Lesson 48: Hippo Birdie To MEEEEEE

Yesterday was my birthday!!! It was a long birthday weekend!!!! Tyler surprised my by not only arranging to have Jenae fly up from Utah to visit but also throwing a puppy themed party at Red Robin for me. :) No one actually took pictures at the restaurant so I set up all the decorations at home afterward.

For the puppy theme there were napkins, balloons, a sign, gift bag, stickers, candle, hats and I got to wear dog ears and yes I wore those during dinner at Red Robin.

I could not convince Jenae to put her hat back on for the photo.

On my actual birthday Jenae and I went out to breakfast in town. I tried to take a few pictures of us and since none of them turned out I just took a pic while we were walking. Action shot!

Easily the highlight of Jenae's weekend visit here: I have been getting my free scoop of Baskin Robbins ice cream for a few years now. Yesterday I had my coupon and suggested to Jenae that we stop by the BR on our walk to get my free scoop. I showed the man at the counter my coupon and he said he needed to see some ID. The coupon has Whitney "Mann" as the name so I showed him my licence with my old name on it. Since that ID had a hole punch in it the man said it was no good. I showed him my new ID and mentioned how I got married recently and that is why the name change...

He replied: the pictures are different...

I know, I just got married so I got a new ID

The first name is different....

No it's not

One says Whitney and one says Frances

No, they both say WHITNEY FRANCES as I mentioned I just got married

Well since this ID is incorrect I can't take it because I am not in charge and the manager is not here so you will have to come back when they are here.....

We left and Jenae burst out laughing, the very idea that I had to show two forms of ID to get a free mini scoop or ice cream was too much for her. You would think I was trying to get alcohol or something. Jenae laughed for about 2 hrs. I was more in the mindset of YOU RUINED MY BIRTHDAY!

Upon returning home we found Tyler and he joined us to the next town over where I was able to get my free scoop no questions asked AND no ID necessary.

This BR even received the patronage of Tyler and Jenae.

On the way up to drop Jenae off at the airport we stopped at Coulon Beach to walk around.

Jenae was in love with the trees here and all the pretty colors.

Let's take a picture imitating the trees with our arms out....

Wait that one was no good take one as a tree flowing in the wind.... yes I think we got it.

Before walking around the water we three stopped by Kidd Valley to get some hot chocolates. There was a random statue so we all took pictures next to it in the same pose.

I don't think Jenae got the idea...

A beautiful fall day :)

A beautiful fall day.... from another angle.

An open interpretation of LIFERING

Tyler and me imitating Jenae scrunching her neck in photos.

Jenae and the modern art

Sculptors must at some point while making art realize that their work is just going to be used as a means of creating funny pictures for tourists.

The result of running out of poses.

Lesson 47: Happy Halloweener :)

This weekend spending time with Tyler and Max... Max loves kisses

He was pooped from a long walk in the morning

We decided to decorate for Halloween and this being our first Halloween married we didn't have any decorations. Tyler tried on some funny masks while we were shopping. Here he is as... some sort of scary pumpkin man. Nothing is scarier than a half man half gourd.

I take that back... there ARE some things scarier than pumpkin head.

Tyler makes friends everywhere he goes.

We decorated the apartment and lit all the candles

Those two pumpkins are the trick or treat pales I grew up using. When I was little I used the little pumpkin and when I was older I had to get a bigger pumpkin... naturally.

We hung a couple spider webs that look awesome. The other spiderweb is in the main entryway. I can walk under it but Tyler will be spending 3 weeks ducking when he walks around. We also bought a black light bulb which is lame, some skeleton straws and cupcake holder things.

Lesson 46:

Thanks to everyone for the compliments on Max's doggie dinosaur costume :) It is great to have so much support and encouragement!

