'Tis the Season

Time has flown by, which is ok with me! I am finally done with the Fall term and have 21/2  terms to go. Chase starts his finals next week then we are off for our Christmas vaca!! We are so excited to be in St George for the first week then Denver the second week. It will be so nice to not worry about school for awhile. 

We had a really fun thanksgiving and start of the Christmas season. We went up to Silverfalls with Caraston, Justin, and the kids. It is kind of a long drive but once you are there it is worth the car sickness haha. The food is so good and the cabin is so cozy. I have come to LOVE making turkey sandwiches with stuffing and cranberries smashed into roll YUM! Silverfalls also has cabins you can rent, so Chase and I are planning to go back in the summer and ride our bikes to the different waterfalls. Anyway we had such a fun time and hope to go back with the Tookes next year! 

I know this picture is dark, but I still like it

The snow brought a nice Christmas feel

 Chase takes pride in his photos, and this is a good one of the waterfall we walked to after dinner.

Yes those are icicles around the walls!

Saturday after Thanksgiving we went Christmas tree hunting. The tree farm we went to was so funny because the had goats and a mini horse! The trees all smelled so good too. Chase and I have a hard time picking out our tree but this year we are really happy with our choice. Its not too cone shaped, just tall enough and keeps our house smelling great.

 Chase did the hard work!

When you have cut your tree they shake all the extra needles off then use this machine to bundle it up nice and tight!... I was actually really impressed!

The final product! MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

And from the extra limbs from the tree I made this very amateur wreath!... It was a good try for my first time haha!(Don't mind the skinny right side).

Oct. 2010

Our highlight from October was, of course, the deer hunt. We had so much fun seeing the fam and over eating! So here is a video of our trip...

Labor Day

Chase finally had a little break from school, so we took advantage of the time off and went camping. We went to Timothy Lake with the Drake's and Moss's. I was so excited to spend time with Chase and I was happy that he had so time off of school. We camped two nights and of course the weather wasn't that great, but it didn't rain on us so I was happy.
As we were getting our stuff ready to go, we decided that it would be a good time to invest in a new tent. So after some price checking we found the perfect 4 man tent. We hadn't been camping in OR yet so we were excited to use "all"our camping gear. This made us pack way more than anyone would need for two days, but better bring too much than too little right?

The New Tent

We also tried to do some fishing while we were there, but not only was it cold but the wind was out of control. That apparently was in my favor because I was able to catch the only fish of the trip! I am also proud to say that I cleaned my first fish as well.

Working on my fresh catch

The whole time we were there we definitely ate well! Chase made dutch oven potatoes, peach cobbler (thanks Heidi for the suggestion) and the trout I caught. The Moss's made burgers that I could live off of if I could, and awesome breakfast burritos! And as each night ended we had to have s'mores!

Cooking up potatoes

The boys preparing the trout

Eric and Heidi were only able to stay for one night, but we wished they could have stayed longer! As they were leaving the rest of us decided to check out some of the other lakes around the area and we stumbled upon Little Crater Lake. This lake is like nothing else I have ever seen! It is crystal clear blue water and it is 45 feet deep. It was created by the earth shifting and now it is an artesian spring fed by underground springs, and is ice cold!

A couple shots of Little Crater Lake

It looks amazing in person!

We had such a fun trip hanging by the fire, fishing, being in good company and of course eating! I am so glad we were able to spend some time roughing it. I am excited to put that tent to more use maybe one more time this year, but for sure next year!

Chase enjoying his fishing time

Nothing's better camping than warm socks!!

Hood To Coast Relay!!

Last weekend I competed in the Hood To Coast Relay! Just to give you a little background about the relay, it is known as "The Mother of All Relays" and claims to be the biggest one in the world. It is 197 miles starting at Mt. Hood and ending in Seaside (the coast). We had 12 people on our team, but we were split into two vans. I was runner #3, so I was in van 1. Our team started at 7:30am and it was 35 degrees on Mt. Hood!

The legs I ran were not as hilly as some of the other legs, but mine were a little longer distance (I could have prepared a little more for them haha). I started running my first leg at 9am and it was 3.93mi. It was all down hill, so I was able to finish in about 30 minutes. After van 1 finished we were 2 hours ahead of schedule! We had a break for about 4 hours while van 2 was running so we had a nice lunch break and Du's Grill downtown.

