no gas.

i kid you not we have no gas in georgia. did someone forget us? i'm sure you out of state-ers are completely UN-aware of this oversite as NO-ONE seems to know about what's going on in georgia. unless you are the so called blessed state of NY or the twin towers with an airplane headed your way, or persons with the last names, McCaine, Pallin, Obama and what's his name... then you wouldn't even have the slightest incling there's a GAS SHORTAGE. the darn media is so skewed. this IS headline news!!!!! really spooky... seeing a gas station empty... all pumps flagged off and not one drop to spare. makes you think "prime the pump"... or on the other extreme it's a crazy mad house with cars LINED into the streets trying to suck dry the last available droplets of gasoline.

(photo curtisy of my friend sara snow ;)

paddle, paddle, paddle...

AHOY!!! i'm sailing!! well ... paddling!

glenridge hall has these barns built in 1915 (aka, the dairy barn our home, being one of them) but they are huge! they used to have equestrian horses in them, cattle, the carriage... now they are just storage for treasures... one saturday morning, dallin and i discovered a paddle boat tucked away! and of course we had to clean it off and take it for a dip in our lake. let me tell you though, this was no easy task. the boat already had water in the base from the previous paddlers, so it was crazy HEAVY! between the two of us we could only lift it to the polaris trailer bed. there was NO walking this sucker.

honestly it was pretty daring of us.... we had no idea if the thing would be lake worthy (and this is no "pretty" lake-- it's dark and stagnant), but we floated and just basked in the sun... i was fine as long as we were slime free. anika fit right in too ;) fed the fish some left over dogfood we had. what a summer almost autumn day!

pop and pup time...

dallin had a leisurely september with no school and job hunting... which meant for anika lots of outdoor play time! on the 47 acres where i work, there are plenty of places to roam. dallin and anika decided to make an afternoon of it...

snip snip here... snip snip there!

dallin receives his first "wife" haircut. i like it longer he likes it shorter... we compromised and this is what you get. he was so an infomercial... making the face for the *before* shot and smiling like this was the greatest haircut after for the *after* shot.... and mind you, we should have done a better styling job. it looks good in person i promise ;) it just takes a lot of patience sitting in a chair for so long...

*

Charlotte's Web...

for those of you who don't know, there really is such thing as a writing spider. some may call it creepy but for some odd reason i find it rather cool! E.B. White was not making this one up... mind you this charlotte doesn't write words, or have blue eyes, but she does create a zig zag web. Z's down the middle of her web. one of the many fascinating creatures of Glenridge Hall... she's my favorite, and she's HUGE! (i actually found 4 writing spiders. they're easy to keep a watch on, they never move. Aranea (name from the play) the smaller one makes a tighter web of Z's.)

i caught a photo of charlotte eating a grasshopper. and you'll notice, they're the SAME SIZE!!! beautiful markings... i find it ironic i played charlotte in my elementary school play and i have blue eyes..." swing spinnerettes, let out the thread, the longer it gets the better it's read"... i still remember some of my lines! haha!

and her egg sac is the size of a large gumball... wonder how many babies are in there! now that's just a disgusting thought!

stone mountain...

a night out with the forsyths and others to stone mountain. it's basically a large rock with three confederate soldiers riding horseback carved into the stone. they do a lazer show to music... but can i say, more than the show, the people watching is truly... truly southern!

best pedicure EVER~!

yes this is a pic of my feet, but seriously this is the longest lasting french pedicure i've EVER had!! no joke, lasted just under two months-- (pediure from my wedding day) without a single chip in them! french pedicures are my favorite... and yup dallin just LOVES my toes! anyone sense the sarcasm in that? i hope our children get our MONKEY LOUIS TOES!!

man's best friend...

hasn't gotten the memo that she's not a lap dog anymore...

anika is done with us being gone too... doesn't she look happy we're home!

back home and tiiiiired of traveling!

dallin and i are taking a break from traveling for now... mostly due to finances ;) it's good to be home!

4x4 up the oregon hills...

as a kid dallin grew up 4x4ing in the hills of his back yard... he took me on a little trip to view his home town... beautiful desert! burns and hines oregon, two neighboring small towns... dallin's childhood...

we can fly! we can fly! we can fly!

natalie doman... (family friend) kaylin...
degan...
if you're a thomas grandkid... or under 60 lbs for that matter, then you can fly! thanks to uncle dallin and uncle darin, this flight has been made possible... and the beauty of it all, the parents don't even bat an eye. these boys are something else- but the kids LOVED it!

REDHOT HEART HOTTUB!!!

for those of you that may have thought that burns oregon doesn't come with certain honeymooning amenitites, you're perfectly wrong...thanks to cherilyn's "keep the tradition alive" attitude, she treated dallin and me to a honeymoon night after our open house... as the story goes, cherilyn got this after her open house when she and rick got married and decided to "share" the joy with her siblings.

complete with floral decor and all. HAPPY HONEYMOON Burns style!! (*note when cherilyn and rick were there, it wasn't quite so nice... it was a full heart then, no shower, and more mirrors i think... thank goodness they gave it a make over, or my OCD side would not have stood a night there!)

road trip...

portland, oregon is about a 5 and a half hour car drive to dallin's home town. so, we joined julie doman and her three girls for a little road trip...

here's pic of the 3 sister mountains... and this is the part of oregon that dallin knows... no forests here, it's open desert!

the best man...

dallin's childhood buddy Matt Benton, asked dallin, even before we were engaged, to be his best man for his wedding. so we flew out to portland, oregon for the event! they had the ceremony under the bridge named Cathedral Bridge-- for the arch supports, and had a beautiful weeping willow backdrop behind the minister...

on to washington state...

dallin and i had our last and final wedding reception open house in his home town burns oregon... what do you know, my grandma oopedoop and papa speed's home is only 20 minutes from the oregon airport!

dallin was to be the best man in one of his childhood friend's wedding's in portland oregon (that's why we flew there) so this was perfect to see my grandparents and to introduce them to my new husband!
and go figure... they thought we were a perfect match ;) she said after seeing us together, she could tell we were meant for each other! our love comes shining through... ah, young lovers...

take me out to the ball game!

my dad has ALWAYS been an avid ball player... baseball happens to be his favorite. daughter after daughter after daughter... cheerleader after cheerleader after cheerleader... finally a ball player in the family! i played softball all growing up... and let's just say, that puts the sparkle in my dad's eye! of all things... since i'm the coach of a ESAB (the team i started in '07) i finally got to play on a team WITH my dad! we won the game of course... he pitched and i played 3rd... play ball!