Camping

Jon and I both love being so close to the property. So when Mom and Dad are going down they give us a call. It seems every time they do our weekend frees up. We had a lot of fun as always. Now the weather was so HOT. Which is funny cause Dad always complains that he goes when it rains, well we did not get rain, just sun. We actually got a to play a lot. For those who don't know camping at the property is more like working all day. There is always things to be done and fixed. Which we all enjoy, but sometimes it is nice just to enjoy nature.

We started out cutting a few logs so that Mom and Dad could take them home for firewood. But that just included Jon and dad going crazy with a chain saw. I say more fun than work. We did fix Dads camera. That was very important, see hunting season is coming up so this helps us see what really is walking around. And the other really important thing we did was restock the pond. We go fish small fish out of the stream, put them in buckets and dump them into the pond. Looking back we did do a lot of work, just the fun work.

The whole time I kept telling Mom how weird it was that Dad would hang around camp with us, and that he was not rushed or in a hurry to go get something done. But this trip won't happen every time. Labor day weekend, when the boys aren't hunting we will be fixing a fence again.

Now those who know my Dad might think I am making some of this up, but I am not I even have pictures of him having fun!!



Jon has not used his chain saw for like 5 years or more. Dad kept making fun of how small it was. Upon returning home, Jon would now like to trade his chain saw and get a bigger one!



Dad got a new camera, so we put that up.



Because the deer and elk won't leave it alone the boys put barbwire around it so that they won't knock it down.



Jon and Sage fishing



Dad working very hard.



So Dad put down his pole to go dump the fish they had already caught. So my Mother being so scared of fish decided she would try and use the fly fish ( of course never doing it at all before). So as you can tell she has perfect form and it is a wonder why she did not catch one. It was probably a good thing she didn't, I am not sure what she would have done if she caught it.




And I can't forget Sage. She did such a great job running, and swimming. She swam A LOT that day!

Winn Reunion

This year the reunion was at Lava Hot Springs in Idaho. Jon was not able to come due to work. Lets say it was a really long drive! It was a short weekend filled with water park river floating and of course the hot springs themselves. It was really fun to get to see ALMOST everyone. But next year I will diffidently be seeing everyone! Now I wish I had taken more pictures (and I didn't even take these ones, mom did) But being around so much water makes it hard to bring your camera everywhere without the fear of getting it wet.



The river was cold, and it was not even a super hot day. But this spot got just about everyone who went down it. You can not tell but the missing people are Megan, Trent and Emily (2 cousins that live in Burly Id)



Now a few minutes to re-group



And Emily is at it again, along with Trent (but you can't see him) with little help from Moo



"That was a fun ride!!"

Portland Weekend

Jon and I went to Portland. It was Jon's idea. See he really likes to reload, but he does not have much of the supplies. But see my dad does, so Jon wanted to go down to get some work done. Sage did pretty good in car, but by the time we got to Troutdale she was tired.



(that is right, she climbed behind the back seat head rest and fell asleep)

On Friday we went to have lunch with my Dad at his work. He has a little more than an acre in the back field. Every summer his work puts out 8-10 cows. So every day Dad goes out and feeds them and has lunch with them. It is funny they come to the sound of his voice. At first Sage did not like them, but than they became friends. And the cows could not take their eyes away from her.





We took a break to walk around, trying to find some pheasants so that Sage could get some practice in. We found this little canal and thought, the day is warmer than at the property. So we tried the water once again. She did better. But of course with water and dirt, comes mud. She was filthy.











After that little fun, we went back to cows!!









But before we left she had to get a bath before getting into the car!! Though I do not know how clean the water actually was, but she was cleaner than before.

Memorial Weekend

Jon and I went camping to my parents property for the weekend. It was Sage's first trip. The weather was so cold and it rained once or twice on us. There are not a lot of pictures because as always, we work more than we play at the property. We ended up building a lot of fence, down and up a steep hill. Let me tell you when we are all done fixing the fences, we are going to be pros!!!











Sage liked being so close to where we ate, she just wanted to take a bite. But once she figured out she was not going to get anything, she turned to sticks






One afternoon Jon and I got a chance to play at the pond. We wanted to see how well Sage did with water.





She did not like it, so after playing with the frog...we headed down to the creek, where it was shallow and Jon could go in with her






She did not last very long. But overall we all enjoyed the weekend. It was full of hard work and a little bit of fun!

New Family Member!!

Everyone meet SAGE!! She is a purebred yellow Lab, and she is about 8 weeks old.



On the long car ride home! She was having a hard time!!





She slept a lot the first few days, the peaceful moments that will never come again.



Yes we are trying to train her early to be a bird dog!



