One Friday night almost last minute we decided to invite our friends Don and Jenny over for the evening. They had Don's brother Lyle with them and of course brought Ava too. We had a lot of fun. My mother in law bought us a really nice blender that makes soups, ice cream, fondues, etc and we wanted to make some ice cream for Don and Jenny. There also was an experiment and pictures are below to show! We had a great time - thanks again for coming over! We'll have to do it again soon.

Ava playing the piano
The 3 boys playing on their phones!
Ava wanting to play with Ollie but Ollie not having any of it!
Ollie in his hiding place behind the table!
Dennis letting Ava play a game on his phone.

Getting a nice hug from Ava.
The experiment: grinding coffee beans in the blender. The grinding worked great - however the beans were almost the consistency of flour!


Using a lot of strength, Dennis tries to french press the newly ground coffee beans. Uh, Dennis - isn't french press ground coffee supposed to be a coarse grind? We know who isn't the coffee drinker in this picture. I think from here, we just poured the coffee into mugs and tried drinking it!
Reactions from on lookers! We were all laughing so hard. Dennis really was pushing pretty hard!
Coffee is ready - Don and Lyle 'sniffing' the coffee and looking to see if it is drinkable.

Lyle taking his first sip
Hmmmm, STRONG.... but not too bad....

Ava either wanting some coffee, or wanting me to pick her up.

Lyle still drinking his coffee...
Don wondering if he CAN drink his! :)

Thanks again for coming - we had a great time!

I was honored enough to be chosen for an award from my co-workers. Along with the award came a night in a hotel in downtown Portland! I also got a wad of cash to use for our weekend (and we spent $100 on dinner one night)! We chose to stay there for 2 nights and we had a blast. We wouldn't just chose to spend a weekend in Portland since we live about 20 minutes away and it was great fun. The only downfall is that I forgot the dress that I was going to wear to the ceremony so on the plus side I got to go shopping and on the minus side I was worried about not finding a dress to wear. The ceremony was nice and we had a great weekend! We have yet to go to VooDoo donuts, we've heard there's a long line most of the time.

Dennis and I downtown Portland! We had a great weekend!

Our room - the tv part of it anyway!
A really nice, comfortable lounge chair
And a nice comfortable king sized bed with a fun design as part of the headboard
A person near the Saturday Market playing drums with buckets. It was interesting watching and listening to him.
So, I wanted to go to VooDoo donuts for breakfast, however when we saw that this was the line to get in, we vetoed that idea and went to Saturday Market for breakfast instead!

Some cool looking buildings. I took this pic from of our 5th story room window
I liked the way the red building looked in the other buildings window

The president, Jerry Ramey of the company I work for, Lightspeed Technologies
Me with Jerry and Lloyd
Me right after receiving my Circle of Excellence Award!

Weekend with the Smith family!

We went to Bend for a weekend - but not just any weekend a Smith Family Reunion weekend! Nate and Emily drove up from San Diego, Jon and Tamara came over from Boise, Dennis and I from Sherwood and met at mom and dad Smith's. We had a grand ol' time, however our time together was too short - like time with family always is. I'm so blessed to have such a wonderful family - loving parents, handsome brothers who can make me laugh and beautiful sister in laws who I know make my brothers happy! Love all of you!

I love these people! Each and every one of them. So glad to have them to call my 'family!'
The Smith family - a handsome bunch!
We were very happy to have Randy and Amy, Tessa, Trevon and Kaylee spend some time with us too.

A cute pic of Jon - he looks puzzled in this pic but I didn't want just pics of Nate! :)

Smelling the freshly ground coffee beans, taking in the aroma of the mornings pick-me-up!

Nate was so desperate for coffee that he was ready to eat freshly ground coffee beans!
Nate all ready with his uh, 2 or 3 guns! He's such a stud muffin!
Here are the tough boys - they were heading shooting right after this picture

The tough boys before their shooting adventure!

Jon and Nate singing "Trailers for sale or rent"

Another cool shot of the rifle

Nate bought one of Grandpa's rifle's and he wanted to take some pictures of it. Here's a neat picture of it!
Nate and Emily on their way out of town! Such a short time, but it was very nice too!

Present for Dennis

Unfortunately, Dennis learned that one of his high school friends had passed away. He felt that he needed to go to Jeremy's funeral so we bought him a plane ticket to head to Boise for the weekend. At that time, it was the longest we'd been apart in our marriage. Kitty, Ollie and I missed Dennis so I bought him a present upon his return - a Smore's maker! It is an awesome tool and of course we had to make use of it right away!

Laying the graham crackers and chocolate in the little basket things

Now with the marshmallows! Doesn't it looks scrumpiously yummy?
Cooking on the BBQ. (Yes, the grill parts are sort of melted, I think we'll be in the market for a new BBQ come next summer)!
Dennis enjoying his smore!

I am here! So, it appears that my last 2 posts include half our time in Montana! So, I will go through pictures and put some up of our time in Shelby Montana - the first part of our trip there. I do remember that we had a wonderful time. Our time there was not long enough - as always.

I love these 2 little girls! I made them these matching skirts and hope to make them some more matching skirts. Maybe if baby #3 is another girl for this family, I'll have 3 skirts to make! :)

A beautiful Montana sunset!
Dale, Kari, Rowena and Mari!

Rowena and Mari playing they were washing radishes in the dirt then taking bites!
My sweet husband and I in Montana
Rowena - isn't she beautiful?
Mari and her big beautiful blue eyes!

Dale, Kari, Rowena and Mari (soon to be one more)

Dennis and Mari making the same facial expression! :) Mari would open her mouth really wide.

How a Montana farmer drives - with a Lizzy on lap! :)

Beautiful Montana rainbow. I love the color contrast.
Dennis and cousin Roy having a good chat - they are good buddies wish we lived closer.

Montana wheat - where Roy farms.