Jessi's New Room

This is Springtime Green. Pretty Huh? Would you paint an entire room this color?

Well, here is what I spent my whole week doing. Jessica really wanted to re-do her bedroom, and make it more "teenagery". (I know it's not a word, but I use it all the time :O). We started about two months ago looking through paint swatches trying to find what she wanted to do her room in, but was having no luck finding what she liked. I made the mistake of telling her she could do anything but black - black paint was not going on any of my walls.

We went through hundreds of green paint swatches, and she finally decided to take a book in for color match, because swatches weren't working. The book didn't work, because it was glossy, so the computer couldn't read it. Bummer, back to the color swatches..........when there it was, in the Disney colors ironically. SPRINGTIME GREEN. I have to admit, I was super nervous about this color, and we had to paint fast before dad got home and could stop us.

(Ha, ha! I just noticed that you can see me in this picture - funny!! Look in the mirror)

I have to say, I am actually really excited about the way her room turned out. At first, when it was just paint, I felt a little overwhelmed. Aaron was funny too, when he got home after the first coat of paint. He walked down the hallway to our bedroom, and 30 seconds later I heard "Holy Crap!" It was hilarious!!

Once we finished painting though, and starting putting her room together, it looked great. We did everything in black and white accents, and it goes great with the green. It does look very "teenagery". Jeff said it looks like a college dorm, so I guess we achieved Jess's goal. Jess is so excited and absolutely loves it, so there I reached my goal.

Books are so important to Jess that they are the main focus in her room. She bought these black book shelves that look great and she has plenty of room to grow her library. (awesome deal, on sale at Target for $26 a piece - for bookshelves that is just increadable!) And, if you look in the previous picture you will see her little reading nook with her cool white chair and hanging paper lamp.

It was a fun week spent with Jess before she goes back to school. I would have never in my entire life painted a room this color, but it works for her. And, in the end, I am really happy with the way it turned out. We still have a few more things we want to do, but we ran out of money, so they will have to wait. Maybe during the holiday breaks we can finish it. That will give us something to look forward to together.

Jeff Rockin' With Friends

Jeff got to take the day off yesterday, and go to the Pain in The Grass Concert with a couple of friends - Brett Perkes and Michael Welch. Of course, he didn't take a camera for pics, but they all had a blast hanging out and rocking to some great bands. I also think Jeff's CD want list just got a little longer :o).

Below are all the bands that were there. With the exception of Queensryche of course, who is the band they really went to see, I think Jeff's favorite was Sevendust. I think he'll be out getting their CD soon.

Another Funny Sign!

Did Sweeny Todd Move into the Neighborhood?

Music and Jamba Juice

Well, we had one more sunny day, in between crappy rainy ones. Aaron and I again found ourselves at home alone, so we took off to watch a local "band". It was really just two guys called "The Two Buck Chucks" but it was fun to just sit in the sunshine sipping our Jamba Juice (Yum!!!) and listening to music.

I do have to say though, that I look HIDEOUS in this picture!!!!!!!I almost didn't put it in here. Yuck, but whatever. Hey, I'm getting old. Not much you can do about that........Can you?

I Love Gardening

This is my favorite time for gardening!! I love to see all of your hard work of weeding, plowing, seeding, weeding, watering (the rain did a good job of that for me this year) weeding, feeding and weeding pay off. When all of your little tiny seeds turn into thriving plants producing fruit/veggies. I love it!

I just wanted to take some good pics of some of the great stuff I'm getting this year. Plus, I just love to take pictures!

This is just one days worth of harvest. He he, I went out to harvest today. What a farmer! We are getting a lot of food this year!! Last year I made a bunch of pickle relish, because I am the only one in the family that will eat cucumbers. But, everyone loves pickles and relish. So, this year Jess and I are trying pickles for the first time. I hope we did it right. It seemed like an awful lot of extra stuff in there with the sliced cucumbers, but I trust Amy. She said this was a good recipe. So, thanks for the help Amy, and hopefully Jess and I did it right.(Does it look right?) I guess we'll find out in a month how they taste. I still have another batch to do, so hopefully it's right!