First Video- Before the fence she just had too much energy to stay in the house. We are BOTH very grateful that the fence is done!! She has been trying to jump, but her short little legs don't let her get to far. But she stills tries!



The second Video- We are trying to kennel train for night time and times when we leave her in the house but we have to go. I read online that they need to feel like the kennel is a 'happy' place. So a couple times a day I try to play with her and the kennel. I think she is starting to like it a little more!

She loves that we now have the fence up so she can go run around all she wants. Now we just have to work on the "no digging"!







So far we are pretty lucky with her. She only had potty issues the first few days. We are pretty good at taking her outside often enough, but she has gone to the door a few times to let us know. BUT let the record show she never once has pooped in the house! We are also getting used to sleeping at night. She wakes up a few times a night to go to the bathroom. I am learning that I do not need as much sleep as I had thought. All in all she is a good puppy and hopefully will grow into a good dog!!

Getting Settled

We have been in the house for about a month. Not all the boxes are unpacked, but that is ok cause we have a garage! (That way I do not have to see the boxes everyday and tripping over them)

We have been super busy, I never would have thought that buying the house is the easy part. No one ever tells about the list that comes with the house and how it is never ending!! Thank goodness Mom helped me with the pictures and some organizing. Jon and I have been so busy in the evenings with the fence. Which is not 100% done, BUT all the boards are up and we are enclosed. It is so funny that we now have cable, but every night we are to tired we hardly ever watch it.

Mom made curtains for our new house. It was supposed to be a teaching moment, but we had a bad experience with the first set we made. So we did want to take any chances with these. Honestly I am glad the other ones did not work out, these ones are so much better!! The pictures do not do them justice!! Thanks Mom you are the BEST!!

We have also started meeting our neighbors, well as people move in. So far we do not think that we have crazy ones. I think we will be pretty lucky! Some just stay inside and in fact Jon mentioned last night about a house that is sold but no one lives in it. I had to explain that there are people there and in fact they moved in before us. We also feel really lucky that one street down we have LDS neighbors that are in our ward. They moved in the same time we did. We look forward to doing a lot of fun things with them!!

Our ward is pretty fun. Right now our building is 15 minutes away in Burbank. BUT this weekend there is an open house for the new building that is like 5 minutes away! We do not know yet, but everyone hopes that we will get reassigned to this building.

All and all things are going great and we are staying busy!!

Finally

We are officially homeowners!!! We have moved all of our stuff over, and unpacked like all of it. We have been having a hard time with the internet and our address so we still have the Apartment until Wednesday, You know in-case we needed the internet. So that means that this is the last week we will ever (or for a really long time) live or have any of our stuff in an apartment. That just means it might be a few weeks without internet.

My mom and dad came up this weekend. They were supposed to come up and help us move. So of course that means that Jon and Dad leave to go hunting and fishing and camping. That really helped us out. Mom and I got a lot done...we cleaned the garage, got rid of boxes, hung up pictures, did laundry and as always shopped. It was a pretty fun weekend. Jon and dad had a blast too.

We are doing really good and remembering every day that we are truly blessed.

Busy Busy

Here is just a quick update. Yesterday Jon and I signed our lives away! After we did our final walk through and everything was perfect. We are planning on getting the keys on Wednesday or Thursday. We just have to wait for the paper game between the Escrow company and our Mortgage company. Which I guess is fine, we do have just a little bit more packing to do. But we are just super excited we just have a few days left of apartment living!!! Just can not wait to get out. I will update more after we get some what settled.

Side note: I am sad to leave the apartment, with all of our ducks. You know spring time is in the air. And so far we have counted 7 little ducklings. They are so cute, and love bread!

T-Minus 2 Weeks

We seriously had to break in last night to get a last look before the walk through. They finally put a door nob on the outside garage door, and they remembered to lock the back door. The only thing they forgot to do was to lock the windows. Since they do not have screens up yet it was really easy to get in. Well like I said we wont be going in until the walk through on April 12, but there also is not a lot left to do. Now it is the waiting game!!

It is finally painted on the outside!!! They prepped for paint at the end of last week but it has been so windy they held off. Luckily the last few days have not been as bad.



The backsplash tile is in, the nobs are on, the fridge was all the way in and the microwave too, just waiting on the stove. It will look even better when it is all dusted!!



This is our bathroom, but the tile is in, nobs on. Again just really has to be cleaned and than it is ready!



We have started packing again, luckily we do not have that much to pack. Last night our upstairs neighbors were being kind of loud. You could hear walking and doors and the bathroom. Jon and I just looked at each other and smiled. Because in 2 weeks we will not have to hear that stuff, above or below us anymore!