Heidi and Dave

Airliners.net photos

2010-04-02T20:57:00.000-07:00

Triple accept! With one more in the cue:
http://www.airliners.net/photo/Boeing/Boeing-787-8-Dreamliner/1677814/L/
http://www.airliners.net/photo/Piaggio-P-180-Avanti/1677813/L/
http://www.airliners.net/photo/Ameriflight/Embraer-EMB-120RT-Brasilia

AP4

2010-03-03T20:51:00.000-08:00

Finally!!!

2009-12-18T07:53:00.002-08:00

Black Apple Doll

2009-12-11T15:35:00.000-08:00

I found this project at one of my favorite blogs, homemade by jill. The instructions and pattern are posted at Martha Stewart's page.

It was a pretty fast project, and I would like to make more! It will be fun to try different fabrics and color combinations.

Baby Shower Invitations

2009-09-29T17:18:00.000-07:00

My friend, Stacy, is having a baby in December and I am throwing a baby shower for all of our barn friends. Here is the invitation I designed. It took a long time to get my idea on paper, but I love it!

Words Are Too Hard

2009-09-03T16:26:00.000-07:00

See my pictures instead!

Go here for pictures from Michelle's wedding, a killer shot of the Old Capital and the Rockford AirFest!

Name That Landmark

2009-08-18T16:06:00.001-07:00

Erin and Paul's Wedding Edition:

Hint - photos are in order from Twin Cities to Seattle:

http://picasaweb.google.com/dlilient/NameThatLandmark#

Bridal Shower Invitations

2009-08-05T12:23:00.000-07:00

My sister Erin's bridal shower is on Saturday. Megan and I made invitations a few weeks ago, and they turned out so cute! Erin's wedding color is green, so we chose green and pink to be the shower colors for a bit of fun. It took us awhile to come up with an idea, but we ended up finding a cute idea in a book about making cards.

Here's the "flock" of birds ready to go.

Here's a close up of the outside. Megan found the pink patterned paper, and it was the basis for our inspiration. I love it!
We found several options for wording a shower invitation online, but this one was our favorite. It seemed to fit the feel of the card the best.

I can't wait to fly home on Friday and see all our relatives at the shower!

Get My Hit count Up!

2009-08-01T10:58:00.000-07:00

Spread the word - Dave's got another photo accepted (A ridiculously hard and agonizing endeavor) on Airliners.net: http://www.airliners.net/open.file/1560659/L/

My Handsome Boy

2009-07-06T13:29:00.000-07:00

Dave took this picture while we were out schooling at Aspen Farm. It shows how happy Jack is out on a cross country course!

New Window Treatments

2009-06-21T19:04:00.000-07:00

We finally finished this project today when we hung the cornice in our bedroom. It's totally over engineered, but I wanted to make sure it lasts.

Our bedroom

Guest bath

The creative director at the back door

Megan's Birthday Party

2009-06-20T20:10:00.001-07:00

Historic Downtown Poulsbo

The Birthday Girl

Briarwood Pony Club One Day Event

2009-06-03T06:17:00.000-07:00

On Saturday, May 30 Jack and I went to the Briarwood One Day down at NWEC in Rainier, WA. It was my first time going Beginner Novice, and it was a blast!

I was the most nervous about our dressage test. Jack's dressage has come a long way in the last year, but we still don't have much experience actually doing a test in a show. No matter how well you school, putting in a decent test at a show is hard! However, Jack warmed up really nice and relaxed, and we had our best test ever!

It was a hot day, somewhere in the 80's, so I was a little concerned about Jack having enough down time between events. He got a half hour or so in his stall to drink water and relax before we tacked up for stadium. I only did a few warm up fences before going into the ring because he felt ready to go. Unfortunately I made a bad approach to our first fence, so we knocked down a rail. But I realized my mistake, put my leg on, and came in straight to the rest of the fences. Jack got all his distances and it was so much fun!

We had a little longer after stadium, maybe about 40 minutes. Jack snoozed in his stall while I changed and got ready for cross country. We headed over to the warm up area where they had an actual cross country jump for warming up in addition to the standard X, vertical, and oxer. Since we had just jumped and it was hot, I didn't want to do too much to wear Jack out. We did just the crossrail from both leads and then the XC ramp from both directions. Jack felt completely ready and I could tell he was excited. As soon as we crossed the start line, Jack was on! We went faster than I have gone when we have schooled cross country. It was amazing! Jack jumped everything, and was constantly looking for the next fence.

I should have balanced him back before a few fences where he took off long, but the fences were so small, he was easily galloping over them. I was not worried at all, and it was so fun to just be in the gallop rhythm and fly over the fences!

I had such a great time with Jack and with all of my friends at the show! We are going to our first recognized event at our next show. We'll be going Beginner Novice at the Whidbey Island Pony Club Horse Trial in July. I can't wait!

Photo updates

2009-05-26T15:42:00.000-07:00

For a photo album of Megan's Birthday party, click here.
And here for the highlights from a BBQ we attended where half the guest list were dogs.

Megan's Birthday Cake

2009-05-18T12:39:00.000-07:00

Megan's birthday was on Saturday, so I baked her a cake. It was my first time using fondant, so I tried something simple, but I love how it turned out!

Here's the birthday girl. I can't believe my little sister is 25!

The cake was good and the buttercream that I used under the fondant was delicious. But we all agreed... fondant tastes pretty gross. Pretty to look at, though!

Area VII Adult Riders' Camp

2009-05-06T12:06:00.000-07:00

Last weekend, April 30 through May 3, I attended USEA Area VII's Adult Rider's Camp. It was a weekend full of lessons with 5 different trainers from around the country. I had two dressage lessons, two cross country lessons, and one stadium jumping lesson. I rode with Kyle Carter, from the Canadian Olympic team, Steuart Pittman a well known US eventer, and Jonathan Elliot who owns Aspen Farms. The camp was held at Aspen, and it was beautiful!

Jack was a good boy all weekend. He got a little crazy for our first dressage lesson with Steuart. The dressage arenas were secluded from the rest of the jumping and cross country areas, so Jack felt very alone and upset. He did a little bucking, too, when we were asking him to be round at the canter! Steuart said he was "quite fancy" though, and said my position was good, so I took that as a compliment!

He apparently worked out all his frustration, because our following stadium lesson was a blast. Jon said that Jack had a great gallop, and we just rocked every fence. Jack did everything perfectly and I felt like my position was really solid.

Our first cross country lesson with Kyle started in sun, and ended in pouring rain! It absolutely dumped buckets of sideways rain on us. Jack was mad that we kept working in the rain, and did some more bucking. Once the rain let up, though, we happily galloped through the water and jumped in and out of it over a small jump.

Can you tell how wet we are? Not a dry spot on us, and my navy vest looks black!

The next day's lesson with Jonathan was much nicer. Jack was amazing! We got to practice galloping up and down hills. We both were having a lot of fun!

We got to do the ditch a lot, and I really learned a lot from Jon about how to ride it in a more balanced position. Jack never hesitated, and sometimes jumped really big over the ditch!

This log was fun to gallop up a steep hill, jump, and gallop down a long gradual hill afterwards. It was harder to jump the other way, going down the steep hill, but was good practice. I love Jack's face in this picture. So cute!

Here we are with our friends Sharon and Simon. Jack and Simon are travelling buddies. We rode down in Sharon's trailer and spent time with them all weekend. We had the best time in our cross country lesson together. We were proud of our non-ditchy horses since Jack and Simon did so well.

Jack was very tired by our last dressage lesson with Kyle, but that's okay. We had a great weekend and it was great to be successful in a new setting and with different instructors. It will be fun to apply some of the things we learned and also have new things to work on with Anne at home.

Schooling at NWEC

2009-04-13T05:11:00.000-07:00

Anne took six of us schooling at Northwest Equestrian Center on Saturday. We had a lot of fun and didn't get rained on at all. What a miracle! It's less than a month away from Adult Rider's Camp for me and just about a month away from the NWEC Mother's Day Event for some of the other girls, so we have been anxious to get in our first schooling session of the year.

I was a bit nervous, but Jack was amazing! He was his usual solid self, although he did run out at a particularly scary log that had daylight underneath it. Everything else was no problem and he had a nice steady gallop rhythm the whole time. He's showing great form over this Novice ramp.

Jack is definitely a more excited and happy horse this past year. His expression in this picture gives him away! "You want to jump that log? Awesome, let's go!"

We practiced water, a ditch, lots of ramps, logs, a big bench, and a few coops. I thought most of them were Beginner Novice fences, but when we were untacking Anne said, "Heidi, you know most of those fences were Novice fences, right?" My eyes got really big, "Are you serious? Yeah!" I want to show Beginner Novice this year, so it's a huge boost to my confidence that we can already do Novice obstacles!

Click here to view the entire album. Dave did a fantastic job! He took a lot of pictures of me and all of our barn friends, too.

Mom and Dad Visit

2009-04-08T20:22:00.000-07:00

My mom and dad came to visit for a long weekend. They had absolutely perfect timing on the Seattle spring weather! It was upper 60's or low 70's and sunny the whole time they were here. It felt like summer!

We did some shopping for Megan and Aaron's new apartment, watched movies, barbecued, played in the yard with the dogs, played outside games, did some yard work, and watched movies. It was fun to all spend time together.

Here's a picture from our day trip up to Anacortes. We ate lunch in the historic downtown and then went to the visitor center. The guide there told us about Washington Park out on the western point of the island. It was beautiful- nice trails, good beach access, and we saw a seal!

Dave and I definitely want to come back to this park, and I want to bring the dogs next time! We have more pictures that will hopefully be posted soon. We have both been busy and not had time to blog lately!

Baby Molly

2009-04-03T08:03:00.000-07:00

Dylan

2009-04-03T06:03:00.000-07:00

New Jump Panels!

