Stellar Moments

Here are the two photos that we bought from Stellar Moments. They must make some great money. The lady would stand on the rock and take photos of the rafts coming down Howard's 3 foot Plunge and then sell what she took. You didn't have to buy them, but we all pooled our money together to get one photo of each boat. It's nice to have a photo of you rafting down the river. We had a great time. Still waiting on the photos from the water camera. I am sure they will be funny!

***If you look hard enough on our photo, both Toby and I have our tongues out! ha ha ha!

Tickets?!?!?!

How many times are we going to get pulled over while living in Idaho!??!?!?!?!? Once because Toby was speeding coming home from work, once because our tags (who knew?) were expired, once because our licenses were not current (they said Rexburg instead of Boise) and now this!

Totally forgot to post the story of us getting pulled over on our way to the rafting trip this past weekend........ We're driving in Cascade, going a whooping 25/26 miles an hour when we see the red and blue lights in the rear view mirror.....We stop and the police officer walks over to us and proceeds to tell ask us "did you know that you were speeding....a little bit?" Uh, nope, we didn't know that, because we WEREN'T speeding! Then he tells us that our windshield is cracked and and not looking too good. He asks for our registration and license and then walks back to his truck. Luckily, he got an emergency call that he had to attend to and he ran back to us and told us to have a nice day. No ticket!

So, why did we get pulled over??? We can only guess, which the cath lab did and came up with this reason:

We were in the Corsica! ----for those of you who have never seen the Corsica, it looks horrible. The paint is peeling off, we have cracks in our windshield, a big circle crack that looks like we got shot at and the cloth on the seats have seen much better days and are now flaking off all along the back seat. It is horrible. Plus, our hubcaps are super cheap and the chrome is only plastic (which is peeling off as well, giving our caps this ugly, pee yellow color). So-in other words, we look like white trash driving in podunk Idaho.

So, everyone spent the evening poking fun of us because they said the cop probably pulled us over based on what the car looked like. Since it was trash, that must mean the people who are driving it at are trash and are probably hiding pot in the seats! We were quite the butt of many jokes.

****SIDE NOTE: I want to clarify and let everyone know that it was TOBY who was driving every time we have gotten pulled over! I have never, ever, gotten pulled over! Knock on wood!

Hangin' out and makin' food

Here are a few more photos of the Cath Lab making breakfast and hanging out. We really did have a great time! I also posted more photos in the family album. Water pictures coming soon!


Robin reading, Heather cooking potatoes

Dave sitting in the broken chair he didn't break........

After Day 1 of Rafting.....

After day one-Everyone was sooo tired! I caught most everyone sleeping. We had worked so hard!

White Water Rafting-Day 2

Day 2 was a little bit scary! There weren't as many of us so we only had about 6 adults in each boat. This run was called the Main Payette. It was a class III as well, but only about 7 miles. We put in at Banks, and got out at Beehive Bend.
The first rapid, we did okay on. We actually went down backwards through it-not how your are supposed to but, hey-we did it anyways! The second which is called Mike's Hole, we lost Toby! We hit the rapid at an angle and as the raft started to go sideways, Toby was swept out. I was sooo scared because as he fell out, we didn't see him for a while. My heart was pounding so hard. He finally came up and we pulled him in. When you fall in, you are supposed to always put your feet first, so they don't get caught on any rocks. Good thing he did that!
We stopped for lunch and this time-we had the right parts for the grill. We grilled hot dogs---man did they taste sooo good! We played with the frisbee and just swam. This time, we didn't have the flag so we tried to steal it from the other raft. We also had water shooters and it was fun to soak one another and also other boats.
The last rapid we went over was called AMP. This was the biggest rapid of the day. Well, we hit once again at an angle and the boat tipped completely on it's side and there goes everybody....except me and Laurie. I for sure thought I was going and as I was falling, I landed on Laurie. She is a bit afraid of the rapids and had hunkered down in the middle of the boat. So-she stopped me from falling out! Had we not of tied down the cooler--it would have been gone as well. This one was the most scary, because we were still going through the rapids. We had a little 9 year old with us and luckily, Toby was able to lift her to me. I tried my best to steer the boat to the side to pick up our lost crew. We were a little bit shaken up! We got everyone, bruises, cuts and all!
Still, white water rafting was sooooo much fun. I hope to do it again before the summer is over. We had water cameras, and as soon as I find them and we get them developed, I will post the pictures. I loved being out in the water. I learned that Idaho has the best white water rafting in the United States. We have over 3,000 miles of whitewater and 8 main rivers to raft through. Fun stuff!

