Aaah, Mud

Well, we stopped by the house last night and yet again, didn't take pictures. This time it was because I forgot the camera on my desk. It was snowing pretty hard in Maple valley and the house looked great with over an inch of snow on it. There were still several guys working to finish the first coat of mud on the drywall. It looked so much better and closer to a completed project. Amazing wat a difference a smooth wall makes. We probably won't make it out to the house again until next week and I am already having withdrawals. It is starting to feel cozy inside since they have the heating turned on and all the insulation in. Even with it snowing last night, it was at least 70 inside.

On another note, the hardest part of not having TV will be tonight when we have to miss the Cougar game. Everyone be sure to watch and root them on for us!

I do have two pictures to post. I just remembered I took a couple of pictures of my rental car in Ottawa. I wasn't sure if my carry-on was going to fit.

Easter Madness

Well, it’s Colby again…

I’m not in the air but I am in an airport. Chicago-O’Hare to be precise. I wasn’t completely thinking when I packed the bags this morning and forgot to throw in the passport. I remembered about 50 feet from the check-in counter and there was no way to make it home and back by takeoff. The only alternate itinerary left me with a 4-hour layover in Chicago with not much to do.

We had a wonderful Easter weekend in Ellensburg. On Friday, Kim and I went and finally went over our pictures with Molly, our photographer. It almost took as long as the wedding but we are really happy with what we are getting.

Saturday morning, the caravan (I believe 3 cars surely meets the definition) mounted up and went to Olmstead state park where the Moose club put on a great Easter Egg hunt. This is the girls right before the frenzy began.

We all either took a child or took a camera for the event and had a great time.

Afterwards, we strolled around the park for a while and enjoyed the scenery before we headed home.

Bruce finally got us all out bowling on Saturday afternoon. Here are Kim, Marc, and Bruce showing off some of their smooth form. Now I have to start to practice if I am going to be going to Vegas for nationals next year.

On Sunday, the Easter Bunny visited and there were more eggs to hunt for in the front yard. The girls were just as excited as they were the day before and there were plenty of treasures to go around. It was pretty cold but Marcus watched his sisters and cousins go at it. By next year, I can see him taking his fair share.

Here is Soph and Ceci comparing their finds.

On Sunday, we drove home via the new house and saw that they had sheet rocked the entire place. Unfortunately, all of the picture taking from the weekend had drained the battery so we don’t have photos but hopefully we can get some soon. We hope everyone had a great Easter!

Aloha

Greetings from 30,000 feet. This is a new experience. I am without a seatmate for my flight back from Honolulu and had some time to try and catch up on the blog. We aren’t yet to the point where I can log onto the internet from up here but I can see that time on the horizon. Since it has been a while since the last post, specifics may be a little fuzzy but I will see what I can do and I will apologize in advance for the length…


The first three pictures were taken way back on the 8th of March. We got there and they were working on the siding and had made it all the way around as high as they could reach. Bruce was working in the area a couple of days later and swung by (we will have to get working on the gate in the back fence) and said it looked like a swarm of bees with everyone working. I also put one up of the backside view of the house. The place looks big from the front but even bigger from the back. The last picture is out one of the bedroom windows. We get to evaluate what all the neighbors have done in their backyards, but we won’t have to stare directly into someone else’s windows.

The next picture is just to prove we have some latent handiness in us. Kim bought some placemats with backing and turned them into these cute little pillows. I don’t have the pictures, but we also reupholstered the dining room chairs. Not bad for an afternoon’s work.

This is my cousin Sarah and her first round of ultrasound pictures. We found out that her and Josh are expecting while we were gathered together for my grandma’s birthday celebration (Yes, that’s sparkling cider) Happy Birthday Norma Lou!!

We went back out to the house on the 15th and saw that most of the house next door had been completed. It’s actually going to be the same model but with a different elevation and orientation. We also found that most of the cabling, electrical, and plumbing had been completed. We could check out where all of the outlets ended up in relation to where furniture will go. We got a “lumber drop” confirmation which was a little obvious since the lumber is already being used. We now have a tentative closing date of June 16th. Just in time for our 30th birthdays!

Kim’s Mom, sister Tracy, and the monkeys came to visit for the weekend. After a two hour trip to Ikea and a full day with the girls, we lost Kimmie even before Soph and Ceci.

On Monday, we went back out to the house and our Fireplace is installed and those little blue pipes are called “Smurf Tubes”. We will be able to have our TV in the cutout and run our cables down to either side of the fireplace where we can put all the rest of our equipment (read: Colby’s toys). However, if you do the math, there is 1 input and 2 outputs in the picture. We are still checking to see if they forgot to finish the one on the right. This last picture is of the air intake back to the furnace. I hope our gnome doesn’t fall in.

Now a couple of pictures from my trip. Once again, didn’t have too much time to explore (or not enough motivation after a long flight, I don’t know). Still haven’t gone to any of the sights in Honolulu but drove past most of them. I was bored sitting on the balcony last night listening to the ocean and the band playing in the restaurant next door and started taking some night pictures and playing with settings. Here are a couple of my favorites. Let me know what you think.

We hope everyone is doing well and can’t wait to have everyone over for the greatest housewarming/combined 30th birthday party we have ever had!!!

Finally!

Well, the week has been crazy but here is what we have. The first picture is from last Sunday morning. We went out to show Kim's Mom and Dad the house and found most of a roof and preparations for windows. We got to finally walk through the whole house and check out the views out all the windows. (unfortunately I didn't think to actually take pictures of those views.)

On Tuesday, Colby flew to Simi Valley, CA for work and stopped by the Reagan Library. Unfortunately, 3 pictures in, the battery died on the camera so we will have to see more when he goes back in another month

Yesterday, Colby's friend Holly came over for dinner and we went to see the house again. Now those windows are installed and we have shingles on the roof. They were doing plumbing work so we couldn't go inside but plan on checking it out this weekend. (You can see that they fixed the banister on the stairs so we feel much better)