Month: April 2008

  • March 2008 Clackett Ranch, NC

    At the end of March, Brent and I travelled to the east coast for his college roommate’s (Jake) wedding. We flew into Greenville, SC, rented a car and drove toward the Great Smokey Mountains near Clyde, NC. The weather was sunny and 70 degrees everyday (except the day of the wedding it dropped to 50). Jake’s family owns a 30 acre buffalo ranch. Their family business is Buffalo Creek Vacation Rentals. Jake has his degree in engineering and just got his general contractor license. They have built 4 beautiful log cabins on their property and we got to stay in their newest! Here is a picture of Brent in front of Tatonka Lodge:

    NC (72)

    The interior was amazing, unfortunately my pictures of it aren’t that great. You can check it out at http://www.vrbo.com/163324 

    03 03 NC (42) NC (1) NC (2) NC (4) NC (5)

    Downstairs there was a pool table, foosball, air hocky, life-size chess, ping pong and a huge flatscreen TV it was a party every night!

    NC (50)

    This is Adam and Lindsay, they took it easy most of the time since she was hit by a drunk driver only weeks before.

    NC (51)

    Keelan and Angel

    NC (53)

    Tom, Jake (the groom) and Josh. Can you tell their brothers?

    NC (54)

    Katie Kolb

    NC (55) NC (56)

    Carethanne and Lindsay

    NC (57)

    Pint-sized clacketts!

    NC (63) NC (65)

    Tanner Kolb

    NC (66)

    Tim

    NC (69)

    NC (70) NC (61) NC (62)

    Harriet, Jake’s mom, made sure we had fresh chicken eggs every morning! We were well fed and very spoiled. There was lots of time to relax. Brent and I took a few hikes to explore the property.

    03 03 03 03

    Brent Helped build this house…

    03 03 03 03 03 03 Clackett NC 3 Clackett NC 3 NC (45) NC (41)

    Tanner took the motorized tour of the property…

    03

    One of the days we were there we set out for the Smokey Mountains National Park and instead went to the Cherokee Reservation for shopping and ice cream.

    NC (10) NC (9) 03 03

    The day before the wedding, Brent, Katie and I visited the Arboretum at the University of North Carolina.

    NC (12)

    There were really cool bug sculptures all around the campus!

    NC (14)

    They featured a great entymology exhibit with butterflies!

    03 03

    They hatched the butterflies themselves in a screened box.

    03

    After they transform and break out, they rest and wait for their wings to dry. When the butterfly starts moving about the box looking for a way out they release it into the exhibit.

    NC (18) NC (17) NC (16) NC (15) 03

    All the plants in the exhibit were beautiful, all specifically planted to support butterflies.

    03

    In the parking lot we noticed that you can rent these off-road Segways to tour the Aboretum! This is quite possibly my favorite photo from the trip!

    NC (13)

    There were lots of different gardens to see, one of them devoted to Bonsai trees and a “Quilt” garden.

    03 03 NC (25) NC (26) NC (27) NC (28) NC (29) NC (22) NC (23) 03 03

    Magnolias are native to NC.

    03 03

    There were miles upon miles of hiking trails so we decided to explore them. We discovered a hollow tree to pose with!

    03 03 NC (34) 03 03 NC (35) NC (36) NC (38) NC (37)

    We went into another building to see a quilt exhibit and stumbled upon a Orchid show. Here are photos of both!

    NC (33) 03 03 03 03 03

    The best quilt (in my opinion) was the Super Mario Bros!

    03

    This is a watercolor painting of an orchid on silk canvas.

    03

    The morning of the wedding all the boys played a very organized, very serious game of paintball.

    03 03 03 03 03 03 03 03

    Getting ready to leave for the wedding…

    NC (60) NC (59) 03

    The wedding ceremony was very small but really beautiful. Here’s the only photo I have of the actual ceremony.

    NC (58)

    The reception was huge. They had about 30 tables and fed us a delicious buffet meal!

    NC (47)

    Tim, Tim and Lauren

    NC (46)

    The newlyweds, Jake and Holly

    NC (6)

    Angel showed us her moves on the dance floor.

    03 First Dance 03

    The first dance and Tanner and Katie

    03

    They had hershey kisses all over the dinner tables and each one had a cute saying.

    On the flight home Brent took a few pictures from the plane. Here’s one of them.

    NC (48)

    We had a really good time and were grateful to share in Jake and Holly’s big day. Thank you Clackett Family!

  • Gabe

    Some pictures and videos of my nephew!

     
    Gabe Thumb 4 Grandma Cuddle 4
     
     

  • Back on the West Coast…

    Sunday evening Brent and I got back from our trip to North Carolina. I’m still gathering and organizing photos and I will have them up shortly.

    While I was out of town, Gabriel chose to shock everyone by starting to crawl, climb AND walk all at once. I didn’t believe it until I saw it for myself. I’ll be posting photos and videos of that too. He walks with his arms straight out in front of him like a mini-zombie…and like everything he does, it’s really cute. The day I got home he began to successfully mimic short words that we said. So far he says, “up” (with arms outstretched) and “hi”.

    Yesterday was my first day of my first term back at Mount Hood Community College. I am taking an easy math class in hopes that I can get a good grade and Brent can help me with my homework (if I need it). I was also signed up for an intermediate spanish class but they cancelled it due to low enrollment. I was pretty disappointed about that!

    The most exciting news that I’ve heard since I got back is that Lauren and Rick are engaged, Congratulations you two!

    That’s all for now…

  • Mom’s Cookin’

    I just love eating my mom’s home cookin’! Here are a couple pictures of one of my favorite dishes: Fajitas!

    03  

    03

    Gabe can’t eat them yet, but he totally wants to…

    03