Made it to Dusseldorf!

After 21 hours of travel...driving, flying, 2 trains and a taxi...we made it here safely! Nothing exciting about the trip and I am totally ok with that! Its beautiful fall weather here, nice and crisp!

Before I left on my trip the kids decided to make me flat stanleys...of them selves. Well once my dad caught wind of this he asked them for a flat Big Bear. So Caymus made a Big Bear and Lucy made a flat Lilly (her american girl doll) for my mom. So now we are all equiped with our Flats to take all over Euorpe with us!

I have a few pics from the drive and flight that are on my phone and I have not downloaded yet...

 

Mom and the Flats at the train station in Amsterdam.

 

On the ICE Train to Dusseldorf

 

Taking a little nap after no sleep and lots of travel....

 

Taking a walk along the Rhine river before dinner.

 

Enjoying the view from our 10th floor room.

 

Getting ready to head out on the town for the day. Gorgeous weather we had today!

 

Look, its a pirate ship!

Today was a festival downtown celebrating Germany's relationship with Japan. There were hundreds of teens dressed in Japanese animation costumes. Very entertaining!

 This was early in the day, by mid afternoon this was packed with dressed up folks.

 

The Rhine river, Dusseldorf.

 

The cathedral has a twisted tower....really neat looking.

 

We stopped off for a beverage, and people watching.

 

Awwww Beer......

 

What a fun first day here in Dusseldof Germany!!!

24 hours until.....

......I fly to GERMANY!!!

First I will drive 4 hours from Salem, Oregon to Seattle, Washington.....

Then I will fly from Seattle to Amsterdam, The Netherlands....

 

Then I will take a train from Amsterdam to Dusseldorf, Germany....

 And this is where I will spend a week.....Hosting the Coking and CatCracking Safety Seminar!
This should be a lot of fun and has been a lot of hard work leading up to it.
Dont worry, I will be there with some wonderful people including my parents! Yay, they are my favorite travel buddies!

Reason 7,645...

.....why I love this girl so much. She LOVES to get muddy!!!!

Rock on sister!!!

This pic does not do the mud Justis!

My awesome little soccer player!!!

It was a wet and muddy night at practice last night. I went for a run and when I got back it looked like all the girls took mud baths....It was strait to the shower for this little princess!

MoHawk Baby

The last few weeks I have been busy knitting these adorable MoHawk Baby hats! I cant wait to see what they look like on a real baby! September has been a busy baby birthing month...I have had 1 friend give birth to twin boys, another had a little girl and another had a boy. Very exciting!

Baby Girls can even rock the hawk!!!

Twin Mohawks!

Anyone interested in purchasing hats from me...just let me know!

Team Cascade

This Sunday was the 1st Annual Team Cascade 60/60 Rally. What is this you might ask? Well, its 60 min of movement to 60s music, raising money for people in our community in need. This year the money is all going to one family that we all know. The father was diagnosed with brain cancer (after finding a softball sized tumor in his brain last year) and is undergoing treatment. The Mom works at our elementary school and the one daughter attends the school.
So we all gathered at the high school track for some good community bonding time. I was VERY pleased to see so many people come out for this event. Not to mention so many people I knew!
Caymus went off and played soccer for the entire hour and then some. Lucy tied a jump rope around her waist and tethered herself to me....I was going to walk, but after my first lap around the track was board and decided to run...once I started running I then decided to see if I could run the entire time. I did, and it felt great!!!
After the 60 min, they served up hot dogs and ice cream. All in all a great day, lots of fun for a great cause!

Me~Shawn~Stephanie after the 60!

Tulah rode her bike, Lucy with her tether, and Zoey jogging along.

Not even sure I should claim her...

One of my kids very best friends, Tulah!

My moose....even with dirt on his face he is cute as can be!

The Crew! I love these crazy kids!

You say Tomato, I say Tomato.....either way I have a lot of them!

Yesterday I went out to pick tomatoes from the garden....and I filled these 2 popcorn bowls to the top....actually they are falling out they are so full!!!

Mmmmm dont they look good?

And now I have this many tomatoes!!! I guess I know what I will be doing this weekend....

Any Given Sunday

I finally had a weekend home with no major plans! AWwwwww so I got some stuff done around here!!!
Saturday Bob and I made about 2 gallons of salsa from our Sun-gold Tomatoes. Super good stuff!!! I then went to Home Depot to get flashing and caulking to fix my gutters and roof. Well while I was there I just had to check out their clearance rack of plants! This is a great time of year to get sale perennials! And oh boy did I!!! They had half gallons for $1.50! Score!!!! I got several Black Eyed Susan's, some lavender and a few other flowers. That made my day! Oh and I did get the flashing and caulk.....

 All they needed was some water! I love how cheery they look in the garden.

Who knew a pile of dirt would be a source of entertainment for this boy for hours and hours! Ok well anyone with a 7 year old boy would know that....He has been building jumps for his bmx bike and tracks for his monster trucks out of this left over dirt pile for weeks.

Seeing that there was going to be rain in the forecast I knew I had to get cracking on my gutters....I did put it off all summer after all. I was able to caulk the gutter over my back deck, clean the gutters and some parts of the roof, put in flashing along the front garage and caulk the holes. I am feeling very proud of myself for this job. Home-ownership is awesome and very rewarding!
And it did rain on Monday and guess what....NO WATER ON MY DECK!!!! Yes!!!!! Success!!!!