OH BABY!

Dusty & I are excited to announce that we are expecting our first child, due Nov. 22nd, 2008! We are 12 weeks along right now. Stay tuned for updated belly pics!

Our First Home!

On April 11th we will turn the key to the front door of our very first home purchase! We are very excited! The plan is to start here and then eventually build our dream home out on the ranch. Stay tuned for our open house date, and of course, many of Dusty's poker parties!

Winter In the Country

Here are some pics from around the ranch this winter. As many of you know, we had a hard winter with a lot of snow this year! One of these pics shows the avalanche on the hill behind the ranch, one is a herd of deer, one is of some Kildeer birds nesting, a beautiful sunrise reflecting off the clouds, and the ranch house.

Auntie Jessy & Uncle Dusty!

CONGRATULATIONS to my sister and brother-in-law, Sarah & Richard, who are expecting their first child on Aug. 1st! This is the first baby on my side of the family so it is a very special and exciting time for all of us! They will make excellent parents and we are very excited to be auntie & uncle!

Happy New Year!

Here's to a great 2008!

Lil' Red Heeler Pup

My brother surprised my dad on Christmas by giving him this new red heeler pup! She is 6 weeks old and Jas found her in Canby, OR. Her name is Tessy (with Maggie coming in a close 2nd). The Scotties tolerate her but would rather rule the roost.

We hope everyone had a Merry Christmas, here's to 2008!

Scotland, Paris, & Italy

As most of you know, we were fortunate enough to get to visit Scotland (for the second time), Paris, then tour around Italy. The primary reason for our trip was to go to our friend Zoe's (she was our exchange student in '95) wedding in Scotland! It was like a fairy tale! They got married in a castle, which we got to stay 2 nights in. The castle was situated with a loch (lake) on one side and a forest on another. It was amazing! We also got to go sailing on a Scottish loch with Zoe's dad who owns a sailboat.

Next we went on to Paris. We met up with our friends Leon, Angela, & Jon. We saw the tower, went to the louvre, Notre Dame, had wonderful Paris coffee, crepes, wine, and bread and enjoyed the city. I think the most memorable was when we got stuck in a rainstorm on our way to the tower and had to duck under a tall building's eve until the rain stopped! During this time we, of course, had to uncork some red wine! It made the wait a lot more tolerable and fun! :)

Last, we toured around Italy. We used trains as our primary source of transportation. We went to Venice, Florence, Tuscany, the Italian Riviera, and ended in Rome. We liked Tuscany and the Riviera the best, with Rome coming in close behind. Venice was really neat and we did a gondola ride (which was one of the best parts). Florence was a happenin' place and we saw the famous statue of David. From Florence, we made a day trip to the Italian Riviera (Cinque Terre) and visited a few towns along the coast. We lounged around and swam in the warm sea. We all floated like logs because there is so much salt in that water. Way more than here. Jon, Leon & Dusty also loved the "scenery" as it was normal to see topless sunbathers there. We went to the Tuscan region after Florence and loved it. All the neat cypress & olive trees and vineyards along the countryside were beautiful. We had lunch at a small quaint country farmhouse. We made a pit stop and saw the famous leaning tower of Pisa. Our last stop was Rome. We loved seeing the ancient ruins and Colosseum, it is really amazing. We also went to Vatican City which was cool.

Thanksgiving

We had a fantastic Thanksgiving, it is so nice to be home! We got to eat twice, once at Dusty's folks' and once with my folks. It was the first Thanksgiving in my folks' new house with all the kids home so it was neat.