February 2008

We might actually have a place to live this summer! Progress on the new house is flying. The first floor is almost framed, then up goes the second story. You can kind of see Gene and Meredith in the front by the loader or whatever that machine is. If anyone has any interior hardware suggestions. Send them my way!

I am pretty sure the Travel Gods are trying to tell me something. The last 4 or 5 times we have traveled we have had bad luck. From missing flights to long delays...and now a real doozie! As we were waiting at the luggage carousel at LAX a suitcase came by with a huge hole in it with clothes hanging out. I thought, "wow, that sucks for someone". Then I realized it was MY suitcase. The suitcase (one week old, because our last one was destroyed by so much travel) had a gaping hole in the back and one whole side was smashed. Even the Alaska Airlines reps couldn't believe the damage. They also told us that airline employees never check bags because they know what really goes on once you check your bags. Lovely. Here is a sampling of the damage.

We are back from our week long stay in Akumal Mexico, just south of Playa Del Carmen. We had a great time with AJ and Shannon Foster who now live in Portland. It was so fun to catch up with them, we miss having them in Boise. We all got lots of sun and ate way too much. I think I got my moneys worth on the food, Jesse on the booze. Now it's back to the real world.

The Grand Sirenis Beach

Afternoon sun at the pool

The Tequila Barrel in Playa Del Carmen
Day trip to Akumal

The lovely beach at Akumal Bay
The Fosters attempting to snorkel
16 and 1/2 weeks!
Grand Sirenis Beach on a windy day
And just for fun, remember AJ's old house that we all lived in at one point? No more house or shop, I'm sure it's soon to be row houses.

Anyone sick of snowy McCall pictures yet? Well hang on about two more weeks, Jesse and I will be back from sunny Akumal, Mexico!

This weekend our good friends Greg, Brian and his lovely fiance Christine flew in from Seattle and Spokane to check out the massive amounts of snow for themselves. Little did they know we would put them to work.

Here is Greg attempting to shovel the roof.

Jesse had big plans to haul the snowblower up the ladder onto the roof. We all agreed it probably wasn't a very good idea.

The manual labor begins!

While the boys shoveled the ladies hit the slopes (snow piles in the driveway). Meredith was not scared one bit, she wanted to climb to the top of the tallest and steepest and slide down.

Christine made a good sledding shoot.

Greg opted for the neighbors roof. Hope they don't mind!

A wee bit of snow on the deck this winter.

Meredith likes to say "just one" when we say no to something. Little negotiator.

Greg was into going big this weekend. First the roof, then McCalls version of the "Old 96er". He did not manage to get the grissel down. Thank goodness.

Meredith really likes Greg, Brian and Christine. Brian was even kind enough to eat chocolate off her fingers.

Thanks for visiting - come again soon!

Poor Miss Meredith was so sick on her birthday. She was a trooper however and we did have a fun day. We started the morning with pancakes and candles. She loves blowing them out so we had candles in all our food all day.

Meredith was a bit leary of eating "Minnie"

She was so miserable I let her open a present after breakfast, a new highchair from Papa Jim and Grandma KK.

You'll notice the same expression, poor kid didn't feel good at all. A Wiggles balloon helped a bit.

When Dad finally got home, my arm got a needed break.

The only thing she ate all day was frosting and a bit of pancake.

Fisher watched from the Big Red Car.

Presents perked her right up!

A new shopping cart, backpack and big girl undies - life is good.

Our new Flip came just in time for Merediths birthday yesterday. This thing is awesome, everyone needs one. I wasn't using our clunky camcorder much so I decided to give this a whirl. It's the size of a small digital camera, all you do is record and a USB port flips out of the side and you plug it in. That's it, so simple. Get one.

Happy 2nd Birthday to our sweet girl, who keeps getting more precious by the day!

Her first day

Her 1st Birthday and 1st cupcake!

Our February started off snowy! We ventured to McCall for the last weekend of the Winter Carnival with Uncle Chris and Aunt Kortney. It is truly amazing the amount of snow on the ground. Jesse and Chris got in some good skiing at Brundage and we ladies hit the slopes of our driveway with sleds in tow. Meredith didn't have much fun the first day, as you can see. She stood by the garage door asking to go in the cabin.

Too much snow for the little one.

Downtown McCall


Warming up at our favorite coffee spot, Mountain Java.


The winning ice sculpture created by my dads old WSU roomate Gary Elliot.

Day 2 and Meredith decided it was time to try sledding "like a big girl" which meant, no sled.

We have some seriously tall snow piles in our driveway.

The amount of snow on the roof makes me a bit nervous! Will we ever see the lake again?

January 2008

We had our own mini Extreme Home Makeover moment today as we watched the old house get demolished. Here is what the old house looked like minutes before the trucks arrived to tear it down. Note: I was on my way to the gym, I normally don't wear capris in the winter. It's very convenient that we can sit across the street at Gene and Danas house (our 1st Boise house) and watch the project unfold from their couch. I'll follow up with pictures of the house completely removed soon.

We had a birthday party filled weekend. One party on Saturday, one on Sunday and we just finished up a party this afternoon at Planet Kid. I had to thouroughly dissinfect Meredith and I after that adventure, total germ factory - but fun! Yesterday we had Kelly Goulets 2nd birthday party. Dyan made an awesome Elmo cake that tasted as good as it looked.

Kelly and her cake.

I really need to work on getting our house plans into a PDF. My pictures just aren't cutting it. Here is the latest and FINAL exterior. We ditched the four columns for a more traditional look. The old house is coming down tomorrow and Saturday. So stay tuned for demo pictures!

There is an incredible amount of snow in McCall this year. We had fun playing in all the fluffy powder this weekend with Grandpa Gene and Grandma Dana. It takes about 45 min. to get Meredith fully geared up for going outside. Then after about 15 min she wants to go inside. She didn't care for sledding herself but thought it was great fun to watch the rest of us go down the huge piles of snow in our driveway. She also liked when Granpa would throw her in the snow.

1...2...3...jump!

Then a snow angel

The wagon still gets used even in the winter

It was the end of May before this snow pile melted last year, I'm guessing it'll be about July this year!

Ava got a new sleeping bag for Christmas, Meredith tried it out and thought it was pretty cool.

We've reached the "safe zone" at 12 weeks with baby #2. I decided to take pictures of my growing belly like I did with Meredith. I think I'm going to be bigger this time around!

12 weeks with Meredith
12 weeks with #2

Yesterday Miss Ava Porter turned 2 and had a big party with all of her best buddies. For those of you who don't know, the Porters are our cabinmates and good friends. Note the cupcakes...I managed to eat 1.5 of them plus a regular piece of cake. Eating for two is going to be the death of me! Thanks for the great food Porters.

Meredith really wanted to tear into Avas presents. So hard to resist!

It's been an incredible snow year so far in central Idaho. I guess we shouldn't be suprised that a huge tree branch fell on our deck this week at the cabin. It might be time for a new railing!

My first post in the new year, very exciting. More exciting is the big news that we are expecting our second bundle of joy in August! After many, many months of "trying" we are thrilled to spread the news. I am due August 3rd and so far I haven't been feeling that great. A couple more weeks and I'll be into my second trimester and hopefully feeling a bit better.