South Dakota

We went to South Dakota for the Fourth of July. We decided to make it a roadtrip and made stops in Yellowstone, Deadwood, Mt. Rushmore, and Wataga before making it to our final destination in Aberdeen South Dakota. All of John's siblings came and we meet up with John's mom's cousins to celebrate her uncle's birthday. John spent the majority of his summers growing up visiting his grandparents in Wataga so it was great to see the family farm and all of the places where his mom spent her childhood.

Everyone in front of Mary's childhood home
Pat and Mary in front of the church they got married in 40 years later

At Mt. Rushmore

Deadwood, South Dakota
(Wild Bill was shot here in 1876 and Clamamity Jane is buried next him in the city cemetary)

Pepper and Mocha spent most of the car ride sleeping

In Front of Yellowstone Lake

Celebrating Three Years of Marriage

Update

John gave Mocha a Mohawk which fits his personality perfect

John had grown out a beard and when he was shaving it off, he shaved it down to a mustache before it was all gone. Now I have some great blackmail pictures.

John with his sister Jessie and nephew Henry who were in town for Mother's Day

On our way to the Mariners game with John's family

At Lake Washington in Kirkland with our nephew Henry

John playing with our nephews Henry and Brody at Cameron's Birthday Party

John and I with our newest nephew Evan

John's New Love

John has taken up a new hobby this last year and it has reached a new point. He has become a little obsessed with remote control cars and these are not the ones you buy at Target. He decided to buy a new one, which involved building the car from scratch. After taking over my dining room table for the last month, it is done with. According to John, this one will be completely dedicated to racing.

Home Projects

Our vegetable garden.

We thought the flowers in the hanging basket above all died last year, so we were very happy to see flowers growing back.

All done in the bathroom.

Not finish yet, but looks a lot better than it did.

We took down our base about a year ago when we put in our hardwood floors and John finally put it back. The only thing he has left to do is put in the shoe molding - he did do it in the bathroom, so the picture shows what it will look like when it is all done. We also decided to do a vegetable garden this year. John built me a planter and then we planted some corn, green beans, and onions. We planted some strawberries and tomatoes in some pots out back. Because of the nice weather our bulbs are starting to bloom out front and we planted some flowers in the garden beds in the front yard.

Alki

We have been having great weather the last few weeks in Seattle. John and I went with his parents to the home show a couple of weeks ago and then afterwards we headed to Alki to have dinner. We got some great pictures with downtown in the backgrouns.

Christmas

Everyone at my parents

Brody with his Uncle John

John giving Cameron and Brody a ride, in the best toy ever, a cardboard box

Mocha and Pepper ready to open their gifts

John giving the dogs their new toys

The dogs enjoying their gifts

Mocha already tired out from all of the excitement

More treats for the dogs

On Christmas Eve, we went down to my parents house to open gifts and have dinner. My parents got us an HD camcorder so now we can record all of our favorite moments. On Christmas Day, my parents stopped by and John's parents came over for breakfast. We then went over to John's parents house to open more gifts and have dinner. The dogs were spoiled this year, with lots of treats and toys that they have mostly already destroyed trying to get the squekers out.