Jeff's New Job!!

Jeff had an interview with Costco today and nailed it. He had one interview with two peliminary people, and then went on to interview with the big dog. Now, if he can just pass the criminal check ;o) he will have his orientation on Monday. He is suppose to hear back from them on Thursday.

He will have to put in at least 24 hours a week (which he really needs anyway!!), and will get almost a $3.00 an hour raise, and be up to $11.00 an hour to start! He will also be receiving benefits as well. Medical, 401K, Vision, Life Insurance, room for advancement.....A huge step up from Regal Theaters. We will miss the free movies but we have Netflix and that's good enough for us. This is going to be a great job for Jeff until he graduates from school and can get something in his career of choice.

Good job Jeff!!! (Ha - Pun)

Weekly Movie Reviews

Rating: High 8

Wow! We heard sooo much about Heath Ledgers performance in this movie, and how incredible he was, but Wow! He was freaking amazing. I would watch this movie again just to watch him!! We all got a little tired of Christian Bales "batman voice", and there was a little political preaching going on wich we never like (just enterain us, don't preach to us) but other than that what an awesome flick!!!! I absolutely LOVE the first scene you see the joker in and the "magic trick" he does. We were amazed. Definatley see this one in the Theater!

Rating: 6

Weird movie with an even weirder ending! Aaron actually wanted to rate this a little higher, he really liked it. I give it kudos for being so orriginal. It was pretty violent, and Jess actually walked out on it. She wanted to read her book instead. We usually like what the Coen Brothers do though because their directing is so quirky.

Rating: 7

Actually a pretty good flick. Jessica didn't watch it with us because she "hates westerns", but the rest of us enjoyed it. It was fun to watch each character through out the movie, and how their personalities and views change about life. I was sad with the way the movie ended, but they can't all be happy. I think it ended appropriately.

Alki

So, I have lived in the Seattle area for about 30 years and I have never been to Alki beach. I know, I know, it's such an iconic Seattle area. I don't know why I have never been there, I just haven't. Today was the annual Alki Art Walk, and the weather was better than it was suppose to be today, so after I got done working Aaron, Jess and I headed out. (Jeff had to work today) The art walk wasn't that great, but it was a very enjoyable day to just walk on the beach, watch a Juniors Volleyball Tournament, and just hang out.

Oh Boy!! Here we go again!

Jess started driving school on Tuesday, and we went down today and got her permit. Wow, here we go again!! I start the kids out on the clutch right out of the gate so they can really know how to drive it. It makes for some very interesting drives, and when I'm not freaking out, I'm laughing. Today was the first time Jess got to actually drive on a street instead of just an empty parking lot. She did pretty well for her first time. We got a lot of clutch and hill work practice in parking lots before now. Now all she has to get used to is other cars, people, kids, animals, stop signs, bigger hills, traffic................................I can't wait for the next 6 months to be over.

Aaron's New Teeth

Aaron has started treatment to fix his front teeth. He is not getting braces, we are only fixing the front top teeth, so it's a more isolated treatment. He is wearing a retainer and has a rubber band strapped around two of his teeth to pull them closer together. He will eventually have the teeth more evenly spaced and then filled to make them less gappy. We'll keep you posted on the progress. It will be fun to see the change!!! He has been self conscience about his teeth for many years. This is going to be a good thing.

Netflix vs. Cable

We decided to ditch the cable. It seemed like a ton of money to spend for something we just didn't watch that much. We are way more movie people vs. TV people. So, out with the cable and we went back with Netflix. We like that way better! So we will have a lot more movie reviews on here again. That's the way we like it.

Jeff likes to have our movie reviews to be part of our family journal, so I will be putting our reviews in the main body of my blog, instead of the sidebar. Here's what we watched this week......

Pans Labyrinth - Rating: 7

Everyone liked this one way more than I did. I can say it was orriginal, and I didn't mind it, but I think I would have rated it more a 5 or 6. It was pretty creepy, but I guess you have to give it kudos for being brave. It is pretty much a fairy tale written for adults. It is rated R, and has quite a bit of graphic violence in it. Actually, a lot of the stuff is very realistic! Many of the characters are just down right weird and freaky too!! But, I guess that's part of the appeal, because it's very different. The whole thing is in Spanish, and is subtitled. I have seen a lot of Asian films subtitled, but this is the first Spanish film. I did recognize a few words here and there though! I really need to get back on those lessons! If you want to watch a very odd, but fun movie, this would be a good one time watch. It's definately not a fairy tale for children though, watch it after they go to bed!

To Kill a Mockingbird - Rating: 6

You know I had to see this one after reading the book. It was pretty good, but the book is WAY better. Of course it's old, so it moves slowly. If you are going to do one or the other, definitely read the book! We did have a lot of fun seeing Robert Duvall in the roll of Boo Radley. We have never seen him so young, and if we didn't know it was him, we probably wouldn't have recognized him!

