Quick Road Trip

We took a quick trip this past weekend. We headed up to Cheney, WA, for the night and stayed in this Holiday Inn Express. I took a picture of the hotel because it has Oakley Stone on the outside and throughout the inside. I'm always proud to see Oakley Stone because it comes from my hometown.
The next day we drove north of Coeur d' Alene to see our nephew, Joel, run in a cross country meet for the Rocky Mountain Grizzlies.
GO JOEL!

We even got a wave and smile!


We're so glad we went up to watch. It was a great weekend. The whole time we were there Lauren didn't say hi or anything to Joel. In this picture she is holding on to me because of Joel. So on the way home, we asked Lauren why she wouldn't say hi. Her response was, "I'm too shy."

Great! My daughter is taking after me.

Hot Dog Roast

Lauren and I headed down to Oakley a few weeks ago to see my parents. One of the many fun things we did was head up to the hills to roast some hot dogs.


Back in 1991, I carved my initials in this Aspen tree. I was thirteen years old and at Girl's Camp. I can't believe it has been that long ago. It was fun to see after all these years.

Pioneer Days Celebration 2009

Another Oakley Pioneer Days Celebration has come and gone. One wouldn't know that my family was celebrating the pioneers because we headed out to the water...
On jet skis...
And more...

We had a blast! Surprisingly, our fun didn't end there.

One went biking...
Others played on the playground equipment...



Many watched morning cartoons...
Another chose to work...
Two ran a 1 mile race... One finished and the other one wearing the yellow shorts stopped halfway. Good thing the route goes right by our house because that is where we ended and jumped on the trampoline instead.

All went to the parade...
Until next year...

Badger Mountain

On Friday night we hiked up Badger Mountain. It is one of the few mountains, or hills rather, that we have around the Tri-Cities. It was a beautiful evening with a great view from the top. Here's Lauren walking up the path...getting a little too close to the edge sometimes.

I'm including some pictures of the area for those of you who haven't made it here to visit us yet.

This is the overlooking Richland, the Columbia River, and Pasco (on the other side of the river).

This is Richland and Kennewick, with Pasco on the other side of the river.

And this is Richland.

Here is another great view... Jason and Lauren.

A Mole In Our Yard

I couldn't decide if I wanted to put a picture of a mole on my blog because they're pretty creepy, but in comparison to the mole we have in our yard, I'd say we are very fortunate. Ours has short nails, blue eyes, is fur free, and extremely cute.

We are in the process of moving our fence, so Jason had to dig some holes to put the poles in. Lauren really wanted to get in and stay in. The hole was even deeper than what this picture portrays, probably up to her forehead. We told her that the hole was her new "time out" place. She was pretty excited about that.