Jeff Turns 19 today!

Today is Jeff's birthday!! Wow, his last official year as a teenager. Time flies so fast I can hardly believe it. We took Jeff out to lunch to his new favorite Mongolian Grill before he headed off to work.

Here's what he got:

From mom and dad - $20 to go out with Damon to celebrate together, and the new Disturbed CD.

From Jessica - Iron Maiden Concert T-Shirt (bought early at the concert)

From Grandma Smout - $20

From Damon - A Queen T-Shirt

From Grandma Taylor - The new Soul Caliber Game

Since he had to work on his actual birthday, and we have had so many desserts between reunion BBQ's, Wedding Luncheons and combo birthday parties, we decided to do something a little different. We made Nachos for dinner last night (one of Jeff's favorite dinners) and put candles in that for him to blow out. It was silly, but it made him smile, so it served it's purpose.

HaPpY BiRtHdAy JEFFERY!!!!!!!!!!!!

Lightning Storms!

We have had some pretty awesome lightning storms the last couple of nights here. On the first night it woke us all up at around 3:30 in the morning - even Jess if you can believe that!!! We sat there for about an hour watching these beauties. It was an awesome storm!

Silver Peak

Silver Peak is one of our favorite hikes. We discovered this little beauty last year. This time we brought Jess and Tori with us.

It was quite different this year though, because the mountains are about a month or more behind season right now. There was so much snow up there this year, and so late, that everything is pushed back. The blueberries that we picked last year, are still just tiny and green, and there is still a lot of snow. And, unfortunately, with that came a TON of bugs. The mosquitoes were so bad we finally dowsed ourselves in bug spray. It helped - a little.

Our first snow patch that we ran into. One of many. Tori loved the snow.

Taking a breather. This is only about 1 hour into the hike. Everyone is still happy and smiling.

Every time I try to take a picture of Aaron and I, this is what it looks like. Exactly like this. Funny hu?

This is better - Jess took this one. Aren't we cute!

A small snow shelf, feeding the creek. There was a lot more creeks this time up too, because of all the snow.

Our first real climb. It was a small one, but gave the girls a taste of what was to come.

This was our first site of the peak we were heading to. This was about 1 1/2 hours into our hike. When I showed the girls where we were going, they both took one look at that and about died. It looked way to far to them. See the farthest, tallest peak in the background? That's where we were going. It's really not as far as it looks! Only about another 45 minutes to go.

At the base of the peak the hill side is just covered with these shale rocks that you have to hike up. So many people do this hike however, that there are permanent switchbacks even in the rock. We had to stop a few times, but the girls were doing great.

I don't think Jess ever appreciated snow so much. It was really hot and muggy, that it was making it a little difficult for the girls. They were sweaty and tired, but very determined to make it to the top. Jess just took a little rest in the snow and cooled off.

Well, there were no blueberries, but there was a little compensation for that. Since everything is pretty much behind a season up here right now, the wildflowers were abundant and absolutely beautiful. I couldn't resist taking a quick shot.

Getting ready for the last push to the top. And, yes, I am picking bugs out of Tori's hair. I had just killed another mosquito and was getting it out of her hair for her. It was really bad. We all have LOTS of souvenirs on our bodies.

This is about half way up the rock climbing to the top of the peak. Pretty awesome picture, and really gives you a little perspective on how high up we really are.

The last little ridge. Almost there, and they are still smiling. They can smell the end is almost at hand.

Yea!!!! It was a super hard hike for the girls, but I think they both enjoyed it, and thought it was worth it. Not many people can say they climbed a mountain over the weekend, but Jess and Tori can say that! They were awesome, and I think really felt a sense of accomplishment.

We would have stayed up here for a lot longer than we did, but the bugs were just so bad that we couldn't take it anymore. We were there for about 15 minutes while we ate our lunch of chicken strips and apples, and then had to head back down.