Water Camera Pictures

I just got our water cameras developed today and so I will post our pictures from the last month taken with these. I thought it would be better to just do it this way, than going back and putting them in the past posts. I was a little sad there were not Mexico pictures on here, because I thought for sure there were. Oh well.

The quality of the pictures are not great, because they were taken with a cheap water camera and then scanned, but I enjoy them anyway!

In the wave pool at Silverwood.

Going down the water slides. I don't know why I didn't get a picture of Jess, because she did it too. I think it's because she went down later, and I didn't have my camera with me at that time. Of course, there's no pictures of me. You know how it is about getting pictures of yourself. Usually I'm the one snapping the shots, not being in them.

Ah, here I am with Amy, getting ready to head out on the Wave Runner for the first time. She's a crazy driver, and taught Jess some dangerous moves. Jess scared Aaron to death when they were out together. We heard him screaming clear across the water. It was hilarious.

Jess waiting her turn with the kids.

Hey, there I am again - out learning the Jet Ski. Way fun!!

This is Jess and Amy with Jeffery in the background.

Aaron and Scott getting ready to take off on the Jet Skis.

This is that 25 foot cliff I was talking about at Sunlakes. Having us up at the top really puts it into perspective. It felt super high up there, and we all know how I do with heights. It took me 10 minutes, but I did it!

Jeff jumping. He's braver than me, it only took him about 30 seconds!

Jess Jumping. We didn't get Aaron because he went first (in about 5 seconds of course) so I tossed him the camera and he was the one taking pictures. It was him out of the pictures this time. You can see Jeff's arm here cheering on Jess. Aaron didn't get a picture of me actually jumping because he forgot to wind the camera. Oh well, I know I did it, and Alison got one. I'll get that later.

Sunlakes

We got to spend a short weekend in Sunlakes with the Jensen (and extended) family this weekend. We love to hang out with the Jensen's and had a blast. It was really fun to get to know some of Alison's family better too. Her mom Pam, dad Kieth, and brother Martin were all there too.

They were very generous in entertaining us on their boat for a while. We had a lot of fun tubing around the lake. I can say Alison is a little more reckless behind the wheel than Paul and threw Jess a few times from the tube :o). Then I think it was a game to see if she could throw me too, but I prevailed. My arms were a tad sore the next day though. I guess an extra little workout.

There are also some fun cliffs there to jump off that you can only get to if you have a boat. The short one is about 25 feet. It took Jess and I about 5-10 minutes to work up the courage but we did it!! Man it was scary!! There is no way I would even attempt the big cliffs, they are about 15 feet taller!!! Aaron did them once as a teen, but didn't do them this trip. I guess everyone had to wait too long for Jess and I.

(Linda, Jeff and Aaron on the little cliffs getting ready to jump)

We did spend a lot of time on some little cliffs though. They were only about 8 feet, and that was way more fun, in my opinion anyway. So, while some people were out tubing, the rest of us were playing over here. Just jumping and swimming and enjoying the sunshine.

After a hard day of playing in the water we went back to camp and made foil dinners. I have never really done foil dinners (maybe once way back in girls camp) and it was pretty good. I think we had enough food to feed our neighbors too though. Oh well, I guess too much is better than not enough.

We just spent the rest of the evening hanging out and chilling. Some people went back for a late night swim, but we were all tired of being wet, and it just sounded cold to me. So our family sat by the lake and played speed Uno for a while, till the bugs got too bad, then we went back to camp and played Hoopla with Linda.

Poor Linda. This is were things went kind of south. We were on our LAST card of the game, and it was Linda's. She stood up to act out her card, backed up, and fell into the firepit. Fortunately there was a fire ban, so there was no roaring fire, but there were still coals in there from dinner a couple of hours ago. It was enough. She burned her fingers really bad and had to go to the emergency room. They doped her up on Morphine and Codeine so she could sleep through the night. She was still doped up in the morning, so was doing OK, but she will have to see her doctor first thing on Monday. We felt SOOOOO bad, because she didn't want to do the acting in the first place, and had been trying to avoid it the whole evening. She finally got it on the very last card of the game. We hope she will be ok, and will still want to hang out with us! :o)

It was a super rough night with Linda, extremely rude neighbors being loud until way late, a super hard ground (and Aaron wouldn't let me bring the air mattresses), and coyotes in the night, but we survived. Jess woke up with her jaw locked shut, so between all of that we decided it was time to pack it in, and not try to do another day. Linda wouldn't be able to participate anyway, and Jess felt like crap, so home we came. We did have a ton of fun on Saturday though!!!

(I guess that's why they have been scooting around on the carpet on their butts!)

