Good-bye Grandpa

Last Monday, September 24th, Brent's sweet Grandpa Glen Behling passed away in his home. He was 88 years old.
This pictures was taken at Christmas time in 2005. (That was the year we were in Hawaii for most of it, so Brent was showing his Aloha spirit.)

Grandpa Behling was one of the most amazing people I have ever known. He seemed to know everything! You could ask him any question and he would know the answer. It didn't matter what the question was.

He had the most amazing testimony and he wasn't afraid to share it. He was a Patriarch and had the opportunity to give Brent his patriarchal blessing. He was a Sealer and he officiated at our wedding, as well as so many others in his family. I will always be so thankful to him for sealing me to my prince charming on that day just over 10 years ago.

I am so thankful that we got to see Grandpa at Jayson's blessing just 3 weeks before his passing. What a blessing to see him again. It had been about a year and half since we had seen him. I will always be so thankful for that.

Usually when Brent talks about his Grandpa, he talks about backpacking with him. His grandpa gave him a love of the outdoors and getting lost in it. Brent loved those time when he could be away from the world, with his Grandpa. For Grandpa's 80th birthday, he wanted to climb Half Dome in Yosemite. So, he did...and Brent got to go along. Can you imagine an 80 year old man climbing that mountain? I am trying to find the pictures Brent took of him there. They're awesome!

When I think of Grandpa Behling, I think of the fact that whenever he talked, he closed his eyes. That's when you knew he had something important to say. I used to joke that he just didn't have enough batteries left to talk and keep his eyes open. It will always make me smile when I think of it.

We are so lucky to know the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We know that we will be able to see Grandpa again, along with all those who have gone before us. We know this life isn't the end. That is such a blessing.

We love you Grandpa! See you in a little while.

The Parent's Visit

Around the beginning of the year, Court and Brad were talking about Brad taking Court's dad fishing for his birthday. Brad invited Brent along and they thought they would invite my dad who-is-a-huge-fisherman-but-got-stuck-with-me-who-crys-when-I-catch-a-fish. Everyone was excited. Unfortunately, Court's dad couldn't come, so it ended up being Brad, Brent and my dad. That was the reason for the visit and my mom tagged along. :)

So, the boys head off to Westport with visions of salmon dancing in their heads. Mom and I just hung out here, going shopping. It was such a beautiful day in the neighborhood, that we decided to head over to Manchester Park and do a little hiking.

Manchester Park is our favorite around here. The Bremerton ferry goes right past it, which is fun to see. You can get a great view of Mt Rainier, as you will see, and even a little bit of Seattle. If only Bainbridge Island wasn't in the way. :)

Here are our pictures. As Washingtonians say, "The mountain was out that day."

This is Mt Rainier, or "the mountain." It's about 60 miles south of us. And, on clear days you can see it. This is a REALLY clear day. Very pretty.

Here are me and my mom. Luckily, you can't see if she has her eyes closed. I'm pretty sure she does though. :)

So, we FINALLY hear from the boys - Brent is very bad at guessing how long things will take - and they had a great time. "How many fish did you get?" Well, Brent caught 3 but couldn't keep any. (I'll explain that in a minute.) Brad caught 6 and could keep 3 and Dad caught 1 and could keep it. Man!! Not the salmon craziness that we were expecting.

Why could they only keep certain ones? Well, Washington - especially Western Washington - is very eco-friendly we'll say. A little tree hugger others might say. Brent and I fit in pretty well here. We are on the low end of "granola-ness". Anyway, I digress. All farmed Pacific Salmon have one of their fins cut off so you can tell that they are farmed. Obviously, the wild ones don't do that to themselves. So, when you catch a salmon, you have to check for that fin. No fin - keep and enjoy. Fin - throw it back and hope it makes a lot more little salmon babies. Or, gets eaten by an orca. Whichever. Brent had the bad luck of finding all this out first hand.

