gettin' Wintery 'Round Here!

We woke up to snow this morning in Bozeman! This is the first time this year that it has stuck around long enough for me to go out and play a little... first toss of a snowball, first slobbery dog lick frozen to my coat, and best of all... first audible "whoopsie-daisies" while running in place and grabbing at dangling tree limbs which dump their snow load down the back of my neck. Ahhh... winter is here! (finally)

This past week in Bozeman I got to stay with Shyla and Raquel for a couple of nights, and also had a few with Alayna and Joel. Bribers even did a good job of coming to see me, so got to spend quite a bit of time with him, too! One day Alayna, Joel and I took a bike ride with little Addy in the bike stroller... we went to the duck pond.


Later this afternoon we're headed to Billings... only a few more days 'til the workers' meeting. Then, it's off on the Great Road Trip Adventure of the Season.. aka The "Feast" of Special Meeting Rounds!

Annual Friendly Basketball Invitational

Hard to believe it is almost the end of November already and Thanksgiving is just around the corner. Time seems to just fly by. This weekend Jason, Sarah, Tristan and Wade came down to visit me and then Jason played in a basketball tournament with a bunch of the friends on Saturday. It was so fun to see them and get to spend some time with my adorable nephews. Sunday everyone deserted me so the house got pretty quiet...good time to catch up on my sleep. Gail and Sarah headed up to Sequim on Sunday as Sarah is flying home to AK tomorrow. We are going to miss having our third roomate around!! That is about it for now another week of work and then 3 days next week and I am off to Montana to see the Buckingham's, unfortunately it will probably only make me miss Beth and Sue!!

Jason and Sarh with the boys

N. Central Washington team

The trophy that boys almost won

Tristan keeping himself entertained

Our servants...Tim and Brian cleaning the house

Sarah cooking us another awesome feast

Trese and Wade

Home Again Home Again Lickety Split

It appears the general opinon after seeing this picture is that Lisa and I look like Grandma Sanderson...very interesting. What do you think?

So I got off work on friday @ 1:30 so I could head home to be with my family for my Grandma Sanderson's funeral on Saturday. Friday Evening we spent at my grandparents with my Aunt Laurie and her family. Everyone except for Lisa was able to make it home for the funeral so it was awesome to all be together again. Now I am back home and enjoying another week in the rainy, gray city of Portland. Counting down the days until I can return to Montana for Thanksgiving!!!! The kids goofing off after the funeral

Mommy and Daughter

Playing with Tristan

Matching girls...and Cody he wanted to be in the picture too
Reading stories with the kids
Uncle Eric trying to peacefully sleep while the nephews attack

After....Jason patiently shows Cody how to run the smoothie maker
Before...Cody decided to help Jason make smoothiees




Jason playing Mr. Secret Service
Shawn, DeAnne and......Carolyn



DeAnne and I making the board for Grandma's funeral

We spent friday evening going through all the pictures looking for ones of us kids with Grandma
Kissing Cousins
Aunt Laurie, Grandpa and Dad

Cody attacked Ashlyn and knocked out her tooth that was hanging by a thread. Turned out to be perfect timing...she ended up making about $15 off that tooth. The tooth fairy is getting rich these days it seems!
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Roadtrip to San Francisco

Well it had been altogether toooo long since I had been on a roadtrip so Sarah, Gail and I got our heads together and cooked up a plan. Sarah had a friend from AK who is living in San Francisco and Gail and I were looking for adventure so away we went. Cody called us the week before we left to let us know he had bought a one way ticket to San Diego so we begged and pleaded and he finally agreed to meet us for the weekend. We left on Thursday night after work and loaded down with lettuce and carrots we made our way south. We stopped for our first tank of gas out of the city aways and here lies my complaint about having other people pump my gas....I always knew I had a reason. So the story goes I was nicely sitting in my car waiting for the guy to come take my card which he did. Then he starts talking about where we are from etc. I nicely get myself out of the conversation to go meet the girls in the store when we come out the guy casually mentions " Oh you might not want to step in the gas...your car didn't like me" okay now my car has its idiocycracies? but come on it does not purposely spill gas all over the ground. I understand that gas prices are coming down and all but my car was barely under a 1/4 tank and the guy filled it with 12.6 gallons that is a lot of wasted gas. Needless to say I was a pansy and didn't do anything to try and recoup my losses. So after many miles and lots of tunes with a sugarfree rockstar and a few mountain dews under our belts we arrived in the city. Somehow someway I was elected as the city driver that fact was scary in itself but add on top of that my leg was shaking so bad I could barely keep it on the pedal yeah could have been a candidate for a good halloween story but somehow we did survive and I didn't even hit very many pedestrians.

7:oo am early morning so we could get to meeting 3 hours North
Maybe only beth would understand but who can pass up -zesty nachos & carmel apple crisp

We had to drive all around the city of San Francisco to find nachos for me...Denny's did the trick

Gail and I being tree huggers in California

My roomate in her element...coffee, decortaing magazines etc.

In front of the Golden Gate Bridge

After our first experience staying in a hostel

Sea Lions Galore

Alcatraz Island

Rainy day activities...reading books in Barnes & Noble

Crazy hills and awesome peelouts 17% grades on a rainy night

After an all nighter

Roadtrip snacks...lettuce and carrots yum yum!!!