Um...Hi!

The guilt of not posting for over a month has gotten to me. So here it is. I don't really have a lot to report so I'm going to go back a while and tell you about my trip to Portland.

So in the end of July/begining of August Kevin and I went to Portland for his cousins wedding. It was also rather convenient that Donele lives there so we got to hang out with her. It was such a fun weekend. On Friday afternoon, when we got there, Donele took us through the gorge. Which is not an outdoor amphitheater that Dave Mathews likes to play at. That's in Seatle. This gorge was a geological gorge with lots of pretty waterfalls. Then on Friday night we went out with his cousins. For those of you who are in my family his cousins aren't like our cousins. He has 6, not 600. We had dinner then went back to the hotel and hung out in the bar. I was actually really worried about meeting his cousins but they were super nice so my worries were for nothing. On Saturday morning Donele and I went to the Saturday market. WOW! It was huge and fantastic. There were vendor stalls set up everywhere containing everything from food to homemade purses. I loved it there. Then I had to hurry back for the wedding. It was so nice. It was at a vineyard at the top of a valley. So pretty. And so hot. I forgot to mention that Portland was having record breaking temperatures while we were there (and before). So all of these activities are accompanied by buckets of sweat. Sunday morning was probably my favorite activity ... no they were all my favorite activities. On Sunday morning Kevin, Donele and I went to the largest bookstore I have ever been in. It was like from a dream, a really good dream. We actually spent about 3 hours wandering around the bookstore, and I don't know about Kevin and Donele but I didn't even see half of the store in that time. It was amazing. Plus they had used books mixed in with the new ones so if there was a book there that you wanted and they had a used copy you could get it for much cheaper. So great. I bought a few books as did Kevin. And he bought me the best reusable bag ever. It has a picture of a squirrel on it. That was our trip. Then we drove home tired and sad to be leaving.

I was so busy and so tired the whole weekend that I didn't take a lot of pictures but here is what I did get.

Here are some waterfall pictures from the gorge.

One with Kevin in front of the waterfall. Or I should say displaying the waterfall

And one with Donele in front of the waterfall.

A random but neat building at the top of a cliff.

And finally the vineyard. Technically it is the view from the vineyard, but it is pretty.

The end. More to come soon, I hope. (Like maybe some pictures of "THE WEDDING NOTEBOOK", eh, Tish.)

My Inner Tish

For the 4th of July Kevin and I were invited to his grandpa's cabin on Waitt's Lake (I think that's how you spell it). It was so beautiful, see the above picture, and just the break I needed. Plus Kevin's mom, dad and brother came up from Twin so we got to see them too.

This is his grandpa's cabin. It was super cute but small. I think there was technically only one bedroom. So Kevin's grandpa, mom and dad slept inside the cabin.


Kevin, his brother and I slept in the worlds largest tent. Seriously. Huge! It worked out nice because it was so ginormous that it actually had two rooms. So I slept in one room and Kevin and Bryan slept in the other.


Oh, and Kevin's grandpa is my hero. Once we got the tent set up he came out carrying this big bag and said "I have a blow up cot for sleeping, but of course it's for Misti because she's a woman." Love him! So this was my bed and poor Kevin and Bryan had to sleep on the cold hard ground.

Plus look at that view out my "window."


So here's the rundown of the weekend: Sleep, eat, relax, eat, swim, relax, eat, sleep ...

Ok, not quite. When we got there on Friday night Kevin, his brother and dad had to do some serious yard cleaning. They mowed the lawn, raked up a bunch of leaves, reattached the boat dock, cleaned off the outdoor tables, Bryan even painted the tables. But when they were done it looked nice and was so comfortable to hang out in. This is the table area with Kevin's mom and grandpa. Who, by the way are the best cooks ever! They cooked us all our food. Yummy!

This is the dock that we were swimming off of, with two random people sitting on the end of it. So, maybe not so random. I think it was actually their dock and we were borrowing it because Kevin's grandpas' dock had been demolished in a storm.

These were our swimmer-floaties. Ok, maybe not the funnest lake toys but they did the job. Plus they were hot pink and hot orange. Does it get better than that?

Here's my sweetie enjoying the wilderness, I think. Is he smiling?

Now the real picture of my sweetie.

