Birthday

Ok, so once again I have not been good about updating. A friend of mine from college moved to Bend two weeks ago and has been staying with us while she looks for a job and for a place. It has been a ton of fun having her around and I'm really looking forward to her being in town. Brian has been on a fire in Southern Oregon for almost two weeks now. It's a huge lightning complex that started in a beautiful area, where we like to go camping and kayaking. I guess it's a couple of thousand acres and there are over 900 people trying to put the fire out. He'll be home on Friday and I absolutely can't wait. We haven't been apart for a full two weeks in a long time. It worked out for him to be away this week though, since my friend is staying with us. I also had my 28th birthday on Sept. 9. Unfortunately, Brian was on a fire so we haven't been able to celebrate together yet, but he'll be home soon. My friend Sara and I went up to our friend's (Joey and Shannon) fire lookout that they staff in the summer. It was a great birthday. We just hung out, watched the sun set, listened to Joey play the guitar and ate cherry cobbler. Yum. Yum. We went up there another night recently too for a firefighters going away party. They ended up having a fire though, so nobody showed up except for the young man and he didn't get there till 11:00. We had fun though. That's about all the news. Brian's parents are coming out in a two weeks, which should be a lot of fun. I'm really looking forward to showing them our place and showing them around Bend. They've been out before, but we were living in Sunriver. Bend is a much better place for hosting visitors. There's just a lot more to do. I'm hoping that my parents and grandparents will make it out sometime as well. Oh yeah, my sister and I are going to meet up to go camping in the next couple of weeks at Mt. Rainier National Park, so I'm looking forward to that as well. The Marina where I work on my weekends will be closed in two weeks too, so I'm really looking forward to having two day weekends again. I can't wait for Brian to start getting two day weekends as well, but that might be a while. Anyhow, I've been rambling so enjoy everybody. We'll catch you on the flip side.

Summer's almost over. Bummer.

July/August

It looks like it's been a long time since Brian and I last posted. Let's see. In the last month the main event was our anniversary on July 21. We celebrated the weekend before, as they were predicting lightning on our actual anniversary. That wouldn't matter too much for the rest of the population but when your husband is a wildland firefighter lightning means fires and long hours. It was a good thing we did celebrate the weekend before as Brian got home right before midnight on our actual anniversary. To celebrate, we spent a night in a fire lookout that our friends staff. We saw a beautiful sunset, an incredible orange, full moon rising over the mountains and a amazing sunrise. Yes, we were up that early. Well at least I was. When your bed is surrounded by windows on all sides...you wake up pretty early. Brian did raise his head to see the sunrise. That day we went on a mosquito infested hike around a truly beautiful lake. We didn't have any bug spray so it was a pretty fast hike. Poor Brian was covered in welts. The rest of the day we spent at Sunriver Resort, where we went bike riding and had a very nice sunset dinner. What else...Brian's been on a lot of local fires over the past month. (Quarter to half acre fires) He's also been doing a lot of kayaking after work at first street rapids, which are located right down town. Really he's been working long hours though. I've been working long hours too, so we haven't been able to do as much together this summer as we would like. Come winter though...we'll both have plenty of time. I also competed in a waterskiing contest one day and joined the local waterskiing club. I alos just got back from our annual family camp on Elk and Skegemog lakes located near Traverse City, MI. This is the highlight of my summer every year. It was great to see everyone and almost everyone was there. We spent the week skiing, wakeboarding, tubing, slacklining, swimming, hanging out on the dock, socializing and playing yard games. I love it. We also held our first annual camp bar tour and wine tasting. (The youngest cousin turned 21 last year.) And of course we had amazing food. I was also able to see Brian's parents and their new boat. They came to visit one day, which was really nice. I also went to a family reunion on my dad's side, which was nice. We spent the day hanging out and skiing. That's about all that is going on in our lives right now. Enjoy.

It's Been a While

It looks like it's been a long time since I last updated. (A month in fact.) Therefore, I have no idea where to start. Things have been really busy around here. Brian started up the fire season. He's working for Deschutes National Forest on an engine. It's the same forest as last year, but he's on a different type of crew. I've taken a second job at the Sunriver Marina. I worked there last summer and this year I'm working my weekends teaching kayak and stand-up paddle board classes. Right now Brian is on a fire. He's actually been on a couple in Oregon over the last five days. Right now he's in the lower Deschutes area. Let's see. Well he's been gone, I've gone up to our friend's fire lookout a couple of times, played soccer and read. I spent the fourth of July at Round Mountain Lookout with our friends Joey and Shannon. It was pretty cool because we could watch firework displays from three different towns. They happened to be the size of a quarter and you couldn't hear them, but it was still pretty cool. We then stayed up late playing the guitar and hanging out. I also went up there the weekend before for Shannon's birthday and saw the most incredible lightning storm of my life. We were even watching distant trees catch on fire before going back out. It was super cool. What else..I've joined a soccer team. The people on it are great and we're actually pretty good. We played a really aggressive team last week (aggressive by this league) and I love it. The only problem is that apparently my head is no longer caloused or something and I headed way to many soccer balls. (Bad habit) It's been tender for a week now. (Don't tell my mom.) Today I'm meeting up with friends for coffee. They were in town for a wedding. Oh yeah, and a friend of mine from school, Sara Taylor (she was in the wedding), was visiting last week and she wants to move out here. I'm so excited. She wants to move out here around Labor Day. She's a ton of fun and it would be great to have her out here, as she loves to do a lot of the same things that I do. Brian also had friends in town. Aaron Hagge (he was also in the wedding) came up here with some of his buddies to go mountain biking for a couple of days. We were able to hang out with them a fair amount while they were here. Basically, we've been super busy and neither of us have had a day off in a while, but we're loving it. I hope that all is well with everyone else. (And I'll see some of you the first weekend in August.) I'm going to our annual family camp in Traverse City, MI, for five days. I can't wait. It's always the highlight of my summer. See you soon.

