A Weekend Getaway and I did some digiscrapping!!

Well Mike and I are celebrating our 19th anniversary today! We took off camping for the weekend, some people think that’s weird but then we went camping on our honeymoon. This is the first year we have actually went away the weekend of our anniversary. In previous years our anniversary either fell on a weekday or we had hockey commitments and for many years we just “went to the fair” together. After going online to make the reservations last weekend we realized all of our favorite places were booked solid and that we could either go to one of the Tacoma Power Parks on Alder Lake or try some place new. We opted for someplace new and made a reservation at Tacoma Power’s Taidnapam Park. When we first arrived we weren’t quite sure about the site we had but by Saturday morning we fell in love with the park. We were in the “older” loop of the two camping loops. Our site was in total shade all weekend which was nice considering the temps were in the mid 80′s all weekend. Technically our site backed up to the lake but there was a trail between our site and the lake. The trail was far enough away and on the other side of a dense stand of shrubs/trees which meant that people on the trail couldn’t see into our site or inadvertently wander into it. We walked down to the boat launch in the park yesterday and played alongside it with the dogs. They have already closed this launch for the season because they have already started dropping the resevoir levels.

 Digital Kit Credit

Clarissa by BooLand Designs available at Stone Accents Studios

 on Monday, September 14th

Since Mike works graveyard and I work days our schedules are pretty much completely opposite. When we go camping he tries to compensate by going to bed around 3am and getting up by noon and I stay up later than normal. No matter how much I try to sleep late in the morning by 8:30am I’m wide awake and the dogs are getting restless. So I take them for long morning walks and spend time digiscrapping until Mike wakes up. I was able to get three pages completed yesterday morning and even turned one of them into a quickpage.

 Digital Kit Credit

Clarissa by BooLand Designs available at Stone Accents Studios

 on Monday, September 14th

 

I created the third page from the Suddenly Sunset kit designed by Kim of Kimeric Kreations. I liked it so much that I decided to turn it into a quickpage.

 

Digital Kit Credits

Suddenly Sunset

available at digitop3.com

Here is the quickpage. I decided to leave the center section blank 

so that users can add journaling, a title or a quote.

 

You can download the quickpage HERE

No one can ever say Christina is a wimp

We have done some crazy things while camping but this one probably is up there with some of the craziest things we’ve done when bored. Christina obviously has immense trust in her boyfriend.

Where has the time flown…..

I just realized that it’s been almost a month since I last blogged. My friend Kim has been making comments here and there about how she was looking for a message letting her know that I had blogged but I didn’t realize how long it’s actually been. Needless to say it’s been a whirlwind of a month and May just seemed to be a real short month. So I’ll give a quick recap of what’s happened around the Burress House this month.
I decided to do some followup emailing for my family reunion scrapbook project the first week of the month. I had sent out a second batch of group sheets for family members to correct/update so their scrapbook page could be as current as possible. Some photos started coming back in and I’ve noticed that either I get no answer at all or a quick answer, photos and updated info.
Then my mom, brother, sister and niece made a quick trip down to Banks, Oregon to visit my aunt who had been diagnosed with Tissue Cancer. She had been experiencing flu-like symptoms for several months and having an extremely hard time just moving around. Six weeks ago she found out it was cancer, had three to six months to live at the most and treatment might give her a month or so more but no guarantee of it and she would probably be sicker as a result.
So we spent a day with her and I was lucky enough to see two cousins that I had not seen in over 15 years. We stopped at the Factory Outlet Stores in Centralia on our way down and did about an hours worth of power shopping at Bath & Body Works, Nike Clearance Store and the Vanity Fair/Lee Outlet. I bought work pants for Mike, my sister bought tennis shoes for friends down in CA, Rachael and Michael bought some aromatherapy “Pillow Spray” that smelt like lavender that’s supposed to help you relax and go to sleep.
Then we spent a day getting Christina’s graduation annuncements done. (I still have 50 left to make tonight). We have decided to have a party/open house/luau on the Friday after graduation. The dollar store proved to be a treasure trove of luau decorations and even had “Graduation Party” stuff with a Hawaiian theme. Christina’s Cap & Gown arrived mid-month so it’s becoming “real” to us that she is almost a “full fledged adult” and could actually get married/move out if she was so inclined….but I doubt that will happen because she recently informed me that she plans on living at home until she is 41…..I think NOT!!!! Now we have begun “Graduation Gift” negotiations.
I think part of the reason that the month has “flown by” is because Memorial Day weekend was earlier than normal. We went to Millersylvania for three days of camping with the Kelly’s. Sam and I took the kids geocaching. Turns out the boys had dabbled in Geocaching while at Camp Goodtimes. We set out to find two caches (one of which was a two parter) found the first half of one then found out from some fellow geocachers we ran into on the trail that the second half was missing. Found “The Big Tree” cache, dropped off a Travel Bug at “It’s Miller Time” and we planted a new cache. I still need to go upload the coordinates for the “KB Toy Box” at www.geocaching.com and update my log book to reflect dropping off the Travel Bug.
Last week I got news that my Aunt’s cancer was more involved than originally diagnosed and that three months was on the “extremely optimistic side”. While camping over Memorial Day weekend my mom had to call me and let me know that my Aunt passed away.
So this week turned into another busy week. I went back to work on Tuesday then left for Oregon with my niece and son on Tuesday night. Attended her memorial service on Wednesday then took an extra day to visit with cousins and my uncle who had flown in from Utah. It was a nice visit and all agreed that we needed to make an effort to get together and reconnect more often under happier circumstances. I took the opportunity to update everyone’s family info in my genealogy program and was even able to have some family members identified in old family photos.