We saw this sign as we were heading out of town, and it had us laughing so hard we couldn't help oursleves!!! We just had to do the funny sign picture.

Thanks Jensen's for inviting us. We really did have a super great time and were glad for being able to go. We really hope Linda heals up quickly!!!!! Sorry Linda!!!!

Jupiter

Two things on Aaron's Life goals list is to "See Saturn's Rings" and to "See Jupiter's Spot". Well the Theodor Jacobsen Observatory at UW was having a big lecture on Jupiter and then viewings through their telescope.

The Theodor Jacbsen Observatory was built in 1895, and is the second oldest building on campus. Before the lecture we had fun just walking around and looking at the building. The telescope here is one of the oldest of it's kind, but still more powerful than most home telescopes. (Unless you want to get into big bucks. It's certainly not the Hubble.) The lecture was ok - too many little kids trying to feel like they were part of the "discussion". We actually left early to go look through the telescope. Good thing! We waited in line for about 10 minutes. When we left it was about an hour wait! Yeck!

It was way cool! We weren't sure if we saw the spot or not, but Aaron was pretty sure he saw it on the right corner. We did see it's rings and 4 of it's largest moons. I think Aaron was very satisfied with that. It feels so good to mark thinks off your life list!!! Next spring we are doing Saturn for sure!

Day with Jeff

Yesterday was the last free day both Jeff and I had before he had to go back to school, so we decided to spend the day together. Unfortunately, the first thing we had to do was go to Frys to return the first computer I bought, and get a new one. When I plugged the stupid thing in, it was completely in Russian and had a ton of stuff on it that was not suppose to come with it. So we packed it up and off we went. (I now have an awesome computer that seems to be working great!)

On our way out of the store Jeff saw the latest "Game Pro" magazine. All of the sudden he was like "Wait a minute.........that's my design!" About a year ago Bungie was having a Halo Design contest for shield emblems. We are really good friends with the guy working on this project, so Jeff could not enter the contest, but he sent Dave a couple of ideas. One of them was used, and is one of the more popular emblems in the game. "Game Pro" is doing a huge feature this month on the next Halo, and has some screen shots on the cover. Guess who's emblem is being used!!! We were so excited we had to buy the magazine. Here is a close up of what Jeff's emblem looks like, (it's the spartan helmet on Master Chiefs sholder, for those of you who may not have a clue what I am talking about :o) this is on one of the inside pages..............

Pretty exciting stuff. It was way cool for him to see one of his designs, and something that he has worked on, in actual print. And, in one of the bigger gamming magazines. Way cool. I was very proud of him, and excited to be able to share in that moment.

After Frys we went to go see hottie Will Smiths new move "Hancock". It didn't get very good reviews, but we watned to see it anyway. To be honest, we both kind of liked it. We decided that most people were going to the movies expecting to watch a comedy, but that it is not. A lot of funny parts, but on a whole not a comedy. It's a little hokey yes, but it was entertaining, and we both enjoyed it! Then we stuffed ourselves with Red Robin before coming home to set up the new comuter.

I loved spending the day with Jeff. He is so fun to be with, and I have to have as many mother/son days as possible, because at this point they are numbered. That's a little scarry!!!! Thanks for a fun day Jeff!!!

Denny Creek

We have finally been having some great summer weather around here, and we are loving it completely!! We also LOVE to be outside and especially hiking. So, since the weekend was so nice, off we went. We did the Denny Creek trail this weekend and went up to the Keekwulee Falls. There were a ton of people out on the trail this weekend, but fortunately for us most of them were with their kids and stop at the natural "water slides" that are there. The falls are about another half a mile or so away. Not as many people that far, so it was much more peaceful where we were.

There was a ton of snow up here this year. I have done this hike one other time with Jessi, about this same time of year, and not a speck of snow before. But, we had such a late summer (if you remember, the coldest June since the 1800's) that there is still a ton left in the more shady areas.

We got a little rock climbing in on this hike as well. The trail really opens up at the end, so there is no fear of getting lost from cutting a switch back, and the rocks looked way more fun than the trail, so off we went.

We had lunch at the top of the falls. It was so relaxing!!! The roar of the water, and so refreshing having the spray from the falls blow on you. We took off our shoes and dipped our feet in the cold water too. And boy was it cold!!! But it really invigorated the feet and made you feel so much better. I can't think of a better place to eat lunch!

As we arrived to the top of the falls, there was a sign that said "Caution! May be nude sunbathers" Interesting. Well, after lunch, as we got up to leave, and climbed back over the first falls (there are about three levels)............yup, there he was in all his glory!! Oh my.

