Seattle

For spring break this year we decided to take a trip to Seattle. We had no idea how expensive it was going to be! It's not cheap vacationing in a city. We had a lot of fun and we were glad that we got to go. It was something that we have been wanting to do for a long time.

On our way, prior to Daniel getting a speeding ticket, :) we stopped by a huge Cabella's store. I was excited because I have been looking for a heater we could use inside our tent when we go camping and had been unsuccessful until now! They call it, 'The Buddy,' and it sure is. I am going to get some good nights sleep this year at Crater Lake! Daniel says he's never going to be able to get Isaiah and I out of the tent. What can I say..it's stinkin' cold there in the mornings.

Back to Seattle...

We really enjoy cheese in our family. We eat a lot of it. There was a little restaurant by the Pike Street market that we went into a few times to have a cheese sandwich and watch cheese curds be made. I don't get big smiles like that from Isaiah unless he is really excited. Like I said, we really like cheese in our family!

The Pike Street Market was a fun daily event for us. We walked down from our hotel to eat fresh fruit and walk around. Isaiah couldn't get enough of the fish. There was this mackrel that he had his eye on the second he got there. He kept saying, "Dad can we pleeeaaasse buy this one?" Isaiah has never had mackrel before and I don't think he would ever want it again, but Daniel and I knew we were not buying that fish. We tried to distract him by the men tossing fish back and forth, but without fail he found his mackrel every day we went. He would say, "Look dad it's still here!! Can we buy it now?"

I think the crab and lobster dinner made up for the loss of the mackrel.

Isaiah and I were very excited about the tools we got to use to crack the crabs open.

We decided to spend the money and go to the top of the Space Needle. Once we were up there I said to Daniel, "I feel bad for the rest of our kids because we aren't coming up here again." It made me motion sickness, and honestly for what it cost I just don't know if it is worth it.

It was a pretty view from the top though.

Of course Isaiah loved the elevator ride. We should of asked for a few trips up and down so we could get our monies worth.:)

Isaiah turned into quite the photographer while we were there. We went into the butterfly exhibit and spent a lot of time there. Isaiah had so much fun walking around taking pictures of all the butterflies. Here are a few of his shots.

He looks very somber in this picture but he is actually trying to stand very still to see if a butterfly lands on him. I don't know why it creeps me out so much to have them flying so close to my face. They are very pretty. It was quite funny when this one butterfly took a liking to me. It fluttered over my head for at least 5 minutes. Daniel was so impressed he told me to start walking around to see if it followed me. It followed me 2 times around the entire loop. By the second time around I had everyone in the room watching to see when it would leave me. I felt like Snow White!!

We had some long days of walking around! It was nice to go back to the hotel and relax.

We met some kids at the pool one night that recommended this place called Game Works. We thought we would try it out. We aren't really a video game playing family so we stuck to the stuff we knew.

On our way home we stopped at the Rainforest Cafe. I went to one in Chicago when my sister graduated from college and I have wanted to take Isaiah to one ever since. The food is just normal, but it is a very cool environment. Here is some more of Isaiah's photography.

Isaiah has been on swim team for 3 months now. He started off swim lessons with Daniel when he was 3. He took 3 sessions of swim lessons at Osborne Aquatic Center to get to level 6 so he could join the team. He is on the Novice team and he is so small compared to all the other kids. He was so brave his first week. They just swim laps for about a half an hour and then do relays the rest of the time. He had never swam more than once up and back in a row before. He did a good job. The coach tells them which stroke they need to do and how many laps and then watches and instructs. His first day she had them do the butterfly. He had never done that one before and she didn't give a whole lot of instruction since most of the kids knew how. I was surprised at how well he did. There are a few short videos to follow of his first day on swim team.

This one is the dolphin kick. They were supposed to keep their hands at their sides.

This is stream line on their backs.

The good thing for me is that he actually looks forward to swim team. He is swimming three times a week for an hour each. He has gotten quite well and we are very excited to see him compete this summer!

No Smoking Please

I am not a real political person, at least not outwardly. I heard on the radio today the cigarette tax has gone up to $1.01 a pack! I don't smoke so you might ask yourself, "why do you care?" They were interviewing smokers to get their opinion about the tax. I felt like screaming through the speakers. Instead I will just dump all my thoughts into this nice little blog.

Right now a pack of cigarettes costs about $8.00. I would say an average smoker smokes at least a pack a day. One week would cost about $56. A month of smoking racks up to about $1,700!!! This just blows my mind. That is a house payment! I get so frustrated by this because I have worked in a doctors office for almost 10 years now and have dealt a lot with people in the welfare system. Please don't misunderstand me, I am completely for government help for those who are in need. I would have to say that 75% (and that is a very rough estimate) of the people that come to the doctors with the Oregon Health Plan are smokers. Seeing those numbers above I just don't get it. How can you afford to pay that much to smoke, but you can't afford to buy food or health insurance. It's already frustrating enough to see people smoking in the parking lot prior to appointments, with or without children. Okay on this one.

A man was asked what he thought about the cigarette tax. Now imagine an old, somewhat smoky, hillbilly voice, "I don't know why they keep raising the tax. I think they just want to pick on us ol' smokers. They try and say that it's bad for you and causes cancer and all that stuff, but I don't even know if I believe that."

There's not a whole lot I can say about that comment but WOW!

Oh, one last thing. Since the taxes keep going up on cigarettes people have now taken to buying tobacco by bulk and rolling their own cigarettes. As if it wasn't already addictive enough, now people are going to be sucking straight tobacco without a filter.

It's been awhile

Computer life has been quite frustrating for me lately. About a month ago I had to take my computer into work to have some things worked on. I haven't been able to log onto my own desktop since. I can't access any of my files and it is very frustrating. After a month of my computer tech trying to fix the problem remotely, I finally gave up and brought my computer back up to be fixed. I got a call today saying that everything is now working great. We shall see.

There are so many things that I want to post but I am going to wait until I can access my pictures. Life has been very busy, very exciting, and very fun. We are so excited that Daniel is officially into his last term of school. I can't believe it's already here. He only had two classes that he needed to take to graduate but needed at least 12 credits. He has a pretty fun schedule. He's taking tennis, weight lifting, swimming, golf, and a men's salsa class. I am glad he was able to take these classes because the last two terms have been pretty brutal. It's nice to have easy going, relaxed Daniel back. He makes me laugh!!

The most exciting news we have to report is that Daniel got a job! Hoffman Construction Company hired him. He interned with them for two years. They had 18 interns last year and they only extended offers to 2 of them. We feel so blessed that Daniel was one of them. It's not a very easy time for people to be graduating and looking for jobs. Daniel worked very hard for Hoffman and of course I felt he was definitely worth hiring.:) We will be staying in Corvallis for at least the next 2 years. We are all very excited because we love it here!