Where has the summer gone?

Where has the summer gone? I can hardly believe that August is already half over! The summer has been keeping Reuben and I pretty busy. I have included some picture highlights below:

Reuben and I celebrated our 1st year anniversary in Hood River. We rode the Hood River Railroad and also a Stern wheeler on the Columbia River. We stayed at a lovely B&B that had wonderful accommodations.




We had a wonderful time celebrating the 4th of July with family and friends at the Lake again this year. I always enjoy the festivities that this holiday brings. We couldn't have had better weather and the firework show was beautiful as always.



Teresa, Mom, and I enjoyed the Cowlitz Co Fair country concert this year. It was Jo Dee Menseena and the music was awesome! I have attended several of these concerts in the past and am always pleased. Mom, Teresa, and I also were surprised to find out that we had all gotten blue ribbons on our quilts that we had submitted to the fair!



Last weekend Reuben and I went to visit some friends in Bend, OR. We had lovely weather and a great visit with the Freed's! We hope to be able to do it again in the not too distant future. It was a long car drive, but well worth the trip :)


Anyway, that is kinda a look at what we have been up to these last few months. It seems like every weekend fills up fast! We are enjoying good times with good people though, that is what counts. :)

I have seen a few other blogs do this, so I thought I would do it as well...

Seen It

We have kinda been watching a lot of family friendly movies lately. :) I am not sure why, I think they just all came out recently and since we didn't see them in theaters we added them to our netflix list. All these movies were really cute and worth watching.

Tangled

Diary of a Wimpy Kid

Night at the Museum 2

Heard It

Terri Clark Concert

On Wednesday Andrea and I went to see the Terri Clark concert put on by the local KUKN country station. It is part of their concert series they have been doing where they bring country artists to town and do a more intimate unplugged concert without a big band and everything. It was a lot of fun. Terri Clark was probably one of my favorites of these concerts I have been to. The concert was at The Columbia Theatre, so it was a great atmosphere as well. I always look forward to these concerts...and best yet they are very affordable at only $15 a ticket! :)

Read It

Solomon's Oak by Jo-Ann Mapson
I really enjoyed reading this book. It is about a troubled teen and her foster Mom. It bounces between a few character's perspectives, but is still easy to follow. I thought this book was worth the read.

Safe Haven by Nicholas Sparks
I know that not everyone is a Nicholas Sparks fan, but I thought this book was better than some of his others. I found it to be a quick easy read and an enjoyable story. Plus unlike some of his other books this one actually had a happy ending. :)


Did It


Bought a new freezer
Reuben and I finally got around to purchasing a chest freezer! This will allow us to buy more items in bulk and take better advantage of sales that happen. We put it on our back deck and as you can see we are already working on filling it up!





Hung up pictures
We also finally got around to hanging up pictures in our house. It was quite the project to decide which pictures to use and what frames to put up where, but I think the final result looks great! It definitely feels more homey now. :)

The Amazing Kidnerellis! - World Kidney Day

Today is World Kidney Day...so, here is a little video I thought I would share.

Eat, Pray, Love

I saw this movie last week with Teresa, Rikki, and Kristen. I enjoyed it a lot more than I thought it would. I am not sure if I would really recommend it to everyone since it is a somewhat tragic story of a girl who has a mid-life crisis and goes looking for God in all the wrong places....however it does have some truths that I thought I would share:

"You're going to have to learn to select your thoughts the same way you select your clothes every day. Now that's a power that you can cultivate. You want to come here and you want to control your life so bad work on the mind, and I don't think you should be trying to control a thing because if you can't master your thoughts you are in trouble forever."

This one is sooo close...and yet so far:
"So the holy truth of the whole adventure here in India, is in one line: "God dwells within you...as you." God's not interested in watching a performance of how a spiritual person looks and behaves. The quiet girl who glides silently through the place with a gentle, ethereal smile...who is that person? It's Ingrid Bergman in "The Bells of St. Mary's" – not me. God dwells within me...as me."

"Having a baby is like having a tattoo on your face. You kind of want to be committed."

"Do not look at the world through your head; look at it through your heart."

