Category Archives: Pics

Happy Thanksgiving!

Posted on Thursday November 24th, 2011 by | Comments Off on Happy Thanksgiving!

I hope everyone is having a great day of family and food.  As I start this, hubby has the turkey in the oven and we have football in.  Been way too long since my last actual blog, doing our normal of gym, errands and work.  =)

I have finally got what family info I have and put it on ancestry.com  So far a few of my cousins have added info, which is cool.  Just would love to get even more.  I have all of my great-grandparents names and only one set of great-great grandparent’s names.  I lucked out on the great-great grandpa, he had lots of kids and descents who have put info on ancestry.com and I’ve got as far back as the 1500s in Germany….so that was really, really cool.  But for everyone else, I haven’t been able to get across the pond back to the old country.  =(  Doesn’t help that I can’t read German…..lol  If I can get back to the 1500’s on all of the direct lines, I’d be very pleased.

I just want to establish where the bloodlines are from and then what I really would like, it is find the distant and current relatives that are still in Europe.  I know that my maternalgrandfather’s side was still in, what was then East Germany, in the 1970s.

After getting tied into it for week, I’m taking a break.  When I start back up, I think I’m going to start on uploading pics so maybe it will enjoy other family members to  add to it.  Then I want to start something on my hubby’s side……there is so much to do, that my head spins on where to start.

**Just had our turkey dinner…..tummy is stuffed….grin  He made a great meal.  I think I just love having all the different types of food together…..and look forward to the leftovers.

I’m hoping that I’ll be able and go and visit my folks this coming June.  It has been too long.  And I would love to time it with their 40th wedding anniversary.  =)

This year has just flown by, I think not having an actual summer didn’t help.  It was so wet/damp at the beginning and so short.

We did get one more camping trip in and totally lucked out and got awesome weather!  We went to Mt Rainier National Park back in Sept.  It was sunny and in the 80s.  We took off the jeep t-tops once we got into the park.  It was so beautiful, we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.

We camped at Cougar Rock, it was so peacefully….helps to wait until after school is back in session….grin

Camp

On the drive around the park, we stopped at a glacier river, that showed it’s history of how it has moved through the years.  Meet a couple that lives just across the river in Washington from PDX, that has been going to Mt Rainier for years and has seen all the changes.  They must have been in theirs 80s, they were so neat to talk to.  Would’ve loved to talk some more, but we were out in the open without any shade…..very hot.  Putting our hands into the glacier river felt so good.

Glacier River

 

This year's bridge, until it gets wiped out. =)

 

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On the drive up.

2011 0907 Mt Rainier 0084

 

And we drove up to Paradise so we can do a small trail and see Nisqually Glacier.  Since last winter was heavier then usual for snow and our summer started later, parts of the trail still had snow.  But the small hike had such an elevation increase at times that it took 3hrs round trip.

 

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Start of the hike.

 

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Wildflowers and snow.  =)

 

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A waterfall off of the glacier in the distant.

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Marmot!

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The range, with Mt Adams way in the back round.

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A very icy, but refreshing feeling stream.  We put it on our necks and face, didn’t drink….not recommended unless filtered.

 

Have a great turkey day!

 

 

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Long Time…..

Posted on Sunday August 28th, 2011 by | Comments Off on Long Time…..

It has been a long while.  It has been busy.  For the month of July we had our nephews, Jon and Dylan.  That was interesting.  Not use to having kids around on an everyday basis.  But it was fun.

Hubby had talks with them, the normal right and wrongs, helping mom, being brothers.  Tried to teach them to clean up after themselves, clean up around the house without being asked…..we’ll see if anything sticks…lol  But at that age, you can only try.

We took them on a small hike on Mt Hood, around Trillium Lake

Hubby with Dylan & Jon at Trillium Lake

Even got to see a critter on the trail.

We took them to the Oregon Zoo, getting Jon to smile for pics is tough….Dylan, he loves to smile…lol

Jon & Dylan

After the zoo we went to the Portland Rose Gardens…..it is something to see.  Dylan loved the smell of the different roses.

