Boating in October... BRRRRR....

Stephanie Bishopp is my friend who lives in New York City. She loves it out there, but misses being so close to a lake with access to a boat. In October, Stephanie turned 30 and with that, her insanity was multiplied. One day, in September, she called me and said tickets were really cheap from NY to SEA and she wanted to come home one weekend in October. We chose Oct 17th as the best date. The plan was to spend all Saturday morning on her family's boat, wake boarding and enjoying the Indian Summer that Seattle was experiencing.

We woke up on Saturday morning, not to a nice, warm indian summer day, but to pouring down rain. And I mean pouring. On the drive to the lake it was difficult at times to see the road ahead of you. It was really coming down. Stephanie was not to be deterred. She had come home to enjoy the lake and the boat and that was what she was going to do. Rob and I did our best to support her in her pursuits.

Here is Stephanie and I bundled up and ready for a freezing and wet ride. We did our best to dress warmly. I was dressed head to toe in my ski gear. I figured it would keep me the warmest and the driest.

Rob decided to get creative in his wakeboarding outfit. He didn't want the rain hurting his eyes, so he decided to wear ski goggles. We were afraid the ski goggles would sink, so he tied an empty pop bottle to the goggles. It worked like a charm.

Rob being brave and trying out the FREEZING water first.

A beautiful rainbow that graced us with it presence as the weather started to clear

Stephanie showing off her moves and getting some BIG air!

Thanks Stephanie for sharing your birthday insanity with us! :)

Utah Bridal Shower

Back in October, I flew to Utah to find a wedding dress. While I was there my sisters threw me a shower. We had a ton of fun and it was a mini Bellevue 3rd Ward reunion. It was fun seeing and catching up with old friends. Here are some pics of the day.

Me and my niece Halle. She was an excellent help when it was time to open the presents. :)

RuthAnn LeBaron, Mary Braun and Finch Braun. These ladies brough cinnamon rolls that were to die for (the secret ingredient was Nutella! Yum!)

Angela Escamilla. We used to be neighbors during Middle School and High School

Sherrie, Sherri, Julie and Courtney.

Bellevue 3rd ward ladies, Terry, Allison, Dawn, Tracy, Billie and Tiffany

Nieces: Danielle, Meg, Lexi and Lauren.

Thanks ladies for a wonderful day!

This is why I LOVE Craigslist!

I answered an ad for a free snowmobile on Tuesday. I, as usual, roped Cindi into tagging along on another wild goose chase to pick up one more thing I don't need. We got to the house on Mercer Island and the sled didnt actually look too bad. We got it home and in my excitement i wanted to get right to work. Cindi immediately said "Later!!" because she knows once I get started I'm not going to stop till I fix it. After I popped the hood it didn't look promising but I decided to give it a shot. I put the carburator on....ran some fuel line (100% guessing what went where)....ran some oil line (again, guessing all the way) (I was too lazy to look in the book they gave me)...and did about 20 other various things that I might might give it a chance to fire. I flipped on the ignition to see what happened. After about 10 pulls this is what I ended up with.

I think Cindi might be the only one who really gets how excited I am for snow. If the mountains get anything more than a dusting I will be running around in half dirt half snow. The thing runs PERFECT. I want so bad to get all over it and see how fast it goes but unfortunately as you can see in the video they don't turn to well on pavement. Online searches put the top speed of this sled at about 85 mph and I really CAN'T WAIT for us to get some snow to see if its true.

Summary: for $2 in two-stroke oil, $3 in gas, and about an hour of my time I got a new toy that will entertain me more than anyone can imagine. I've wanted a snowmobile SO BAD and guess what I HAVE A SNOWMOBILE! WOOO HOOO

For those of you keeping track here is the current rundown:

1. White Subaru
2. Blue Subaru
3. Stand up jet ski
4. Sitdown jet ski
5. Blue motorcycle
6. Black Motorcycle
7. Dirtbike
8. Cindis Motorcycle (even tho she rides the dirtbike)
9. Jet ski trailer
10. Utility trailer
11. SNOWMOBILE!!!!

The State Dept of Licensing LOVES ME!!!!

JAMES TAYLOR!

The Puyallup Fair hosts multiple concerts during its two week run. This year I checked to see who was playing, but didn't find anyone of interest. Somehow I missed that James Taylor was playing. Rob and I discovered that James Taylor was playing the very day we were planning on going to the fair. We were sad to see that it was a sold out show. All morning we watched Craigslist for free tickets, but to no avail. So we headed to the fair anyway to enjoy all the other free entertainment it has to offer (see Mutton Bustin post below).

