Sad day.

Well folks, it was a sad evening here last night. We found Dusty a new home and she left to be with her new people. We do wish that we had been able to take her with us to KC but with her fear of noises, we thought it would be cruel. She now with a family that two people home during the day (grandparents) and a 10 year old girl. The mom fell in love with her over a picture of just her head and couldn't believe how cute she is.

For those who never got to meet Dusty, isn't she cute?
I'm sure that Danica will be spending the next few weeks asking "where Dee Dee go?" We think that it would have been harder though to split them up later. Fortunately, her Grandma and Grandpa Ryther arrived yesterday as well and will help provide needed distraction. We are heading down to the Redwoods this morning. Longest car ride with her so far. Hopefully it goes well.

Officially on the market!

Well, it was a big day here yesterday. Our house is officially on the market. Now if I could figure out how to put a link to the ad I would. However, I have been up for nearly 24 hours now and am no longer at my sharpest. So if everyone could send good thoughts to the few buyers that are out there that would be greatly appreciated. Fortunately the market here isn't quite as bad as many other places. But still, I don't know how long our house can stay "show ready" all the time. But you never know. My play date buddy Jocelyn's house had one of the first people that looked at it bought it and they were out in 3 weeks. So you never know. Three weeks is a little fast for me but four would be okay! Also if you all could send a few prayers our way that not only the house sells, but we find jobs at the same time! So that's all for now and I'll try to keep everyone updated as to where we are at! But the first big step in moving has been accomplished!

Crater Lake

On Sunday Jason, Danica and I headed down to southern Oregon to see Crater Lake. Jason and I had gone a few years ago and wanted to go back. As you can see there were hardly any clouds in the sky and it was beautiful out. Danica handled the 4 hour ride down pretty well.

Danica showed how well she can remember things. She saw one of the pictures of the volcano erupting and pointed at it and said "volcano!" We hadn't even said that word since we were up at St. Helen's so she remembered it and was able to use it appropriately. We thought that we pretty neat.
Here is the lake with the lava dome island.
Here is Danica is roasting her first s'more! She didn't want to eat it with the graham cracker. She did however like it plain and unroasted. Snuggling with Daddy, eating a hotdog bun. Minus the hot dog. She had already eaten that.
I love this picture. It looks like sky behind the rock doesn't it. It's not. It's the lake. Wow.

Another picture of the lake. We went all around the rim drive which is 22 miles. You get to see it from every angle.
The different shades of blue in the water is amazing. It was so clear you could see individual rocks in it.
We took so many pictures it was hard to narrow it down as to what to post. I hoped that I showed a little of the beauty of Crater Lake. If not, you will just have to see them when I print them out!

Camping video clips

I managed to get a couple of video clips when we were camping. It shows a little of how adorable she can be. For some reason I didn't get any of the crying in the morning when she woke up! I wonder why?

Danica is very much into running in circles right now. So the tent offered a great big circle to run around! And for some reason, rocks were very interesting. She kept finding them and picking them up.

You would think that a mosquito was the worst thing in the world. Danica hated them from the minute she first saw one. And she can pick one out that even Jason and I didn't see until she said something.

There were chipmunks at just about every view point. Danica loved the chipmunks and as you can see, was very disappointed when she couldn't see them anymore. They were very cute and not too shy at all. I have a feeling that some people had been feeding them. One came right up to Jason when he held his hand out.

St Helen's

Last friday we took the day and went up to Mount St Helen's. It was awesome. It is something that everyone should do if they have the chance. (Dad since I know you want to go, it is now required the the next you are in Seattle to get to Helen's if at all possible) We wish we would have been able to stop at all the visitor centers but someone wasn't on her best behavior. (I know you are all wondering why I was being such a turd!)


I absolutely love this picture of her. Jason got a great shot.
Nice strangers took our picture for us. One of all three of us! Rare!
It was slightly overcast that day with occasional clouds but still an awesome view. This is from Johnston Ridge Observatory. 5 miles from the crater.
Danica loved walking up the trail to the viewpoint.
Waving hi to Daddy!

Pink bunny!

In pink from head to toe. Well not really toe because she's not wearing socks. But you get the idea. She loves her trike but hasn't gotten riding it down yet. She does however sit on it and scoot all throughout the house. One she forgot about the step down into the living room. Of course Jason and I happened to be sitting on the couch watching her. We made sure she was okay and then we laughed at her.

County Fair

So it has been a couple of weeks but I wanted to share pictures from the Marion County Fair. Danica and I went with our friends Kelli and Larissa the first day it was open. Now to my knowledge I have never been to a county fair. It was pretty much what I expected. The first thing that we did was see the police officers that were there.


This is Danica, Larissa and Kelli in a squad car. We got them to run the lights too. (of course it helped that Kelli's husband Jay is one of Salem's finest and she knew most of the cops there!)
We spent most of our time in the petting zoo. It was a pretty popular place so it was hard to get really good pictures because I had to be careful not to step on animals or little kids!

Petting the cow.
Danica really liked the bunnies. She kept sticking her fingers in the cages and I was afraid one would bite her. But the only person who got bit was Kelli. She was the victim of a pig attack. She said it really hurt and I believe her because she had the mark on her leg for a while. But we figured it was better for it to have been her rather than one of the many kids in there. (Right Kelli?) The pig was then chased around the pen for 5 minutes while one of the people in charge tried to round it up since it bit. That was pretty funny. The girls kept wanting to feed the animals but then would get scared the second they would get near their hands.

Petting the pony.
Larissa wanted to give the pony a kiss. It was cute.

And of course while we were walking around looking at all the animals Danica had to go and step in a pile of poo. And she then smelled like poo the rest of the day. Which really sucked in the car because it was warm out that day.