Why did Brad do so good? Well, we have a theory. There were a lot of people on the boat with them, so they split up and found places on the railing. Brad was right next to a guy who was - how shall we say this nicely - wanting to see what he had for breakfast? Get my drift? So, basically this other guy was chumming for salmon. Now we know how to attract them. Anyone feeling queazy? Good, let's go fishin'!

Speaking of queazy, Brent had a great time catching all those fish just to throw them back, but was feeling a bit under the weather. Brent does NOT get motion sick. He has an iron clad stomach that can eat anything. So, we were someone worried about this. The next day he felt great, but...I didn't. Crap. Court and Brad and the kids had just gotten back from Utah where there is a yucky stomach virus going around. So, our guess is that they passed it on to us. Maybe, maybe not. Either way, it was a yucky couple of days.

We did cook up part of that one salmon Dad caught. It was super yummy! Good catching Dad!

Needless to say, with the stomach flu hanging around, we didn't get to do a whole bunch. My dad fixed up our bbq which we haven't used since we moved up here. It was his mission. And he did a great job! We really appreciate it! I'm going to fry myself up a hamburger tonight. Thanks Dad!

We sat out on our deck a lot that week. It is so peaceful out there. We love it. I was watering a plant I have back there and noticed a frog. Isn't it cute?

I've seen it a couple of times since then. Maybe it's filling up on our spiders. Go frog!!

We did get to go to Point Defiance Zoo and Aquarium in Tacoma on Friday afternoon. It was fun. Just enough stuff to be exciting. Another glorious day in the Northwest. We also got to cross the newly finished Tacoma Narrows Bridge. Well, I guess it's now two bridges. The old one now brings people to the Kitsap Peninsula, the new one takes people away from the peninsula. It's now a toll bridge though. What a pain. Since we are horrible about having cash, we got a transponder that deducts the toll from our account. Works great for us! Back to the zoo.

This is a great little zoo. Court loves it for the kids because it's not too big. They don't get bored before it's over. I like it because it has great enclosures and really different animals. There are caribou and musk ox. We even saw some docents with an armadillo. And, you have the added bonus of an aquarium too. They have been improving the aquarium area in the last few years, so it's getting as nice as the rest of the zoo.

As soon as my mom heard that there were belugas here, she was so excited! She's always loved belugas but has never been able to see them. She can never say that again.

Just as we got to the outside pool for the belugas, there was a show. It was really funny. They just got a new beluga in this year. He came from an indoor aquarium, so he was having a hard time getting used to seagulls and rain and the sun. Sometimes he would just wander off because he couldn't see what the handler was telling him to do.

Here's me and my dad. See where I get the white hair from?

That night we went out to dinner at our favorite fish restaurant, Anthony's. Very yummy! They had gorgeous flower pots out and since Brent REFUSED to be another picture, here are my parents with the flower pots.

Isn't Gig Harbor a pretty place? We sure like it.

On Saturday we thought we'd head on up to Point No Point to fly some kites. It was a cloudy day, but we were hoping it wouldn't rain, since it never seems to rain when my parents are here. No such luck this time. We only got to do a little bit of kite flying and beach combing before we were soaked. Such is life, I guess. It was a fun day though.

We had a great time with my parents. Thanks for being understanding about my tummy! You guys are great!

Catch Up

What a crazy couple of weeks we've had. First, my parents were here in the middle of August for a week. Then, we left on our 9 day trip to Yellowstone and Utah. Then we got home and not a full week later, Brent left for Wisconsin for training. So, here I am, half way through my week without Brent. It's going well. I've been busy with YW stuff, so I don't sit at home and mope. :)

Apparently, I haven't been over to Court's in a while because when I was there yesterday, Kyle looked at his mom and said, "Momma, have Ashie back!" Very cute! I like it when people miss me!

This morning when I woke up, it was 59 degrees in the house. Guess summer is officially over in the Pacific Northwest. I closed all the windows that haven't been closed since June, and baked some banana bread to warm the place up. What a fun day.