These are pictures taken underneath and in front of the snow cap. It was very beautiful looking underneath and seeing the river flowing under all of that snow. This is at the top level of the falls and pretty much what is feeding them. Since the snow stayed so late in the year, the snow cap was WAY bigger than when I last was here. Not much room underneath. Last year you could pretty much walk in the cavern if you were brave enough. It was a great place to cool off too. A perfect hike and a perfect place to relax on a nice hot summer day!

Computer Working!!

Yeah!!! I finally got a new computer, and it is finally working. I was having a bit of trouble with it, but now things are great. So, I can start posting again!

Just a Joke!

From Amy

New Computer

So, I got home from vacation, and two days later my computer quit working. At first the screen would just shut off after about 15-20 minutes and I would have to restart it. Then after a while, it just wouldn't turn on. Ugh!! Fortunately, when the screen started freaking out, I had the foresight to back up everything, so nothing was really lost. Just the vacation pictures I took, because those were put on after the back ups. But, at least I blogged the best ones!!!

I am using Aaron's computer at the moment to slightly function in life, but yesterday I bought my own new computer. I'm excited. I'm going to work on getting everything set up in the next couple of days, and then I'll be back on track. I'll be a blogging maniac again soon. I cannot load pictures onto this computer, so I'm just waiting. Aaron and I just went on an awesome hike yesterday, so I can't wait to get those pictures up!!

Oh the life of technology. It is such a blessing and a curse all in one!!!

UTAH VACATION!

Time for our annual trek to see the Hamblins. Aaron got some extra time off work so we could have a nice long relaxing vacation. We were all very excited to be on vacation, and see the Hamblin family. We sure love hanging out with them!!! Here's what we did.

Day 1

Off to Silverwood. We decided we wanted to make the drive to Utah this year via Montana. It's a way pretty drive, and this way we could stop by Idaho Falls on the way to visit Aaron's grandma. So, a great stopping point was Couer d' Alene and a trip to Silverwood theme park.

Quite an interesting experience. We got a hotel that offered discount tickets to the park. Yea, saving money is always good. We pulled in about 1:00p.m. When we checked in we were told if we waited until 3:00 the park offered half price tickets and that would be even cheaper than the discount tickets. Yea, way more money saved!!! So we unpacked the car, ate lunch, changed and headed over there.

Well, the park doesn't offer the discount tickets until 5:00. We didn't want to spend two hours in the stupid parking lot and the park had no options for us, so we ended up paying full price. That really sucked!! Instead of saving money like we thought, we ended up spending $40 more than originally planned. We had fun, but I don't think it was really worth the price we payed. Especially since we were also cheated out of 90 minutes of park time as well. We were not happy campers. AND, when we got back the hotel wouldn't accommodate us either. "Sorry that happened, but there is nothing we can do". Are you kidding me. It's your fault we missed park time, and spent more money that we should have. Whatever. Don't think we'll stay there again. But, even though it was kind of expensive, we still had lots of fun at the park. I don't regret doing it.

Day 2

We got up early in the morning and went to the local gym to workout before sitting all day in the car. When we checked out, I guess our complaining worked because they docked $55 off of our bill to make up for the Silverwood tickets. Thank goodness because we were about to leave a bad review. Aaron actually had to reach across the counter to pick it up. It was funny.

Then it was off to Idaho Falls to meet the Hamblin's. It was only a 7 hour dive, and it was beautiful. Plus, we had the Hamblin's to look forward to!! We finally got there and went straight to dinner. We took a nice walk on the trail around the river and had fun throwing sticks in the river with the kids. Can I just say - holy goose poop though!! You really had to watch your step. Plus, I think this was possibly the crappiest hotel we have ever stayed in. But, at least we all got to stay in the same room, so we could all share in the crappiness of it. It was old, with holes in the wall and ceiling, had a funny smell, and we didn't even have close to the right number of towels. Some of us were showering with used towels, hand towels and wash cloths. I imagine it was quite funny if you weren't close to the situation. But, again, at least we were all together. That makes it more tolerable.

Day 3

What a crappy night in a crappy hotel. At least we got a crappy breakfast to go with it! We were all still hungry after our "hot breakfast" so we went to McDonald's an hung out for a while waiting for Shirley Ann and Wayne to get out of church. We all played a bean game the Hamblin's have while the kids played in the play place. We sipped on pop and ate cheese burgers. It was actually pretty fun. Then it was off to visit family.

We spent the afternoon at Shirley Ann and Wayne's house. Weldon and Julie met us there, so we got to see Jade for the first time. She is SO cute!!! Jessi just looked way too comfortable and natural holding her. We visited with grandma for a while, and had fun talking to her about her youth. Jeff and Jessi were really good playing with the little kids. The girls had a ton of fun putting flowers in Jeff's hair, and making up Jessi "pretty".










We ate sandwiches for lunch and then (who knows who idea this was!!) we roasted hot dogs in 100 degree weather!! Hot!!!! Then it was off to Amy and Scott's house.