Thanksgiving in L-town 2010

Our Thanksgiving break started out with a not so traditional "Fry Fest". The Fickenworths invited us over and the boys had fun frying whatever they could think of. The lists consisted of but was not limited to: corn dogs, fries, cheese sticks, mushrooms, broccoli, green beans, pickles, little smokies... And I didn't even get sick!!!!

Here is Sean, Brian, and Fred braving the cold, cooking for their women.

Back to the more traditional part of Thanksgiving, Cailin and Theresa made these cute place settings for everyone. This is Sean, mine, and "LP". In case you aren't sure what "LP" stands for it is for little Penberthy =) Very cute.

Evans turkey... which was delicious.

Sadly this is all the pictures I got. I didn't even get on of everyone sitting down or anything! Oh well. We had a wonderful meal, and lots of fun, quality time with the Penberthy's.

30 Weeks

Here is 30 weeks =) (This is current, as in I took them last night). Thanks mom for the jeans! They are wonderful!
Just for the record, I don't crop my face out of the pictures on purpose... it is the only place I found in our apartment that I can set the camera and take the picture myself. I guess I could be creative and stack books or something under the camera... but that's a lot of work =)

24 Weeks-kinda

This is me at 24 weeks pregnant. I'm now 29 weeks and much bigger, but I don't have any pictures (yes I need to get on that). Most people tell me I'm "small" for as far along as I am... but you CAN TELL I'm pregnant now. A week or so ago at work was the first time someone noticed I was pregnant (not my co-workers they know, but a patient). I just got a pair of maternity jeans! They aren't anything very cute or stylish, but they are jeans and they fit, so that makes me happy =)
Our baby boy moves around a lot now. Lots of kicks, jabs, turns, and whirls. I'm pretty sure I can tell when he has the hiccups also. Sometimes if I just watch my belly I can see my belly moving =).
I work full time and am on my feet a lot, which I'm grateful for in a way, keeps me moving. Keeps me active. As far as aches and pains, not much to report, my back aches sometimes after I get home and am just sitting on the couch, not moving. I get "throw up burps" most days. Sean tells me I sound silly calling them that, he says "acid reflux" sounds more sophisticated. But I think "throw up burps" is more descriptive =)
Overall, I'm doing great, nothing to complain of, nothing that stops me from doing anything. I pray that this good health will continue for the next 10 weeks!

Things that make me smile

This picture made me smile today.

Quick Visit

We had a quick, but really nice overnight visit from Grandma Pierce, Tess, and Clara. They were on their way back from Kallispel, MT to Seattle and stopped half way to stay the night with us. It was good to see them, Grandma had never been to Moscow before. Clara is getting "bigger" personality wise and is a lot more animated and getting cutter with age! It was also good to sit and talk with my sister Tess. We haven't done that for quite a while... I mean face to face, with out husbands, kids, or other distractions =)

Thanks for coming to see us!

Applesauce

My Mother and Father in law (Theresa and John) were kind enough to bring apples from their tree and spend the whole Saturday making and canning applesauce with me! It was a lot of work, but good times... and we get to eat applesauce whenever we want =)
Sean was man and constantly used this device to separate the apple from the skin.

Beautiful Theresa, the brains of the operation.

MJ even got in on the hard work, cutting, cutting, and cutting up apples.

Thanks to everyone for all the help!!!!!!

Seans Birthday Corn Dog Adventure

Back in Late October Sean had another birthday. We had a great dinner and time with family down in Lewiston. He got 2 expansions to a game we really like called Killer Bunnies =)

Back up in Moscow Brian, Tracy, and Aliah came over and helped us making home made corn dogs. And of course while they were at it they decided to fry anything else they cold find... witch turned out to be cheese sticks, onions, fries.... that's all I can remember. It all turned out delicious, and I must say I was very glad for Brians help!

Here is the finished product! Happy Birthday to You Sean!

Green River

The last week of September we had the AWESOME opportunity to go on a week long river trip on the Green River with my parents, Jake, and Diana. I Really want to post tons of pictures and tell more about our trip... but here is just one photo until I get it done!
One of the best parts of the trip was when one day I thought to myself... what day is it and I had no clue. I didn't know the date nor the day of the week. What bliss it is to be so out of touch with the world that you don't even know what day it is... or better yet, even care!

So don't hold your breath, but there is more to come on the Green River!

My Dear Husband

Sean is amazing in many many ways (thats why I married him or course) =) He is so genuinely kind and will do anything for anyone, no questions, or complaints. He can work a 12 hour day, work on applications, and still cook me dinner without being "tired" or complaining.

I don't think I have time to list anymore of the reasons I love him, he is just amazing... but what made me think of this this morning is that Tuesday night he was at work late, when he got home he had in his hand a bag of Candy Corn and a bottle of Apple Juice.

There are a few things you should know:

1) We don't typically spend money on "extra" things like Candy Corn and Apple Juice

2) One of my favorite candies in the world are Candy Corn

3) I have really been wanting Apple Juice these last few months and have purchased frozen concentrate once or twice... but it's just not the same as a big bottle of the stuff.