Tonight I get to coach the YW in basketball. I am very nervous about this. I don't want to do it, but there really isn't anyone else, so I'm going to try my hardest. We really aren't that great of a team (sorry, but we're not), so we're used to losing. I just don't want it to be my fault. Wish us luck! Go Orchard Heights. We did win our first game. Yeah us!

So, I have a ton of pictures to put up. Stay tuned. :)

The Wedding

On August 29, 1997, Brent and I were married for time and all eternity in the Jordan River Temple in South Jordan, Utah. Brent's Grandpa Behling was our sealer, which was awesome.

Brent had my car in Tooele so he could get to the Temple, so I rode with my parents. My family's friend Becky came over in the morning to do my hair. Once I decided that Brent was the one for me, I started growing my hair out. Then, I find this really great veil that is suppose to go around a bun, so I end up having my hair up. It still looked great though! I must say, I clean up good! My mom's friend Kayleen made my wedding dress. I'm so amazed that she would take that on and so thankful because it turned out PERFECT!

Just as we were going to leave, my dad got in the shower. My dad is like this. I should be used to it, but that day, I was a little nervous, so I freaked out. I feel badly that I yelled at my dad on my wedding day. Sorry Dad. You know I love you. But at least is got them out the door! I remember my mom saying, "It's not like they're going to start without you." Funny now, I must say, annoying then.

We get to the temple and I find Brent. He says to me, "I thought you were never going to get here." Cutie! What, did you think I changed my mind?

We had a wonderful sealing ceremony that I really don't remember much of. I do remember that there was a story about bears, but I have no idea why. As I said, Brent's Grandpa was the Sealer, and they would go backpacking all the time, so I'm sure the bears had something to do with that. Weird what sticks in your head.

Here are some pictures from that great day!

After the ceremony, the wedding luncheon was in Tooele, but we had a little bit of time before we had to be there - we weren't going to help set up or anything. :) So, we went to Wendy's and got a frosty. I sat there thinking, "Hey, all you people, can't you see that we just got married." I was just amazed that no one knew.

The luncheon was wonderful. We had it outside near Brent's parent's house. Good food, good people, fun time. It was under some trees so it wasn't even hot. Very nice!

Our reception was in the garden of the Lion House in Salt Lake City. The flowers were amazing and it was a perfect place! The refreshments were a cake buffet - tons and tons of cakes you could choose from. Unfortunately, we didn't get any, but we didn't notice that at the time. A harpist was playing in the background. A perfect night!

The farther I am from the actual wedding day, the less most of that stuff matters. What really matters is that we knelt across from each other at the alter in a Holy Temple and were made an eternal family. I tell the Young Women all the time that I got to marry my prince charming in the right place. I will never forget that feeling even if I can't remember all the words.

We have a GLORIOUS life. True, things have not gone exactly to plan, but that doesn't make the journey any less sweet. Brent is my best friend, my greatest love, and some days the biggest pain. :) (Couldn't be totally mushy.) I couldn't imagine my life without him. Heavenly Father has blessed us so much and I am so thankful.

I think it's the best when you can look back on your life with someone and see that though there were some bad times, the good times totally eclipse them. I know that we've had bad times. I know what they were like when we were in them, but I would go through them again because they've brought us closer. I'm sure there's going to be more ups and downs, but I know we can do it.

I love you Brent! I couldn't imagine being without you. Thank you for everything!

The Engagement

One day, and I seriously can't remember the exact date, Brent asked me out on a date. We went to Ogden and had dinner at Training Table - which is by the way the best place to eat!!! I paid for dinner - later that bugged me - and we went on a drive. We ended up in Logan Canyon and Brent kept stopping at weird places all the way up. I had no idea where we were because it was really dark, but he'd drive for a little bit, stop, then drive for a little bit, stop... It went on like that until we got to the top of the Canyon and came back down. (I later found out that he was looking for the place we had been for the bonfire on our first date, but couldn't find it.) Then we got to First Dam at the base of the Canyon. We got out and were talking and Brent was acting kind of weird. All of a sudden, this cop comes up and tells us we have to leave because the park is closed. I say ok and head for the car, but Brent says, "No wait a minute."