2009-03-24T18:22:00.000-07:00

My friend Kim texted me last week to say she wanted to work on a new project for our trainer, Anne. I love doing anything artsy, so I was definitely in! We primed the wood last Wednesday, then on Thursday, Kim, our friend Alex, and I designed and painted four different designs. We made two panels but did a did a different design on each side.

The diamond panel was inspired by Kim's daughter Macy's cross country helmet cover. I love how bright the colors are and the diamonds turned out perfect!
The other side of the diamonds is a chevron pattern.

The green and white checkerboard pattern seemed like a simple idea. But it is really busy and much scarier than we expected. The first day the panels were up was a Pony Club lesson day. One of the ponies stopped at this side of the panel but went over all the others. Then yesterday in my lesson, I had my first run out EVER on Jack coming up to this jump!! He looked and was wiggly to all the other sides, and I never would have expected that from him. He usually jumps anything! I guess we did our job!

Here's Macy, Kim, and me with our masterpiece, the eventing panel. I traced images of cross country, dressage, and stadium onto the panel and then we filled in the lines with teeny tiny brushes. I love this panel!

It was funny when we were planning, we kept saying, "What will spook the horses?" With eventing, we want them to jump anything, so we wanted to do bright designs that they might see at a show. We definitely accomplished that with the stops and run outs they have already caused! It definitely made me ride more defensively after my stop, so I learned a good lesson to keep my leg on and ride straight to the jump in a more defensive position.

Our next project will be this summer when we refresh all the poles and standards. We will have the most beautiful jumps ever!

Riding With Heidi and Jack

2009-03-12T17:34:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was a slightly chilly but brilliantly sunny day. I had a really hard workout at the gym at lunchtime, so by the time I got on Jack after work, I just wanted to play around with him and not work too hard. He was happy to comply.

Here he is watching some of the other horses get caught to come in for the evening. Don't you love his sticking up mane? I worked so hard over the winter to train it to lay to the right. But once I pulled it, it popped back up!

It was hard handling a camera and two sets of reins! Not that I needed to do anything other than hold them in one fist. We only need the gag rein when we're jumping so he actually half halts. The rest of the time I only use the snaffle rein. It's just a regular eggbutt snaffle then, and he goes great in it!

I am trying out these field boots. A barn friend doesn't wear them and thought they might fit me. I need new boots, so I figured I would give them a shot. They have a zipper up the back, and I'm not totally sold on that idea. I know the zippers need to be replaced once in a while, and I also like traditional pull-on tall boots. So we'll see what I decide. They're cute, though!

Here's my self portrait in a couple of the arena mirrors. Jack and I did a little jumping outside just for fun, then wandered back up here to finish up. He was a good boy and it was fun to just mess around with him.

And if you want to know what it's like to walk around on Jack, here's your answer! I thought it would be fun if I could take a video while riding. I might try it again when I'm using my dressage bridle so I have fewer reins to worry about. Then I could trot or do something else. Jack was just happy and relaxed. What a great day!

Is It Spring Yet?

2009-03-09T09:31:00.000-07:00

This is the view out my back window this morning. Don't we live in Washington and not Minnesota?

The dogs and I ran around in the downpour. Molly ate snow and Dylan gazed up into the sky admiring the fluffy flakes. I guess it's better to just enjoy it while it lasts... spring should be on its way soon!

No Stirrups!

2009-03-01T18:11:00.000-08:00

This is just a short video Dave took yesterday. It will give you an idea of how my helmet cover looks when I'm riding, but please forgive the poor video quality. It's what you get with a point and shoot camera! I was working on my legs and riding without stirrups. I did some sitting trot, posting trot, and canter in both directions. Ouch! Even if your legs are strong, they burn at some point when going stirrup-less. I have been working on building up my endurance in jump position so I will be ready for cross country schooling and the Area VII Adult Riders' Camp that I just signed up for in May. Six instructors, some of them Olympians, riding two lessons a day for three days. I am pumped!

Helmet Cover

2009-02-28T17:39:00.000-08:00

I have been attempting to make myself a helmet cover since last year when I went to my first show in May. I made one, it was horrible, so I made another. That one was marginally better, but I didn't have enough fabric on the bottom to add elastic, so I just taped it into my helmet for the show. Since then, I have been determined to figure it out and make a good one.

I was able to borrow a store bought one to look at as an example, and I decided to start from scratch. The seams were different on the store one than the two I had tried to make last year. So I made a pattern out of tissue paper, mimicking the seam lines but making it fit my helmet. I made sure to plan ahead for elastic and left more fabric on the bottom. The elastic was the hardest part. I couldn't quite get it to bunch evenly, but it works. Once I got the cover to sit smoothly on my helmet, I moved onto the decorations. Ever since I was a kid I liked the chevron helmet cover pictures in the tack catalogs. I made the chevrons out of a satin fabric with interfacing ironed on the back to give it more structure for my machine to sew through. I really like how it turned out!

I can't wait to get all my cross country stuff on and ride! Shows and schooling will be so much fun this year!

Seriously?

2009-02-26T19:42:00.000-08:00

I mean, seriously! Look at Jack (then known as Chester) the day I tried him for the first time compared to my lesson last Saturday.

Granted, we didn't know each other at all in that first picture. But really, he was fat, his tail was thin, and he was in an elevator bit! His eye looks so worried then, and now he's so calm and relaxed, shiny, fit, and with a better tail!

Just had to post about this because I was looking at those original pictures yesterday. He is not the same horse, and I love it!

Dressage Clinic

2009-02-23T09:39:00.000-08:00

I rode in a dressage clinic on Saturday. It was a beautiful sunny day and I was really excited about the lesson. Jack started out really lazy because he had been enjoying the sun with his friends in the pasture. However, once I got his attention, he started to feel really light and powerful! Dave came out and took a lot of pictures, and he got some really good shots.

Now that Jack is stronger and learning how to carry himself, I want to work on some dressage tests. The beginner novice tests are so short and the movements come so fast that it was easy to be tense last year trying to get everything in. Practicing both BN tests and the USDF Training level tests will hopefully keep Jack from memorizing the tests we will do in shows this year!

Mission Impossible

2009-02-14T13:59:00.000-08:00

AKA - Behold the wonder of Photoshop.

Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to capture a good photo of two ornery, fast moving canines, at night, indoors, when one is perpetually over exposed, and the other under exposed.

Big props also go out to my fancy newish flash for allowing me to not wash-out our nerds.

Birthday Cupcakes

2009-02-12T20:43:00.001-08:00

My mom gave me this fun cupcake tree for my birthday since I love to bake. Megan and I made a batch of chocolate cupcakes and a batch of red velvet cupcakes to fill all the spots (with a lot of extras!) They ended up being more Valentine's than birthday cupcakes, but I do like pink!

I made my best buttercream frosting yet, and we just did pink with white accents. I had a fun variety of Valentine's sprinkles from last year, so we went sprinkle crazy!

These are shaped like red lips.

Some pretty multicolored hearts:

This one is my favorite, with the heart dotting the "i." How very elementary school, but so cute!

The cupcake tree was a fun excuse to be creative with cupcakes instead of cookies. It will be fun to use if I host any parties or showers in the future. Everyone loves adorable cupcakes!

Birthday Presents

2009-02-11T13:04:00.001-08:00

I was so excited to get my birthday presents from Mom and Dad: Woof galloping boots and matching saddle pad! Jack looks good in blue, and it's my favorite color, so I love them!

Jack is going to be ready for cross country schooling! I can't wait for spring!

Super cookies

2009-02-02T08:05:00.000-08:00

Grrr! I can not for the life of me get these pictures to post correctly! They are horizontal on my computer but keep showing up vertical. Any tips? I am putting them up anyway because I am sick of trying since Monday (it's Thursday despite what the date above says!)

We went to a party for the Superbowl, even though we weren't really cheering for either team. Everyone ended up wanting the Cardinals to win after awhile, but I guess we picked the wrong team!

I whipped up some cookies to celebrate. Who knew I would ever have a good reason to use these cookie cutters?

Maybe not the most accurate helmets, but they still look cute, and the colors turned out exactly as I hoped! I used buttercream instead of royal icing because it was faster and I can't find my book with the icing recipe!

They were sooooo good and everyone ate way more cookies than we should have eaten. It was fun hanging out with friends and I actually enjoyed watching the game since there was a lot of action!

Dressage and Dog Jackets

2009-01-27T06:16:00.000-08:00

I have been on a dressage kick lately. My past few lessons I have been jumping, so I finally let myself do dressage for a few days in a row. (It's my favorite!) Jack has been amazing! He is getting much lighter in my hands and is really stepping underneath himself and using his hind end.

This is unfortunately the best picture I got from my ride on Saturday. I wish I had a good one from his trot work, but I felt like posting a horse picture anyway!

The other thing I did last week was make a dog jacket for the Ryan's new dog, Lanson. I have never made one like this before. I have made a polar fleece sweater for Dylan but that was from a pattern. This one I made by just taking the measurement from his neck to the base of his tail and around his girth. Then I sketched out a shape on tissue paper, cut it out, and traced it onto polar fleece. It is double layered, so he will stay nice and cozy! I just used polar fleece that I had on hand and some left over Velcro that I had bought to fix Jack's fly mask. I was nervous that it might not fit around his neck, but it actually fits quite perfectly!

It felt nice to give him a cozy jacket so he won't be shivering around the barn anymore!

My other sewing project that I am working on right now is a helmet cover for cross country. I will post pictures once I finish it. It's coming along but I have to figure out how to attach the brim part and make it look nice. Working on it is making me excited to go cross country schooling! Go away winter!

HELLO!!!!!

2009-01-21T20:05:00.000-08:00

If there is one thing that Dylan is not, it is shy about asking for attention when he wants some. And why bother walking all the way around someone when through the legs saves half a second?

Spoiled?

2009-01-18T18:34:00.000-08:00

Is Dylan spoiled if this is just a part of his squeaky toy collection? He absolutely loves stuffed dog toys with a squeaker in them. Even though he can't hear the squeak, he likes the feel of the squeaker squishing in his mouth.