White Water Rafting-Day 1

What a fun weekend we had! We went up to Cascade (in between Boise and McCall) and went White Water Rafting. We went with the crew from Toby's work--the Cath Lab. The only ones who weren't able to come were those who were stuck on call! Ha ha, poor them! We rented a house that had 11 beds in it. It was pretty old and a little bit stinky but it worked. We all helped with dinner and breakfast and spent the evenings playing card games and piggin' out on junk food. I brought up toffee popcorn and made cookies. We brought up the dough and that was as big of a hit as the cookies were!
Saturday, we drove down to the drop off point and got all the rafts ready. We only took two rafts and had about 10 adults in each plus one kid. The first area we went to was in Cascade. The run is called The Carbarton. It goes from Cascade to Smith's Ferry. This was a class III rapids and about 10 miles long. This was my favorite. We rafted and jumped in the river and swam. We stopped somewhere for lunch only to realize that we forgot part of the grill....so we ate candy and the snacks that we had.
One of our boats had a big pirates flag so we spent the whole day mimicking The Pirates of the Carribean. One boat was the Black Pearl and the other was the British Boat. Toby and I were on the Black Pearl and the other boat tried to get our flag. It was quite fun. The last rapid that we went over was called Howard's Plunge. It was a small 3 foot drop. There were cameras set up to take our photos from the side. After rafting, you can choose to buy the photos. We all pooled our money together and bought two photos for 55 bucks on cd! Crazy huh! At least, we all split the money and it only ended up costing us 5 dollars. I'm glad, because there was no way we would be able to get a photo of us in the rapids.

Robin and Jill
Kalli won that round!

Playing a game of Blackjack...no money though....just food!

Toby and John doing the morning dishes
Cascade Reservoir-it was beautiful!

JD and Melissa Engagment Photos

Last night, I took engagement photos for a couple who used to be in our singles ward. We went downtown and walked through the streets. It was quite a fun evening and Boise has some beautiful bulidings. We stopped at the fountains and they ended up playing in them. JD picked Melissa up and then dropped her in! Good thing, I had finished taking most of their photos. It was fun to take some photos of them playing like little kids. I added pictures to my professional account so take a look!

I need to come up with a creative name for my photography......any ideas???? Leave me a comment with your best ones!

Happy Birthday Dad!

Happy 46th B-day DAD! Hope you had a fabulous Day. We sure love you lots!

updated photos

I have added a bunch of photos of our trip to Seattle and Whidbey Island to our photo site. Click here to see more fun filled vaca photos! There are lots of little sub links so be sure to check them all out.

Finishing up the Seattle Vacation

The Zoo
I love zoo's and Seattle as a great one. We spent the whole day there and got to see such beautiful animals. My favorite part was when we got to feed the birds. You were given sticks with bird food on them and then you walked up to the birds and they would hop right onto your stick and eat the food. Well, some of the birds would hop on your shoulders or head! At one point, Toby had three birds on him! His head, shoulders and then on the stick. I stood next to him to get a photo and the bird jumped on my head. I was praying that he wouldn't poo on me! It was a little bit scary but a lot of fun.
At the end of the day, we were waiting to leave and I went to throw something away in the garbage. As I threw my gum in there, I heard a loud noise and out of the garbage can came a squirel. He was making some awful noises and he almost got me! I freaked out and screamed and ran away. Mom was the only one who saw the whole thing but dad and Toby made fun of me for the rest of the night. So now, I can say that I've been 'almost' attacked by crazy raccons and squirels!

Pike's Market

Pike's Market

I love Pike's Market! This is one of my favorite places in Seattle. I love to watch the guys throw the fish around and see all of the fresh produce and beautiful flowers. It was fun to walk around and see the stands and what people were selling. There was even a left handed store! That was fun for Megan, Andrew and I. We were able to taste some of the fresh produce and we even took a photo with one of the fish throwers! It was a big fish and it stunk pretty bad, but it was still a lot of fun.