2010 Review

Hard to believe another year has come and gone. As previously noted this year was exceptionally noteworthy for our family. Here are a few highlights to list:

-Jonathan, Tonia, and I (although separately) went to the 2010 Winter Olympics in Canada
-Reuben graduated from Multnomah Bible College
-Teresa graduated from Corban University
-Reuben and I got married
-Reuben and I toured Ireland
-Abby and Joe got married
-Tonia gave birth to Baby Lynn

It has been a very eventful year for both sides of our family. We are looking forward to many family gatherings in the new year and can’t wait to see what exciting things 2011 will hold.

Goodbye 2010, you were good to us. You will be missed.

Lincol City

Earlier this month Reuben and I enjoyed a weekend away at Lincoln City. We had gotten a gift certificate to use at a B&B and we decided to put it to use. :) We had a wonderful time seeing the sites and shopping at the outlet mall. It was a great weekend away that ended too soon. :) Enjoy our pics.

The beautiful sunset we saw on our drive down.





THE B&B (AKA "The Coast Inn)


The view from our room:


Our Room...aka The Wildflower Suite


The Beach :)

November

I can't believe that the year is almost over. It took forever for May to get here and then the rest of the year flew by. :) Only a few short weeks until the year is over. These last weeks are pretty full though.
This weekend Reuben and I are looking for a couch. The one we have now is very uncomfortable. Hopefully we will find one we like. It is one of the things on our "to buy" list. We are slowly checking them off.
Next Thursday some of my friends and I are going to the midnight showing of Harry Potter. Since it gets out so late I am taking Friday off. Then on Saturday Teresa and I have a booth at the TRCS Bazaar. We are selling our crocheted items, sewn bags, and Christmas ornaments. :)
The following week is Thanksgiving! :) We are celebrating with Reuben's family at his cousins house in Portland. Looking forward to also celebrate Grandpa Larry's 80th birthday that weekend. :)
The first weekend in December Reuben and I are going to Lincoln City. We got a gift certificate for a bed and breakfast and are going to put it to use. :) I have only been to Lincoln City once, so it should be fun.
Somewhere in there we have to meet our new niece Lynn who will enter the world the end of November. :) Looking forward to meeting her.
Seems like there is an endless list of things to keep us busy and bring us into 2011. Can't wait to see what the new year brings!

A Day at the Beach

The family headed to the beach this last weekend. Grandma and Grandpa Riedesel rented their usual beach house for us all to enjoy. Mom, Dad, Teresa, Reuben, myself, David and Tonia were there with Grandma and Grandpa. Reuben and I were only there for Sunday night and Monday. We arrived Sunday afternoon to a beautiful view of the ocean. The weather really worked in our favor. It was nice to relax with the family and enjoy the view. We went on a couple walks on the beach and played a round of pinochle. :)

On Monday we headed in to Cannon Beach to explore the shops. David found a toy store with trains and was entertained for about 40 minutes. Midway through the shopping trip most of the family headed back to the house leaving Teresa, Tonia, and I to finish exploring. We found a nice yarn shop and a bead store that we had fun looking at. We each picked out some beads to craft together at some point in the near future. :)

We took another walk on the beach, and ate dinner before Reuben and I headed back to Longview. It was a good trip, but too short. We will definitely have to do it again sometime. :) Enjoy some pictures. :)

Country Concert: Jake Owen

Tonight, Teresa and I went to the county fair tonight and saw Jake Owen in concert. :)For those who listen to country he plays "Any 8 second ride", "Startin' with Me" and "Don't think I can't love you." It was an excellect concert. :) Two hours of country singing fun. lol Definately worth the $15! Enjoy some pictures:

Our view -- the pole wasn't in the way, we had a pretty nice view. :)

See Jake Owen walking on TOP of the stage!

Then he came into the crowd and was only 4 rows away from us! :)

There he is singing right in front of us. Fun times. :)

Married Life

We are settling in to married life. The house is feeling more like a home as we get more and more of our stuff unpacked and put away. Reuben has been working hard to clean out the spare room. I was able to set up my sewing machine in there the other day. Now I have no excuse as to why my projects aren’t done. Lol

We have been keeping busy with family and friends. We have had friends over a few times to help us enjoy our large back yard and our new tv. We need to set a few dates so that the rest of our family can see the house. I think it may finally be presentable.
We enjoyed 4th of July with family at the Lake. It was good to have everyone together. The lake never disappoints me with its activities. This year we once again enjoyed the cardboard boat regatta as well as the TRCS shaved ice and the evening fireworks. Good times were had by all.
The festival of Laura has pretty much come to an end. It was good to celebrate with family and friends. It seems weird to me to be 25. It might take some getting used to. Heh.
Anyway, that is the happenings with us.

