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Our rafting pictures from last weekend are in! We rafted the Deschutes River for the "Splash for Pink" event as a fundraiser for breast cancer services. Believe it or not, I have lived near this river my whole life and have never rafted it before. I will be signing up again next year!

This is the Wapinitia rapids...class 3 (I think) and not so bad.

Next is Box Car. It's a class 4 and was pretty tough. We made it just fine but our raft was completely full of water towards the end. Yikes-- but what a rush!!

Finally, this is Oak Springs...another class 4. We were good until our guide, Tony, said..."now remember what I said if you fall out...hold your breath". What, are you fricken' kidding me?? lol, no problem...

TTFN!

Home from the beach...

The beach. I love the beach. There is nothing more rejuvenating then spending time by the ocean and remembering that there is so much more to life than the everyday doldrums. We just got back from 3 days in Lincoln City and spent time checking out some of the sights up and down the coast near where we stayed. Not to mention Dave and I did a little gambling...lol.

These first pictures are of Gabe playing on the beach. Even in the freezing cold drizzle, Gabe could spend hours playing in the sand.

Seagulls. I love seagulls. I know they are probably considered the scourge to the coastal dwellers but I think they are cool.

Gabe playing in the tide pools. I kept telling him "be careful, the rocks are slippery and if you fall you'll get cut". Uh-huh, who falls? Me. Right on my rear end. Dropped my camera, cut my hand, and looked like an idiot. You know, one of those falls that you jump right up and look to see how many people witnessed your extreme gracefulness? Yep. Me. lol

This was the coolest purple starfish. I've seen them before in aquariums but not in nature. It was right up against one of the rocks we were exploring.

During our visit to Newport, we stopped and toured the Yaquina Head Lighthouse. It was really cool and we climbed all 107 stairs to the top. I didn't count them mind you...Dave did and Gabe was convinced there was 1247. My thighs thought there was 1247 steps too. Geez, I'm out of shape.

This is the beautiful, killer staircase. At the top they give you a button that says "I survived the climb".

Ok, just a cool picture of the light bulbs that light the sucker up. No more whale oil, lard or kerosene.

Thats enough pictures for now. Thanks for stopping by!

Digging up the past...

in Sumpter. We love everything about Sumpter from the huge flea market to the gold panning down by the old gold dredge. We had a great day and even found some gold.

This was the park ranger lady showing Gabe how to pan for gold. She was a tad bit grumpy but Gabe didn't notice.

Gently swirrling and dipping the pan down in the water allows the lighter stuff to float to the top and out of the pan. The gold is the heaviest and tends to stay near the bottom. The whole experience was fun and took me back to the days when we used to camp in Sumpter when I was little.

Dave and I joined in and we all brought home a little baggy of gold, Iron Pyrite, and garnets.

This is a picture of the old gold dredge. This was one of three that worked the valley and still sits where is was taken out of production in the 50's. Rella gave us the tour and she was the nice park ranger. lol

Thanks for stopping by!

When dad's away...

Mom and Gabe play. Today we went to the park, had a McDonald's picnic, shopped for Dave's birthday present, and planted part of the garden. Such a great day!

Citrus Tree Studio "Delightful Things" Kit

Have you seen the May kits from Citrus Tree Studio yet? If not you've got to check them out. I played with the "Delightful Things" kit and fell in love with the birdhouses!

Here are the projects I created with the kit...

This final project uses the add-on Home Basics Canvas Page. I did a lot of stitching on this one and loved how it turned out. I think I'll pick up a few more for gifts...very quick and very easy!

Thanks for looking!

Mothers Day Weekend

This weekend has been a weekend of projects and precious moments spent with family. Yesterday we went to Dufur and finished the deck on Dave's sisters house. The deck gives Bill and Joan an nice place to sit in the sunshine during the day.

This is a picture of Dixie and the boys planting strawberry plants for our Mothers Day gifts. Aww...

Gabe the climber...

Love this picture of Gabe and his "Dufur grandma". He loves her so much...

It's a Mothers Day tradition for us to prep the garden area for planting. Dave tried out a little Mantis tiller and it worked wonders in the boxes. The one we used was borrowed but now we must own one...

Just a fun picture of Jason. As many pictures as I seem to take I have very few of my brother.

Jaron and grandma. For some reason Jaron managed to get out of performing ANY work today.

Gotta love this picture. When Dave turned on the water to test the lines we had a few mini-floods. Yep, the Mantis worked very well and clipped some of the water lines. $25 and two trips to the hardware store later we were back in business!

Hope your Mothers Day was as wonderful as mine. Thanks for stopping by!

Student of the Month

We have a Student of the Month in our household. Gabe finally did it...he was able to stay Safe, Respectful and Responsible for the whole month of April. Yep, that means no trips to the yellow circle. lol. Look at our happy boy!

The first thing he did when he got his medal home was hang in right next to his shooting trophy. It's very sweet!