He will choose one toy and stare at it, waiting for someone to kick it for him. He's a shepherd, not a retriever, so he doesn't always bring the toy very close to whoever is supposed to play with him. When he is waiting for his toy, Dylan can be very narrow-minded and patient. He will stand or lay down for minutes on end until someone gives in or simply notices him waiting.

Then, snap! As soon as the toy is kicked up in the air, he springs into action and snatches it out of the air. Even though we question his eyesight sometimes, he has extremely good eye-mouth coordination whenever he is playing.

Then, of course, the waiting starts all over again. "Daddy, won't you play with me instead of taking my picture?"

This Old Navy bear is his overall favorite, but he rotates through all the toys. His new favorite right now is a lamb that Megan and Aaron just bought him. The way to Molly's heart is through food, but the way to Dylan's heart is a fuzzy new squeaky toy!

Dreaming of Spring

2009-01-15T10:43:00.000-08:00

This is what I am daydreaming about right now... a field of tulips in the sunshine!The sunny day yesterday gave me spring fever, and now I'm wishing for the sun to come back out as promised! I shouldn't complain because it's at least above freezing here, not below zero like it is back in Minnesota. Thank goodness for the Pacific Northwest climate!

Dirty Jack, Clean Jack

2009-01-04T19:46:00.000-08:00

This is what Jack looked like on New Year's Day when I went out to get him. He was so dirty that I had to stop at my car to get my camera. He's saying, "What's the big deal? I had a nice roll in the mud!" Thank goodness I could just pull the blanket off and have him mostly clean underneath. Otherwise tacking up would be a nightmare!

I put a new blanket on him today. It's a Rhino medium weight with a high neck. It looks like it's going to be wet and cold this week, so I wanted him to be covered up a little more. Plus the tail flap is torn off his Schneider's blanket in the first picture and I need to sew it back on. I love the color of this blanket. It matches him!

I'm sure I'll show up at the barn tomorrow and he'll be nice and dirty in his brand new blanket. Horses will be horses!

It's Done!

2009-01-03T14:01:00.000-08:00

I finished the tree skirt! I cut all the pieces and sewed the squares together yesterday. Today I put everything together.

It fits perfectly under the tree. And since Christmas is technically until January 6, I got it done in time for the Christmas season!

Here is a close up of the back of the skirt. The flannel with the holly on it looks really cute. It almost makes the skirt reversible! And I completely love the eyelet edging. It is the same design I had on my baby blanket, so it has good memories for me.

The patterns of the fabric look good together. It took a little rearranging to get the right look with the different colors and prints, but I think it turned out exactly as I hoped it would.

Since the pattern for the tree skirt came from my mom, I will think of her whenever I look at it :-) I am so proud of my project!

Jerk!

2008-12-29T11:01:00.001-08:00

This is what happens when your dog doesn't respect your 5 second exposure.

Sleeping Dylan

2008-12-29T10:56:00.001-08:00

San Francisco

2008-12-25T19:56:00.000-08:00

No class, no work so I'm finally getting around to photoshopping the highlights from our trip in October:Point Bonita lighthouse.

Painted Ladies adjacent to Alamo Square.

Dan and Dave locked in an epic battle of wits, strategy, and now athleticism.
MarioKart.

Best Friends

2008-12-18T19:20:00.000-08:00

It has been snowing for a few days now. That is pretty unusual for Seattle, and the roads have not been wonderful. I don't mind driving in snow myself, but the drivers around here are not very trustworthy in inclement winter weather. As a result, I haven't been out to see Jack since Monday. I usually go every day, so I am in horse withdrawal!

I was looking around at old pictures on my computer tonight and found some of my favorite old pictures of me and my best friends. Both Leah and Jill still live in Minnesota, but fortunately we are still pretty close. They are my oldest friends from middle school, and we used to all ride at the same barn. Little did my mom know when she got me riding lessons that she would also introduce me to some forever friends!

Leah and I both rode at the Junior/Young Rider Team Championships one year in Mason City, IA. It was so fun to have the experience of traveling to a big show together! I rode Buddy, and she rode her horse, Rhett. This is me, Leah, and our other friend, Kim on her horse Bobby.

Our team got third place, which was pretty exciting for me! Leah went on to show Rhett up to Prix St. George level, and I think schooling some I1 movements. They are superstars!

Jill and I took lessons together for years. She is actually the reason I started riding Buddy. We both had lessons with other girls who ended up quitting, so we got paired up but both rode the same school horse. She kept riding Rainmaker, an Appaloosa, and I switched to Buddy.

We did several schooling shows together, which was always exciting. Jill rode a Saddlebred named Fonzie for years and they were a great pair! This picture is probably us in eighth grade. We look like babies!

Buddy and Fonzie were pasture friends, which made us happy. We were a good group that I will never forget. We used to do these "picture days" where we'd bathe the boys and clean ourselves up too. I'd drag my sister or my dad out to be our photographer. This is probably tenth grade.

Jill and I shared stable lockers, polo wraps, saddle pads, you name it. I still miss taking lessons with Jill!

So many summer nights were spent at Jill's, Leah's, or my house so we could spend as much time at the barn as possible! Even though Jill and I didn't have our own horses, we made the most of what we had. When we went off to college, Jill and I always tried to come back and cheer on Leah and Rhett at horse shows.

Now, through weddings, new jobs, and moving, we are still best friends. I think of them as two more of my sisters. I love you both!

Christmas Cookie Extravaganza!

2008-12-14T16:04:00.000-08:00

I spent Friday night and most of Saturday baking and decorating cookies for Christmas. I made three batches because we are going to give them to friends as Christmas gifts. I usually decorate with buttercream frosting, but I just bought a book called Cookie Craft in hopes of getting some tips for trying out royal icing. The book is beautiful and extremely helpful! I am beyond happy with how the cookies turned out. I would not have attempted royal icing if it hadn't been for this book.

Here's me piping some details on a tray of snowmen. Like the Iowa State Cyclone apron?

I got this awesome set of snowflake cookie cutters at a kitchen store. I had seen a similar set in a catalog, so I was excited to try them out. I love how you can combine the sizes and detail cutters to make a lot of different snowflakes!

I think the snowmen are my favorites!

Aren't these gingerbread men adorable?

I am really happy with how all the colors turned out. I got some new gel food colors from a cake supply store in Seattle, and that red is amazing! This is actually not all the cookies, but you get the idea for how they turned out.

And the best part? They taste good too!

Tree Skirt Planning

2008-12-11T19:07:00.000-08:00

My mom has always been talented at making stuff with her sewing machine such as Halloween costumes and cute little aprons. One of my favorite things she has ever made is a Christmas tree skirt. Fortunately for me, I like to sew, too. Mom recently dug out the pattern she used to make her tree skirt and gave it to me!

Dave and I went to JoAnn Fabrics last weekend to pick out fabric. It was really nice to have him help me. Some of the fabrics I would have chosen he didn't like. So between the two of us, we came up with an even better combination than what I would have decided on myself. Not to mention, between the last bit of a gift card, two coupons, and a sale, we got $45 of fabric for $15!

The holly fabric on the bottom is flannel. It was Dave's idea to get flannel for the underside fabric that will be against the floor. His reasoning was it will stick to the carpet better and not slide around. This will be a good thing, because my family's dogs have a history of snoozing under the tree on the tree skirt! Good thinking, Dave!

I am not guaranteeing that the skirt will be done by this Christmas. However, we have almost two weeks off from work starting on Christmas Eve Day, so I will have a lot of time to work on it. This way I will for sure have it ready to go for next Christmas! Hopefully my sewing skills are up to par for this project. Wish me luck!

Lights

2008-12-06T21:31:00.000-08:00

I finally had enough of a lack of homework for us to take advantage of the unseasonably terrific weather to put up Christmas lights today on the house.

Braiding Practice

2008-12-01T05:41:00.000-08:00

I have not been posting much lately. We've been so busy and I have not been taking pictures of anything, not even Thanksgiving! We were having so much fun eating, watching movies, playing games, and playing Wii that getting the camera out completely slipped my mind.

On the horse front, Jack has been off with a splint for the last week! I was brushing him last week for my lesson on Monday and noticed a huge bump on the inside of his right hind canon bone. He did not want me to touch it, and as soon as Anne ran her hand over it, she said it was definitely a splint. No riding for Jack! Fortunately it will get better, but it is just a waiting game.

Yesterday, while icing Jack's leg, I practiced my braiding. I actually love to braid, even though lots of people think it is boring. I had watched a video on YouTube (here)where a girl showed her method for doing button braids. I wanted to try it since it was different than the way I do regular hunter braids. It was so easy and fast! I usually do at least twenty hunter braids, but I only had to do ten button braids!

Here's me and Jack modeling the new braids. He looks annoyed here because I'm holding up his head and preventing him from eating. He's starving, can't you tell?

Here's a close up with Jack happily pigging out. I will definitely braid like this again. It didn't even matter that his mane was not thinned out very well. And I have been thinking he needs his mane shortened, but it was actually the perfect length.

I didn't bother French braiding his forelock, although I like doing that, too! Jack was happy to eat the long grass around the edges of the arena while I watched the Sunday jump lesson. Too bad we couldn't participate, but I am really glad I finally had time to try the new braids!

Fortunately I still had a horse to ride last week. My friend Stacy was in Europe with her husband, so I got to exercise her Thoroughbred, Amon. I wish I had a picture to post of me riding him. We had fun together. He is so different than Jack, always wanting to go faster, and very narrow to sit on. He really loves Stacy the best, but he warmed up to me after all the carrots and horse cookies I fed him over the last two weeks!

Buddy

2008-11-20T06:18:00.000-08:00

Having Jack has made me nostalgic about my first horse love, Buddy. He was (okay, is... he's still alive!) an Appendix Quarter horse who I completely adored! I took lessons on him and leased him from eighth grade until freshman year of college. He liked to buck, so one of his nicknames was "Bucking Buddy." His registered name is Ima Jaguar Too.