I was very surprised and happy when he came home with these two items and immediately gave him a big hug and asked what the special occasion was. He said that he just wanted to do something nice for me. Then I started to make girlie "oooohhhh" type sounds and tell him Thank you repeatedly. He brushed me off and told me that I was being too mushy and he wouldn't do nice things for me if I made a big deal about them. He is so funny! (Don't worry I will always make a big deal about random nice things he does...even if it makes him uncomfortable =)

So these last couple days I have been trying to savor the Candy Corn, it was REALLY hard not to scarf it all down the first night! And I Have had a big glass of wonderful delicious apple juice every morning. It has been a good week.

The small and simple acts of kindness go a long way... in a lot of different ways. In a way i'm grateful not to have/buy all the little luxuries I want all the time, so when Sean does something like this for me it really is a big deal, I enjoy them so much more, and I know how much he loves me

A Pictures worth 1,000 words

5 months, 4 to go =)

Too soon?

I'm listening to Christmas music at work this morning. I was looking at my Pandora stations and wasn't in the mood for any of them, then I saw the "Christmas" station and clicked on it... it was just the ticket. Too early for Christmas music... Never! =)

Trail of Tears...Sheep Lake

A few weekends ago Sean, I, Cailin, & Dom Went on a backpacking trip the first weekend of August (If I remember right). We went up in the Seven Devils... to some lakes we had not yet explored. It was quite the memorable trip, tears, scars, bites, sweat, scenery, good food, and good company. Sean & I at Basin Lake. We had just stopped there for lunch the second day.

Cailin posing at Sheep lake... we teased her that this could be the cover of a fitness magazine. Look at those rippling muscles!

We took the "goat trail" in the first night. It is an unmarked/unmaintained trail that is straight up and straight down.. but it is two ish miles instead of 10ish miles to get into Sheep Lake. It was tough, especially because we got a harder start than we wanted to and we were hiking in in the dark. We missed where the trail started to make it's way down the mountain... and found our own way down some massive skee fields. Again, quite the adventure. My legs were like Jello when we got down! So, we ended up camping that night above Sheep lake, and after breakfast in the morning we were joined by 4 mountain goats! It was really cool, we got to observe them for quite a while, and really close.

We had pork chops for dinner the first night.... cooked them on sticks over the fire... it was just what we needed.

Pork Chop cooking over the fire... what a beautiful sight.

The Sun setting, moon coming up, beautiful picture...... yet us trying to make it to camp still!

I believe this is Mirror lake, we are still trying to get into Sheep lake at this point, you can see it is getting darker!

Like I said, straight up and straight down =)

And another fire picture. The camera never can quite capture the mesmerising effect a fire has.

One the way out.

Dom & Cailin at Basin Lake.

Sheep Lake from up top. I think this picture makes it look smaller than it actually is.

Sean, Cailin, and Dom "body sledded" down this snow several times. I'm taking the picture, at our campsite the first night. They tried all different ways. The most successful ways seemed to be sliding face first on your belly like a penguin.

Me and Mr. Mountain Goat.

I liked this picture because i think it looks like they are posing for the camera. Off in the distance you can see Hells Canyon.

Spring Valley

A while ago Evan and MJ invited us to go with them on a little Sunday drive/walk out to Spring Valley Reservoir. As always it was good to get outside!

Rapid River

Our first backpacking trip of the summer took us to the Rapid River Canyon. Every thing you read about this area tells you to do this trail in early summer or you will die of heat. Well, our weather was perfect. It wasn't a very technical trail, but that is just fine. We pushed ourselves quite a few miles the first night because we weren't getting started until early evening, and we needed to make it before dark. The trail follows the Rapid River up a canyon... there are no places to camp until you get in far enough that things flatten out.
Taking down camp. We camped right by the river (no other options=) and the water was loud. But beautiful of course. Sean always loves drinking the water from the mountains (filtered of course), I don't blame him Moscow water is nothing to brag of.

I can't quite put into words why I loved this meadow/surrounding forest so much. It's the way it made me feel. One of the most beautiful Ponderosa stands I've ever seen probably. I want to build a cabin right there.

Very unique flower. This one is for you mom.

Dad walking through my meadow.

Mom and I in my meadow.

My husband the "tree hugger". He would not be proud of this picture, believe me =)

Showing the size of this gigantor Ponderosa Pine.

This is probably my favorite picture of the trip. Random I know. It just looks so posed... but it's not... jut a good photographer =).

Rubber Boa. My dad said this was the first time he's actually seen one in the wild. This is the best picture we got. You can't tell the difference between their head and tail, they look the same. We actually saw 3 or 4 snakes on this trip. Cassi.... sorry you had to look at this picture =).

We saw lots of this.... Leafs of three Let it be!!!!!! Poison!

The Pretty River and canyon.

Sean took a lot of pictures of wild flowers. There were so many varieties. If it didn't take so long to load pictures, I would have put more up! He is a pretty good photographer though.

And last but not least... my Man.

Another picture of us hiking up the canyon.