Camera's Back!

I am so glad to have my camera back! I found that I didn't take as many pictures as I had thought on Easter. It was a great weekend in Bend. We stopped at Foster Lake on our way. Daniel was pretty adamant about finding a new place to fish along the way and Isaiah agreed. As you can see by the gray clouds in the background, I wasn't too excited to get out and fish. It did turn out to be a success however, and I was glad we stopped.

I tried to get Isaiah to keep his coat on but as you can see it found a place on the rocks beside him. (Others who have boys may agree with me. I have decided that coats are something boys drag along with them because their mothers insist. They don't quite understand why they have them but they know the sooner they take the coat the faster they can get out the door. Poor coat however, rarely gets to fulfill it's purpose. They are merely drug along only to be plopped on the ground at the destination of boy. In many sad cases coat is left on playground, bus, or park bench of the last destination of boy, many times never to be seen again by family).

You cannot see the wind in the pictures but it was blowing. My hands were freezing (I was fishing myself. I never want to stop but as soon as I am out there my competitive side overtakes me. It is me against the fish. I have not caught one yet, but I know that once I do I will feel more guilt than victorious, but this still does not stop me from trying).

I decided I was cold enough and I told everyone they had one more cast. Then we heard, "I got one dad, I got one!" I did not react right away. We hear this many times while fishing. Isaiah feels a tug and thinks he has caught a fish. We rush over, camera ready, net ready, only to find he has snagged the bottom of the lake, river, stream, etc. This time he really did have one! We were so excited for him. I didn't make it over in time to get a picture of the fish. Isaiah was holding it and it squirmed out of his hands and back to freedom. It was a successful stop, cold weather and all.

Pink cheeked boys waiting patiently for Jarem to get some eggs before they darted off. There was still snow on the ground in Bend.

There off!

Thanks Debora for always being such a great host. We love coming to visit!

I played basketball until about 10:30 tonight and now I can't sleep. We have such a fun group of girls that get together and play basketball at the church every Tuesday night. I have had a blast playing with them. Tonight only 7 girls showed up but six of us were from second ward so we were pretty impressed with ourselves. I LOVE basketball and I love getting the extra exercise but I really look forward to the laughs and fun we have. It makes me feel like I am 16 again. It only takes me a few times up and down the court to remind me that I AM MOST DEFINITELY NOT!!

I am so bummed I am not able to post my Easter pictures. We went to my sisters house in Bend for Easter and GC weekend. We had such a good time. My sister and I planned this nice great meal for Sunday. Daniel and Hodge put on fun Easter egg hunts for the kids in the back yard. They still have snow over there so we stayed close to home. Anyway I bought this nice $50 organic ham and made one of my favorite desserts. It's a mint ice cream pie with Oreo cookie crust. Yum! I didn't get to enjoy any of it! Sunday morning we were all watching General Conference and I started to feel a little sick. I made it through the whole session but immediately got in bed after that. I slept on and off, only waking up when I felt like I was going to vomit but never could. That is the worst state of sick to me. Just feeling like crud waiting to throw up and get it over with. Well about 6 or 7 hours later I still hadn't thrown up. I did wake up every now and then to hear the happy voices of everyone enjoying Easter dinner. I was so bummed to have missed out. Then it came time to go. I still felt bad and still hadn't thrown up. Daniel came in to ask what I needed him to pack. I am a horrible sick person. When I feel like that all I want to do is lye there and NOT MOVE, and now Daniel is expecting me to get in the car and drive for 3 hours! Seriously though what other option did we have? Daniel packed our things, and gathered "just in case she throws up materials" for the road. It consisted of two gallon zip lock bags and paper towels. I'm sorry if I am disgusting anyone here. Now here I am sick AND grumpy headed for home. About 30 minutes down the road it came. I told Daniel to pull over but thankfully we had the zip lock bags because our car floor would have been toast. I hate throwing up but even worse I hate throwing up when people can see or hear me. Apparently I don't mind blogging about it though. Well I felt much better afterwards but we still had two and half hours to go.
When we got to the pass there was snow, which would slow us down at least another half hour. Then we come across this SUV facing toward us on our side of the road in the ditch. At least two cars passed by in front of us and possibly more before that. I couldn't believe no one was stopping! Daniel and I pulled over to see what we could do, well what he could do since I was basically lifeless in the passenger seat. It was a young mom with a toddler. To make a long story short, with the assistance of another man with a big truck and a tow, they got her out of there. I was glad we could help but man was I glad to get home. What should have been a 3 hour trip tops, ended up taking 5 hours.
Oh yeah back to why I don't have any pictures. Daniel forgot to pack our camera when we left Bend so it's his fault:)