Here are two pictures that were taken for my senior pictures. The first one is one of the few times in my life that I have ever been on a horse without a helmet! He was feeling wild on this day, so that was pretty brave of me ;-)

Oh Buddy, you are so cute! If I could keep him in my backyard, I would go get him and drive him here all the way from Minnesota. It's hard to think about how he may be doing right now, since I don't know, but I have tons of memories that will last forever!

Go Wild!

2008-11-13T06:49:00.000-08:00

Last Saturday Megan, Aaron, Dave, and I drove up to Vancouver, B.C. to see the Minnesota Wild play the Vancouver Canucks. None of us had ever been up to Vancouver before, so it was a fun adventure. We of course had to show our passports at the border on the way in and out of Canada. The boarder patrol agents were very serious. That's a good thing, I guess. I want them to take their job seriously, but it was a little intimidating!

We were decked out in Wild gear for the game and stuck out because Vancouver's colors are royal blue and kelly green compared to our Christmasy colors of red and hunter green.

We had a good view from our seats at the end of the arena. Too bad we never got to see the Wild score any goals! They usually do pretty well, but it was a disappointing game for us. We lost 2-0.

I thought Minnesota fans were hockey crazy but the Canuck fans were intense! We got a lot of crap on the way out to our car. I wish the game had been closer, but we had a good time and got to see a new city. I was surprised how foreign Canada felt. People joke that it's just like America, but I definitely didn't think that it did! Their accents alone were worth the trip. They were so cute, eh?

I love getting to do stuff like this with my sister! It's so fun that the four of us like hanging out together and have similar interests so we can all have fun experiences like this :-)

Tuckered Out

2008-11-12T06:59:00.000-08:00

Dylan plays really hard and sleeps really hard. I just love this dog!

Jumping Video

2008-11-05T07:10:00.000-08:00

It finally worked! I had to reformat the video with my movie maker software. I'm not sure why, but I'm glad I tried it!

We were working on rhythm, not fence height. Jack did not rush at the fences at all like he used to! It was a great lesson.

Jumping Lesson

2008-11-02T19:27:00.000-08:00

During the fall and winter, Anne has group jumping lessons for her students on Sundays. This Sunday was the first one that I was able to attend. It was a big group- eight riders of varying skill level. Jack and I have come a long way from last winter, and it is always fun to cheer everyone else on as we do the courses Anne sets up.

The day started out pouring rain, so I wasn't sure how fun it would be to jump outside. Fortunately the sun came out right before we started, but the clouds rolled in at the end of the lesson and we got SOAKED!

Here's most of the group basking in the sun. I just love everyone at Stoneybrook!

My sister, Megan, took some videos of me and Jack. It is so nice to have an audience ;-) I will have to post one of our best rounds later. Blogger is being uncooperative right now. Jack did not pull once on me like he used to. I have gotten much better about relaxing my arms and not giving him as much resistance to lean on. We had a couple jumps that were so smooth. During the lesson I said, "When everything comes together, it's like magic!" Dave took this picture of me and Jack.

Unfortunately on top of being soaked at the end of the lesson, Jack dumped me in a mud puddle on the way back up to the barn! I think it was a combination of a huge puddle in front of the gate and the really loud drumming of rain on the barn roof that spooked him. He flew off to the right, and I flew off to the left! It's funny that I didn't fall off while jumping, but fell off on the way back to the barn! Oh well, I got a good reminder for why you can't ever get lazy when you're on a horse!

Monterey Sports Car Championships at Laguna Seca

2008-10-31T22:22:00.000-07:00

If you haven't had enough, or want higher resolution photos, click here.

San Francisco Highlights

2008-10-31T11:12:00.000-07:00

We only spent one day of our trip in downtown San Francisco. It was a whirlwind, but we got to see the most important things on our list. We only got lost once when we drove off our map! Thankfully Dave and I are a good team and have above-average senses of direction, so we got back on track fairly easily. The weather was gorgeous and we had fun!

Here is the classic Golden Gate Bridge shot. It was impressive, and I do like the color choice! Seems like most bridges are blue, green, or gray so I like the Golden Gate's uniqueness.

We had to drive through a huge group of adorable Asian tourists to drive down windey Lombard Street. I think it's safe to assume our rental car was in every one of their pictures. They all seemed pretty excited to see someone actually drive back and forth down the insanely steep street! I didn't even try to take this shot at an angle like I do sometimes, the car was just that slanted!

We drove across the Golden Gate Bridge to the Marin Headlands. We like visiting lighthouses on the coast, so we (mostly me) braved a narrow suspension bridge to walk out to the Point Bonita lighthouse. It had a great view!

My first request when I found out we were going to SF was to visit the houses from "Full House." If you watched that show back in the 90's you will know what I'm talking about! They were adorable, and seemed pretty true to how they had the house laid out on the show. But I would like to know what their backyards look like. I don't think they have as large a yard as the Tanner's did!

Can you tell that I'm excited to be there? Watch the Full House intro here.

I will have to post more pictures from our trip later. The race and Monterey were a lot of fun, too!

Tired!

2008-10-26T21:25:00.000-07:00

Oh my goodness... this has been a crazy weekend! I have to get some pictures of our trip to CA up here soon. I've spent this whole weekend cleaning, organizing, and just getting ready for Megan and Aaron to arrive. (and Dave and my dad) They are somewhere in WA right now on the last leg of their looooonnngggg drive from Minnesota. I can't wait to see everyone!

I will post pictures soon!

It's Friday!

2008-10-16T07:14:00.000-07:00

Okay, so it's actually Thursday, but for Dave and me it is Friday! We are flying to San Francisco this afternoon after work and driving down to Monterey, CA for the American Le Mans Series championship race. Dave is really pumped to see all the race cars. I am just excited to go somewhere I have never been and do some sightseeing! We went to an ALMS race in Oregon two years ago and it was a lot of fun. I gotta find some earplugs here at work today before we go. It's going to be noisy!

Photo courtesy of DAVE! One of 350 on day one. More to follow.

My Adorable Dogs!

2008-10-11T21:13:00.000-07:00

I just love my dogs! Dave and I were playing outside with them after I got home from the barn yesterday. As usual, Dave had his camera with him, so I grabbed the dogs and had him take a few pictures. Dylan is always happy to cuddle, but Molly is the typical independent Sheltie. So I had to force her into it. Good thing she is little and easy to hold!

Dylan really got into the lovin'. He would not stop kissing me once I wrapped my arms around him!

Then Molly had enough. She went galloping off after Dylan. She looks like a rocket in this shot, absolutely flying after Dylan!

She can be sweet, and poses nicely for the camera when asked.

I love my doggies!

Aaron and Megan Visited!

2008-10-09T18:20:00.000-07:00

My sister, Megan, and her boyfriend, Aaron were here for a few days last week and over the weekend. They both had two interviews with companies because they are MOVING here at the end of October!!! I am just a little excited ;-) They both had good interviews and I can't wait for them to come back!

We like to decorate cookies together, and they even came prepared with Halloween sprinkles. There are some cute cookies in these pictures, and you can tell which ones were decorated when we got tired... hehe!

Dylan and Molly both love Aaron and Megan. Dylan especially has fun with Aaron because he always plays fetch and scratches him just how he likes.

I took Megan and Aaron to the barn to see and ride Jack. Jack was grumpy this day because he was wet and I put the saddle on his wet back. He's pretty sensitive, he doesn't even like being brushed, so this was no fun to him. I warmed him up and then put him on a lunge line so they wouldn't have to steer. Megan did pretty good posting and even did a little cantering! Aaron trotted a little and did pretty well.

Here's Megan sticking out her tongue at the camera. She had to wear Dave's hiking boots because she didn't have any barn shoes and my shoes are too small for her!

Dave is flying one way to MN on October 24 and driving back with Aaron and Megan. They are driving a car and probably a U-Haul truck towing the other car and wanted to be able to rotate drivers. Google Maps says it is a 16 hour drive!

Carbon River Loop

2008-10-04T10:20:00.000-07:00

While Heidi was officiating at a show last month, I took advantage at went hiking. I knew I wasn't going to take the dogs so I decided to hit Mt. Rainier NP. I found this website: Hike Info, and figured that with an early start, I could take my time and be just fine. That turned out to be optimistic - it was quite the ordeal. The 3000 ft climb at the 8 mile mark was a killer. Here are the highlights of my 17+ mile trek:

Mt. Rainier

This is Mother Mountain, and the hike is basically a loop around this ridge.

This is the Carbon River. This area of Rainier gets the most rain (it shows) and there is plenty of evidence of the unusually large flooding of 2006. My trail had been washed away, so I had to cross the river, hike up a mile, and cross back on the suspension bridge below.

Heights usually don't bother me, but heights combined with a shaky bridge with broken and missing slats does not instill confidence. It was very 'Temple of Doom'. Have a look at the second board of the walkway. The bridge was 30 to 40 feet above the river bed and probably 50 yards long.

The last stop on the trail was Spray falls. It's a 300 foot drop from the top.

Iowa State Recruiting Trip

2008-09-26T19:24:00.000-07:00

I have been lucky enough to be on Boeing's college recruiting team for four years now. I get to go back to my school, Iowa State University, to help work the booth at the gigantic Engineering Career Fair that is held every year. This year, I flew out early so that I could spend Saturday and Sunday with my mom and dad. They drove down from Minnesota to see me. It was so fun!

Here we are before they left on Sunday. We had fun walking around campus and Ames, going out to eat, and watching a movie.

Everyone who visits ISU's campus has to take the token picture with the Campanile in the background. It's the most iconic structure on the beautiful campus. I love how it chimes on the quarter hour. During the school year on weekdays, there is a musician who plays music at noon every day. It sounds so pretty!