I am not sure what my next project will be... There is a lot of leftover fabric from my previous creations. I may collaborate them to finally make a cover for my sewing machine. According to the how-to-sew book, my machine should ALWAYS be covered when not in use. This prevents dust and other elements from damaging the valuable piece of equipment. Right now it just has a piece of cloth draped over it.

Tyler has been doing AMAZING in his classes. He has been getting 100% on all his quizzes in physics. The fridge is slowly filling up with his gold star papers. In his English class the teacher posted a paragraph on the class website citing Tyler's assignment as a great example to reference for other students doing the assignment. :)

These achievements are all especially impressive when you note that Max and I constantly interrupt his studies vying for his attention.

Lesson 45: Pictures from our first summer as a married couple...

As the title of this post states these are just some pics my dad gave me from this past summer. This is the day after our wedding spent opening cards and gifts from friends and family.
This is a good picture of Tyler.Those Oreos are loooooong gone.

And there was the HPPV competition in Eastern WA. Tyler is standing next to his teammates and their awesome bike made completely of paper (except the chain).

It was a pretty long weekend for Tyler and Max.

AND we got MAX this summer!!! :) This is the very first day we had him! Tyler's hair is out of control and against my better judgement I was blond.

Awwww! All he does is love On the 4th of July my family hiked up at Mud Mt. Dam. One end of the trail leads to the river. Tyler, against my mom and my warnings and threats scaled down the steep drop off so he could "touch the water".

I am probably overprotective because I did not even let Max walk around near the drop-off.

This photo is recreating a picture we had taken a year earlier before we were even dating when family and friends went for a hike at Mud Mt. Dam. Those who came remember it as the endless hike where we all got completely lost and were out in the middle of nowhere. It was a lot of fun.

Contrary to what these pictures look like, Max DID walk the majority of the hike.

All the dogs were dressed up for the 4th of July. Before we started out one of the park rangers warned us that there had been a bear sighting recently and what attracts bears more than a few flamboyant foo foo dogs?

Lesson 44: How to spend your Saturday

Yesterday (Friday), I had the day off but Tyler had to go into work for a few hours so I drove him up to work and hung out around the shopping center. After about 2 1/2 hours at the mall I decided to head over to JoAnn Fabrics to waste some more time. I was not expecting to buy anything there. Then I saw this pattern for a dinosaur dog costume. Everyone there must have been getting their costumes ready for Halloween because I had to wait in line for half an hour to get my fabric cut. The total cost for all the supplies and the pattern was only $9 which is awesome because that is cheaper than buying a dog costume...

Sewing is a lot of fun. I am glad I bought my Brother sewing machine. At one point though I had to wake up Tyler to get his help. It is great being married to a drafter because his entire job is being able to interpret drawings and instructions and he does it REALLY well at it. He helped me (while half awake) determine the proper direction to sew on the sleeve cuffs since the written instructions were not very clear.
Max makes a great dinosaur RARRRRR!

Also this weekend was the annual Opfar family trip to Maris Farms. Tyler's entire family was there. It was cool that everyone could fit it into their schedules.

We started out our fun day with trying to lasso stationary cattle.

I think Tyler eventually gave up and just lassoed Karleene his sister-in-law.

I wasn't much better, but just look at that focus.

Tyler's dad turned on Reggie and was able to create the comedic highlight of the trip.

Tether ball was next to by dominated by our family... James beat Karleene (his wife), Reggie beat James, Tyler beat Reggie and then Loni beat Tyler. So I guess that would make Loni the tether ball champion.

Loni and Stella getting ready to go down this cool PVC pipe slide.

There is also a random tube to clime through which most of the family took a crack at. Tyler was giving Ellis a little shake to liven up the tube fun.

Ellis at the end of the tube.

Kristy looking great and munchkin Stella on the pony rides.

Everyone had some lunch. Tyler ate an enormous ear of corn. :) He was making so many funny faces while I was trying to take a picture but the camera took forever to load, so I got just a cute pic.

And that was our fun Saturday. :)