Emilee and Pablo celebrate 9 years!!

Emilee and Paul celebrated their 9 year anniversary last Wednesday, so they went out on a (short) "hot date". Having a 2 month old baby doesn't allow too long of a date.
Happy Anniversary you two crazy love birds - we love you!!

Nellie says goodbye to her cast

After 6 L O N G weeks of wearing this cast, Nellie finally got it off - it's a good thing because playing basketball was a little difficult with a cast :)

She's still supposed to wear her brace, but she's very happy to have the cast off!!

Girls Just Wanna Have Fu - un!! ;)

We had our VERY fun "Girls Weekend" (minus the "end") this last week - right after my Dad's 80th birthday party. Part of our girls trip ALWAYS includes a stop to Red Robin for some scrumptious mud pie. Here we are ready to dig in!! I'm afraid that I look like I might gnaw through the entire table - EEYikes!! I may very well have done that as we only had pretty much one meal (plus treats of course) each day.
Here's the "after" picture. Tammie was the only one that couldn't finish her mud pie - don't worry, she'll catch on some day :)

Here's Miss Connie coloring Debbie's hair - she just can't get away from her "magician" job ')

Grandma knitting away on Melody's baby afghan

Aunt Tammie all relaxed in her Jammies

Before we leave the last day, we take a "sisters picture". We were using the timer on my camera, which I don't do very often, so I wasn't sure how this would turn out.

a closer look at the "middle aged beauts"

And of course we HAVE to end with a "crazy shot".

I'm so very grateful for the opportunity to "catch up" with my Mom and Sisters, like we can only do on our girls trip. We stayed up till 3:00 AM most nights (mornings), shopped till we dropped, watched movies, did a little VERY hot tubbin'

(something was wrong with the thermostat - OUCH!!)

I love you all and feel so blessed to call you my family. As corny as it sounds "thanks for the memories". I can't wait for next year ")

Some flooding pictures in Carnation - for your viewing pleasure :)

Nellie wanted a picture taken of herself by the "15" sign since that's the birthday she'll be celebrating Saturday :).

Not much clearance under the bridge going over the Tolt River

This is taken on the Fall City side of the bridge going in to Carnation (203)

At MacDonald Park. Notice the sign - I thought that was funny.

Miss Nellie in the parking lot at MacDonald Park

MacDonald Park - this is actually a soccer field

Parking lot at MacDonald Park. Notice the waters current.

You can see the line of leaves - that's where the water HAD been. Notice the toys in the distance on the right - there was someone playing on them when we were there, and they're completely in the water, so they had to get very wet just to get over to them - CRAZY!!

Nellie had a birthday party ;)

Because Nellie's Grandpa's 80th birthday party falls on her "golden birthday", She had a "How to Host a Mystery" party; "Love Potion # 5" LAST weekend. Here's Megan, Linda, Cody and Dallin
Part of Nellie's character was that she was secretly obsessed with becoming a magician

Here's Caren reading one of her clues pertaining to her character

We had a couple of "no shows" so Lee and Emilee had to fill in for a couple of the characters for the evening. Here's Lee/Trusty Campaigning for President of the U.S. (HIS secret "passion")with . . . strawberries

See all the cups of "love potion"? YIKES!

Cody was a great sport and really got into his character - he wanted to be a race car driver

Melissa's secret passion was that she dreamed of lighting and carrying the Olympic torch someday. See her torch?

Dishing up the peanut butter ice cream cake

And a birthday wish to top it off! I think the favorite part of the night was after this when the kids had about an hour to play hide and go seek in the back yard. Yep . . . who knew??

Trick or Treat!!

This was a deranged trick or treater who barged into our house and insisted on having her picture taken. GEEZE there's some real weirdos out there!! Now I realize that baseball uniforms aren't such a flattering choice "~
Addison Jo, our youngest trick or treater

Abby Taylor, our second youngest - with a smile even ")

Here's Snow White (Summer Lynn)

. . . and of course Hannah Montana (Paige Olivia) with her one microphone

Rrrarh! Bailee Elizabeth

matching leopard girls

This was the group, after the baby feeding session, before heading out to trick or treat. Jen's clan stayed up in Snoqualmie this year. I'm anxious to see her pictures of the kids.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

FINALLY, Nellie gets her braces off!!! Ya HOO!!

Here's Miss Nellie BEFORE her appointment this morning with braces ON . . .
Here she is with her "crazy" orthodontist AFTER having the braces removed. Dr. Roos's office isn't open on Fridays so they dressed up for Halloween today.

. . . with the "loot" that ALWAYS comes with the removal of braces; all the chewy, sticky stuff that they don't want you to eat while you have them on.

. . . and a final close up. Yep, she's a happy girl - 2 weeks straight without even a retainer. I'M SOOOOOO JEALOUS!! Nellie reminds me that she had worn hers for a lot longer than I've worn mine "~

Actually, she deserves to whine more than me because she was originally supposed to get her braces off in March, then it was by the end of Summer, and now of course it's the END of October, so I guess she's "paid her dues".