Well I guess I will try and get some sleep now. Happy Cinco de Mayo everyone!!

Spring Break

I really love blogging, I do. I think I always wait a couple weeks to post because I love the little trip down memory lane from a not too distant memory. I don't think these pictures are in any particular order. If I start fussing with all that it ends up taking me too long and then I give up.

We had a great spring break this year. The weather was AMAZING! I can't remember the last spring break we've had with actual sun. The first part of our break brought us to Astoria. Astoria, oh how I love you. I have many, many fond memories visiting cousins, uncles, aunts, grandma out on the Fernhill Holly Farm. Literally acres and acres of land to explore. This town also holds special memories for me because it was down on the docks with the barking seals that my then boyfriend proposed to me. Below is a picture of the tree in my grandma's yard that Daniel carved our names into. He started to carve STEPHANIE and after he got to STE he decided that was good enough. This tree brings a smile to my face.


Beautiful grandma Timmerman's house. She has lived in this house for at least 30 years alone since the passing of my grandpa. She took care of the yard, house, and garden up until pretty recently. She's 91 and we all decided it was time to force her to relax. My cousin Liz and her husband live with her now and they are so good to her.

My sister Lindsey and I took our kids here for a couple of days (Daniel had to stay home and work. He was pretty bummed). You can barely see the kids at the bottom of the hill. I just loved watching the kids run around with so much space and freedom. They are about the age that I remember the most as a kid. We would wake up in the morning, eat breakfast, and not be home until we got hungry for dinner.

The kids running down grandma's hill and off to another adventure. Below the grass on the right is actually a very old concrete swimming pool that was there when my mom was growing up. I've never actually seen it full and functioning but the thing is pretty ancient and cool. We used to love and play in there after a long rain.

Did I mention that the Timmerman's have amazing gardens? This is my aunt Evelyn's garden. She is prepping it for the season. This is my DREAM garden. You should see it when it is in full production. All kinds of yummy fruits and veggies to eat fresh!

I had to snap a quick shot of the boys in the loft playing in their PJ's. These are the exact teenage mutant ninja turtles that my cousins and I played with growing up.

My cousin Jerry lives with my aunt still. He has epilepsy and has to take medication that affects him pretty heavily. These kids were fascinated with him! He is a very good artist. The kids were all huddled around him watching him sketch a dragon.

Jeffrey and Isaiah sitting in Dieter's makeshift swing. Dieter is my cousin Greg's son and he is just about one of the cutest kids ever.

The kids running off to more adventures. This one is on the other side of the farm.

This adventure brought them to a dead porcupine. They drug it down, with a stick, to this bush. They said it was his burial site. Tanner thought he was pretty brave by pulling out a few quills. I thought he was as well.

What a great trip!

The latter part of the week Daniel took some time off of work so we could go camping. Unfortunately the weather did not cooperate. We still found some great things to do here in Corvallis. The night before Daniel and Isaiah ventured out to the river to drop our crawdad trap. We got up early the next morning to go retrieve it.

Unfortunately it had rained all night and the water level had risen so much that we couldn't get out to it the next day. It's still out there. Just waiting for some sunny days to bring the water down.

It was so early that Daniel fell asleep at the wheel and Isaiah had to take over.