It's a huge fish!

Famous Pike Street, beautiful flowers

Space Needle

Space Needle

We got to go up on the Space Needle the day we left Seattle. This was a little bit scary, but mostly very very cool. I was amazed at how far you could see. It was beautiful! Since it was such a clear day, you could see the Cascade Mountians, all of the Puget Sound and even Mt. Rainier. Even though we were over 600 feet in the air, Mt. Rainier still looked huge. We learned a lot about the space needle---it was built for the world's fair in 1962 and has a base of concret that is 30 feet deep and over 120 feet wide. The man who designed the building thought that all of the buildings would look this way in the year 2000.....hmmm not quite. It took us 40 seconds to reach the top. They told us that the elevators travel 10 mph which equals to 14 feet per second, 800 feet per minute, or as fast as a raindrop falls to earth! Another cool fact that we learned was that since we were going up so fast, when it snows, it looks like the snow if falling up not down! I bet that would be really cool to see. It can also sway in the wind and has withstood an earthquake that measured 6.8 on the Richter scale! The second floor has a resturaunt that turns so you can see the whole city. It was a great sight to see!

Toby and Katie smiling at the base of the needle.

Whidbey Island

It was so neat to go back to Whidby Island. I haven't been back there for 10 1/2 years! So much has changed but yet, I still knew my way around. We rode over on the ferry and stayed on the base in Oak Harbor. We went to the Admiralty Head lighthouse, Fort Ebey, Fort Casey, Deception Pass Bridge, went hiking, the boys (and katie-who wanted to drive the golf cart) went golfing, went to the beaches (they were freezing!)we went bowling, out to dinner, and shopping! We were going to rent a boat but the water was too choppy so the base dudes wouldn't let us. We showed Toby were we used to live and drove him around the base. I saw my old junior high and it is competely redone. I can't believe how time changes things. When were were at Deception Pass bridge, it was such a clear day that you could see Canada and the Cascade Mountains. The old growth forests were gorgeous. The trees and brush were so thick, they aren't like the forests in Utah or Idaho. A lot more greener and thicker.

The Family at Deception Pass The beach-notice all the drift wood? As a kid, I used to make forts with all the wood.

We went to the city of Coupville, which is near Oak Harbor and got ice-cream. We also stopped in at Toby's Tavern! We have glasses that say Toby's on it. He's quite famous.

We had a great time over there. For only being a week long vacation, we sure did so much stuff. I love Seattle and Whidbey Island. I fogot how beautiful it was over there. The beaches are amazing. Not as warm as Naples, but just as beautiful.

Tam down at Joseph Whidbey State Park

Beautiful Admiralty Head Lighthouse!
The fam up top the lighthouse

Toby and Tammy peeking up from the stairs

Smile everyone!

Notice the sign says, "Dangerous Drop Off"

Happy 4th of July!

I love the 4th of July!
I love everything red, white and blue. I love that we live in America and all the blessings we receive because of where we live. I am thankful for all those men and women who fight to keep us free! Happy Day!

This morning we had breakfast at the Bishop's house. We had to be there at 7:30 to help cook. That meant that we had to get up at 6:40 because he lives a half hour away....that was not fun.

Then, Toby and I spent the day at the pool. It got over 100 degrees here. Felt like we were back in Vegas! The pool was nice and cold and we had a great time throwing the football around.

Tonight, we spent the evening with the married ward and had a bbq. I made a flag cake with strawberries and blueberries. It was quite yummy. Another girl from the ward made a really cool Uncle Sam's Top Hat cake that was really good as well.

We spent the hot evening playing games and just talking. They boys got all sweaty because they played tennis and basketball.

We all pooled a little bit of money together and bought fireworks. It was fun to set them off. The strob fireworks were the worst though-I had to cover my eyes, so I wouldn't get a headache.
When it finally got dark, we hunkered down to watch the fireworks......only to realize that the trees were in the way! Oh well! We got to see part of them, and listen to the music that matched it from the radio. We all laughed about it and we still had a great time. I miss being in the married ward but the singles ward is slowly growing on me.

Hope you all had a wonderful 4th!