CNR ~ OREGON COAST

Well I finally got to have my summer vacation and boy was it a blast! (It should be since it's been 3 years since I've been on a real vacation!) We started it off last Thursday by going to the Caldwell Night Rodeo, the best rodeo around! The rodeo is one of my favorite parts of summer because I get to eat all the Crookham Corn I want (best corn EVER!) and I get to watch the broncs and the bulls. The roadtrip began Friday morning after making a stop at Mom and Dad Bitsch's and a stop at the Thomas' so I could say goodbye to my best friend Allison who moved to Minnesota so her hubby can go to law school. (MISS YOU ALREADY!) I have to say I've had some good road trips, but this one tops the charts. Me, Heather, Sheena and our friend Annie were laughing the whole time. Annie is such a hoot, love her, makes me laugh and she was getting Sheena going which got Heather and I going and it just got crazier from then on. Our destination for the road trip: Rockaway Beach, Oregon. It was one of the best vacations I've ever been on and I would love to make it an annual trip. The beach house we stayed in belongs to the family of one of Heather's co-workers and it was just perfect. It was practically right on the beach. I loved being out on the balcony looking out over the water and listening to the sound of the waves as I fell asleep. Here's a little run down of what we did while we were there.

Friday: Lot's of driving, ate at the Upper Crust ~ kind of hoity toity for a pizza joint. They only took cash, you could only have one refill of soda, and there were signs that said kids must remain in their seats. Good thing the pizza was good, sheesh! After filling our tummies we took a nice little stroll on the beach and got some good pictures of the sun going down.
Saturday: We got up and got our swim suits on and headed to the beach! It was a little cloudy and on the cooler side, but that didn't stop us. We all had a turn on the skim board with much success and also many failures. Some of us still have bruises. :) The water turned out to be pretty nice, once the initial shock wore off it was actually pretty nice. My brother Mike and my nephew Topher came up and hung out with us for the day. We roasted hot dogs, made tin foil dinners, and ate s'mores. My nephew insisted on helping start the fire and keeping an eye on it so it wouldn't go out. He also preferred to stay in the house and play Settlers of Catan instead of going to the beach. Silly kid.
Sunday: Went to the Rockaway Beach branch for Sacrament and it was a gloriously warm and sunny, beautiful day. We couldn't let it go to waste so we changed our clothes and had a nice walk on the beach with a little mini photo shoot along the way. Heather and Jared fell asleep on the beach and as a result Jared got burned and Heather ended up with a funny tan line on just one arm. Annie and Adam cooked salmon for dinner and it was so delicious.
Monday: Headed into Portland to go to OMSI (Oregon Museum of Science and Industry) They have the Body Worlds 3 exhibit there right now so we thought it would be fun to check it out. It was over priced like always, but the exhibit was pretty cool. Afterwards we went to Red Robin where I was introduced to the most delicious soup ever. Chicken Tortilla Soup with Avocado, Mmmmmmm, which was perfect because it was a rainy day and a little cooler outside.
Tuesday: More beach time. We broke out the football and the skim boards again and went and had a great time on the beach. Fortunately for us it was another some what sunny day. We also went to the Tillamook Cheese Factory and had some excellent samples of cheese and delicious ice cream.
Wednesday: Last day at the beach. :( We all got up a little early and had our last walk/run on the beach. Then we got all our stuff packed up, tidied the beach house up a bit and headed for home. The drive home felt like it took forever and the winding roads just wouldn't end. The worst part was the speed limit there. It never went above 65! And for those of you who know Oregon cops, they get you good if they catch you speeding. I just felt like I was crawling along at a snails pace which made being cooped up in a car for 8 hours even more unbearable.
Overall the trip was wonderful and if I had the money I would defninitely invest in a beach house. For now though I'll just settle for renting one. :) We ate lots of food, had yummy marion berry pie ice cream, did tons of relaxing, walking on the beach, reading, laughing, movie watching, took tons of pictures, got better aquainted with friends, and did more relaxing.
Here's some pictures of the fun we had to go along with the novel I just wrote.

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Swiss Picnic

We had our annual Swiss Picnic today to celebrate Swiss Independence day which is on the 1st of August. Every first Sunday in August the Swiss people in the area get together and have a picnic. I don't know how long we've been going to the picnic, but it's been a long time and I love going to them. There is always great food there and people bring little toys, chocolate, Swiss jam, etc. that we hand raffle tickets out for and when your number is called you get to pick a prize. This year a lady brought this cute toy that all the kids wanted and of course Heather and I were eyeing it too. Well, this year they made the rule that if a parent's number got called then they would let their kid go first to make sure that all the kids got a prize. Well my dad's number got called second, so Heather got to go and guess what she picked? Of course the cute toy that everyone wanted. Here's a picture of it. You can't see it from the picture, but there's a spring on the back so
you can make it bounce. We also had a lady come and play her alpine horn for us and she was pretty good. There was this cute little old guy there that we found out made the biggest alpine horn in the world by hand, 35" across at the opening of the horn. Now my dad's trying to see if he can get one from this guy, which would be awesome if he could. I want one too. :) After the raffle we had the auction with the bigger stuff and the money from that goes to help pay for the band shelter that we rent at the park. Overall it was a good time, with great food, and good people.