The Boys Birthday

Damon and Jeff share the same birthday, so many a years we get together and celebrate their birthday's together. This year we headed out to Damon's house to do this. It wasn't anything big, just hanging out together. We just had Papa Murphy's Pizza and watched the Olympics.The kids actually took off together for a while, but that's OK. As long as they were having fun. Jeff and Jess both are very close to Damon.

Damon is Snake sitting for one of his teachers this summer, so he has a snake at his house. Jess loves snakes, so she was playing with it for a while.

Cheney Reunions

Caleb Navarre got married this weekend, so it was a Cheney extravaganza. On Friday we went to Velvet and Mikes for a huge BBQ, and saw a lot of Cheney family we haven't seen for a while. I think Aaron enjoyed hanging out and visiting. Jeff and Spencer were off doing who knows what, but at least they get along so well. Spencer is a good kid. Jess mostly spent her time sitting on my lap. Ya, you heard right, sitting on my lap. It was cute once upon a time, but now she is bigger than me and it wasn't the most comfortable thing in the world. But, she really didn't know a single soul, and was feeling a little out of place. So, my legs took one for the team.

The next day we headed over to the church for a family luncheon. Aaron was a little disappointed though, because most of our family went into Seattle for the day, and weren't there. I guess they were just coming to the reception that night. We didn't stay for that. We had to be off to Damon's birthday party.

(with Grandpa Cheney)

Partly Sunny Sunday

Just hanging out at Gene Coulon Park on a Sunny Sunday (or at least sunny for here: o), I guess it was more partly sunny, but at least not raining!). We were enjoying just sitting around watching the boaters. Unfortunately we don't get to see much of Jeff anymore. He is either working or at school most days. I guess that's what you do when you're a struggling college student. Today he was at work. He has one more weekend at the Theater, and then can be full time at Costco. It's such a better job!!

Movies of the week (and a half)

The Mummy 3
Rating: 6

I think it's funny that we are rating this the highest of our movies this week! It was a pretty good movie I guess, all in all. Mummy is suppose to be campy and have a B movie feel to it. And, can I just say, Jet Lee makes an awesome bad guy mummy! The part that was hard for all of us to swallow however was them replacing Evie's character with another actress. Just wasn't working for us. We just couldn't buy it, and it threw the whole movie off. That's our biggest complaint.

The Bucket List
Rating: 5

This is suppose to be a feel good, "seize the day" type movie that we just didn't care for too much. We couldn't believe and hated Morgan Freeman's character just being able to walk out on his family when he apparently only had one year to live, and Jack Nicholson - Well, it's Jack Nicholson, what can I say. Aaron said it best when he said this about him "his sleepy-eyed facial expressions looks exactly like those of a smug house-cat, who feels he owns everything he touches, and graciously allows you to live with him." That pretty much sums that up nicely.

Mystery Alaska
Rating: 4

Not such a great flick. It's not very often that we give a rating under a 5. Most movies are at least average to us. We are not too hard to please, with the exception of Aaron maybe :o). Not a Russel Crow fan, and really just didn't like the way everyone seemed to be trying to screw everyone over (sometimes quite literally). Don't waist your time with this one.

Cloverfield
Rating: 6

It was campy, the acting was terrible, and most of the scenarios were highly unlikely and unbelievable. But, if you put all of that aside, it was actually quite entertaining. I thought the "creature" was creative, and it was just a kind of fun, mindless movie.

Summer Concert at the Lake

Well, Aaron and I found ourselves at home alone tonight - AGAIN. (That happens more and more all the time) I had a client that needed to reschedule her appointment for tonight as well, so that left us free. We decided last minute to head over to Lake Meridian for the Summer Concert Series tonight. It was fun. The band was kind of a bluegrass band, from Utah actually (so maybe some of you know who they are) called Ryan Shupe and the Rubberband. It was a fun way to spend a free evening together.