also, while in OR, we met up with our friends, steph and justin, and went on a 4 mile hike with them and their 3 dogs and hope and brian!   we drove up a ridge overlooking the ocean and set out.  it was a lovely forested trail and we could hear sea lions barking along the way and even though they were quite loud we never saw them, which was disappointing.  here's a view from atop the ridge:


back at jen and jason's, the 6 of us "big kids" went out to the marketplace pub for some microbrews and shuffleboard.


all in all, a fun trip!

along the drive to the coast, hope, brian, jeff and i found our car turning into the evergreen aviation museum, home of the spruce goose.  it is a wonderful museum dedicated to the spruce goose.  there are a ton of other interesting aircraft in there as well as a great many interesting veterans with many stories to tell!

here's a shot of just one wing of the goose and, no, those are not toy planes underneath!  it is, however, jeff and brian!


they let you go in a special  plexiglassed in part of the goose, here's a shot from inside:

when we were in oregon, caleb and i took a walk to the park near jen's and we watched a nutria for quite a while.  we watched him swim and eat and caleb even found his den and noticed his orange teeth!


soon after, the family took off for the beach in lincoln city.  here are a couple of beachy shots:


this next one i'm glad came out since i was enjoying watching the waves crash and the spray going up in the air:

i got promoted yesterday at work to associate staff (i was assistant staff).  i also got a nice fat pay raise!  i've been waiting for this to happen for some time now and i have pushed a little, so i'm really happy that it happened finally!

to celebrate, jeff and i went out to porcini's in watertown, amazing italian food!  we had wild mushroom strudel that was amazing for an appetizer.  then jeff had the saltimboco (veal) and i had the risotto special with lobster, leeks and mushrooms in a tomato saffron base.  for dessert, we took some canoli home that had a cinnamon flavor to them, very tasty!  all in all a wonderful meal out!

we are leaving for oregon this afternoon to meet up with jeff's family for thanksgiving on the oregon coast.  i hope you all have a wonderful holiday!

caleb came over today and helped jeff with the deck.  the joist was put in and the flooring is now nearly done with the new main part of the deck.  thanks caleb!

so we decided to build a deck this year off the back of the house.  we planned it out, replanned it out a few more times, got a building permit and started construction!  jeff has done all of the work with much assistance from my dad.  i have been the official supervisor, measuring everything and ordering the wood. 

first up is digging down 4 ft and pouring concrete for the supports.  the holes were successfully inspected and the concrete poured!  this also wreaked some havoc on our nice new lawn!  the price of progress...


hmm, power tools and beer...  couldn't resist this shot:


next up is framing the deck.  my dad was a lot of help that day.  it took jeff and my dad all day but they got that bad boy framed.  our deck is one storey up and it is 8' x 13'.  it will attach to the old part of our deck, step up once and then mostly be in the backyard.  this past weekend, jeff pulled up the boards from the old part of the deck and put the new pretty mahogany down.  you can see how nice it looks below and in the background is the framing for the new part of the deck:

not the best photo, but here goes...  jeff decided he needed a picture of me pregnant and in the kitchen.  but i will note that i am NOT barefoot!  :P

here is a post so i can test out loading a photo... this is the jack o'lantern i carved this year.

welcome to our new blog!

i have changed the site into a blog format and hope to keep evolving the rest of the site.  links to photos and music are still available, but this way we can share news and photos a bit more often!