Fine, he didn't read the whole time, but a good portion. He finished a whole book in two days.

The best part of the trip was the fireworks show. It turns out that a lot of people who have houses on the lake are uber-rich so we got quite a show. I'm sure it helped that we were next to an indian reservation too. Most of the docks around the lake were shooting off the big fireworks that shoot up in the sky and make that boom that shakes your heart. And each household had about 2 or 3 hundred of them (ok, exageration). We did sit out on the dock for about an hour and a half watching constant fireworks, though. So we had fireworks going off all around us and they were reflected in the lake. Basically, it was amazing. Oh, and at the end someone actually took their fireworks display out on a boat. That was even better, but it could of just been the thrill of wondering when the boat was going to catch fire.

Sunday morning I went and took a picture of the leftovers on the dock next to where we sat. Just to put it into perspective even more, these guys has a pretty pathetic stash compared to all the others.

Like I said before the weekend was brilliant and exactly the vacation I needed

A Date ... And Not The Edible Variety

Just a heads-up for those who haven't asked recently. Kevin and I have decided on Jan. 2nd for our wedding date. Good luck getting here. :) And you better be here!

I Think the Video Says it All!

So, here's some pictures of my beautiful engagement ring!



I know, it's super pretty right?!! I love it!

The End of a Nightmare

What?!! I am so not being overly dramatic in my title. It really was a nightmare. But I finally got my entertainment center sanded. These are my two new rules for sanding. First, don't just use the sandpaper that came with your sander. Go out and buy stripping sandpaper ... like 10 pakages of it. It works about 3 times faster than the stuff that came with your sander. Second, surfaces that face up are easy to sand surfaces that face down are hard to sand, but if you turn your entertainment center on its side or its top everything becomes a surface that faces up. And yes I only learned these rules 4 days ago when I was almost finished.

Anyway, here is the finished product. And by finished I mean just the sanding and I still have to stain and finish it.



Oh, and just in case you forgot what it looked liked originally, I stood up a cupboard door in front to remind you. Ok, fine I'm not done sanding yet, but I got the big part done. Come on!

Ginormous Update

Ok, so work got a little busy there for the last few weeks so I slacked on my blogging. But I did store up all the fun events that I wanted to blog about. These are the three I remember.

I take my car back to the dealership I bought it from to get my oil changed, a) because they have this deal where if I do I get free tires (which I did a few months ago) and b) because it gives me a good exuse to go to Spokane every three months. Anyway a few weekends ago Kevin and I went to Spokane to get my car serviced and just play around. We went to the mall and were walking aroung and he offered to treat me to a mani/pedi. I know, he's super! I had never had a mani or a pedi before so I agreed. It was super nice. I took pictures of my toes and fingers for all to see.

Toes:



As a side note, I started out the trip wearing cute pink mary jane's but realized it has to be a sin to cover up toes after a pedicure so I had to go to the shoe store and buy some new flip-flops. It was such a hard sacrifice.

Fingers:



So that was a fun new experience for me. By the way the manicure lasted about 4 days, but the pedicure lasted ... well ... until 2 days ago when I started gardening (see below).

Next, since Monday was Memorial day, Kevin had a day off work. So he and I decided to go down to Twin Falls and visit his family. His parents have a "cabin" by a river near Hagerman. So we all hung out there for the weekend. Here's a synopsis of the weekend: watch a movie, sleep, watch another movie, eat, watch another movie, sleep, go to bed and sleep some more, wake up, eat breakfast, watch a movie, sleep, ... I think you get the point. Anyway, it was super relaxing and a nice way to unwind after school is out. I hate to say it but I suck at taking pictures so I don't have any pictures to post of that. I'm sorry. I'm working on channneling my inner Tish.

Now, this week. The odd things outside my apartment that somewhat resembled flower gardens finally got to me.



You thought I was joking, didn't you?

I spent Tuesday and Wednesday cleaning them out (there is one on either side of my door). It was a lot of work! But I got it done. This is what they look like now.



You can't really see it but I left a rosebush in there. I hope it survives. It was barely alive because it was being choked out by all the grass and weeds. Oh, and as a side note, every muscle in my body has been aching since then.

That's all my updates for now. I will try and keep up better now that it's summer.

AAAAAARGH!

No time to post.
A week and a half left of school.
Super busy.