To Shoot or Not To Shoot

The only way Brad would shoot is with his camera. And he got a good one! :)

While we were down with Candace, Beau, and the boys, Brad stayed home.

On Thanksgiving Day he had a couple of dinner invitations but elected to stay home alone.

When he saw this Buck walk up the lane by our living room window, he was so exceited.

He ran to get his camera and shot the picture through our front window. It looks like the

deer is digging for crab apples in our front yard. It made his day!!! :)

Baby Mason is Here

Mom and Dad with new baby Mason. (5 days old)
Mason Hugh Peterson was born November 22nd.
Weighed in at 7lb.3oz. and was 20 inches long.

This was the best I could do for a family picture. It is sure hard to

get a 3 and 4 year old to cooperate. They were usually pulling faces!
I will leave the picture taking to Annie and Christie!

Grandpa and "the boys"! Gavin being the "big brother". So cute!!

He already gets comfort from his swing.

First spong bath- not too happy!

Mommy and Mason (4 days)

Lexi's 4th Birthay

Laura took the day off from work to celebrate Lexi's birthday. She took Lexi and her cousin Kayden to McDonald's, of course, for lunch. Grandma Singleton and Williams also came along.
Lexi is growning up way to fast! That evening we went to Lexi's house for cake and ice cream.
Our present to Lexi was a Cinderella princess dress with a crown. She looked beautiful and very happy!! :) These grandchildren really bring a lot of happiness into our lives....

Spud Break

I think it was October when Laura, Lexi, and I went down to visit Candace and her family.
On Sunday evening we went to this pond outside of Payson to feed the ducks. We may have
gone too late in the day because the ducks weren't as hungry as usual. But they were fun!
The kids had a ball and they were all fun to watch. We drove around the pond and when we stopped and got out with our bread a huge group of ducks headed toward us from the other side of the pond. Alyssa stayed home because she was working in the spuds - making big bucks!
It's tuff being a teenager and having so many "wants". This was Alyssa's first time working in the spuds and we are proud of her for enduring. It is hard work- long days and dirty work.
We missed you on our "get away" Alyssa.

Oregon Trip/ Day 1

Here we are at the Oregon boarder- Ontario visitors center.
They were very helpful and had lots of free brochures to help
us with our travels. They told us not to miss the gorge or the
senic drive - especially Vista House and Crown Point. Thanks
ladies for making our trip so memoribal!!

This was were we stopped the first night-Pendleton Oregon

This was some scenery between Ontario and Pendleton.

Lots of mountain pass along the Lewis & Clark Trail.

One of the historic markers said it took them 5 days

just to climb out that one valley. I wouldn't have made

a very good pioneer!

Columbia River Gorge

This was such a beautiful drive with so much to see.
When we started off this morning we ran into rain, but
by the time we got to the gorge it had stopped. Everything
was so green and smelled terrific! Taking this side trip
probably added several hours to our trip but we weren't
pressured by time and I totoally loved it!

Inside the building, we found these muscians. I talked to

the lady on the right. She said the instruments originated

back east in the Appalachian Mountains. They sound a lot like a

steel guitar. I loved their old tunes like "Red River Valley".

Looking east and west down the Colombia Gorge from

Crown Point.

Fort Clatsop/Lewis & Clark

This was an interesting and fun stop. It was a beautiful area and unexpected
stop. They had a really nice Vistitor's Center with educational videos
exhibits and gift shop. Outside you walked down well cared for pathways
to explore everything. We walked down to the waters edge at the
Columbia River. The fort got its name from the area Clatsop Indians.
They had a terrific statue of Lewis and Clark inside the visitors center
with Sacagawea, her baby, and Black, the lab. Great history!

Astoria, OR

These are the few pictures we took at Astoria, Oregon. It is a quaint
little town with wooden clap board houses located on a hill. We stopped
acouple of times just to watch the ships and local boats. The pilot boat
came out to the ship below to help him get to the dock. They threw a
rope ladder down for him to climb up. If you can see, he is about half
way up the rope ladder at this point. The large bridge you can see in the
background on these pictures goes overt he Columbia River Gorge into
Washington State. Brad was glad we were not taking him over this bridge.
Uncle Gail had worked in Astoria many years ago on a project and told us to
make sure we went to "The Ship Inn". It was a small resturant right at the
water's edge. It had a small dinning room with full length windows so you
could watch the boats and ships. We were also entertained by the seagulls.
Oh yeah, and the fish dinner was GREAT! We almost walked out after
looking at the menu - we didn't think there was anything Brad would eat.
As we turned to walk out, an older couple was coming in. She looked at us
and said, "your not leaving without eating are you"? They told us not to
leave because their food was the best! Brad decided on a sandwich and dad
and I got fish dinners. Today was Father's Day and we had a great day!

Seaside/ muscle car show

These are only a few of the pictures Brad took of the car show.
As we checked into the condo, they asked if we were there for
the "big car show"? As luck would have it, this weekend was
Seaside's BIG MUSCLE CAR SHOW. How LUCKY for Brad!
He was one happy dude! :) I posted these pictures so you could
see a little of Broadway and the shopping available. Brad found
the Nascar store and went wild! He came away with a Seaside
hoodie, 2 Dale Ernhart t-shirts and a Ernhard hat.

Seaside, OR condo

As we took our trip from Idaho through Oregon we followed the
infamous Lewis and Clark Trail. Below is their statue showing the
end of their journey at the Pacific Ocean in Seaside, OR. at the end
of Broadway. (just outside our condo) Our balcony looked out on
Broadway and the Shilo Inn across the street.

This our condo in the background (right) and Shilo Inn on the left.
You can barely see the lifeguard stand and two emergency vehicles.
They had beach volleyball available and a swing set for the children.
They even had showers for people to wash the sand off as they exited
the beach.

I made dad turn around for a picture - he was searching

after every wave went back out for shells. Both hands are

full of his "treasures". Brad was smart enough to take his

shoes off - dad and I ended up with wet, sand filled shoes.

It was a beautiful evening out there!

We went out to the ocean late the evening we got there and took

these pictures. We have our coats on because we were cold!!

It is usually windy at the beach and with the sun not shining it was

cold. Believe it or not there were people out there in swimsuits!

This is "Haystack Rock" at Cannon Beach - the most photograped

spot on the Oregon coast. It is beautiful and unusual. I'm sure my

snapshot is NOT the best location for the shot. But alteast I got

the shot!