A rare weekend with no hockey!

Go figure, it’s a holiday weekend during hockey season and we have no games!!! But it will all be back to normal next weekend. Actually we decided to forgo going to a tournament this weekend because we have two next month plus playoffs. The kids have playoffs the first two weekends of March and the juniors have first round playoffs starting next week. Our association is hosting the State Squirt Festival the third week of March, we have a tournament in Bremerton the fourth weekend and host the Midget Daffodil Tournament the first weekend of April. Which means that our camping trip this weekend was the last one until Mid-April when we go to the International Crab Races in Westport.

This was also the last week of the ADSR for Brandie and I. The final challenge of ADSR4 was hosted by We Are Storytellers.com where we were challenged to create a layout with at least half the page being made up of journaling about why being a storyteller is important to us. We had to collaborate and were limited to two small photos in the lower left corner, at least five elements, no more than two papers and had to incorporate a piece of word art supplied by the challenge host.
Brandie sent Laura a photo of her and why she thinks storytelling is important. Laura took her own feelings about storytelling and combined it all into one story. We decided to keep it simple so that the journaling could be the focus of the layout as requested.
Journaling:
For the past six weeks Brandi and Laura worked together as a team to preserve twelve stories
as part of the Amazing DigiScrapping Race. They have now completed all twelve challenges and may or may not win the Grand Prize. Winning the Grand Prize is not the most important aspect of the race, it’s the satisfaction of knowing we have preserved almost a dozen individual stories for the enjoyment of future generations. These are priceless stories that we all have within us ready to be told.
Both Brandie and Laura as individuals have a passion for preserving information, photos and stories of their ancestors for future generations. When Brandie comes across a story about one of her ancestors she tries to create a scrapbook page so that future generations may know what that person was like. This is very important to her because she doesn’t know what her father’s family is like and her mother’s family is from Germany. When Laura comes across family photos and family stories she adds it to her genealogy program and posts the intormation on various family websites so that other family members can enjoy it too. Eventually Laura gets the information preserved as a scrapbook page. We both feel that when you have a story about an ancestor it becomes a way to know that person a little better, even though you have probably never actually met the person in real life.
The simple stories we record about our day-to-day life now, are the stories that future
generations will cherish for years to come.

Kit Credits:
Treasured by Liella Designs for the Trash to Treasure Freebie Hunt

Word Art provided by We Are Storytellers.com

A Weekend Away

Several times a year we escape to the ocean. Our favorite place to go is to the “South Beach”which is what they call the coast between Grays Harbor and Willapa Bay. One of the most famous sections of beach there is called “Washaway Beach“. Every year a huge sections fall prey to the ocean forces. A couple of weeks ago a huge storm aka a “Pineapple Express” came through at the same time that there were some of the highest tides of the season. We were blown away with some of the changes to the area. “Evening Magazine” filmed a segment about the beach in 2004 which you can see here. One of the biggest changes we noticed this month was not at Washaway but just before it. The southern most “Beach Access Road” was closed because the end of the road was washed out and it was a good 6 foot drop from the old road to the beach itself. The northern most access road (by Twin Harbors State Park) to the beach was closed last year. This now leaves 3 of the 5 permanent access roads open which should make things rather interesting come Razor Clam season.
The weather couldn’t have been better considering it is the middle of January. NO RAIN at all this trip. We spent most of Saturday in Westport, Westhaven State Park and hanging out on the South Jetty watching the surfers. It was sunny and mild (high 40′s on Friday and Saturday) but when it’s clear skies that means it gets cold at night. It frosted both nights but Sunday was actually warm and in the high 50′s. Thank goodness we have a warm and toasty camper to sleep in. After 12 years of tent camping we most definitely appreciate the fact that there are no more midnight runs to the nearest bathroom in the rain.
Alex had fun this weekend because Mike let him practice driving out on the beach. This now means that we can pretty much count on the fact that on June 18th he will be dragging us to the DMV for his permit so he can legally drive (as long as we are with him) to his hearts content.