Portland Rose Gardens

We took them back to Canada and had an extended family camping the first weekend of Aug at Cultus Lake.

Hubby with Eliza

Spent one of those days at the water park….that was a ton of fun.  That weekend was full of lots of food, talk and good times with 48 people.  =)

Hubby & I

Most of July, we had below average temps and above average rain….during our “dry” season.  We finally started getting decent weather towards the end.  So didn’t do as much with the boys as we really wanted to.  But still had fun. =)

We did have a fun gift for the boy’s Uncle Von….grin  This is something college fans, especially Big Ten fans would appreciate.  Their Von is a HUGE Michigan fan and you know, our loyalties are with Purdue….sooo..  We decided to give their uncle something to remember us by.  We all dressed in Purdue gear, hung a Purdue flag and took a picture that we printed out and put into a Purdue frame, so he can put it in his Michigan room….grin  As he said, it is the people in the picture that matters, not what we were wearing……LOL

The boy's gift to their Uncle Von, a HUGE Michigan Fan. =)


Aunt Patrice & Uncle Von getting their gift from the boys. =)

A week after we got back we decided to go for a small trip.  We never drove up the 101 coast of WA….BIG mistake.  We were expecting it to be scenic like Northern California and all of Oregon….wow, disappointing.  The first part of it, you had all the sloughs….which were kind of cool to see.  And the Kalaloch Beach of the Olympic National Park, was really cool….that is what we expected to see more of.  But the rest of the drive was boring…..no really scenic areas, just tunnel trees and what scenic areas there were….like 2 of them, there were no pull offs to enjoy them.

The bridge out of Astoria, OR into Washington

Kalaloch Beach, Olympic National Park

Hubby had done some research and found where we wanted to try and get a site.  Well, that was totally full.  =(  And then we visited like 5 more sites before we found a place to camp.  This was the first time we have never made reservations.  People made fun of us for that, well, we’ll stick with making reservations.

We camped lite, food wise.  Took some dehydrated foods, a few subs and oatmeal….kind of nice not to have a lot of bunch of excess of stuff, but kind of weird.

We got our site at Dungeness National Wildlife Refuge…..it was really nice.  Had enough camp sites, it was well maintained.  We would like to go back to and do more exploring.

Trail at Dungeness National Wildlife Refuge

Dungeness Spit

The next day we had a dilliema, we were going to try and visit friends or go to Hurricane Ridge, Olympic National Park in the opposite direction.  We really wanted to see our friends, but the whole point of the trip was the site seeing and any hiking we can get in.  So we decided on Hurricane Ridge….totally worth it!  This is what we expected and wanted.

Zoomed in on Mt Baker from one of the pull overs on the way up to the Ridge

At Hurricane Ridge

We so totally want to go back and do some camping at the base and do some hiking up there.  There was still snow up there while there was a stunning amount of wildflowers everywhere.  Loved it!  I highly recommend it.  It helped to make up for they day before, that was a big disappointment.

On our drive out we saw signs for the Olympic Game Farm in Sequim.  We drove through Sequim, WA and found that it was the most pretty town we have ever driven through….lavender every where.  We both enjoyed and didn’t like the Olympic Game Farm, the reason why we didn’t like it is only because we hate seeing animals caged/fenced up.  We know that they are there for a reason and are taken care of and we love seeing them close up, but rather see them in the wild.  We did enjoy feeding them wheat bread.  =)

A Kodiak Beer telling me to give him another piece of bread....LOL

A Yak, they are not shy on getting close to get a treat. =)

So at least our trip ended on a high note.  =)  We are already planning on next trip.  Trying for Mt Rainer again, by the back roads….got turned around last time.  But we know were we got turned around, so going to be more careful…..we ended up on roads that weren’t on the map…..lol

I have gotten myself back into reading.  Kind of helped that our Borders is going out of business and I’ve made a few trips.  I finally got the finally 2 books of The Clan of The Cave Bears series….been almost 20yrs since I read the Plains of Passage.  It is going to suck not to have a big bookstore near by.  I love Powells, but don’t want to have to head into PDX all the time for that.  That is life.  =)