Then he gets out this box and says, "Will you marry me?"

To which I enthusiastically replied, "Of course."

And then he said, "Are you going to cry now?"

And I even more enthusiastically said, "No" through tears.

We, of course, hugged for a minute, then went back to my apartment where ALL my roommates were waiting. They "had a feeling" that something special was going to happen. So we all giggled and laughed, as girls do, and Brent felt out of place. Court wanted to take a picture of us, but Brent was in no mood, so this is what we got...

That's my Brent - to a tee!!

I've often thought about our engagement after that. One time Brent joked that he was going to say something like, "Is that a hot air balloon?" and when I looked, he would slip the ring on my finger. I think the way he did it was perfect for him. He's not one for pomp and circumstance. He loves surprising me and he surely did that night. I wouldn't change it for the world!

Next time ... the wedding!

The Dating Years

Brent and I dated for 1 year and 9 months. I knew from pretty early on that Brent was the one for me. I think he knew that I was the one for him too, but it took him longer to get brave enough to "settle down." He also wanted to finish his associates degree from Utah State. So, I was patient .... and we had some fun times together.

After our first date, Brent and I flirted a little bit on the internet. (This was quite a few years ago - nothing like the internet now.) I remember being at our friend Roy's place using his computer to email-ish Brent. Brent had sent me an email with a lot of weird questions, and one that I really liked. I remember one of the questions was, "Why do octopus need 8 legs? I only have 2." Stuff like that that I thought was so cute! Then, hidden in the weird questions was, "When are you going out with me again?" Roy had seen that question and said, "He must really like you, he doesn't go out on a lot of second dates." I was very happy!

Our second date turned out to be riding my horses. Being the dorky animal person I am, I wanted to introduce him to my horse Sar as soon as possible. Sar never liked Brent. If we were ever in the paddock and Brent hugged me or something, Sar would push his way in between us. Who says animals don't feel emotions - Sar seemed a little jealous to me.

Here are a few snipits from our dating years.

This is fairly early on in our courtship. Brent wasn't really into showing that he liked me around other people yet, but if you look hard, he's holding my hand. :)I was working at Fred Meyer while I was in school. One day at work, I was lifting a big old bag of dog food so I could scan it and I hurt my back. The only thing I could do for a couple of days was lay on our couch. So, Brent says he'll come over and keep me company. He brings his Calvin and Hobbes books so he can read to me. The problem was, he laughed so hard while he was reading it that I couldn't really understand what he was saying. Truthfully, I thought it was the cutest thing I had ever seen or heard. It is one of the reasons that I fell in love with him.

One weekend, Court and I went down to Salt Lake for the weekend - I can't remember why - and Brent didn't come with us. When we got back, our room was FULL of balloons and streamers. After the initial surprise wore off, we thought it was pretty funny. Then Brent shows up and starts playing around. He puts a couple of balloons up his shirt and does a fun dance to "Queen of the Night" from Whitney Houston. What a crazy guy!

I put this picture in just because my hair is straight in it. It took forever and I don't really like it, but it was fun for that night. Doesn't Brent look cute in a suit? I wish he would wear them more now. (Hint hint Brent)

As you may or may not have figured out, we went to Utah State University in Logan, UT. (Go Aggies.) There is a tradition at USU where you kiss on the A (above) and become "True Aggies." This is what the plaque says, just so you understand what it's all about.

"The 'A' ... where a kiss is more than just a kiss ... here it is a rite of passage.

"The 'A' was built in 1916 by a group of enterprising young men known as the 'Be-Nos'. It's purpose was to serve as the site of a initiation ritual wherein each young man had to kiss a willing young lady atop the 'A' under a full moon at midnight.

"This ritual spread across the entire campus and became known as the method by which one could attain True Aggiehood.

"One can still become a True Aggie with a kiss on the 'A' under a full moon at midnight by one who is a True Aggie or on Homecoming night by one who is not."