This is Morrill Hall. It is one of the oldest buildings on campus. Iowa State just celebrated it's 150th anniversary, so that is pretty old! This building was always closed during my career at ISU because it was in such bad repair. It has now been renovated and I finally got to go inside! It is beautiful and I was so lucky to finally see inside it! It houses several museums and a student success center. I hope students love using it as much as I loved it from the outside!

This is the historic water tower. It is not functioning anymore but is actually listed on the Historic Landmark list and towers over many engineering buildings.

No visit to campus would be complete without visiting Lancelot and Elaine. Iowa State has always had a pair of swans and they are always named this. Iowa State loves traditions!

Here are two of my fellow Boeing recruiters, Julie and Nick. We were proud of our booth set up, can you tell?

The career fair was the craziest one I have ever been to. There were five of us, and we all seriously talked for six hours straight with no breaks. So many students wanted to find out about internships and jobs with Boeing. I barely moved from the same spot for at least the first three hours before I was dying for a drink of water. We talked to some really great people, and even though my voice was gone by the end of the night, it was fun! I love talking to people and telling them that Boeing is a great place to work!

I had a lot of fun seeing campus and Ames again. It was such a great place to go to school! But I was really happy to head home on Wednesday to see my family! Hope I get to go again next year.

Fancy Feet

2008-09-17T20:19:00.000-07:00

Jack had new shoes put on last week. He has classic flat Thoroughbred feet, so he gets pads put on his front feet in the summer when the ground is hard and dry. He used to get the plastic cut to fit pads, but Nancy, our amazing farrier, has been trying pour-in pads the past few times.

Here is Jack warding off the pesky flies with his fly mask on. I still think it's adorable how all the Stoneybrook horses have their names across their forehead. It's like a bunch of little kids with name tags on. He's sticking out his tongue at the camera!

To do the pour-in pad, Nancy fits his shoe, then trims a piece of mesh to the outline of his hoof. She nails the shoe on with the mesh sandwiched between his hoof and the shoe. Then she squirted in the goo (I don't know what the actual noun for the stuff is!) so it fills the space under the mesh. You can see a piece of clear plastic over the whole mess to hold the goo in while it dries. It sets in just a few minutes. I wish I had taken a few more pictures of the steps... maybe next time, but that may not be until next year!

Once Nancy is done, I usually put Tuff Stuff on his nice, neat feet to seal the nail holes. This is what I tell Jack: "You have Fancy Feet, now!" He does not have great feet, but we are trying to keep them as nice as possible!

Now we're ready to ride! It was an easy, short ride in the indoor on the soft footing. The pads needed to cure completely, so we couldn't do any really hard work. Lucky Jack!

Oh, and Jill (if you read this), you would not believe how much everyone still raves about my market basket that you gave me! I still get comments on how cute and handy it is, and I love it! Perfect for toting all my stuff to the barn. Thanks!

Oops, this was posted by Heidi. Somehow the computer was already logged in as Dave. Oh well!

Delightful Driveway

2008-09-10T20:11:00.000-07:00

As promised to my mom and dad, here are pictures of our house and the newly sealed driveway. I love it! The grass on either side of the driveway now looks especially sad compared to it, but I'm sure it will start raining before too much longer and things will green up. I'll take dead grass and beautiful weather any day!

These are the flowers my mom planted back in July. They are still exploding with color. Thanks, Mom! Oh, I better remember to pull those lovely dandelions. Yuck!

Lincoln Creek Horse Trials

2008-09-08T17:55:00.000-07:00

This was a busy weekend! On Saturday Dave and I sealed our driveway. How fun! Haha. We had been waiting and waiting for consecutive weekend days with nice weather so we could do it, and it finally happened. It was sunny and mid 70s all weekend... absolutely perfect for all outdoor activities! The driveway turned out perfectly. Dave even had a neighbor come over and ask who we had do it for us. That was a compliment!

Stacy and I went for a crazy trail ride on Saturday afternoon. Jack spooked across the road at a bag of leaves, was a nut on the trails, and then spooked and half reared into the road on the way home at the same place. He apparently hasn't been working enough with all those abcesses! When we made it safely back to Stoneybrook, I worked him for a long time in the indoor to get some of his energy out. We had a lovely, forward trot, and some nice canter work too. He was very light and straight, so I guess it turned out good in the end!

Sunday morning we left bright and early at 7 am to drive down to Centralia to watch Alyssa, Ting, and Anne in the Lincoln Creek Horse Trials' stadium phase. Once again, the weather was gorgeous and we had fun watching everyone.

Here is Alyssa and her Thoroughbred, Josh. They were in the training half star and were awesome. They even moved up from 5th to 2nd place. Good job, guys!

Here is Ting and her horse, Tristan. Ting was grinning the whole time like she always does when she's riding. They had a fast round and moved up to 3rd place. Way to go!

I had a lesson on Jack today. We finally got to jump! He still pulls coming off the left lead, but we got a few really nice jumps off the left, and coming off the right was great. I just need to get comfortable letting him alone and not giving him any resistance to pull on. I am going to work hard on jumping this winter. He's so much fun!

I Love Dressage!

2008-09-01T18:53:00.000-07:00

I finally had a lesson on Jack today! It has been three weeks since our last one because Jack has had abscesses in each of his front heels, one after the other. I have been riding him at the walk for a week now, yesterday we trotted a little, and today finally got to canter! I figured it would be best to just do dressage until his right heel is completely better. He is still a little tender and doesn't like to do tight right turns yet. He went great on the nice soft indoor footing. Dave came with me since we had Labor Day off from work. He took a lot of really great pictures of the lesson.

This one was my immediate favorite. Dave shot in raw, so we played around with the colors and whatever other settings in Photoshop that you can. It was cool to see how we could fix different settings on the picture to make a good picture really great.

Jack was awesome! He's getting a great topline and tries really hard to do what I ask him. Anne showed me how I can work on his left bend on the ground, since he's a little stiff and unsure of how to bend to the left the way he can to the right. I think once he understands the aids, he will be happy to comply. I just love how balanced he looks in this shot, and the white polos really make him look snazzy!

I think we'll do a few dressage shows this winter to keep us progressing and to practice doing tests for next show season. My goal is to go beginner novice at a few recognized events next summer, so we'll have a lot to work on through the fall and winter!

Walking Is Fun!

2008-08-21T18:27:00.000-07:00

Molly, Dylan, and I went on a walk today on the path in our neighborhood. We usually run on the road, but I wanted a change of pace. The dogs like to sniff in the grass on the path, and I'm sure they liked the new scenery, too!

Here's Molly. This is about as happy as she ever looks on a walk. She usually spends half the time looking over her shoulder to see who's following us. She's a very paranoid walker!

They usually have to walk next to us on the road, but I let them walk in front of me when we go on the path. They feel like adventure dogs this way! Dylan just happily trots along. Molly keeps tabs on him while she checks over her shoulder. I think they look so cute walking next to each other!

Here's a view down the big hill at the end of the path. It goes along underneath the power lines, so you have to listen to them crackle the whole time. It was sprinkling a little off and on, so that really makes them noisy!

Dylan just loves walks! This picture is a little out of focus on his face, but it really shows how happy he was to be out exploring.

I had fun spending time with the dogs. I haven't been able to ride Jack since Sunday because he had an abcess in his left front heel. That one is finally getting better, but today he's ouchy on his right front! We think it's another abcess. So another day stuck inside for Jack, and another day of not riding my pony for me :-(

Helloooo

2008-08-20T18:05:00.000-07:00

That's only funny if you've heard Heidi's voice for Mt. Rainier.

Birthday Cookies

2008-08-11T17:45:00.000-07:00

We had a surprise birthday party to go to this weekend for Kim, one of our friends from the barn. It was a barbecue but we all brought something to share. I always like having an excuse to bake, so I decided to make sugar cookies. Amazingly, I didn't have any birthday shapes in my box of 101 cookie cutters. So I did horses, dogs, and stars just for the fun of it. Ting, my riding instructor's daughter, decided to come help me decorate them. She picked the colors that we used. Not surprisingly, she chose pink, purple, and turquoise- her favorites and all, in different combinations, her cross country colors. We had fun with the frosting and sprinkles. She had never used pastry bags to decorate with frosting, but turned out to be a natural!

Here are the trays of cookies. It was boring to just do realistic colored dogs and horses, so we got creative!

Here is Ting with one of her favorites just before she at it! Everyone at the party enjoyed them, and they were quickly devoured! Guess I can't wait to make some more :-)

Photos

2008-08-08T22:28:00.000-07:00

I'm defecting from Flikr to the (less restrictive and more free) Google version - Picasa. I've doubled the photo count and hope to double it again over the weekend. (We'll see how much it rains.) You can find it here: http://picasaweb.google.com/dlilient or its permanent location in the side-bar.

Be sure to leave comments so I know which types of photos to keep posting!

Minnesota Summer

2008-08-08T19:39:00.000-07:00

We had a great time in Minnesota! Unfortunately, it was an unplanned trip because my grandma passed away. Fortunately, Grandma was 94 and lived an amazing life! I want to get some good pictures to post of her because she was a great grandma. My sisters and cousins and I always had such a blast at her house, so it was fun to reminisce with my huge family!

Erin, Megan, and I all participated in the service. Erin did the Bible readings, and Megan and I brought up communion. My uncle, Dan, spoke about Grandma and made us all laugh and cry. It was wonderful to be with my family!

This is most of the gang. My aunts, uncles, cousins, parents, and sisters tend to make it difficult to fit us all in a camera frame! I guess it was a good thing not all the husbands and little cousins could make it. Kidding! It would have been amazing if everyone had make it, but in a big family, that's hard to do!

The Minneapolis Sculpture Garden at the Walker Art Center is a fun place to visit downtown. In all the time Dave and I have spent in Minnesota, we never made it down to see the famous "Betty Crocker Spoon" as my family calls it. It is actually called Spoonbridge and Cherry. Dave didn't think my self portrait skills were good enough to fit us and the sculpture in the frame, but look how talented I am? One try, baby! That is the Basilica of St. Mary in the background. Such a beautiful church!
We went to the Star Wars exhibit at the Science Museum of Minnesota on Sunday before the Twins baseball game we had tickets to that afternoon. My whole family loves Star Wars, (yes, we are dorks) and had fun seeing the actual costumes and props used in the movies. Here is Dave's Vader face. Are you scared yet?