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Mt St Helen’s Pics

Posted on Monday June 13th, 2011 by | Comments Off on Mt St Helen’s Pics

Hubby got some really good pics of Mt St Helen on his pentax, the greens and blues just popped. Most of the pics are from his.  All of them from our two cameras are posted on our Travels page, listed at the top : http://www.paulineantoinette.com/our-travels/

But here is the link to the new gallery : http://paulineantoinette.com/PNH/travel/2011_MtStHelen/MtStHelens_Jun2011/index.html

Coldwater Lake

 

All the snow on the side of the road.

 

This is one of our favorites, hubby took this one

 

How high the snow it at the observatory on June 6th.

 

Being difficult

 

Where the ridge took the hit…..all those trees that were taken out.

 

Clouds cleared pretty well after we saw the movie. See how the rivers cut through all that debris?

 

Where we started out hike

 

There is a critter in there, can you see it?

 

I just really like this quote on here…..from a few months before it erupted.

 

Starting into our hike

 

Self portrait time.

 

We are literately walking on what use to be the top of Mt St Helen’s

 

The landslide and flow left huge mounds of ash, pumice and debris….totally changing the landscape and, in time, creating new lakes and ponds.

 

Where a tree was snapped off, that is the bottom, the top is buried. It was about 8 ft in diameter, it use to be an old growth tree (over a 100yrs old)

 

All the pumice

 

As the river cuts through and reclaims it’s path

 

Trees cut down 6.5 miles away by the force of the blast.

 

Self-portrait time

 

I really like this one, caught it on my Olympus

 

Beaver home

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Spring Colors

Posted on Sunday May 15th, 2011 by | Comments Off on Spring Colors

I really should be doing some work, but it is the weekend and I try to take time for my own things.  I’ll do it later.  =)

We actually got a few dry days this last week and some sunny days and we totally enjoyed them.  Got our 1st 74 degree day this year…..LOVED that.  Now if we can finally get to the 80s I would be totally stoked.

On a dry day two weeks ago, we went out and picked up 5 tomato plants and dirt.  So looking forward to when they start producing.

We don’t have much of back yard, if you can call it.  The things we really like about it makes it hard to grow things.  It is a deck with some dirt and bushes.  We love that on the other side of the fence there are trees, that once the leaves are on it that it gives us privacy from the surrounding buildings and keeps the house cooler on the really, really hot days (no a/c).  BUT that also prevents us from growing things in the ground, due to lack of sunlight and on even a mid-70 day, it feels like 50/60 in the house….bbrrrr

So when we do tomatoes we use pots and have one topsy-turvy….our 2nd year on trying that one.  But we are always moving them around to get the best sunlight.

Tomatoes 2011

Hanging Tomato 2011 & Fuschia

We really did enjoy our 74 sunny day, went and sat on the deck for a time….just getting as much sun and warmth that we could…watching the birds.

Fuschias are so colorful and awesome on attracting humming birds. =)

When it is winter, the gray, damp and cold, even if annoying, is not a big deal.  It is winter, you expect it and you are happy that it is actually much milder then some places you’ve lived and without the snow.  But come Mar/Apr/May it gets on your nerves and you are so ready for a change of weather and color.

We have all these pots from our house plants that we no longer have due to lack of indoor sunlight and plant eating/digging cats so I decided that we should get some flowers for outside.  Just to get some color and my planting bug out of me.  I really have a LOT to learn about judging root systems…..lol  I thought I would be able to plant 2 of them per pot, nope…didn’t happen.  I thought I would only use 4 pots, nope…..9….good thing we had all those extras….lol  Good thing I had hubby helping me, I would taken all day to do them…..grin

Now we have some color leading up to our front door and we have some on our bedroom balcony.  They smell so good when the door is open.

Just watered flowers =)

 

Up the stairs, covering the gas meter. =)

A few flowers on the balcony.