When you became a True Aggie, they give you this great card...

And now, to the last story. My roommate Heather was the first one to get married out of my friends. She got married in the Salt Lake Temple. So, all us roommates went down to Salt Lake to spend a rainy wedding day with her. Brent said that he had to work so he wouldn't be able to come down for the reception. I was sad, but I understood. Then....
he surprised me by showing up. He had on an ugly tie, but I was really glad to see him and have a date! It was a great surprise!

We had a great time while we were dating. It was really fun!

Our First Date

So, here I am, finding times to talk to this fun guy I just met. Wishing that he would ask me out. Then one night, there is a knock at the door. When we open it, there are flowers and a note. Each of the flowers had one of my roommates names on it, including one for me. Surprisingly enough, I don't remember what kind of flower I got. At the time, I thought I was going to be a vet, but that's a different story.

Anyway, the note said that we should all be ready for our dates on Homecoming night. I believe Homecoming was the next weekend, but I don't remember for sure.

The night of homecoming comes and my little apartment is a buzz with excitement. Finally the boys get there and they each have a flower that matches their date's flower. I must say, I was hoping that Brent was my date, but I didn't know for sure. He walks in and sure enough, his flower was the same as mine. Yipee!

Here's a really yucky picture of our first date. It's the only one I can find right now. We are in the midst of construction downstairs so I can't get to the other pictures.

We went to the dance and had a wonderful time. I remember at one point holding hands because we were in a big crowd. It was like sparks flying everywhere. At least to me. I was hooked!

Later on that evening, the group went up Logan Canyon and built a fire. We had a wonderful date! And, we've pretty much been together ever since. That was 12 years ago on October 13th. Oh, and I forgot, the date was Friday the 13th. I guess sometimes good things happen on Friday the 13th.

Stay tuned...for the dating years!

The Day We Met

A little while ago, my friend Laura blogged about how she and her husband met and fell in love. I thought this would be an awesome thing to do for our anniversary month. So, since our 10 year anniversary falls on the 29th of this month, the next few blogs are going to be about us. I know Brent's going to love this!

Brent and I met in a cave in Logan, Utah. Here's the whole story. At the beginning of my sophomore year at USU, all the boys we had known were on missions, except one. So, we said to Ty that he needed to bring by some of his roommates so we could meet more boys. One day, Ty comes over with this kind of dorky looking guy. (Don't worry, not Brent.) This new guy's name was Roy. He had just BARELY gotten home from his mission, so he was still a little weird. (I really like Roy now, but that was my first impression.) Anyway, Roy meets my roommate Heather and thinks she's rather cool. So, he asks her out. And it order to impress her, he decides that on this date, he's going to take her through Logan Cave. Heather didn't really like Roy and definitely didn't want to be all alone with him, so she started inviting people. Eventually, she invited about 15 girls to go along - me included. Roy didn't feel like he could get all these weird girls through a slightly dangerous cave all alone, so he invited two of his friends from high school to come with us. There was a kind of gruffly looking guy who didn't talk much named Glen and this quiet blond guy that was really nice. (Guess who the blond guy is.)

We are lucky - we have a picture from the day we met. How many people can say that?

Brent's even kind of behind me. Since this picture if from 12 years ago, I'll describe where we are. Brent's on the top row, second from the right. I'm on the front row, three from the right.

After we all go through the cave safely, everyone came over to our apartment. Brent and I talked a little more. He was funny and easy to talk to. I kind of liked this boy.

Next time ... our first date!!

Ashley's Critic Corner

****WARNING: If you have not read Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, do not continue reading.******

As most of the world knows, the last installment of the Harry Potter series was released on July 21st. We are not hard core enough fans to stay up late and get the book at midnight, but Brent did go out at about 8a the next morning and brought it home. We argue about who is going to read the books first, so a few books ago, we started reading them out loud so we find out what happens at the same time. It's a fun way to spend some time together - and not argue! I, however, do not do the different voices. I'm not that awesome.