Greetings from Ireland!

We are having a great time in Ireland. :) We have seen lots of beautiful scenery. I can't believe it is already Friday. Time is flying by. We have met lots of friendly people, both local and fellow tourists.

We left Sunday morning and didn't arrive in Ireland until early Monday morning. It was a long day of travel. We left the Dublin airport and headed south to Nire Valley. We admittedly weren't fully enjoying ourselves that first morning since we were sleep deprived and had dealt with a small amount of stress at the airport trying to figure out the best way to get foreign currency. Reuben was still adjusting to driving on the left side of the road (a task made more difficult by sleep deprivation and busy Dublin roads). However, we finally made it to our first B&B a few hours later and went straight to bed.

Once we rested for a bit we were able enjoy a cup of potato bacon soup. We went to bed early and woke up the next morning well adjusted. We went for a beautiful walk around the countryside of our B&B (Glasha Farmhouse). It was located in Waterford County in the Nire Valley.

We took a trip into Clomnel nearby and toured the town. We found an internet cafe since we had to go online and pay the toll road fee before 8 p.m. (we made use of the internet time other ways as well. lol)

This first B&B was pretty amazing. We had a nice room downstairs kinda off to itself (there were more rooms upstairs, and only one other one downstairs with us).
:)

We had a small jacuzzi bath, which was especially nice after 24 hours of travel. The hostess, Olive, was very kind and her B&B had tons of awards she had one (best B&B breakfast, 5 diamond accommodation rating, etc.) We spent three nights there. We went down to Waterford, one day and toured a museum that had some interesting Ireland historical information. The place we wanted to go there had delayed their opening by a few weeks, but we made the most of it.

The food at the B&B was amazing. The breakfast left you content until dinnertime. :) It was kinda sad to leave, but we knew we were on to more Ireland adventures.

We left Glasha House to head to the Kerry Peninsula. Along the way we went through Lismore and saw the outside of Lismore Castle.

It is very impressive and has nice trails for walking by it. Then we headed on to Blarney Castle.

This castle allows for complete tours and the option of kissing the Blarney stone at the top of the castle. The castle was really cool. It looks like they are in the state of repairing it so there was some minor scaffolding around it, but not enough to block it's beauty too much. We climbed all through it and made it to the top.


We watched a few people kiss the stone, but neither Reuben and I really felt up to it. It is rather an intimidating process (see pictures below).

They have you lay down on your back and then a man helps support you while you suspend yourself and lean over and kiss the Blarney Stone:


This is the view from the bottom of the castle:


This is how tall it is. Not a view I want to see hanging upside down:


After the Blarney Castle we headed onward to the western most point of Ireland. We arrived at the Beach Cove B&B at about 8:30 p.m. last night. It is beautiful as well. The B&B is right across the street from the beach and we have a nice view from out our window.


Today we had a pretty restful day. We got up and ate breakfast at our B&B. Not quite as amazing as Glasha House, but still very good. Then we headed across the mountain pass (a very narrow two lane road that cuts across and over the hills) to Portmagee and Valentina Island.

We toured the Island by car, driving around its perimeter. It is very beautiful.


We also drove into a slightly bigger town to get gas and use the ATM. We bought some Irish wool yarn so I can make a scarf or hat out of it. We ate lunch in town before returning to our Beach Cove B&B. We are taking it pretty easy. We walked around the beach and looked at the local sheep (so cute!).



We plan on having a restful evening before we pack up and continue our travels tomorrow. We are headed to the town of Dingle. Dingle is pretty authentically Irish and we hope to be able to soak in the local pub and music scene while there.

Not sure if I will be able to blog again before I return. Thought I should do so while I had the chance! :) Reuben is going to post our pics on Snapfish...we will post the link if we get a chance.