Recent Happenings

Believe it or not, we have been doing other things besides wrecking cars. Here are a few of the highlights.

I had my 15 year class reunion in July. Wow - can't believe it's already been 15 years! We had a really great turn-out. Here is a shot of a few of those who came. This has been my favorite class reunion thus far. It seemed like people were less concerned with getting somewhere in life and more concerned with sitting down and having a good visit. I must confess that I went with the intention to only stay for an hour or so and I ended up staying for three. So great to see everyone!
I also attended That Famous Preston Night Rodeo. Translation: I ate a rodeo hamburger, a caramel apple and a churro in one night. That's what it's all about, baby!

While I was at my class reunion and the rodeo, Cory was busy hiking for 30 miles in the Frank Church Wilderness. He is still serving as the senior scout advisor for our church and he planned a great adventure for the boys this year. He said it was probably the toughest thing he has ever done in his life. And I believe it. I can still see the scars on his feet (they were rubbed raw even though his hiking boots were well broken-in).

I went on a business trip to New York / Connecticut, which in and of itself wouldn't normally be blog worthy. But...I got to hang out in Times Square and go see "The Lion King" on Broadway. Amazing! I love NYC!!

And most recently, we spent a weekend with my parents at Bear Lake. I had to take this picture to show Jaron and Karen. They gave this little egg cooker to Cory for Christmas last year. It made a pretty good omelet!!

Bear Lake is definitely one of my more favorite lakes. It is so pretty and blue. The only bad thing...the water never really gets super calm, so it's hard to ski on.

We did visit LeBeau's and have a fresh raspberry shake. We also picked up a flat of raspberries to bring home with us. Yum! And Cory got in plenty of fishing time...

You're Not Going To Believe This!

Remember that hit-and-run accident we got in on Friday night? Well...our car got backed into at the church parking lot this afternoon. This cute little old lady just kept going and going and she backed right into our rear bumper. Ironically enough, it wouldn't have happened if Cory hadn't stopped to help another little old lady put her walker into the trunk of her car. If only we would have pulled away a few seconds earlier. No good deed goes unpunished. My insurance company was a little surprised to hear from me again today. They thought I was calling about the claim from Friday... Nope. Just two accidents in one weekend. That's it. From now on, we're walking.

Seriously??

Cory and I went out for date night last night (sushi!!!) and on our way home, we got in a hit and run accident. That's it. I am officially over 2010!!! What a horrible year! They say bad things happen in threes, right?? I totaled my car (that was paid for - can't forget that jab in the ribs) in January, Cory lost his job in May and now this. So we should be done now. Good things are definitely on the horizon (I hope).

We went through a traffic light and immediately after you go through the light, the lanes merge down into one. There was a red truck behind us, so we should have had the right to merge in front. But no. This crazy lady sped up and then side-swiped us as she went by. And yes, we were in my BRAND. NEW. CAR. The one that I've had for five months. The one that has 4,000 miles on it. We pulled off to the side of the road thinking that she would stop but she kept on going. So I started yelling at Cory to follow her. We chased her down and after honking the horn for a few minutes she finally pulled over and got out of the vehicle.

She said she hadn't even felt the impact and thought that she had stopped in time. What?? And then she said that she was in a hurry to go pick up her daughter and she asked if she could just give us her information and we could deal with the accident report later. By this point, I had 911 on the phone and I said that I wasn't willing to simply take her information and let her leave. I wanted to do things the right way and have an accident report written up for the insurance companies. She started to walk back towards her truck and I thought she was just going to get her license and insurance information and try to get us to take it and let her go. Instead, she got in her truck and took off. I started screaming her license plate number at the 911 operator to make sure they got it down. What a freak!

The police officer showed up about 15 minutes later and took our statement. They found the registered owners of the truck and sent an officer to the house but no one was home. Supposedly they will continue to follow-up and try to track them down. I'm not holding my breath. I'm sure that we'll have to take another one up the rear-end and shovel some more money out the window to pay our deductible. I shouldn't be surprised. We're so good at that by now.

Jackson Lake

We went to Jackson Lake in Teton National Park with my family last weekend. It wouldn't be a vacation without at least one mishap. We got a late start on Thursday night and all of the campgrounds were full by the time we got into the park. So we headed back towards Jackson Hole (it's about 30 minutes outside of the park entrance) and figured we would find an RV park for the night. We saw a pull-out just outside of downtown and we decided it would be fine to stay there rather than pay for an RV park (it was already midnight by this point). At 1:45 a.m., the police knocked on the door of our camper. Apparently we weren't outside the boundaries of the park and it's illegal to camp off the side of the road. The officer let us stay there until 6:00 a.m. and then we had to leave. Not much sleep that night!
But here's what we saw on day two. My parents brought their boat and we headed out on Jackson Lake on Friday afternoon. The lake with the Tetons in the background just takes your breath away. See that snow on the Tetons? Well, that's running straight down into the lake. Needless to say, we didn't get in the water much!

