Monday, October 22, 2012

"Nawlins" - aka: New Orleans

I'm sure many of you know that Troy and I had a small get away to New Orleans! Troy had a conference there so I met him a few days after he had been there. Troy's parents were gracious and wonderful
enough to come to CDA to take care of a sweet children while we had a much needed, relaxing, stress free vacation! And that we did, I can honestly say I was relaxed the whole time, we stayed up late at night, and slept in as late as we wanted  to and got to see some pretty cool things and hang out with our old college friends! We took a city tour, seeing some of the devestation from hurricane Katrina, it was very sad, and became very real, actually seeing the houses that had numbers painted on them to tell you how many bodies were found in the house. We also visited the old above ground cemetaries, like you see on the movies. Bourbon St. was not that appealing, it smelled bad and had some CRAZY people hanging out there. We spent most of our evenings on Frenchman St. to listen and dance some pretty darn good jazz music, and I don't even like jazz. The last night we were there we attended the UI vs. LSU game. Talk about southern hospitality, we went tailgating, and man do they know how to tailgate there. We were provided with all the food and drinks we wanted! The game was a blow out, like we expected but it was still fun to experience big time college football! Troy and I flew out the next morning at 6 am, we were ready to get home to our kids after a wonderful vacation!






                                                      At the oldest bar in the country!





                                                                   My BFF Mary!                                                             


                                                        UI clan!!



                                parents away, the kids will play! They had a blast with nana and papa!




Monday, September 3, 2012

Summer update

Well, we survived our 10 days in Arkansas, blinked, and realized it is Labor Day and summer is over.  We had another whirlwind summer that included a trip to Gooding, Troy's first triathlon, a day on Silver Mountain, and of course a camping trip.  The camping trip included a train ride up near Metaline Falls, WA.  For people living around north Idaho/Spokane, this train ride is a must.  It starts in Metaline Falls, and travels about 10 miles through the mountains and along the Pend O Reille river to Ione, and then back to Metaline Falls.  The best part is that you are riding in open cars so the views are amazing.

Here are a few pics from the summer adventures.  Now onto Fall which will include Rylan's first go at soccer, Kamryn doing dance class, and hopefully a 40" steelhead or two for Troy (and Katie trying to stay sane through all of it).

TRAIN RIDE 




CAMPING



SILVER MOUNTAIN

  




CHORES


GOODING


  
  

TRIATHLON (Troy's out there somewhere)


Monday, July 16, 2012

Vacation in Arkansas . . . Yes, Arkansas

We just returned from a 10 day vacation to Arkansas to see Troy's family (his mom's family lives down there). To say it was HOT would be an understatement (107 our first day there), but we spent most of our time in the water - pools, lakes, and some rain - so it was a blast. It was the first time our kids and Troy's brother's kids had been down there, so everyone had lots of new people to meet.

Ry Ry getting his 'vaca' on


4th of July on the Arkansas River


Granny helping the kids feed the fish in her pond

Lovin' time with cousin Sophia

Rylan (and Nemo water wings) adding some water to the lake


Our best attempts to make the Olympic team


Kamryn loved her some southern hospitality from Pop
 Right after this picture at the zoo, chaos ensued as a bird bit Rylan, then one landed on Kamryn, and then landed on Troy's head. The kids were not fans of the birds after that little adventure.




Rylan was also not a fan of the very loud thunder storm that rolled through while we were visiting the zoo.



The kids got addicted to fishing just like their daddy!

Love this picture


If you look real close, you can see a little fish hanging on the end of the line.  Like any good fisherman, they both said the fish was 'THIS BIG'.  Quick learners!