Ode to Summer on a January Night

I am not going to win the prize of timely and consistent blogger anytime soon so please forgive the post about summer. I'm sitting in North Bend in January bracing for the biggest snow storm in 25 years. Snow here is a beautiful sight, but right now I'm reliving a really great summer.

So here's a recap:

Rachel and Hennie went on a trip to the Oregon Coast. They decided to keep heading up the coast and drop in to visit. I was sitting in a meeting when I got a text from Rachel asking if they could stay with us that night. I absolutely couldn't contain my excitement. Sure I was happy to see Rachel and Hennie, but they were bringing two of my favorite boys!

We went to the locks and the botanical gardens.

We ended the day properly and made a stop at Dick's. It's where the cool hang out.

Shortly after (or maybe during), Joy and Jerry came to visit and watch the girls when Dave and I went back to work. We took a quick trip around part of the Cascade Loop. It was a beautiful day and we covered a lot of ground.

Joy and me.

Joy and Jerry at Ross Lake.

Dave and Jerry by the Skagit River. I think...

Jerry and me.

Dave, Joy, and Jerry.

Hannah and James (AKA Bobby James if the girls had their say) came to visit. I really wanted to show her one my favorite places, Mount Rainier.

Here is Bobby James in front of the mountain. He had a tough week where he got a little too confident in his ability to climb steps. Hence the road rash on his nose.

Here we are at Paradise. Snow in the middle of summer.

I think the reflection of Dave, Hannah, and James in my glasses is pretty cool.

The color in that river is breathtaking.

I can't wait for summer 2012!

Vegas Vows - 11-11-11

Ashley and I bonded during her first year at BYU when I lived in Heber. I adore the girl and so does her Uncle Dave, so on 11-11-11, we headed to Las Vegas to attend her wedding. It was a beautiful day and a beautiful ceremony.

All the Westra siblings came.

When they are all together it's like they finally realize that they outnumber their parents and then all the jokes start, some more appropriate than others, and neither Joy nor Jerry can stop them. In fact, Jerry spent a good portion of the trip analyzing their genetics and blaming most of their antics on his wife's side of the family. The truth is, both of them really want to share the credit because they raised nine really great kids. It was so fun to have everyone together.
Here are some of the cutest grandkids around.

I sure like this guy.

Justin literally had this football in his hand the entire weekend. My favorite moment was when we were all gathered in the very crowded lobby of the temple and he threw a long pass across the room to an unsuspecting patron/receiver.

A lovely bride.

Have you every seen a church gym transform into something this amazing?

Little Jack.

I learned that there is a long standing tradition in this family of harrassing newly married couples. Only Jerry could say for sure which side of the family this genetic trait can be traced to. I heard horror stories of brothers calling Todd and Sharolyn's room every ten minutes all night on their wedding night. And something about one of Scott's friends handcuffing himself to Jenn on their wedding night. I was starting to understand why Dave treated our wedding night destination as top secret miltary intelligence.

So the uncles started early trying to figure out where Scotty and Ashley were staying. They were badgering the bridesmaids, setting up traps, holding meetings in the hall, anything to get this information. Ashley, being the bright girl that she is, held strong and didn't fall for any of it. All the uncles left the reception defeated. So imagine our surprise when Dave and I pulled in to our hotel and saw this.

There are 155,000 rooms in the 113 hotels in Las Vegas. I looked it up. Vegas is all about odds, but really, what are the odds that they were staying in our very hotel? We left them alone and made sure that the uncles did too. Ashley heard we were staying there and invited us to breakfast with them on the day we left. We were very lucky to get to spend some time with them before we all went our separate ways. It was one of my favorite parts of the trip.

Congratulations Scotty and Ashley! We love you!

Giving Thanks

We moved in to our new house a few weeks before Thanksgiving. We were so excited about our new kitchen and actually having space, we volunteered to host it this year. And it only seemed fair since Julie is always the host. So we (for the remainder of this post when you read "we", I really mean "Dave") got started early. We were in charge of the turkey.
Gary made his signature brussel sprouts dish. It was the first time I ever had them! I don't know why they get such a bad rap. They were really good!

The kids played Operation while we were preparing dinner.

Except this kid. We told him that if he wanted a seat at the table, he'd have to build it himself. Thanks, Vincent!

Dinner was served. Our first meal in our new dining room.

It was odd how this moment....

...quickly turned in to this moment.

Why go outside in the cold when you can shoot out of your very own kitchen window? I guess when your neighbors are used to squatters living in your house, they are extra tolerant of shooting out of windows. We hope this patience lasts.

Being the sporting men that they are, they finally decided to take it outside.

Meanwhile, Aunt Julie was making gingerbread houses with the kids. She brought all the extra nice tools and candy that we weren't willing to buy. One of the many reasons our kids love their Aunt Julie.

This is one of my favorite series of pictures. First, Natalie showing off her gingerbread house.

Now we have Tiff who is trying to show off her house but her sister is stealing her shot. Note how she faces the camera, smiles, and shoves her sister all at the same time. A masterful job.

Finally, a solo shot.

And here is Andrew's mini house.
We had a lot of dessert to choose from. Here is David's beautiful apple pie. And, yes Joy, he still uses vodka to make the crust. But hey, we are the sort of folk that take screens out of our windows and shoot through them so are you really that surprised?

We gave thanks for our new house and for being able to spend our first Thanksgiving in it with a great family.