 After some much needed food and a change of clothes we were back on the road to start running again. Tiffany was runner #1 and she is the one who invited me to join the team. Our team was made up of mostly her cousins and a few friends, but it was really fun to meet new people and run with them. I started my 2nd leg around 7:00pm and this was my longest 7.25mi. This leg took me about 1:13hr. I wasn't too sore to start out the run but by the end my legs and hip flexors were feeling it! While I was running the sun was setting and it was perfect temp to be outside. When I finished it was totally dark, and I'm glad I finished before I had to wear a head lamp.

That night we parked the van at the second van exchange and expected that van 2 would meet us around 4am. We all slept in the van and I think that is the last time I will do that! It was so uncomfortable and just thinking about the air in there makes me kinda sick haha! Luckily for me van 2 was an hour early so I didn't have to sleep anymore, but Tiffany had to hurry and warm up for her 3:30am jog!

I started my final leg around 5am and it was 5.79mi. I was so stiff from being in the van and running the day before I could barely get going for my 3rd leg. I decided to take this leg easy and run 5 minutes then walk 5 minutes. I ended up making a friend while running so we finished the leg together and it was nice to talk and run with someone who is in as much pain as you! By the time we finished our leg it was light out but still pretty chilly. I was so happy that I made it through, but I couldn't believe how sore I was. At the time I was thinking that this was my first and last Hood to Coast, but I can't wait til next year to make a team! (So if you want to join the team next year let me know!!)

 This was the final van exchange and the people who own the house had a little snack bar that they ran out of their garage and a designated sleeping area. Van 1 was so happy to be done with their leg and we were excited to get to the coast. Before we hit the road we had to rub our legs a little bit, but it almost hurt me more than it felt good.

We finally made it to the coast and the finish line was on the beach. It was basically a giant party on the beach with a band and vendors everywhere. We hung out there for awhile and when the final runner from our team was done we crossed the finish line together!

We were all so tired but had to pose for one last team photo!

 

Chase was able to drive all the way out to the coast and meet us in Seaside. Im so glad he came! It was nice to be around someone new and someone you actually aren't sick of. I wasn't sick of my team but being in a van with 6 other people for over 24 hour was enough for me! 

I had SO much fun running Hood to Coast and anyone that knows me knows that running is not my specialty, but I can't wait to make a team for next year!!

Ape Caves

I can't believe August has come and gone!! We have been busy with visits from Harry and Kathy, Chelsa, and we also made it to the Dew Tour. I am done with school until September 27th and Chase is still working hard pushing through the summer term. After this summer he will have 4 terms down and 8 more to go! Time has flown by!

When Harry and Kathy were here we all went to the Ape Caves at the base of Mt St. Helens. They are lava caves that were created when the volcano erupted and the average temp in there is 42 degrees. It was so crazy just walking underground through the caves but definitely a fun expedition!







It was so dark in there that if we all turned off our head lamps we couldn't see an inch in front of us! There were a couple tricky parts that we had to climb up but with a little teamwork we all made it safe.








Towards the end of the caves was a little opening above us and that was the first light we saw in an hour and a half!




This was the hole we climbed out of at the very end! It was so crazy to be down there without light for that long! We all had a great time and happy that we made a safe exit!!




After the Ape Caves we had a BBQ at the Trail of Two Forests. This is less than a mile from the Ape Caves and when the lava came through the forest it made casts around giant trees and now you can actually climb in the middle where the tree once was!!

Chase starting his descent...


Adalay climbing in the cast of the tree.


Finally at the end! They are not long, but not for the claustrophobic!!

Dew Tour

The weekend I finished my summer classes we celebrated by going to the Dew Tour. The Dew Tour makes stops in Detroit, Portland, SLC, and Vegas. They have a ton of events and the ones we went to were Skate Park, BMX dirt, Skate Vert, and BMX park. All of it was so awesome!! The guys in all the events are SO good at what they do and that makes it so fun to watch them. This year was Shaun White's first appearance in 3 years on the Dew Tour so that was cool to see him in Skate Vert.



Skate Park




BMX Dirt


While we were at the Skate park prelims Paul Rodreguiz signed my ticket, and not only is he one on my celebrity crushes, but he also ended up winning the event! Garrison was so excited to see Shaun White and was able to have him sign his hat. Chase was great and saving our seats so I surprised him with signatures from Shaun White and Bucky Lasek! We had a lot of fun that weekend and excited to finish out the summer strong!