A New Year, New Hopes

2010 has come and gone and with it a lot of memories have been made in the Thorington household. We rang in the New Year last year celebrating Grandpa Jack with dinner at Jak's in Issaquah (which we will be doing a little late this year Saturday evening). January through March is basketball season in our household. Both Michael and Lukas love this time together and I enjoy watching them together.

In January, Michael and I decided to get on a ferry to go check out a litter of furry Springers...and the chaos ensued. Hard to believe Charlie has been with us for almost a year - what a trouble maker, but none of us could imagine our lives without him. He minds perfect for Michael now (well, almost) and for me he is TROUBLE. He loves to be touching me no matter what; whether its sitting on my lap, chewing on me, or jumping at me. Charlie truly enjoys the days we pick up Luke at school. Poor Luke can't even get his seat belt on because the D.O.G. is sitting on him by this point. Loves his Lukas.

April brought Luke's 10th birthday and a maturing boy. He is a big help at home with us and becoming more responsible (with most things...). Last summer we went on two family trips to Oregon. The first being our camping trip to the coast which was a wonderful time and lots of photo opportunities. I think we might have ruled out tent camping as a favorite family hobby though...The second trip was for a family reunion where all three of us got the privilege of white water rafting. Super fun!! Watch out Tom and Kathy - we might be back this summer for a second round on the kayaks. Summer went to fast and school started again. Lukas is making great improvement with his school. We are very proud of his hard work.

Thanksgiving was spend in our home after many, many, many hours and gallons of paint to cover all the ugly "new construction" white walls. It was well worth it and will forever remember Grandma Floy giving us the opportunity to "paint" new memories for her as it was our first Thanksgiving without Grandpa Jack. His stroke happened Thanksgiving day the year prior. Thank you Floy for your trust in us to ease the grief. The time between Thanksgiving and Christmas was a complete blur and I am not sure I have recovered yet...our home sure hasn't. Thank you Danny and Angie for having Christmas at your house!

Michael still has a great job with Swedish Hospital. We are extremely thankful for that. I continue to work retail trying to ride out the economy. Not an easy gig all the time. I started at Banana Republic as part time seasonal on Black Friday. All I can say is I have a LOT of exposure to a LOT of Canadians between my two jobs here in Marysville. Those Canadians that are friends and family are NOT slobs or rude, so I am not really sure you are from there after all.

Thanks to my husband and my mother-in-law, I now have two more hobbies to add to my lack of "spare" time. My mother and father-in-law gave me a Cricut for Christmas so I am stumbling into the world of scrapbooking. My husband signed me up for a Photoshop Elements 1 class so I can pursue my love of beautiful images. I looks as if I need to find more hours in the day by not sleeping or quitting one of my jobs so I can begin "creating".

My hope for 2011 is to mend fences, be kind, dream big, fret only a little, laugh a lot, love even more, and LIVE. Here's to my family and friends... may this be a wonderful year for us all.

The Adams Family Reunion 2010

Charlie lost a cowboy boot, Michael went for a swim(accidental) in the Rogue River, I met new family, and we shared quality time with the Adams side of the family.

Thanks to Blaine's cousin Tom and his gracious friend, Jerry, the three of us went rafting on THE ROGUE RIVER - what a treat! We went for approximately 6 miles on class 1 - 2 rapids in a raft and several kyaks. Michael and I each got to try our hand at the kyaks and navigated some fun rapids on our own. One of us took a spill (I won't mention any names...) and we managed to get completely soaked by the river and the monsoon that accompanied our adventure. I might give this another try for sure!

Tom also set up a pool tournament for the family which entertained all ages. Lukas made a couple of new friends with two of his cousins - Ryan and Evan. Tom took us to the Fire House for a tour which was super fascinating for the kids.

I'm not sure Charlie had much fun as he had to spend most of his time in his crate due to the rain and the small fact the grounds were covered with sand burrs... We had tied him up while we rafted the river and found him covered in a million burrs which had to be cut out of his fur. He is now missing a "cowboy boot" as Lukas calls it - the "feathers" on the back of his legs. Poor Charlie. He is going to have some bad hair days ahead.

Thanks Tom and Kathy for opening your home and hearts for a fun filled weekend! We loved it.