I really liked this book. I really love the series and was worried that the last book would let me down. It didn't. It was exciting. I loved how she ended it. I was so glad to see their lives 19 years later. What a great idea! I'm also excited to go back and re-read the series to pick up on the things that I now know were important.

I have to say, there were quite a few times where I couldn't read because I was crying. I loved Dobby! I'm so sad he died. It took me quite a while to be able to read out loud what he wrote on the headstone.

Brent loved the Weasley twins, so needless to say, Fred's death was very disappointing. I would have loved to see what happened to George after it was all said and done.

I was sure - twice - that Hagrid was dead. I was so saddened by that. I'm glad he's still around. He must be pretty old by the end though. I mean, he was in Hogwarts with He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named.

I really didn't like that she killed Lupin and Tonks off. That's apart of my "happy ending" problem. I know Teddy ended up ok, but it was just yucky that he had to. Haven't enough parents died in the books?

Well, that's pretty much all I have to say. What do you think?

Catch Up #2

I know that it's August, but I'm still trying to catch up on some awesome stuff that happened in July.

On July 22nd, we welcomed our first nephew to the family. Brent's sister Jessica and her husband, Sean, had a little boy named Jayson. We are going to be going to Utah for his blessing and just can't wait until we can meet him. (Well, I can't wait - Brent doesn't really like them until they can play. That's ok - more time for me to hold them.) Here are some cute pictures from his first day here...

That's Jayson and his biggest big sister, Tayler. She sure seems like she knows what she's doing when she's holding a baby.This picture just cracks me up! This is Jayson's littler big sister Rylee. She's showing him all her faces, just so he knows. :)

Welcome to the world, Jayson!

Also, on July 28th, our oldest niece, Emmy, turned 10 years old. It was so awesome talking to her on the phone. I'm amazed at the young lady she's turning into. I can't wait to see her in about a month!

I think that's about it. As I've said before, I'm not very good at remembering birthdays on the blog. If I've missed your birthday, please forgive me. I usually send cards! :)

Catch Up #1

Well, here I am, catching up again. Where does time go?

On July 21st, Reyes, our little niece, turned 1. Ryan and Marcela had a great party at Silverdale Waterfront Park. Unfortunately, the weather didn't remember it was July and was cold and rainy. Luckily, we're tough Washingtonians and had fun anyway. Here are some pictures.

I like to call this picture "Mom, I don't like the Hat." Such a cute little crown, but Reyes was having none of it.

I love her wrinkley forehead in this one. I still don't think she likes the hat.

As I was taking this picture, Reyes reaches over and tries to grab the cake...

She really didn't like what she grabbed though. Doesn't she know, she's suppose to like that as a 1 year old!

Then there was the great pinjata. (I'm not 100% sure that's how you spell that, but...you get the idea.) Unfortunately, the pinjata was made of some previously unknown kind of cardboard and it bent the broom handle they were using to break it. Finally, Brent and Ryan had to have a tug-of-war to get the candy out. Ahh, there's the candy. Good job guys!

Reyes thought stepping on the candy was a bit more fun that eating it. She just doesn't know yet!

What a fun gift! I espeically love that beautiful blanket that's just right for a little Reyes. :)

I just can't seem to get everyone looking at me at the same time. Does it still seem as if Reyes is saying, "Mom, seriously, I hate this hat!" ?

Here's some more pictures of Reyes.

Court and her family were at the party too. It took us 3 tries to get this picture where both of use have our eyes open. What a fun picture!

Chloe thought she looked like Dory from Finding Nemo. What do you think?

It was a super fun day! We had a great time! Happy Birthday Reyes!

Hard Work

So, we've been dividing our time between working outside and downstairs this summer. So, two months ago, I put this picture up.

This is the front of our house. I had just planted a bunch of stuff and it was starting to get warm enough for things to grow.

This pictures is from today...

It was raining when I was trying to take this picture, so it's from a weird angle, but look how cool it looks!! I'm so excited about the dahlias that are growing there. I'm hoping our big dahlia garden will work this good next year!