The Twins won the game and moved into first place in our division, which explains the #1 on the cake. My sister, Megan is really good at decorating cakes. She used to work at Dairy Queen and learned her skills on their delicious ice cream cakes! Dave's 28th birthday is coming up on the 24th, so my family had a celebration while we were all together. We love celebrating birthdays!

As usual, there were too many things to do and not enough time while in Minnesota. Every time we go back, I'm reminded how much I love my family and it makes coming back to Seattle very hard! I love living out here, but it would be so easy to just move back and feel right at home. I'm sad that Grandma died, but she gave me one last gift of a wonderful trip back home that I wouldn't have made otherwise :-)

Off to Minnesota!

2008-07-30T12:12:00.001-07:00

Dave and I are flying to Minnesota this afternoon. I will hopefully post some pictures while we are there. I am really excited to see my family. I'm also looking forward to the hot weather! Maybe there will be a thunderstorm- I miss those since we rarely hear thunder around our house in Seattle.

I've Been Tagged!!

2008-07-27T10:45:00.000-07:00

Melanie, from The Knutson Family blog, tagged me to share six things about myself that you may not know. I am excited that this is my first tag ever, so thanks, Melanie!!!

1. I am a Minnesota Wild hockey fan, a Minnesota Twins baseball fan, and a Seattle Seahawks football fan. However, unless you are there in person, I hate actually watching the games! It's so agonizing to watch, that I'd rather just know the score after the game is over. I hate the feeling of disappointment and wasting my time if my team loses. Guess I'm not the best fan in that way!

2. I have two sisters. Megan, on the left, is my younger sister. Erin, on the right, is my older sister. We are 24, 26, and 28 right now, though this is a picture from a few years ago. They are my two best friends and I miss them since we live so far apart!

3. When I was in middle and high school, I leased an Appendix Quarter Horse named Buddy. His show name was Ima Jaguar Too. We exclusively did dressage. When I first started riding him, he was scared of the white poles of the dressage arena, so getting to recognized training level shows was quite an accomplishment! My heart still aches a little when I think about him. He is still at the same stable, and I hope he is doing well. He was my first horse love!

4. I am 100% scared of frogs! I know this sounds like a silly irrational fear, and I agree. I just can't get over their sliminess and the way they jump at you. Yuck! I couldn't even put a real picture of one on here, it disgusted me too much! Give me spiders and snakes any day.

5. I am an engineer at Boeing. I work for the 737 program. We make the cute little planes, as I like to call them! It is thanks to my mom that I became an engineer. I always really liked and was good at math and science. She always told me I could do something in a technical field like engineering. It is definitely important for young girls who are good at math and science to be encouraged to follow what they like, even if it may not be "cool" for them to do so! We need more women engineers in the world!

6. Dave and I have a goal to visit all 50 state capitols. I also want to visit all 50 states, period, so this will help accomplish both goals! I have been to at least 30 states already, but we've only been to five of the capitol buildings so far: Minnesota (pictured above), Wisconsin, Iowa, Washington, and Oregon. I think it's cool to hear the history and see how different the buildings are. I'm not a big history buff, but I think it's amazing how varied our country is, and I want to see it all! So far, Minnesota was my favorite building. It's beautiful, but I think I might be biased since I grew up there!

I don't know who hasn't been tagged yet out of the blogs I read. Seems like everyone has done a post like this recently. So if you are reading this and have a blog of your own, I am tagging you! Let me know if anyone does a post because of me!

Happy One Year, Jack!

2008-07-24T19:16:00.001-07:00

Today marks the one year anniversary of Jack becoming my horse! It is funny to think back to last summer when Dave and I did a whirlwind tour of looking at other horses. Jack was the first horse I looked at when we started to shop. Everyone told me not to buy the first horse I looked at. Obviously this is good advice. You don't want to just look at one horse and have nothing to compare it to. But my first ride on Jack was so good! We looked at him as we drove down to watch my friends at the Inavale Farm Horse Trials in Oregon. Dave took a bunch of pictures and videos of both me and his old owner, Meg, riding him to show my trainer, Anne. We showed everyone the footage when we got to the show. It was fortunate that the trainer that Meg rode with was at the show, too. Anne chatted with him to see what he thought about Jack and his prospects for the future. He said that Jack was a good boy who didn't stop, and that had the potential to move up from Novice level eventing, which is where he was at, but he wouldn't make it with Meg. They just weren't the right match. So, with that information and the videos, Anne told me to ask if we could all stop to see him again on the way home.

We arranged to meet Meg at her trainer's stable, Caber Farm. I had tried him at her house, but she didn't have many jumps or a lot of room to really try him out. Anne looked him over and then watched Meg ride him on the flat and over some jumps. Then I got on. It felt good to get on him. I put him through his paces, then we went over a few low jumps. Then Anne sets this jump, a pole over a barrel, it looked huge to me! She says it was only 2'9" but it looked at least 3' to me. That may not be big to some of you, but I hadn't been jumping for very long at that point, and this was only my second ride on Jack! Anne says, "Okay, just pop over this jump." Now when I say pop over a jump, I think a tiny cross rail! When Anne tells you to do something, you pretty much just have to not think and do it. So I picked up a canter, circled toward the jump, grabbed his martingale strap and went for it! He went right over, and we came around again with no problem again. It was great! I even got to take him out in the field and go over a log on their cross country course. I think after all that, I knew how much I liked him, but didn't want to like him too much since I hadn't seen anyone else.

So that next weekend, Dave and I drove all over and I tried three more horses. This of course was after contacting dozens of others, but not thinking any of them were worth the time to actually go see them. It's definitely good that I kept looking. There was one horse, Riley, that I thought I liked better than Jack. So I had Anne come up to see him. But the second ride did not feel as good to me, and Anne thought he looked a little off. He also didn't have the same sweet personality as Jack. He had been used as a school horse for awhile, and he just seemed a little reserved. Not that I blame him! Being a schoolie can be hard work! It was good that I had another horse that was a good contender. It made me really think about what I wanted and which horse was the best fit for me.

So we vet checked Jack with no problems, and decided he was the one! We had a trip to MN planned shortly after the vet check, so Meg brought him up the day after we got back. I was so excited! Jack is the first horse I have actually owned. I leased a horse, Buddy, back in middle and high school. But it's so great to have Jack all to myself! I love my horse!

Here is a picture of Jack during my first trial ride on him at Meg's house. He was chubby and you can see how he has no topline muscles on his neck. He was also ridden in an elevator bit, which we got rid of right away. He goes like an angel on cross country in a plain snaffle!

This is Jack just a few weeks ago. His messy mane kind of hides his neck, but he's getting really nice muscles. He's also lost just the right amount of weight. His tail has also filled out a lot, I think due in part to the supplements he gets for his feet. I just had an amazing dressage lesson on him tonight. Anne and I were talking about how far he's come, and I'm dreaming of where we will be in another year!

Cross Country Video

2008-07-20T10:43:00.000-07:00

We just got a new computer that comes with a movie maker! This is my first attempt to edit video clips and add music. These videos were taken during the schooling session that I blogged about earlier. It was July 2 at Donida Farm. We had such a great time, and I think that shows in the video!

Trip to California and Oregon

2008-07-20T08:38:00.000-07:00

My mom came to visit from Minnesota at the end of June. Dave came up with a cool trip route that took us along the Oregon coast, down to the Redwood Forest in California, and back up through Oregon by way of Crater Lake. In Oregon we stopped in several cute coastal towns and saw the amazing Oregon Dunes. You can never imagine as much sand as there is at the Dunes! Okay, so maybe the Sahara Desert has it beat, but it was a lot of sand.

Here is a picture of my mom and me looking absolutely tiny compared to this redwood tree. The middle of this tree was burned out, and we could look straight up the middle. The air in the forest was damp and chilly, but that is what the trees like best!

I thought this log would make a great cross country jump... for Advanced level eventing, maybe! It was enormous, and this one was small compared to some other logs we saw. Some were taller than us!

This was at Crater Lake. When we drove into Oregon from California, the temperature had climbed to 98 degrees (is anyone other than me thinking of Nick Lachey? haha) but by the time we got up to the lake, it had dropped to 65 degrees! Can you believe how much snow was still on the ground? Parts of the park were still closed because of snow on the road! Mom sees enough snow in Minnesota, but we still had to take our picture standing in it.

Dave took some beautiful pictures of the lake. This is Wizard Island, the result of volcanic eruptions underneath the lake's surface. Crater lake has the clearest water in the world, and it was such a gorgeous blue color!

I am truly terrified of heights, so this is my reaction to being close to the edge of this viewing area! Okay, I was kind of pretending, but it really dropped of straight down to the lake at nearly every viewpoint. I think it was at least 1,000 feet down to the lake's surface, so that would be a long way to fall!

It's nice to look at the pictures and enjoy the view without giant mosquitos biting me! We were eaten alive, even through our clothes! We had camped for two nights in a row at this point, so if it looks like we need showers, you are correct ;-)

The last thing we did on our trip was visit the Oregon state capitol building. It was such a nice trip, and we all had a great time! Dave and I have not traveled south of Philomath, OR since moving to Seattle. It was nice to have a good excuse to take a trip with my mom. It did, however, feel good to get home and see our doggies!

Where's Waldo?: Photo Quiz Answer 'Key'

2008-07-18T10:21:00.001-07:00

HA - it's a trick question! Big surprise, eh? Below is a small portion of the larger photo - I'd been taking pictures of Waldo but had no idea he had snuck into this photo, even after seeing it a dozen times. So what's the answer? I don't know either. It was intended to be a landscape, but it sure looks like a portrait.

