Trip home for the 4th of july

Me and the brothas

Me and mandie

The name game got intense.  In the end Timmy beat us all.

Bridge Pedal 2012

I love my bike!

Matt loves his 8 ball bike.

on top of the St Johns Bridge (I think)

Matt and I did the Bridge Pedal 10 years ago (my first year in Portland) along with my roommate, Monica, and my cousin Erin who was visiting at the time.  We had a great time (minus one unfortunate incident that involved Erin and some railroad tracks) so we decided to do it again this year.  For those of you not from these parts, they close down a bunch of roads and some bridges so that 10,000 bicyclists can ride over the bridges and and stop and take great photos.  Anyway, it is basically a traffic nightmare whether you are driving a car or a bike but it was fun.  10 bridges, 40 miles, great views, great weather, a good time.

New Year's Eve 2011

This is the only picture we took on New Year's Eve. This is Piper and she is a cutie. Our neighbors (her parents) and Matt get a kick out of seeing me hold a baby so when they stopped by on New Year's they thrust her into my arms so I couldn't help but hold her and then proceeded to take dozens of pictures. I was cracking up watching them take pictures and make comments. I normally have a 6 month rule (I don't hold babies until they are 6 months old) but when I stopped by to visit these guys shortly after Piper was born, they pulled the same maneuver so I ended up holding her when she was only days old. What is so hilarious about me holding a child? Do I look uncomfortable? unnatural? I'm not sure but Matt won't let me take down the picture of me holding my friend Kari's triplets when they were 6 months old and they are now almost 6 years old!

Not a new year's resolution

It has been exactly 2 years since I last blogged. What can I say? Life has been busy. I've been lazy. Both are true. One of my new year's resolutions is to organize old photos so it made me think of the blog and I thought I may just post some old photos and try to share more what is going on in our lives. This is NOT a new year's resolution though. I don't need that kind of pressure. The picture above is from our trip to Sedona in October. It is called Courthouse I think. Matt says its Cathedral. You decide.

Stehikin

Imagine a place with steep mountains all around except for a 1,000 foot deep lake, only reachable by boat, no phones, no internet, no TV. Well that is Stehikin. Delores organized a trip to this remote town on the edge of Lake Chelan for us, her friend Sandy and some old friends of Matt and Delores', Maureen and Bruce, came along too. We drove up to Snohomish on the day after Christmas. Then we took a 1.5 hour boat ride from the south end of Lake Chelan to the North end. The town has 95 year-round residents and since it is not reachable by car, the boat also brings supplies, mail, groceries, etc so it is a big event when the boat comes. Here is Matt in front of our out-house...just kidding, we stayed in a really nice cabin that was heated by a gas stove but it had electricity and even a dishwasher. I forgot to take a picture of it. Here is the pic from the website. View of the lake and the mountains...I think I could live here...

A cool little area overlooking the Lake to pray or meditate. Beautiful.

Matt and I got a lot of use out of our new snow shoes.

Rainbow Falls was partially frozen. So cool.

Here is the rest of the gang on a little exploration hike of the area. We had such a fun time hanging out with these guys, playing games and eating great food. Thanks for a great adventure, Delores.

bench project

As you can see I'm doing some catch-up blogging.

This was just a little project we did and I don't think I ever posted anything about it. We had an old shelf thingy that we weren't using anymore and I had been wanting a little bench to set things down on when you walk in our front door or to sit to put your shoes on. Well we added some legs and a few cusions and walaaa...an entryway bench.

Christmas at the Craigs

It's been a great Christmas so far. This is us opening of gifts from Mike and Katie and family.

I have recieved a cat calendar from my brother Mike for Christmas for as long as I can remember.

They even remembered Olive. This is her excited face. Can you tell?

I think Matt liked the Cowboys grill. What do you think?

Thank you Mike, Kate, Natalie, Mandie, Shaun and Timmy.