Our Nephews are Here!

We didn't get to be there, but my sister was in labor all day yesterday and had the boys last night at 8:53. Gabriel Eric was first at 7 lb 15 oz and Jered Christopher came just after at 7 lbs 2 oz. Both boys and Janna are healthy, just recovering from the surgery. Here are some pictures my mom sent us. How cute!

Proud Dad...

Jered holding Jered.

I don't know why she sent half of them small so you might have to open it to see Holm acting as a doctor in scrubs.

My New Toy

My new toy was delivered today...a John Deer riding lawn mower. I will enjoy mowing the lawn a lot more when we haven't let the weeds/grass get 6 inches tall waiting to buy a lawn mower. The dust/pollen flying through the air made me stop after the front yard and take a shower. Austin put on pants and did the back yard, then touched up the front because he "wasn't done with his ride yet."

Our next project...Now that you can see into our back yard over the weeds we are going to start "The Fence Project Part II." This involves building a fence on the back property line and taking down the fence I am leaning against in the picture. It will give us a nice view of the trees, and give the puppies some more room to run/dig etc that is not lawn. How to teach them the appropriate places to dig and not to dig, that is the question. Anyone every successfully do this? If so please share how!

Happy Easter!

Egg Hunts and BBQ's

There was a "covered dish Dinner" after church today and then an Easter egg hunt for the little ones. We stayed and watched our friends daughter (Lilly Beth who is the blond next to Austin) fight for eggs.

This is my attempt at getting a picture of Bobby Sue (aka Southern Megan for those who know Meg) but you can't see her face so it isn't the best. She leads the music at Church too, crazy.

Tonight we finally broke down and had a good hamburger (and soy protein burger) BBQ and ate on the back porch. It was about 80 today and sitting in the shade on the porch was perfect.

St. Patrick's Day Storm

St. Patrick's Day is quit a spectacle here. We went to town on Saturday and did some shopping/errands then went to dinner at the Outback (mmm). We headed home around 9:45 and decided to drive through downtown to see the craziness for ourselves safe in the car. That was a mistake. Just after we got down town the entire city went black. We were stuck in between squares on a tiny road and could go NO Where for what seamed like forever. At this time the tornado warnings and severe storm warnings started going out. There were reports of golf ball sized hail and a tornado touching down in our county (it actually touched down on the mill and the Georgia Power plant property). We were quit concerned not only for our safety but because we left early that morning with no clue of a storm and left the puppies outside in the yard. Bo is no genius (see blogs of Bo vs. the Motorcycle and Bo decides to jump out of the truck) so I had pictures of him attacking the hail and getting killed. Luckily they were OK and we got home just before the largest storm hit our house and got everyone into the "safe room." That is our bedroom because it has the least windows and no trees will fall on us in there. We didn't have power, but that was fine we had electric lanterns and laptop to entertain us.

We tried to take some photos of the lighting on the way home but it was hard.

Seaworld

Happy Birthday Austin!















Austin decided he would like to spend his 28th birthday at Seaworld. So we went to Orlando for the Day Saturday and enjoyed the park. Seaworld is owned by Anhaueser Busch which means beer tasting while at the park (nasty) and actually good food as you see by the sand which above he got at the deli. This was ~$6 and it came with potato salad (which I ate along with a Cesar salad).


Before I start on the day at the park...on the drive down there Friday night we had to drive through a bad thunder storm...and it was "Bike Week" at Daytona. This means that the bike races are there and motorcycle riders from all over the states ride into town. If you have never seen a real thunderstorm you might not understand, but there were bikers on the freeway just getting pelted with rain, what people will do for something they "love."

Open to see the actually rain and road signs.

Back to the trip...For us this meant a longer drive than planned, a frustrated Austin for having to stare through the rain and many wrecks involving bikers/cars who lost their footing in the deep road water.
When we got there...the hotel was very nice (booked a few days earlier on expedia so we got a good deal) and we went to bed early to prepare for the day to come.

The first exhibit we went to was the "Pacific Northwest." We watched the seals and sea lions swim for a while, people by fish and feed them which is very entertaining. They had a 50/50 shot at getting one to a swimming creature or to a flying creature (that means the birds would catch the fish mid-air and steal them before the sea lions had a chance).
















Seaworld actually has some rides, the roller coaster "The Kraken" is a LOT of fun and did not make Austin sick. The only bad part was they had to shut it down for a few hours in the morning because of the high winds still around from the storm the night before. It was a beautiful day and very warm, but when the winds would pick up it would get cold quick, made dressing a little awkward.

The Journey to Atlantis "log ride"

"The Kraken"

















A visual representation of high winds...for those visual learners in the crowd.

They have a place where you can pet the dolphins and watch them close up. Here are some shots of that...

You might have to open this picture to see it, but this dolphins was playing with me, so cute! I want a pet dolphin. We plan on going back in a couple weekends and doing the water park and the discovery cove where you can swim with the dolphins, I hope it works out.

Big whale named Shamu...

Here human human human....

Austin inside the tunnel with the sharks and reef overhead.

The dolphin/acrobatic show.

NASCAR at Seaworld? Oh sure why not, they did sponsor an entire series of racing for the past few years.

We finished the day with a Jason Michael Carroll and Joe Nichols (country singers) concert, it was a lot of fun and a great birthday for Austin.

The Garage Project

Before...


















After...

And the hours in between...

Austin showing off the Happy New Year's party hat found in the sorting. He actually wore this for an hour or two. Our neighbors were doing a similar project in their bonus room so we were sharing tools, muscles, hand trucks, etc. They got a good laugh watching Austin in this hat and his Savannah St. Patrick's day shirt. Savannah has the largest (so we have heard) St. Patricks day celebration in the states. We will go this year. They close off all of downtown and you pretty much can't drive because it is people, stages and etc all over the place.

The garage floor had plaster and plaster dust all over it, so we had to remove everything, pressure wash, seal and then organize. We got almost everything done. It is more functional than our last garage, and we have room to park the riding lawn mower by the tool bench.

Organizing all the toilet paper...

I got to buy a pressure washer for the project...little known fact, I love pressure washing. It is so rewarding, it is nice sunny weather, you get a nice light mist on you from the washing and things are clean when you are done. Here I am putting it together.

The puppies had a rough time watching us organize the garage so they had to relax in the yard.

It is hot again, very nice. I have sun tan lines from my slippers and sun glasses already, it is amazing to me that it is Oregon July weather. With all good things come bad things...the bugs are here. When putting the grocery bags from the cart into the truck tonight I was fighting the gnats. Last week there wasn't a bug in sight. They come out for about an hour just at sun set, so it isn't really that bad. I am sure the bugs will get worse before they getter. Perhaps the next "The _____ Project" will the screen porch project, all the locals say it is a must for this time of year.