Later that day we decided to drive along the Alcea and find a new fishing spot. Isaiah's friend Gavin came with us which was a lot of fun.

Isaiah caught his first fish!! Daniel has been dying for this to happen for him. From the mouth of Isaiah, "I've caught fish before in ponds filled with fish but never in the wild! This is awesome!" For the rest of the day he was saying, "I can't believe I caught a fish! Can you believe I caught a fish?)

Gavin and Isaiah. They had so much fun together. We were hoping Gavin would catch one as well. Maybe next time.

I ventured off to look for a more private spot and just about died when I almost stepped on this snake. I came running down the path yelling, "There's a huge snake down there." Instantly three boys running the opposite way back down the path to catch it. Classic boy/girl difference.

Life is Good!

MARCH MADNESS!!

One of my favorite events of the year! I love watching college basketball and I love a little friendly competition.

Our championship predictions.

Dan: Kentucky vs. Kansas with Kentucky winning (taking the safe route)

Isaiah: BYU vs. Old Dominion with BYU winning (BYU being one of the few teams he actually knew)

Me: Syracuse vs. Duke with Duke winning (I don't particularly care for Duke. I can't help that they are a good team though)

There have already been some pretty amazing games. Several upsets and several buzzer beaters. Isaiah gets very into the games. It's so fun!

What are your predictions?

Basketball

I was organizing my photos tonight when I noticed a couple things I forgot I wanted to post. About a month ago Isaiah lost his first front tooth. I knew this day would come and I wasn't too excited about it. I thought it would make him look so old and I would be sad. I was wrong. Everything is making him look so old, but I am okay with it now!


Isaiah played on his first basketball team and I got to coach it! Words cannot express how much fun it was. Isaiah really loves playing basketball. There are three basketball hoops in our culdesac and if it's not raining, and even sometimes when it is, he's out there playing. I love playing with him and I love watching him play.

I had to scan this photo in because when I was younger my dad coached my basketball team, and several of my sisters, and we all have a picture just like this one.....except my dad was rockin' an awesome 80's mustache!

A couple of years ago I coached 7th grade basketball for the Future Spartans program. This was a lot more laid back and fun. It was so rewarding to be a part of those kids first experience with basketball.

Isaiah using all his power to shoot the three. In one of the games Isaiah stole the ball and had a wide open layup at the other end of the court. He was dribbling up the court and I saw him slowing down to shoot it right at the three point line. Just as I was yelling, "keep going!" he swished it. He was very excited along with his teammates. I was glad he made it but knew this would only encourage more outside shooting and possible ball hogging. Of course it did. He thought he was on fire and attempted to shoot almost every time he had the ball. I couldn't help but laugh to myself, but also had to have the "being a team player" talk with him later.

A little fancy ankle cross shot here:) I had such a blast coaching and can hardly wait until next year!

Sister's Weekend

A weekend away with my sisters! All eight of us were able to get together and enjoy a weekend on the Oregon Coast. We stayed in Daniel's family coast house. We were so lucky to have amazing weather for our retreat.



In order from oldest to youngest, right to left: Michele, Erica, Debora, Bridget, Lindsey, Mindy, myself, and Monica.


My parent's floors were being redone so they came out for a place to stay. It was fun to have them there.

My sweet sister Mindy from Idaho.


My two oldest sisters, Michele and Erica, are always texting now. They have teenagers, can you tell?

Still texting.

There are a few things that will almost always happen when we get together, and competition is one of them. Eating, playing games, long chats are some others. Eating is what brought us outside to walk the hill. I don't know who suggested it but eventually we were having races up the hill. The youngest Monica won. Way to go!

The weather was so nice. We had many of our long chats outside on the deck.


Thank you to my sisters for such a great weekend! You are all amazing mother's, wives, and sister's that I look up to. Can't wait to do it again.