I've decided that you cannot count calories when you're camping. Steak, dutch oven potatoes, raspberry cobbler, kabobs, blueberry pancakes and lots of snacking in between. Break out the stretchy pants!

Jaron helped make breakfast on Sunday morning. And someone had the brilliant idea to put a soda can underneath the grill to catch the drippings from the bacon. Yep. That worked out well.

My SIL, Karen, is seven months pregnant. They do have a trailer, but I'll definitely give her a shout-out. It was pretty hot and she was a trooper. Thanks for the great weekend!

Cory's Job Search

They say that finding a new job is all about the networking that you do. So here goes! As many of you know, Cory lost his job in May. He has taken a few weeks off to relax and re-group, but we're ready to get serious about the job hunt now.

So...for any of you who might know of a job opening or networking referral for someone who works in logisitics / supply chain / transportation management, we would greatly appreciate it if you would contact us.

We are doing fine. Thankfully I still have my job (and our medical insurance). Thank you all for your love, support and prayers.

Tennessee & North Carolina

Cory and I went to a wedding in Knoxville, TN, a few weeks ago. And since we were out that way, and since I've never been to that area before, we decided to make a vacation out of it. We landed in Nashville, TN, and headed straight to the Cumberland River to take a ride on the General Jackson. FYI - this is the river that flooded and did so much damage in Nashville a few months ago. It's hard to believe that the river rose almost 50 ft. in two days. I was pleasantly surprised with how nice the city looked and how much progress they've made with the clean-up efforts. Opryland is still closed due to damage from the flood, but the Grand Ole Opry show continued at the Ryman Auditorium (which was the original home of the Grand Ole Opry). We took a tour in the afternoon and then went back to see a show later that evening.

It was pretty neat to be part of a live radio show. They had commercials throughout the program and every once in a while the announcer would come out on stage and prompt us to clap and yell a little louder.

We visited the Country Music Hall of Fame.

And saw Elvis' gold piano...

And remember the show "Hee Haw"? Well, this is their original stage set. It looks a lot smaller in person.

We stopped at The Hermitage (i.e. President Andrew Jackson's house). Of course it was being renovated so pardon the tractor in front of the house.

Then we headed through The Great Smoky Mountain National Park. I want to have a lane like this in front of my house someday...

The Great Smoky Mountain Park is unique because it hasn't always been a national park. It used to be inhabited with early settlers (see one of their cabins below). The settlers agreed to sell their land to Tennessee and North Carolina and the park was born! It's the number one most visited national park in the U.S. - it has almost nine million visitors every year.

This mountain is what inspired the song "On Top of Old Smoky". It was hot and humid in the valley but nice and cool up here.We were also on a quest to find some good BBQ (we're sadly lacking for good BBQ here in Idaho). 12 Bones, in Asheville, NC, was definitely in the hood but was probably our number one pick for good BBQ.

We also visited the Biltmore Mansion while we were in Asheville (BTW, I could definitely live in Asheville - it was such a cute little town). The Biltmore is owned by the Vanderbilt family and is the largest house in the U.S. It has 143 rooms - 45 of them are bathrooms (I hope I got those stats right). AMAZING!!

And of course...what we went for...Dave and Katie's beautiful wedding! So glad that we were able to be there for their special day.

And we were also privileged to see the lovely Kate while we were there!

I'll end this post by saying that Cory grumbled through every tourist site that we visited. However, on the night we got home, he turned on the TV and watched the show "Road Trip". This is a series that highlights fun road trips that you can take (they tell you the best places to visit, where to sleep / eat, etc.). Well wouldn't you know, they just happened to be showing the EXACT trip that we had taken (start in Nashville, then on to Knoxville, then through the Smoky Mountains, over to Asheville, drive along the Blue Ridge Parkway, etc.). And then he thought he was pretty cool because he had just been to all of those places...

Table Rock

We finally have summer here in Eastern Idaho. It has been absolutely miserable up until about three weeks ago. Summers are so wonderful here but definitely too short. Guess we better start playing hard before it's over! We went camping and 4-wheeling at Table Rock (by Kelly's Canyon) a few weeks ago. We talked Grant and Connie into going riding with us. I think we wore them out, but they look like they're having fun here.
Cory and I sent them up the steep trail and then we went around on the safer trail. :-)

Nothing better than cooking outside on the grill (especially since it means that I don't have to do the cooking).

Grandpa took Ayla and Gracie for a ride. Gracie wanted to go faster, faster!!