They aren’t much, but it feels so good to have some bright colors and spring smells.  =)  I’m waiting for strawberries to start showing up at our local fruit stands that open for the summer.  We get some of the juiciest and sweetest here in Oregon….mmmm

We even heard and saw a set of Anna’s Humming birds mate.  That was cool and boy, they are noisy…..lol  We’ve had humming bird feeders up for about 3yrs plus the fuschias, so they know where to come for food.  Some of our birds are back for the season, the Golden American Finch, House Sparrow and Black-headed Grosbeaks….including our noisy Scrub Jays…lol  We even saw a Falcon get chased off by a couple of Ravens…that was neat.

Ah….but I had a fun time last week…..lol  Last Sunday my mac was constantly backing up……well, the external that it went to was full.  It is suppose to delete the oldest back ups once it filled up.  Instead of doing that, totally locked up and damaged it.  So I had to hook up to our main external, the Drobo, and try and put over 300 GBs of music, files and pictures on to it from the locked up one.  You could still copy things off of it, but not delete or add.  So that took a few days, I got a few more WD externals, one a MyBook…didn’t meant to, meant to get a MyPassport and a few MyPassports.  Finally got everything moved, took a bit, but was able to reformat my old 500 GB external MyPassport and that is now nothing BUT mac back ups.

What was so frustrating is that the new MyPassports don’t let you use it like a simple flash drive, they were locked…I couldn’t write on them.  The old ones were so simple and nice. I had to learn how to partition them.  I didn’t want them all to be formatted for mac, because it wouldn’t be recognized by a pc.  We need at least one that was writable for both mac and pc.  So we can transfer files from pc and mac to the other…..more for music files.  It was driving me nuts, because I know it could be done.  And when I know that it can be done, I will keep working at it…..I hate giving up when I know the solution is there.  But I did it….grin  Very happy about that.

Thought I was in the free and clear…nope.  Issues with getting my itunes music to line up with the new location.  When we brought my mac I didn’t up the hard drive like I should’ve, so my music/movies will not fit.  That will change next time.  So it was saying that there where about 3000 missing files out of over 15,000…icks.  Took a long while, but it got down to 300 files missing.  Then I had to go searching for them, most was due to me editing them.  Had to rip about 4 cds, get files off of hubby’s mac, in the end only lost about 50 of my songs.  But those were Kid Rock from my MI sister.  So I’ll get them eventually to re-rip.  So much happier that I got that fixed.  And have already backed up my music, other then what we’ve purchased today.  Going to do that a bit more often.  =)

I started this post hours ago, but between chatting, surfing and playing in itunes….lol….so going to watch the evening news and start some work.

 

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My December Update

Posted on Saturday December 18th, 2010 by | Comments Off on My December Update

Alright….what I have I been up do?  Work, work and work…..gym, gym and gym….lol

Well today I didn’t do either of those today, does that count?  =)  I did make some cookies.  The refrigerator kind that my mom use to make for the holidays.  I think it is the correct receipt, it tastes like I remember…..I could ask mom to verify…..grin  Need to do that next time I talked to her.  =)

Frustrated, got one more of my items delivered…I’m 2 away from having my holiday shopping delivered.  But the one that I really want I won’t get until Monday.  Then I need to turn around and get to the post office that day to get it shipped out.

In between work and gym, I did get all our holiday cards out.  That was a project.  =)  Hubby laughs because I’m the only person he knows that still talks to people from my first job/HS and exchange cards with them….grin

Holiday Cards 2010

I even got my nails done for the holidays…grin  A little blurry, but cute. =)

Holiday Nails 2010

I also took about 4hrs to get our tree decorated…..lol  It is the biggest tree we have ever had, I even had to use a chair to reach the top….never done that before and I have never had to use all my garland and extra lights before….so cool…lol  I need to get more beads and bows for next year, want to add more silver…..I have a lot of burgundy and gold, which was my theme when I started this years ago.