356 Days of Marital Bliss...Or Something Like It

Today marks our one year anniversary and neither of us have any major battle scars. We have spent the last year making our new home "our own", mostly in the yard doing and redoing things. We have also spent a lot of time doing homework with Lukas, coaching his basketball team, and attending all of his baseball games rain or shine. And, of course, we are daily "entertained" by Charlie the Trouble Maker. Life truly is busy and wonderful for our little family. I am thankful to share my life with my husband and look forward to all of our years together. Here's to another year of bliss!

Oregon Beach Family Vacation

We just returned from our four day camping/hotel experience on the Oregon Coast. While we had lots of fun exploring numerous beaches and traveling up and down Hwy 101, we have decided as a family we are done with the camping "experience" for now. Too much work, too many mosquitos! Lukas and Charlie had lots of fun in the sand, but I truly think Lukas dug and rolled around in the sand more than the dog! While Luke was trying to get Charlie to dig in the cool sand, Charlie found it more appealing to just lay in the hole Luke had dug and eat as much sand as he could.

We stayed the first night in Seaside in a hotel (yay!!) and jumped back on the 101 to meet up with Michael's parents and grandma who were staying a couple hours away in Lincoln City. We had a nice picnic with them in at Fogarty Creek Beach and hopped back on the 101 to set up camp at Fort Stevens (aka Mosquito Land). Note to self, if we do go camping again, be sure to set up camp completely BEFORE dark...

The next morning, we got up and checked out the nearby beach Clatsup State Park Beach at Fort Stevens. There is an skeleton of a shipwreck for 1905 and it is right near the mouth of the Columbia River and Cape Disappointment. Some interesting history there. After a couple of mishaps with our "camp meals" we decided to hope back onto the 101 and go back to Cannon Beach for some clam chowder at Mo's... true campers we are! We had to head back to Cannon Beach via 101 again the next morning to reclaim our spare truck keys at the police station...not going to mention how they ended up there or how we figured out how we didn't have them until we were back at camp.

So back on the 101 the final morning heading south (wrong way for home) to claim our keys. We made use of the detour and checked out Ecola State Park. Neither of us had been there before and it is a beautiful sight! We checked out Indian Beach and let the dog run free. We also checked out tide pools full of razor claims and star fish.

We also learned that our dog doesn't like to go "potty" anywhere, but at home unless....we are at the beach! That crazy Charlie would only go when his feet were touching the cold Pacific Ocean! Weirdo!

Strawberry Time!

How we love our strawberry season on the west side. We are lucky to be about 15 minutes from the best berry farm. We picked three times already this year, made lots of freezer jam, froze berries, and made three strawberry pies. Thank you Mary for sharing your wonderful recipe. I didn't know what I was missing all these years. I omitted the "beautiful" picture of strawberry pies as to not make others envious. If you come visit next year during berry season I will make you a fresh pie. Nothing better, right, honey?!

Raspberries are on the list for Wednesday morning. We got a preview yesterday and they are going to be HUGE!

Lake Twenty-Two Hike

We enjoyed a great 2.7 mile hike up to Lake Twenty-Two and back a few weeks ago. We had perfect weather, not hot, but the rain held off. This was Charlie's first hike and the 5.4 mile treck was the first activity we did that truly tired him out...FINALLY!


The view 2/3 to the top. By this point we kept saying "the lake has to be around the corner". It was about 30 more corners ahead.


At last! Lake Twenty-Two was awesome minus the yucky flies everywhere that make it impossible to eat our lunches.

Mr. Slug...he was quite large.

Mr. & Mrs. Fungus...they were pretty weird.

And Mr. & Mrs. Snake...creepy! They were just slithering on a rock right next to the trail. Double ick!!

The Color of Spring...

We spent a wonderful Easter weekend in Toppenish. Thanks Blaine and Mary for having us and allowing Charlie to come along too. We had a great time as always.

Grandma Mary and Lukas with the "Easter" birthday cake for the both of them.

And the birthday celebrations continue... I think I am all caked out for a bit. At least for a week or so. Thank you everyone for helping us celebrate their birthdays.

The three young Thorington men after hunting for Easter eggs in Grandma and Grandpa's yard.

And of course, Charlie found his own egg. Not sure if he got the candy inside or not... What a garbage gut!