The concert started at 7 pm, so Rob and I made our way over to the stadium to see if we could sneak our way past any of the event staff. We walked back and forth for about 30 minutes before finally admitting defeat. Instead we went and got one of my fair favorites, an elephant ear. It was DELICIOUS! After the snack, we headed back toward the stadium one last time. As we were walking past the main enterance, a couple and their baby were just leaving. They were getting their stroller and were obviously headed out. Rob, being the sly guy that he is, asked if they would let us have their seats. They happily handed them over and Rob and I got in the show! I was so excited! We quickly ran to our seats and enjoyed the rest of the show.

We thought we had missed the majority of the show, but after playing about 7 songs and leaving the stage, James Taylor and his band came back for an encore. They played about 5 more songs. It was awesome. This is a man who's songs are classic and no matter how old he gets his voice remains crystal clear and as perfect as if you were listening to the CD. Two Thumbs up! And a big thanks to Rob for getting me in for free!!!

Do the Puyallup!

We went to the fair on Saturday and of course made time for our favorite event.
Mutton Bustin! For those of you unfamiliar with this, it is one of the best all time fair activities. They take 3-6 year old kids, put a helmet on them, and put them on the back of a sheep. They open the gate and the kid hangs on for dear life as the sheep goes charging down the field. The goal is to hang on for 6 sec. The winner takes away a belt buckle!



Before the main event got started, Buster the sheep came out to entertain the crowd. He did a pretty good job!

The Puyallup fair is probably the best state fair I've ever been to. If you ever come our way during September, we'll take you! Then you can try Fischer Scones, Earthquake burgers, and of course visit piglet palace!

Hair Bands Never Die

In all of Rob's deal finding, he found us $10 tickets to go see Poison and Def Leppard in concert. I love concerts so of course I agreed to go. I know very few songs from either of these bands (much to Rob's dismay) but we still had a great time.

The concert was at the WhiteRiver Amphitheater. This is way out in the middle of nowhere and traffic is a nightmare on concert days. So Rob convinced me to take the motorcycle. We had GA seats on the grass lawn so Rob figured out a way to strap our lawn chairs to my back for the motorcycle ride. The gas station attendant was amazed at our ingenuity when she saw it.

Rob eating his Kettle Corn before the big show.

Our new friends we met at the show. They were really friendly but I think they were just after the Kettle Corn.

Poison opened the concert. I did know at least a handful of their songs, but I was not impressed with their sound or their showman ship. Rob says they didn't really sound much better in their prime.

Def Leppard put on a great show even though I literally only knew one of their songs. Rob on the other hand sang along to every single one (except for the stupid "new" song they threw in). It was very impressive. They sounded great, watching the one handed drummer was amazing and their whole stage presence was very impressive.

Overall we had a great time. A big thanks to Rob for finding the tickets. A big thanks to Brett Michaels for taking time our from his reality show to grace us with his presence, and thank you to all those at the concert who grew out their mullets and wore their tight leather pants for our amusement.

Always in the Garage...

Rob is always thinking about, planning, organizing or creating in the garage. He likes for me to be in the garage helping him but I'd rather be doing more girly stuff inside. A couple of weeks ago, he talked me into lending him a hand. It was a lot of work, but the end result turned out pretty great.

On our last trip to Whistler we figured out that it is easiest to tow the bikes with a trailer instead of putting them on the hitch rack. If we tow the trailer, we can park for free in the oversized car lot once we get up there, and towing the trailer distributes the weight a little more evenly so there is not so much on the back end of the car. The trip went smoothly, so Rob decided we needed to spiff up the trailer a little bit....

Rob found some free outdoor paint on Craiglists, so that became the new perfect color for the trailer. We bought two pieces of plywood at Home Depot in the morning and then got to work. Painting the trailer was the easy part. Then we got to thinking about what we could use as wheel chocks for the mountain bikes. I must admit I'm pretty proud that I came up with the idea to use ski tips. I really had no idea how it would work, but as soon as I said it, Rob agreed and got to work...

He took an old pair of skis and cut of the tips. Then figured out a way to bolt them to the trailer so they could be easily removed. It was took a lot of hours and a ton of work (I pretty much reach maximum capacity after two hours in the garage...) but we did it and it turned out great. Here's the finished product.

Not only is he tall, dark and handsome, he's also a creative genius when it comes to working in the garage. If you want to help us make use of our new and improved trailer, start making plans to join us in Whistler for a little biking next year!