Sunday in the Gorge

Went to brunch this morning at the Skamania Lodge with Marilyn and Jim. Jim and I worked together for about 5 years at the County. They share a love of travel and we talked about all our recent trips. Marilyn is an expert on all things tea. You can visit her Marmalady's web site at www. marmaladys.com. I will vouch for her jams, my favorite is the cherry amaretto. She has recently branched out into tea related patterns after designing patterns for 25 years during her career. It was a great morning and incredible brunch and unbelievably another beautiful day. The sunset was all golden and matched the yellow leaves that are still clinging to the trees. It is evenings like this that remind me of why we love where we live. Pictures include: sunny morning looking into the gorge from Skamania Lodge; Martin near the Lodge Christmas tree; and an attempt to capture the gold of the sunset from our driveway.

Beautiful Saturday

What a day, second day with no rain. Very unusual for this time of year in this part of the Pacific Northwest. We did all our ususal household chores, as well as managed to get the dogs out for a walk at Lacamas Lake which is on the outskirts of Camas. It is a great place for a hike that isn't too far off the beaten path. The dogs are exhausted after an afternoon of chasing each other around and we are, too. Looking forward to a quiet evening at home and a mug of hot chocolate!

Toys for the Wolfhounds

We decided that Sailor and Heartman deserved some new toys on Thanksgiving since we would not be sharing any of the human food with them. So I purchased a bunny and some kind of a stuffed racoon for them. Guido is not a fan of stuffed animals so he ignored the commotion and returned to his snoozing. He knows not to get in between a wolfhound and his toy. Sailor loved his toy so much that he fell asleep with it in his mouth!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Just the two of us this year, but we managed to talk to all our family and cook a fabulous meal for the two of us. We spent the day relaxing, had munchies for lunch and had our dinner at 7pm. For all of our skeptics who were amazed that we still hadn't put our turkey in the oven by 3:30pm, we made it with all the sides done as well. We miss everyone and feel very blessed to have the family and friends we do. We had patient dogs waiting for some tasty morsel to fall; we had hot cider with a bit of cinnimon schnapps; and our favorite veggies and chips to munch on in the afternoon; and finally our dinner. Now to finish watching Angels and Demons and enjoy some of Junior's New York cheesecake for dessert!

Brandon Turns 6

Today was Brandon's 6th birthday. Martin and I went over for pizza and cake this evening. Brandon was very excited but managed to wait until after dinner to open his presents. Anna and Brandon posed in front of his birthday cake which was a giant blue lego. On top of the lego was some of his favorite Star Wars characters and he knew the name of everyone. He got lots of neat things, puzzles, Star Wars socks and shirt; Star Wars characters and a Pop the Pig Game that we all played. Hard to believe that it has been 6 years!

Other photo is of Heartman sneaking into my spot in bed every chance he gets. This happens on the weekends if I get up before Martin for some reason. He is sneaky and gets caught everytime.

Back to work tomorrow, where did the weekend go!

More Wallowa Photos

It was such an incredibly beautiful place, I wanted to include more of what we saw. Top is Barking Mad Farm; View from the in laws backyard; Downtown Enterprise; Bronze horse in downtown Joseph and Molly with dogs in our room at Barking Mad.

Enterprise and Joseph OR

Well, Martin, Molly, the dogs and I piled into the van and headed for Eastern Oregon. It was a beautiful drive and we saw a little of every kind of weather. At 4100 feet in the Blue Mountains we even saw sleet. We are hoping to avoid bad weather when we head for home. Martin's mom is so excited to have us here. We have been able to spend lots of time with her and explore the area around Joseph and Enterprise. Molly is staying with her grandmother and Martin and I are staying at Barking Mad Farm in Enterprise. A great bed and breakfast who even accepts our huge guys. Diana the proprietor with her husband Hunter is an accomplished photographer and we had the wolfhounds pictures taken while we were here. Poor Guido didn't make the cut but we did get some good photos of him as well. The dogs are enjoying the 8 fenced in acres at the B&B as well as the half acre at grandma's. We are going out to eat at a Mexican Restaurant tonight in Enterprise. Spent the afternoon in Joseph and around Wallowa Lake. Above the post is Martin and Sailor enjoying the roadtrip; Guido in the field at Barking Mad Farm; Martin, Sailor and Guido at Barking Mad; Martin and I at the Wallowa County Courthouse; Martin and his mom at Lake Wallowa; and Molly and her grandmother in Joseph. Tomorrow back on the road!

Halloween

Sailor got a bath and a haircut for Halloween. Nice that we can actually see his eyes! He seems to like it as well. I trimmed his cowlick that made him look like a unicorn, and his head is so soft and nice to pet. Halloween was pretty uneventful as far as tricker treaters. We probably had about 40 all younger kids. We actually shut the light off about 8:15 as things quieted down and no one had come for about 30 minutes. Easy weekend, today we are going for a drive, and probably out to lunch. A little escape from the busy upcoming week.