Zonked Out

2008-07-16T06:13:00.000-07:00

Dave found Dylan sleeping on my crappy couch from college one day recently when he got home. I may have said this before, but one of the cutest things about Dylan's deafness is our ability to catch him sleeping. What is cuter than a sleeping puppy? Now, I can't say this looks particularly comfortable, but Dylan frequently sleeps in weird positions. See one of my original posts for some other examples.

Isn't all the blood rushing to his head? I love how his ears are flopping out. We always feel bad startling him awake, but his happiness to see us usually overrides the shock pretty quickly!

While I'm on the subject of my deaf Aussie, I found a website yesterday for a lethal white Aussie rescue that is located in Arizona. http://www.amazingaussies.com/ When we first got him, I never would have guessed there were enough dogs like Dylan to have a rescue dedicated to them. It's amazing how similar some of the dogs look like him! I'm glad that other people out there that know how wonderful these dogs are! Dylan is the best!

Schooling at Donida

2008-07-06T11:27:00.000-07:00

On Wednesday July 2, we went to Donida Farm to practice on their cross country course. It was great to get out in the open to ride. Jack and I have been working a lot on stadium jumping, so we were ready for a change of pace. He was a very good boy, and I was less nervous than the last time I went schooling, so that felt great!

Here we are going over our first log. I'm trying to remember to keep my elbows in when I jump, but often have too many other things to think of ;-)

We did the drop into the water a whole bunch of times. It was fun to splash into the water off the bank. I have to remind myself next time to grab my breastplate strap to keep my hands down, but we had no problems at this obstacle. Jack's expression shows how much fun he's having!

Nice even knees over this coop. There were some bison in a field off to the right of this part of the course. Jack spooked at a log closer to the fence line before this jump. We just barely jumped the end of the log the first time! But after that he forgot about the 'aliens' and jumped it again very nicely.

Jack is very good over ditches. I think they are fun, too! Thankfully I have a horse that doesn't think of them as horse-eating traps like some do.

Okay, so I know I'm jumping ahead in this picture. However, this was the most fun obstacle of the day! We rode up a bank, off a drop, and then turned left to this rolltop. It was like a roller coaster! I let Jack open up and gallop after this fence because we were both so happy :-)

Here's the whole group. Alyssa on Josh, Anna on Gus, Kelvie on Kiwi, me and Jack, Alex on Cody, and our instructor, Anne, on Ole. I think schooling is even more fun than showing because you're out with your friends, and there's no pressure of competition. It was such a great afternoon!

Photo Quiz

2008-07-01T11:37:00.000-07:00

Is this a landscape or a portrait?

Posing for the Camera

2008-06-25T17:55:00.001-07:00

I love this picture of Dylan. Dave swears that he poses when the camera is out. He's got the best smile!

Race for the Cure

2008-06-25T17:38:00.001-07:00

On Saturday, June 21, Dave, Stacy, and I ran in the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure. If you don't already know, it's to support breast cancer. We did the 5K run and had a great time! Boeing sponsored all employees who ran in the race by donating $100! We couldn't pass up such an easy way to help out. Boeing provided shirts for all the employees who ran, as you can see. Here we are after the race. It started and ended at Qwest field where the Seahawks play.

It was amazing to see how many people ran in the race. You can see Qwest in the distance and all the people coming towards and away from us. That is a lot of money raised :-) This was halfway. We got to run along the freeway, which was really cool!

Stacy insisted that she would only make it one mile, but we all did the whole thing! We even had enough energy to sprint the last block to the finish. That felt really great! We were all proud of ourselves. Maybe a small triathlon is in our future?

Bitey Face

2008-06-14T09:30:00.000-07:00

Some people do not know how much horses like to play. Jack's group is a particularly playful bunch of geldings. Kiwi is his best friend in the pasture. Here they are playing one of their favorite games: bitey face. This is actually a pretty tame game compared to some days. I think it's funny how they notice me watching and look over with such innocent faces. "What? We're not doing anything!"

Baywood Pony Club One Day Event

2008-06-04T08:54:00.000-07:00

The show was back on May 17, so I'm a little slow in posting these pictures. However, I'm so proud of Jack and had such a great time that I wanted to share a few anyway! Dave took a ton of really great pictures and also took a video of our dressage test. I haven't been successful in uploading video yet, so if anyone has Blogger video experience, let me know! The day was 95 degrees! We drank a lot of Gatorade and Jack got lots of hosing and rinsing after each ride. He was happy as long as he was eating during his down time ;-)

This is us in the dressage warm up area. I put my show coat on right before I went into the arena for my test. It was hot, but was actually nice to have the sun off my arms! Jack was mostly good for our test; a little tense at times but very obedient.
I was both nervous and excited for cross country! Nervous because I had never done it for a show before, but excited because I have had so much fun when we've gone XC schooling. (See my April post for pictures of our schooling session at NWEC.) Jack was a rockstar! He clearly thinks cross country is the best eventing phase. He was constantly looking for the next fence and did not hesitate to jump anything. He even turned in the air over jump 3 because he was already locked on to jump 4 off to our left! This is jump 2. I love how our navy and baby blue color scheme turned out! I had made my helmet cover the day before and am really happy with the result.

Look how happy Jack looks! He's ready to go! He almost didn't believe that we were done after we had made it over the last jump. I let him gallop a little extra just because we were having so much fun!

Jack did not need much warm up for our stadium round. Dave and I like how nice his knees look in this picture. Even in the heat he was happy to go into the ring!

Here we are two jumps from the end of our round. I am smiling in every picture Dave took. It was so much fun! Jack made it so enjoyable to just go in and have fun over the fences. I had no doubt that we'd make it through clean, and I was right! We ended up in 4th place out of 20 people. Not bad for our first event!

Happy Anniversary!

2008-05-29T19:11:00.000-07:00

Today is our 4th wedding anniversary! To celebrate, I made sugar cut out cookies, and then Dave and I frosted them. It was fun and a good way to finally use some of the letter and number cutters I have :-)

Here we are about to enjoy some of our creations. We look sweaty and gross because we ran after we got home from work and hadn't changed yet.

I made a bunch of heart shaped cookies to put all around the word ones. I had a good picture of the whole layout, but Blogger wouldn't let me post it turned the correct orientation. How annoying. So you can just imagine how these two racks of cookies look around the pan! Everyone at the barn was excited to see me show up with a cookie container! That's one good thing about my love of baking: having people to share it with!!

We didn't make any big plans for this year's anniversary. Next year will probably have something fun planned since it will be 5 years!! We are going to go out to a movie this weekend, so we'll have to make it an anniversary "date" :-)

Sibling Love

2008-05-13T19:12:00.000-07:00

Molly and Dylan don't like to admit it sometimes, but they love each other! Look at the way they were laying on the couch this weekend. I'm glad I caught it on camera!

Don't they look sweet? Quite the contrast from the rough wrestling they usually like to do!

Alyssa's Fan Club

2008-05-13T18:58:00.000-07:00

On Saturday, May 9, Dave and I drove down to the Northwest Equestrian Center with Stacy, Ting, and Dylan to watch Alyssa's XC ride. We had a fun road trip down, with a quick stop at Starbuck's for a caffeine jolt. Alyssa did great; she and Josh went clean and were 3 seconds under optimum time, so they ended the day in 3rd place! We spent the next few hours watching prelim and intermediate rides, shopping at the tack tents, and visiting.

Here's Susan, Stacy, Alyssa, Dave, Ting, and Dylan (though you can't see him) walking the course. I think Dave's yelling something, not sure what though!

Dylan especially had a great time with Ting. She loves dogs, and is great with him. He got to run around with her and get lots of pets and hugs both at the event and in the car. Look at that smile!

Here's Stacy, Alyssa, and me. Stacy and I plan on being Alyssa's grooms someday if she ever goes pro ;-)
Going to watch made me more excited for my one day event coming up this weekend! It's going to be back at NWEC, so it'll be familiar territory. Can't wait!

Cross Country Schooling

2008-04-09T05:45:00.000-07:00

On Tuesday, a group from Stoneybrook went schooling at the Northwest Equestrian Center in Rainier, WA. There were eight horses plus a small group of family members to watch. The weather was questionable all morning, and when we got there, it was raining pretty steadily. But by the time we signed forms and unloaded the horses, the sun was peeking out. We got rained on a few times, but ended the afternoon with more sunshine. What a great day!

Here's me and Jack over our first jump of the day. He picked his knees up so neatly. I guess he knows that these jumps won't fall over like the ones in stadium jumping!

Here we are jumping a ditch. Jack was fabulous and went right over it. He's definitely looking at it, though. I had a hard time not looking down at it, too!

We jumped several of these jumps in this field. It was really fun jumping one jump and then galloping to the next! This was great practice for the show in May.

This water complex was really fun. Some horses don't like water, but all the horses were happily splashing in and out of the water. We all jumped this little log in the water and also practiced a bigger log right after one of the out ramps from the water. That was cool to canter through the water, up the bank, and over the log.

After a day like this, it is hard to believe I only did dressage for so long! Eventing is so much fun, and it's especially great to spend a day with a group of friends on our horses :-)

Just A Reminder...

2008-04-07T12:27:00.001-07:00

You can click on the pictures we post to see them full sized. I always forget, so I figured some of you might not know that either!

Molly and Dylan Love Agility!

2008-04-07T12:10:00.001-07:00

Molly and Dylan have been very happy to be back in agility classes with Lisa Selthofer. They both are super excited to get up on Saturday mornings, and they start to pester us that it's time to leave no matter how early it is. They both whine and cry in the car on the way over, so I'm glad the ride is only about 3 minutes long!

Molly is a little rocket! The more excited you get, the faster and more frantic she gets. Here she's jumping 16", though we'd like to get her in the 12" classes. She may be just a hair too tall, though. Either way, she's a great jumper!

I love Dylan's face in this picture. He's smiling and his ears make him look like he's taking off to fly!

