Charity's Baby Shower

I realized that I never wrote about Charity's baby shower. My niece, Olivia Asa has been born already, however. I had a lot of help for the shower and it turned out so well and we all had a lot of fun. I don't really like the traditional pastel colors for babies, so decided to go with bright colors.


The cousin, Ashley and I, decorated the room with bouquets of balloons, paper lanterns, and lantern string lights. The table was brightly colored, with candy vases with bright cupcakes. We had a lot of fun tasting baby food, opening presents, and sharing the "joys" for birthing.....

Charity had a lot of help from Elise that night opening presents.

Cameron rubbing Charity's belly. He was a bit curious about Charity having a baby in there. It was pretty cute.

Cheryl Charity and Julie

Eddyville cont.

(Darren's coffee art)

So just wanted to add a few more pics to the Eddyville post that Jason didn't add on the last post. Just a few cute pics from the weekend.

Jason and Braden

Mr. Spencer Reynolds

My good buddy Laurie came up with me!

Eddyville reunion

The boys were back in town--Wenatchee, WA, that is--for a reunion gig. It was the third time in as many months that the boys had been together to play as they embarked on a mini NW tour playing two shows in three days. November 5th they played at the Building Industry Association of Washington awards ceremony at the Vancouver Hilton and then on the 7th they were in Wenatchee at Caffe Mela. Both shows were lots of fun and a chance to showcase some of the new material from the forthcoming sophomore release.

Halloween 2009

We dressed up this year and hit the party at the McDonalds. We ate creepy food, played Catch-Phrase, and played Pictionary. The costumes were great!

J was a convict, which turned out to be pretty creepy. Had to put up with a beard for weeks, so he could save that sweet beard-thing.

Some of his LOVE/HATE tats.Chels, the pirate, and meJason spent a lot of time on this brain...pretty nasty.Bethany as Juno, and Josh as Bleaker

Brian as He-Man, Mari as She-Ra

Char, the pregnant nun

more Fall

After the patch, Jason and I stopped by the farm. Lee and Hazel were there and asked for their picture to be taken for the Hillsboro field for the Fall 09. The colors at the farm are really beautiful this time of year.


Got one in with my favorite little monkey. Isn't she cute!?

Pumpkin Patch 09

The annual trip to the pumpkin patch turned out to be a really nice day. We always go to the patch just out of the North Plains where they have a huge corn maze, a boat that takes you to the pumpkins, and a train to take you back. Of course, the kids had to ride the ponies, too.

Here are just a few pics from the day.

Elise picking out a million pumpkins.

Zeagan didn't want to walk that day, good thing for the wheelbarrow.

Just a few favorite pics

Mont St. Michel

Mont St. Michel dates back around the 700s. There are only about 50 people that live on the island. The area is very medieval looking, with the buildings all built together with the Abbey at the top. It was beautiful.

The drawbridge entering into the walls

Normandy Tour- cont

We went to one area that had a lot of bunkers at the tope of the cliffs. The place was bombed to pieces! The craters were deeper than I was tall, the place looked like a golf course. Hilter had created quite a concrete fortress up there to reinforce his 1000 year reign.

Normandy Tour- Cliffs

All the way west, we went to the cliffs where the rangers were dropped off and scaled the cliffs. Many were cut down by Axis as they climbed up, which is quite a drop. This area had a Sherman tank and a Higgins boat-made out of plywood, which didn't protect from the bullets.

Normandy Tour- Omaha Beach

Next, we went to Omaha Beach- aka Bloody Omaha. Interesting place to be. It is known in that area that no birds-to this day- don't fly around this beach. Also every so often, these bleeding pebbles show up on the beach that have been studied for a long time to figure out where they come from. There was a definite different feeling here than all the other beaches. It was interesting to see the area that grandpa entered when he came over. It was good to try to understand a little bit of what happened and what the soldiers faced.Here is the bank where the German's were dug in, waiting for the Allies. There are many bunkers still there.

Normandy Tour- Utah Beach

We spent one full day on a tour of the Normandy beaches and surrounding areas where the Allied forces had been. We loaded in the van and left early in the morning. We started just east of Utah Beach in a little town. Here is a little diagram of some of the attacks.

In this little town, they still had many WWII structures all over the town. Here is part of the artificial harbor that they Allied forces built to eventually make it to land on D-day.

We headed west and visited Utah Beach. Pictured below.

Chateau du Lignerolles

We stayed at Chateau du Lignerolles, which was the coolest place that we stayed in France. It was built in 1731 and the owners were renovating it. The place was stunning and out in the French countryside. The man that owned the Chateau provided the Normandy tour while we stayed there, so it was really convenient.

The front of the Chateau

French food

I love crepes- Nutella banana crepes. Dad....loved salads.
Jason's

This spurred an investment in a crepe maker for my kitchen.

Giverny

After Paris, we headed for Normandy. On the way, we stopped in Giverny to see the home and gardens of Claude Monet. The little community was quiet with narrow streets with stone walls covered in ivy. Monet's house was big, but simple. The gardens covered quite and area, including his own little creek and the famous lily pond. Below is the bridge that is painted in the lily pond paintings.
Front view of Monet's house that overlooks the gardens
Jason and I on the famous lily pond bridge.