This is the Zaugg's cute little granddaughter Alta. My dad put his hat on her and she just sat there and stared at him with this look like why did you just put that on my head? It was the cutest thing.

More pics with the new camera

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I found this really cool flower garden and gazebo while out driving and it was so beautiful that I had to stop and take some pictures.

New Camera ~ Nikon Coolpix S200

I got a new camera last week! Finally after all these years I've bought myself a digital camera and I couldn't be happier. I haven't been able to get out and just spend a day shooting and playing around with it yet, but so far I think I found me a good one. I really like the size of it, it's so small and thin and easy to carry around. The pictures that I have taken so far have come out really clear and the color looks great. It has 7.1 megapixels which is awesome and a bunch of other really cool features. Here are a few of the pictures I've taken so far with it.


This is the outside patio of Joe's Crabshack, right next to the river.







Boise Train Depot








The Capital building from the Train Depot. This camera has a pretty amazing zoom, considering how far away from the capital I really was.






My roommate Sheena
"Beans" with some beans.







Friendly horse at our singles activity on Saturday. Although it doesn't look very happy here with it's ears back.

Hello? Is anyone out there?

So who would have thought that a quick little bathroom break would turn into such a big deal. I had a little adventure today while using the bathroom at work. When I was finished using the bathroom, I unlocked the door, turned the handle and pulled on the door. However, to my unbelief, the door would not open. It was kind of a shock because my brain is saying why won't the door open, it's unlocked, it should open. The other part of me was thinking, great, now what am I going to do? So I stood there by the door trying to call Stacy, another assistant who was with a patient just across from the bathroom. I had to call her a few times to get her to respond. I thought that she couldn't hear me, but it turns out that she was just ignoring me. She thought that I was calling from around the hall and she was getting frustrated cause she was busy working. Finally though she answered me and I said, "I'm stuck in the bathroom!" Amid laughing she tried to jiggle on the handle to see if she could get the door open, then I hear the patients dad that she was working on come jiggle the handle. Then I start hearing more and more voices outside the door trying to figure out how to get the door open. Credit cards were being slipped through, screw drivers were trying to be pushed through the bottom of the door, there was discussion of whether or not the ceiling in the bathroom had panels, and if it did then they could crawl up there and pass me something to get the hinges lifted off the door. None of these solutions worked though, the credit card wasn't strong enough, the crack under the door wasn't big enough to get a screw driver through, and alas, the ceiling was sheet rock, not a panel in sight. The problem with the door, which I could see clearly through the crack of the door, was that the cirle part around the bolt had slid out when I locked the door and had gotten caught in the hole where the bolt goes. Therefore trapping me in the bathroom and making it very difficult for anyone to get me out. Eventually they called a locksmith to come and open the door and I was getting quite frustrated with him because he kept trying to unlock the door, I could hear him fiddling with a tool in the lock hole. I kept telling him, the doors not locked it's stuck. Finally after about 20 minutes or so they decided to remove the trim that is around the door, just on the side where the handle is and they were able to break me free. It really was very funny I have to admit, but I'm glad that it didn't take longer for them to break me out of there.

Harry Potter Book 7

It's finally here! I'm so excited that the last book is finally here and I can't wait to read it. Unfortunately I have to finish the 6th book first before I can start the 7th. About a week ago I realized that I did not remember anything that I had read in the 6th book. Which is kind of understandable because I only read it once two years ago when it came out. So I am trying to quickly get through the 6th book to refresh my memory so I'm not lost when I start the 7th book. I love these books and it just amazes me the imagination that J.K. Rowling has to come up with a story that has so much detail and twists and turns. It amazes me more that she has been able to stretch it out for 7 books and they just keep getting better and better!

Extreme Makeover Home Edition

Extreme Makeover Home Edition has come to Idaho to give one deserving family a complete makeover of their home. Who would have ever thought that little Middleton, Idaho would have the opportunity to have such an awesome experience as this. The family is a young couple, both 26, and they have four kids that all have the same rare disease where the children are not able to digest their food properly. Sheena and I were in Middleton having dinner with her family Saturday night so we decided we would swing by and check things out. They have the whole street blocked off and we had to park and walk about 1/4 to 1/2 a mile to the house. It's just amazing to me how quickly they have put the house up. They demolished the old house on Friday and this is what it looked like Saturday evening around
8:30 p.m. It looks like it's going to be a pretty nice house, aren't they always, and you can't see it from the picture, but the house actually extends farther back. It would be so exciting to be there next week when the family comes home to see their new house, unfortunately it's right in the middle of work. However, I won't miss being in the huge crowd which I'm sure will be there. A friend told me that they will start bussing people to the spectator section at 9 a.m. And since things like this don't happen very often in Idaho, especially in Middleton, I can only imagine that the crowd will be quite large.