Maybe his is! He's just flying over this jump. Dave got a ton of great pictures in this session. Dylan ran really smooth for Dave on this day. Dave is really good at getting his front crosses in. He makes it look easy even though Dylan is not easy to keep ahead of!

Overall, we all look forward to class. It's fun to run around outside and all play together. Maybe we'll try showing the dogs this year, but if not, we're still loving agility!

Pony Club Rating Prep

2008-04-05T17:33:00.001-07:00

A bunch of girls from Stoneybrook are going for their next Pony Club rating this summer. Alex and Alyssa especially have been riding a ton to get ready for it. Stacy and I went to watch on Saturday and Sunday and cheer the girls on. I took a bunch of pictures of Alex and Cody in their dressage class. Somehow I never took any other pictures. Oh well!

Here's Alex's parents, Eric and Janet, with Alyssa, Stacy, and Ting. We were all freezing! It was really windy and chilly. We were all underprepared for what the weather threw at us all day. It rained, was windy, then sunny, then snowed. Crazy Washington weather!

Here's Alex and Cody. They looked great! You will notice she is riding without stirrups. Not easy to do, believe me.

We were all numb from the cold after watching Alex, so we warmed up in one of Donida Farm's tack rooms. Here's Stacy, Ting, me, and Alyssa. It was cozy!

March Visitors

2008-04-05T17:20:00.000-07:00

Mom and Dad came to visit on Easter for a few days. We saw the "Salmon Thirty Salmon" on the way to the airport! I was really excited that Dave spotted it, and even more excited that I captured in on my camera. How handy to have a pocket-sized camera for this very situation! I love this plane. It's very clever. Our second cool 737 sighting at the Seatac airport. We saw the Shamu plane two years ago.

We went to the Future of Flight museum in Everett one day. Here's Dad, Mom, and Dave standing in front of a 777 engine. It's huge! I wanted to stand in it, but I suppose they frown on that without supervision. You can see people must do it sometimes, because there's a pad inside the nacelle.
This is at the museum entrance. It was a good way to spend a chilly day. It was almost like being at work, though, because it was all Boeing related displays. Maybe we should have counted it for work instead of taking vacation ;-)

The trip was too short, but fun to have Mom and Dad around for awhile. Molly and Dylan loved having "Grandma and Grandpa" around to take them for walks every morning!

Wild Hockey Game

2008-04-04T05:55:00.001-07:00

On March 9, Megan, Aaron, Dave, and I went to a MN Wild hockey game! We had a great time in the State of Hockey!

Here we are all decked out in Wild gear. It was fun to see all the fans in Wild jerseys and clothes. It seemed to me like the best bunch of fans for wearing the team colors. I love it!

This is right after we scored. The Wild were good, but not good enough to win this game :-( But they are in the playoffs now! If I lived in MN, I would definitely go to a lot more games. We all had a great time!

Dylan's Backpack

2008-02-16T10:15:00.001-08:00

Dylan, like most Australian Shepherds, is very hard to wear out. He seems to have endless amounts of energy! No matter how much Dave or I run with him, we can't seem to go fast or far enough to make a dent in his energy supply. I was talking about this with a mom from Stoneybrook Stables, and she told me about their standard poodle. She had the same problem and ended up getting a backpack to put weights in when the dog goes running. I thought that sounded like a great idea, so I took Dylan to the store to find one for him. As you can see below, he looks pretty proud of himself with his backpack on.

I put a water bottle in each side so he is evenly balanced. If anyone has tried running or hiking with weight on your back, you know it is definitely more difficult than not carrying anything. Dylan actually runs closer to the same pace as me now, with a lot less bouncing around and trying to hold himself back. He even has taken naps after we run, so it seems to be doing the trick!

Of course, he is completely re energized once he naps, unlike me, but it's great to have found something that can at least temporarily slow him down! I'm sure the neighbors have no idea why he's wearing a backpack, but he sure looks cute, doesn't he?

Anyone Out There?

2008-02-12T10:22:00.000-08:00

Dave and I have been wondering if anyone is reading our blog. We'd love for you to add comments at the end of our posts just to let us know you checked us out. Or let us know if you like the pictures! Thanks :-)

Heid and Jack's First Show

2008-01-27T10:43:00.000-08:00

On Saturday January 26, Jack and I went to our first show. It was a schooling show up in Woodinville at Gold Creek Equestrian Center. We were in a combined training class, so we did a dressage test and a show jumping round. It was a good learning experience, and Jack was a superstar! He was so well behaved and had a blast in show jumping!

Here we are at the end of our dressage test, just before the halt and salute.

We had to wait out in the rain between show jumping classes. Thankfully the snow held off until we were about ten minutes from home.

This is Jump 2 of our round. Jack was pulling the whole round. He wanted to go fast!

Jump 5A in the background and two strides to Jump 5B. Can you tell I'm having fun? Jack's expression gives him away, too!

Jump 8, with two to go! We went clean and got third place in our class. It was great to know Jack is so well behaved at a new place. Of course we are biased, but Dave said Jack looked like the best horse there!

Sightseeing in Seattle

2008-01-26T06:40:00.000-08:00

Megan and Aaron came to visit for a long weekend. On Monday, January 21, we spent part of the day downtown. We did the typical Seattle sightseeing stuff: Pike Place Market and original Starbucks, but the best part was going to the Space Needle. Dave, Megan, and I had already been there, but Aaron hadn't, and the weather was AMAZING. It was perfectly clear, not a cloud in the sky. We couldn't pass up an opportunity like that, so we went up to the observation deck. It was so worth it!

Here's us at the public market. We're just down the way from the fish throwers! Though we didn't see any fish being thrown :-( Though if no one is buying, they don't have much reason to throw fish. Aaron and I still recognized some of the guys from the training video we'd both seen.

Here's the Space Needle. It's cool that Dave and I have lived in two different cities with such an architectural icon: The St. Louis Arch, and now the Seattle Space Needle!

Megan and Dave enjoying the view. It was so nice in the sun. We had a full week of clear, sunny days. What a treat for the Seattle winter!

Here's the Seattle skyline. You can see Mt. Rainier in the background. We had an amazing view of the Cascades, the Olympics, and Mt. Rainier. The tallest building in the middle of this picture is the Columbia Tower. You can pay to go up to almost the top floor and look out on the city. It's a good view, since it's higher than the Space Needle, but I think it's more spectacular being in the Needle. You have a more unobstructed view, and you are outside. Not stuck behind a glass window.
Inside the Needle there are lots of informational boards and interactive displays. This one is a bunch of touch computer screens. There are drawings of the view, and you have to wave your hands over the screens to make info pop ups appear so you can learn about different landmarks. We thought we looked so silly waving our hands around in the air!

Christmas Cookie Bake-a-thon

2008-01-08T19:12:00.001-08:00

I baked cookies for 8 hours back in December to give as gifts to some of our friends. It was a fun day, especially since I got some help with decorating!
Stacy came over to help me with the sugar cookies. She hadn't made them before without the help of her mom, so it was a learning experience! My best advice is from good old Alton Brown: keep the cookie cutter on the cookie when you scoop it off the counter with the spatula. (Or pancake turner, as Mrs. Epstien would say, right Mom? Hahah) That way, it will hold it's shape until it is on the pan.
Precision decorating of the cute gingerbread men. We didn't make any women, sorry girls.
Stacy decorated the trees amazingly with the sprinkles. She individually placed each of those larger round ones! She kept saying she wasn't a good decorator, but the cookies indicate otherwise!
Here is a completed plate of cookies. Makes me hungry just looking at it! Christmas is the best excuse for baking!

Flu wars

2007-12-30T15:32:00.000-08:00

I'd like to congratulate Megan for being the evil genius that she is. I don't know how she managed to give Heidi the flu over either the phone or webcam, but I'm convinced she did. Megan leads 10-6 over Heidi, but I'm not sure who that makes the winner. Sorry, no pictures for this post...

Merry Christmas!

2007-12-30T11:05:00.000-08:00

My family came to Seattle for Christmas. Between running, visiting with Amy's family, a trip to Portland and sight seeing, there was enough time for portraits of varying seriousness, and a contest to one up Jakob for the 'Best Present Opening Reaction' title (Jakob walked away with the title - no one had a move to best the double fist pump.) The men went skiing but diving gear would have been more appropriate attire. Everything between my waist and ski boots was soaked through. I had water running down my legs most of the afternoon. Mike and Dad had snow pants that were equally effective - good times!

Godzilla vs. Slater

2007-12-30T10:42:00.000-08:00

Heidi and I cheufurred Michelle to Tacoma so she could train with our friend Laura. We opted out of the 20 mile run to hang out with Aric and Mia. As usual, we left with full stomachs and had first row seats to the bout of the decade as Aric went head to head with Godzilla. The judges have yet to determine a winner.

There is a prize for the first person to post a comment correctly identifying the reference in the title!

Lock S - foils in Attack Position

2007-12-15T14:23:00.001-08:00

Clearly the aggressor and the 'underdog', Molly takes a high-speed pass at Dylan. It's rough when he weighs three times what she does, but it still happens every single day. It may not look like it, but they're both having tons of fun! Click on the images for larger versions.

See Jack Trot

2007-12-14T10:57:00.001-08:00

I love this picture that Dave just took of Jack and me. He has come so far in his training since I got him in July! He is learning that moving correctly is more comfortable in the long run than being lazy and not using his body the right way. He is teaching me to have really quiet hands because he moves more consistently that way. Dave is getting a new camera today, so I hope we will have lots more pictures to post soon. I think he's going to be camera happy for awhile!

Snow!

2007-12-01T07:59:00.000-08:00

It was snowing this morning when we got up. Molly was so excited since she loves snow! I went outside and threw teeny snowballs for her to catch. She loves getting snow in her face :-) Dylan just had fun running circles around us. I don't think he cares one way or the other about the snow like Molly does. There is barely enough snow to see much on the grass but it looks really pretty covering all the roofs and tree branches. And the best part is we don't have to shovel snow, because there's never enough accumulation for that!