Holiday Tree 2010 Grand Fie

I love the fact that we live with a bunch of tree farms near us.  We get them fresh.  =)

Our Alaska Ornament

I did take time out from decorating our tree to attend our local tree lighting.  It was cold and windy, but it got a nice size little crowd and I got free hot cocoa….grin….can’t turn that down.

Troutdale Tree Lighting 2010

As usual, if you follow my babble on my tweets, I’ve been going nuts on politics….my normal.  =)

Today history was made with the repeal of DADT!!!  So that was one good thing. That is the Civil Rights of our generation.  Now we need to get rid of DOMA.  That is horrible law…..I’m so hoping the courts overturn, totally don’t trust congress.

But I’m totally displeased about the Dream Act failing and how the senate has not passed the 9/11 Responders Bill.  Which is totally sad that it took The Daily Show on Comedy Central for other news networks to start reporting on it…..totally messed up.

Any day now I’m going to be great-aunt to a new niece……wow does that make me feel old….lol  My 19yr god daughter Cassie is due Xmas day, but is so wanting for it to happen now….lol  I so can’t wait to see the pictures of the Gracie when she is born and she’ll be close to sharing my horrible date for a birthday….grin

Got Heather to add me to her chat, the good thing is that she likes to talk to me and hit me up.  Which I’m grateful for, since I even if I’m not there in person I want to help guide her as much as possible.  Very proud that when Heather wasn’t happy with me yesterday and I had to smack her down telling her that I won’t be disrespected (even through chat) that she apologized the next day.  Even though I have to admit that I didn’t handle it very well.  A boyfriend of hers was totally flashing red flags to me……icks  I’m very pleased that she dumped him.  =)

The family says that she reminds them of me, I see it but I also don’t see it.  There is a lot of things that she does that I would never do, but then I grew up on Army Posts moving around, not in the middle of farmland Indiana….huge difference.

Gym wise…..did my 1st full week in over a month.  Been going to the gym, but skipping about one day a week.  This week I did all 5 days and got 75-90min workouts in.  Only left one day early due to issues with treadmills that messed me up…..ggrrrr

Which leads me to this.  We’ve been going to Bally’s for 3yrs this coming Feb…..we are canceling our membership when our contract is up.  The staff is good, they do what they can.  But the corporation bites.  We need new treadmills badly, they have decreased their speed suddenly, almost messing up Harold knees.  They have stopped on me, telling me that user not deducted…..I’m no pixie, it can’t miss me.  Tues I went to 4 DIFFERENT treadmills and they all did it to me.  I was so pissed.

I know their maintenance doesn’t sit on their asses when they are there.  They are always working on them.  The treadmills are just old and we need new ones.  Of course, our response from corp when we tell them this has been a blow off.  So we’ve had it and going to take our money elsewhere.

A new gym just opened up down the road, no contract needed, cheaper month to month.  And there is new location going in where we are looking to move to when our lease is up in over a year.  We’ve heard good things about them.

I do admit, that I will miss the staff at our gym and the regulars there.  They have seen us there for almost 3 yrs and say hi, friendly small talk, and have been encouraging in my weight lost…..shedding 50#…..but I’m not going to miss the treadmills.

I had mom ask me what I want for the holidays…I’m like, I really don’t need anything.  Yes, there is always stuff that I would like….books and pricey apple stuff…..but we are much better off then others.  We are too the point in our lives that we don’t really need/want presents.  We usually get what we want when we can.  Now, I do admit, I love giving presents…..grin  But really don’t need anything.

When hubby asks what I want, I don’t know what to tell him, other then a large list of books.  But while watching a show tonight, it reminded me what we can tell our folks….you want to get us anything…make a donation, we love the humane society, red cross, salvation army, ACLU, goodwill, food banks and organizations for helping people pay for heat/energy during the winter.

So folks, when you don’t know what to tell people what to get for you, have them do a donation instead.  In this economy, there are so many organizations that need even more help then ever.  And that is my service announcement for the day.  =)

Well, this took a lot longer then expected……lol….per usual.  But that is what is going on right now.

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