So, what do you see that is different from the two pictures. The plants are a lot bigger. That's for sure. Surprisingly, the lawn looks fairly similar. For those of you who don't live in Washington, lawns don't get watered in the summer. Usually it rains enough to keep the lawns green. But if it doesn't ... yellow lawns. I can't quite let my lawn go completely yellow, but I've only watered it once. This is from the "Plant Lady" as Ryan calls me. Don't mow your lawns too short and water them deeply occasionally, not a little all the time. Anyway, back to the pictures.

Have you noticed it?? The flag is missing. Huh. Funny story! So, last week, Brent and I were leaving and Brent says, "Did you bring the flag in?" I looked over and sure enough, the flag was gone. Then I remembered something that happened earlier in the day. There was this teenager riding his skateboard down the street. (I hate that anyway - we live on a hill - how is he suppose to stop?) He stops in front of our house on the street and is sitting on his skateboard. I thought he was resting in the shade or something because it was a warm day. I went into another room. Just after that I heard a weird noise, but when I looked, I didn't notice anything. Until the flag was gone! Yep, that's right...I'm pretty sure that kid took our flag! Isn't that horrible??

Next time we have a flag, we're going to have to use a screw to keep it in there. I can't wait for school to be back in. :)

Here's a pretty picture of the dahlia that is blooming. Enjoy!

Ashley's Critic Corner

Hello all and welcome to the first very biased Critic's Corner. We have been watching a lot of movies lately and I feel a need to share what I have thought about them. **Warning: the opinions expressed here are only mine. If you have different opinions, please express them.**

As with most people in the world, we went and saw Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix this past weekend. I really liked it! It was very fast passed and exciting. I do think that the magic they do in the movies is a little different from the magic in the books. When has it ever said that you could turn into smoke? That's all I'm going to say just in case there are a few people who haven't seen this movies.

We recently signed up for Netflix. This is perfect for us. We love watching movies, but if we don't see a movie the first weekend it's out in the theaters, we rarely go. We are also quite bad at going to the movie store, so this is awesome! I have also realized that you have to look at the Harry Potter books as one thing and the Harry Potter movies as another. You can't keep comparing them. You'll just be saddened.

Last night we watched Man of the Year with Robin Williams. I didn't know what to expect, but I liked it. It's a political satire that really makes you think. I have been trying to get more into politics lately. It's quite hard for me. I was raised around a Grandpa who would FIGHT TOOTH AND NAIL any time you started talking about politics. So, I just stopped talking about politics because I don't like to fight. A few years ago, we started making it a point to vote in every election. This has been helped by the fact that the county we're in mails out the ballots. Again, not much work to do what we need to do. Anyway, I would recommend this movie. It's kind of funny, but mostly thought provoking! Here's a funny joke from it - Tina Fay from Saturday Night Live said, "I threw my underwear at Brittany Spears once ... I really thought she needed them." Hee hee. (On a side note, don't you just love Tina Fay? (I'm not sure I'm spelling her name right). She's hilarious!)

The other night we went over to watch a movie on Court and Brad's big tv. It was Ghost Rider. I feel I need to give a little background on this. I really enjoy action movies. I also have really enjoyed the movies they have made from comic books. X-Men was awesome! The other 2 have slowly gone downhill, but the first one was awesome! I liked the first Spiderman quite a little bit as well. So, here was another movie from comic books. I'm not a huge Nicholas Cage fan, but maybe I could overlook that. Well, no, I couldn't. It was a HORRIBLE movie. Very confusing and boring. I would not recommend it.

This is the first installment of Ashley's Critic Corner. Like I said, we are catching up on our movies through Netflix, so stay tuned! :)

We're Still Alive

Hello out there in computer land. I just wanted to let you all know that we are still alive and kicking. Life has been a little crazy lately, so we haven't done much too interesting.

Summer is crazy, isn't it? And YW's camp is only a month and a few days away. I might not make it.

See ya!