Decisions

Things have been a little stressful around here lately. About two or three months ago my boss called and offered me a promotion. This would require me to be working at the office which meant a move for us. After many discussions with Daniel and much prayer, we decided it would be a smart thing to do given the economy right now and Daniel's line of work. I had a meeting with my boss and a few other people about a month ago to discuss the changes that would be ahead. I had until after spring break to find a place to live in Forest Grove or Hillsboro and then I would start training. My house hunting was very slow. For some reason I couldn't decide on a location. Daniel came home last week with news from his boss that he was being moved to the project in Corvallis that he was originally hired to do. I should have been excited about this news because Daniel has been commuting two hours each day and we were both getting very tired of it, but my promotion ruined that for me. The stress of this all was a little too much for me so we decided to head out to the coast for some R&R while we contemplated our options. We both decided that I would turn down the promotion and stay here. The other options would be too taxing on our family life and not worth pay offs. Now that the decision is made I am happy because I do love Corvallis.

I haven't posted in a long time and I am tired of seeing my Christmas post on there......but now I am adding more:) We did so many fun things and I got too busy after the Holidays to post them so I am going to do that now.

Every year the "Vrtiska" side of our family celebrates Christmas with a service project and family dinner. My sister Erica hosted it and we had a blast. Santa comes and all the kids get to sit on his lap and receive a present. Santa is actually Grandpa but some of the younger kids are still fooled. Santa as a bell he rings and says "HO HO HO" A LOT! He makes the night so fun. I am sad that I didn't take any pictures of Santa this year.

For our service project this year we made Holiday signs to give away. My amazing sister Bridget organized it all and we had a great time making them together.

I had to add these pictures of my sweet nieces Alex and Lauren. They are so excited when their aunties come over. They make you feel like a Rock Star. They're adorable!



Isaiah was thrilled to sit at the little, little kids table. The Little kids table was full. I love how Jeffrey is looking at Isaiah in this picture. He really adores Isaiah. Last time we went to visit them his mom said, "Isaiah's coming to visit today."

Jeffrey:"I LOVE Isaiah!"

When we showed up Jeffrey followed Isaiah around the whole time mimicking everything he did. Very cute.

The "Dewey" side of our family got together at the coast house for a little celebrating. It was a really fun weekend and it was nice to see family that we don't always get to see.

Isaiah very excited to open his first present this Holiday season.

Grandma Dewey's toys are always a big hit for the kids. The new toys that trip were Gormiti's. We ended up getting Isaiah some for Christmas. Isaiah was talking to Grandma Dewey the other day on the phone and they were comparing their Gormiti's. Each of them have different powers and some are bigger than others so Isaiah was trying to figure out if his army was more powerful than grandma's.

Christmas bells are one of my favorite things. I wanted to purchase some this year but just about died when I saw the price. I called my MIL and asked her if she owned any. Of course she did and I asked her to bring them when she came. It was so cute and fun to watch the kids, and Grandma, create some festive music.

This guy won the cute prize. He was so fun to watch. He only had one note but he took it very seriously. His face was very serious watching for grandma to point to him and when she did he would brighten up, ring his bell, and then he would lower his eyes down and smile shyly. It was adorable.

Grandpa tried hard but it's really hard to get a picture out of Isaiah anymore.

Now back to the Vrtiska's we go for a New Year's celebration.

We love to eat in my family.

My nieces brought over their Guitar Hero. My niece Ashley above is AMAZING at guitar. She plays expert and rarely misses a note.

Grandpa really got into it and decided to pull out all of his cowboy hats.

Seriously, who holds drum sticks like that? Absolutely NO skills whatsoever in the drumming world. I did provide entertainment for my two sisters watching and laughing at me though!

After our New Year celebration we headed off to Bend to visit my sister Debora's family. Above the boys are in their "ninja" clothes, as they like to call them. We were heading up to the mountain to go tubing.

from left to right: Justin, Stephan, Isaiah, and Jarom. They were so excited.


Isaiah could hardly contain himself. It was a little weird for me this year because Isaiah is getting older and so are his cousins. The boys went up and down the mountain all on their own.

There's nothing like sitting in the hot tub in the snow.