June Flippin Sixth

IT SNOWED TODAY!!!!

The End of the Crazy Weekend

So in the last update I clued everyone in to our crazy weekend. Well, the crazy weekend just ended yesterday after almost two weeks. We had a ton of fun though. Rachel and her boyfriend, Andrew, showed up on Wednesday (the week before last) and then our friends Deb and Justin showed up on Friday. They left Saturday morning and then my cousin Anna and her husband, Rob, showed up shortly after. They took off Sunday, only to be replaced by Rachel's friend Katherine and her sister, Sara. Well, Sara had to fly out the next day from Portland so they left on Monday and Rachel and Andrew left on Tuesday. Well, Katherine showed back up on Tuesday and then stayed through last night (Monday.) I know crazy. In the middle of all that was Brian's 30th birthday. Yea Brian, the big 30. I had to work that day and it was raining so Brian didn't go skiing as he had originally intended. That night though we went out for a nice dinner at the Pine Tavern (great spot). After dinner we had cake and ice cream at the house and Brian opened his presents. Then we changed out of our nice dinner clothes into our camping clothes, packed the truck and took off for Round Mountain lookout where are friends Joey and Shannon are stationed. We got up there late and stayed up even later, but it was a lot of fun....and I think that Brian had a great birthday (even if he was a bit bummed about it being his 30th). Last weekend we headed over to Ripplebrook, where Brian used to work on the Mt. Hood National Forest. We hung out with our friends Justin and Deb, who are stationed there this summer. We got there Friday night and hung out around the campfire. The next day Brian and I went on a great hike to the top of a ridge (2,000 feet in 3 miles)....it was a good workout hike. Then we met up with Deb and Justin to go kayaking on the Clackamas River. I took a nice swim through Carter Falls so I called it good after that, but everyone else continued and had a great time. The next day Brian kayaked and I jumped in a paddle raft with four other people and had a great time. Brian loves to kayak. He jumps at every chance he gets to go boat. I still consider myself a beginner and I enjoy it, but it depends on the river and how well I do. I have to say that I like rafting a heck of a lot better....probably because I don't get dumped out of the boat as much. Anyhow, it was a great weekend too. Now we're back...well I am. Brian went to Tacoma, Wash., tonight for an auction that's taking place tomorrow. While he's gone, I rented some chic flicks and plan on taking it easy tonight. We've been on the go so much that it's about time we had a break. I have to say that the last two weekends were a blast though. Enjoy. I'll add photos tomorrow. It's not working tonight for some reason.

Crazy Weekends

So Brian and I have had two crazy weekends, and they're not over. Last weekend I headed to Ohio to attend my sister's college graduation (Kenyon College) and Brian skinned (skied uphill) into North Sister (one of the nearby mountains), snow camped and then skied down. Rachel's graduation was great. It was outside in front of a beautiful old building. It started out as a beautiful day and then the clouds starting slowly moving in. It rained off and on throughout the graduation and was a little on the cold side to boot, but it was beautiful and Rachel was so excited as she walked across the stage. She was grinning from ear to ear and waved out to her family right before she crossed. Then after lunch the packing began. She managed to move out of college in three and a half hours (again raining on and off). That night we had a very nice dinner to celebrate Rachel (and her boyfriend, Andrew's) graduation and grampy's 84th birthday. It was a wonderful weekend. Brian spent the weekend skiing and camping and had a great time. He said the weather was spectacular and actually pretty warm for the snow camping. Brian made an awesome little kitchen dug into the snow to hang out in. (I'll post a picture). It was nice to see each other again after the weekend. This weekend has been just as exciting and crazy, as Rachel and her boyfriend showed up late Wednesday night. We took them around Thursday and hung out. We actually brought them up to the fire lookout where our friends Joey and Shannon work to show them the lay of the land, and then down to the river. Brian and I went kayaking and they chilled on the banks. Yesterday they got to work looking for jobs and apartments in Portland. They spent six hours in the local library and Brian and I ran errands, before meeting up with our friends Deb and Justin. We all spent the evening hanging out and then headed to a concert in a nearby local amphitheater. We had planned on just listening outside the gate, but then were able to just walk in. Nobody was collecting tickets so we were a little on the sneaky side and attended a free concert. Justin and Deb left early this morning to go rock climbing, but in an hour or so my cousin Anna and her husband Rob are showing up for a long weekend. Im excited about that as I haven't seen Anna since October. We're going to have a girl cousin reunion. To add to the confusion, when Anna and Rob leave, Rachel's friend Catharine (who's spending the summer out here) and her sister Sarah (whose driving out with her and then flying home) are showing up on Monday night. We're not sure how long Catharine is going to stay with us. It's going to be at least until she finds an apartment and we're not sure how long Rachel and Andrew will be staying with us. It's turing out to be a lot of fun though. Brian's birthday is Tuesday and right now we're planning on going camping at Round Mountain where Joey and Shannon staff a lookout. Crazy, crazy, fun weekends.