Kalaloch Camping Trip

Only 2-1/2 days after getting home from Victoria, we packed up the camping gear and went to Kalaloch (pronouced klalok) Campground on the coast to go camping with Court, Brad and the kids. (Brent planned this trip before we had planned the Canada trip. I don't think we'll be traveling so much in a week anymore.) It's about 3-1/2 hours from here. Brent took a half day off of work, so we could get there early enough to start dinner.

For Brent's birthday, my parents gave him a new tent. This was also a gift for me. Let me explain. Brent is a backpacker. He loves to get lost in the woods and commune with nature. I, on the other hand, have a VERY vivid imagination and am just learning to camp. (What do I mean by vivid imagination? If you have ever seen the Vin Diesel movie "Pitch Black", you'll understand. Basially, I'm pretty sure that there are scary things all over that I can't see. I'm getting much better, but I'm still kind of a baby.) Anyway, since Brent is a backpacker, he has a light, 2 person tent that he takes backpacking. This tent was not big enough to have an air mattress in. I don't really enjoy sleeping on the floor, so we now have a big tent that I can have my air mattress in. Yeah!

Ok, big might be an understatement. After this trip, I have dubbed the tent the "Taj Mahal". It's a little too big for just the two of us, but I really like it. Oh, this is half of our campsite. We got one of the campsites where you could have two tents. This is our area. Just behind those bushes is the ocean. This is an awesome place to camp!
This pictures is taken just behind our tent from the last picture. It was great to listen to the ocean all day. Kyle kept taking about the "noisy racecar". It took us awhile to figure out that he thought the ocean sounded like a noisy racecar. That's a cute kid!!

Court, Brad and the kids got there a little before dinner was ready. Unfortunately, none of us had realized how chilly it would be at the coast. Just so no one has the same problem we did - no matter what time of year, always bring a lot of layers when you camp at the coast. Luckily, there was a lot of driftwood right down on the beach so we got to have a nice warm fire. It was just hard to walk to the bathrooms.

Brent made chicken and rice in the dutch oven for dinner. There is just something about dinner made in a dutch oven that make it yummy. We also had raspberry cobbler for dessert. Yummy!

So, we shivered around the fire for a little while, then all went to bed. It was pretty cold, but we toughed it out. Here are some great pictures of us around the fire.

The next morning, Brent made breakfast in the dutch oven. We forgot the ketchup, so I was worried, but it turned out REALLY good. Brent's such a good cook. :)

I asked Court to try to french braid my hair for the rest of the trip. Unfortunately, I had to brush out my hair in order to have her braid it. And, she wanted a picture. So...I'm going to be an adult and put my gorgeous picture on the internet, so you can all have a good laugh.

Ok, hopefully, you've gotten back on your chair after falling off laughing so you can see how cute the french braiding turned out.
Court is an expert french braider because it didn't even think about falling out for the next day and a half! Sarah wanted her hair braided too so we could be twins. It was super fun!

We spent most of the next day at the beach. We flew kites, made sand castles, and beach combed. Chloe and I found a sea star that may have been dead, but we decided to throw it back just in case. We found bits of sand dollars and lots of cool rocks. I love picking up rocks from the beach. It's a weird obsession.

To get to the beach, you had to climb over the drift wood. While pretty, it was kind of difficult to get over, especially with the little kids. It was worth it though.
What is this picture of, you ask? It's Brent's kite in another tree. How many times can one kite get stuck in trees. I think it likes to be in trees. (If you're wondering what I'm talking about, please seen the next post.) This one was easier to get out, but it still made us laugh.

Brent is in love with flying kites right now. He even has this little stunt kite. It's fun to fly, but I wanted my own kite. Last year when my parents were here, I flew my dad's kite which is about 6' across. It almost pulled you off your feet. So fun! So, I got one that is 7' across. It definitely makes your arms tired, but is fun to fly. We have too many kites!

We loved Kalaloch Campground. It wasn't busy, it was BEAUTIFUL and it wasn't too far away. If any of you would like to go camping there, we'll break out our Taj Mahal and go!