catch-up

I have really wanted to do some catching up on the ol' blog, but I just really haven't been feelin' it. It's tough. So, I have a meme (which I really don't know what the means) that I need to do, as I was tagged by my niece Deborah. I have many self-portraits that I haven't posted. Gunnar finished T-ball. Grandma Great died. Gunnar finished Kindergarten. I am sure there are many other things that I was going to blog about at one point in time. The boys are always doing funny things, none of which I normally remember after about 3 minutes. So, where to start? I haven't a clue . . .

I think I will throw in a couple of SPTs. So, let me back track to June 3rd - emblem of the land I love. Although I have a better idea for this, I didn't get it done and I am too engulfed in a headache and a tummy full of milkshake that I am NOT going out to take the picture I want to - maybe another day. Here's what I have on hand (also too lazy to get up to connect to the external hard drive for more variety of pics):

the "self" in these portraits is of course these cute little "mini-me" guys

So, maybe to most people, the Columbia River is not an emblem of the land, but it is definitely an emblem of the geographic region! To me, it's my emblem. I love it!I have always lived near water - not right on it, but right near it - with the exception of the college years I spent in Ellensburg. Although there is a small river there that was good enough for those years! So, we love living near the river. There are some nice beaches and parks in our tiny little town and it's really nice. In the distance, we can literally see Washington. It was a little weird to move out of Washington into Oregon. We realized the other day that because we can still see our home state, it makes it a little easier - almost like we didn't really betray it and leave it - we're only 40 minutes from the state line by freeway, but probably about 10 minutes by boat (if we had one, which we don't)!

Speaking of boat, we do really want one, but don't really want to have to be indebted to one. The bishop in our ward, however, has a boat and basically offered us to use it anytime. He said that he bought his boat brand new in 1994 (or so) and it has 421 hours on it. He said that he has boys that love to fish, but none are old enough to drive it on their own. So, Neil went out the other day with the oldest (at home still) son of the bishop. This is the results:

This picture is probably not the greatest (something funky with the formatting too), but again recall the laziness and this what I have on hand at this instant. Can you see the size of that fish? Probably not exactly. It's EIGHT FEET LONG and 6 inches, so they say. It's a sturgeon caught by Neil (with some assistance from Daniel, bishop's son). It's crazy!! They said it took about an hour to real in. It's catch & release. Thank goodness since I wouldn't know what to do with an 8 inch fish, let alone an 8 foot one! :) This is right out our front yard (OK, we live like a mile from the river, but close enough!) CRAZY! So, I think I mentioned this, but I really do love the river. It's just so fun. Now if we can get the wind to stop blowing because I really don't love the wind.

So, that's all the energy I have for now. I need to get my packing done for the scrapbook retreat! I suppose I need some clothes to wear!