Another Weekend Away! Desert Canyon

September 25-28th

Desert Canyon

Miles and I went to a silent auction benefiting Kelsey Matthew's (one- of our 3 beautiful nieces) DI Team heading to National Competition in Tennessee. One of the items for bid was a weekend away at a Great Links Resort in Desert Canyon. This was a resort nestled away in the middle of no-where Eastern Washington but was absolutely stunning! The weekend included a beautiful 2 bedroom condo and 4 rounds of golf on this amazing championship course. Well, we simply had to put in a bid and for very cheap too! To our astonishment we won! And we simply had to invite Andrea and Jason to split it with us because it would not be a fun weekend without them! The boys golfed and Andrea and I scrapbooked all the day long. In the evenings we played games on the back patio and watched movies. The weekend was full of good food too.

Andrea and I went for one particularly LONG walk around the golf course trying to catch up and surprise the boys. I had no idea how long those holes could be. By the last hole we caught those fast boys in their fancy cart --and were so proud of ourselves for doing so too!

It is so wonderful when you have such sweet family (in-laws) that you want to spend vacations with. They are more than family. They are precious friends to us. Thank you for sharing this weekend with us! We love you!

Here are some fun pictures from this fabulous weekend. -Enjoy.

Jason's Celebration Dance...

Miles' Celebration Dance...

The boys let me drive -once- and I got really excited. Can you tell?

Can smeone please tell me what this means? Andrea and I would giggle as the pavement would come to an end and this little signed said SCATTER. The mental picture of flailing arms and running crazily every which way just made us both laugh out loud.

Such beautiful views and colors and textures in this place.

We went on a small walk over the OASIS for dinner.

Such yummy burgers and hot dinner rolls!

Cruise to Victoria for a Day! August 22nd 2009

So, I won a day cruise to Victoria off of the radio. I called in to a particular local radio station every single day for a week and often had 5 or 6 phones from work calling at once. I would hear "you are caller number 1"—"you are caller number 4"—"you are caller number 5"—"you are caller number ..."—whatever...you get the picture...I was never caller number 10! Every day I was a lot of numbers, but not caller number ten. That is...until Friday.

On Friday I heard the phone ring and ring and ring and was about to hang up when I heard "hello?"...I hate when radio stations do that to you...like ask WHY you are calling. SHHEEESH! Just tell me if I have won or not. Don't make me explain why I am calling. Well, I said my name and like a bumbling idiot also said that I hoped I was caller number ten... YES! I was caller number TEN, and the enthusiastic radio personality congratulated "Jenny from Lynden" on winning the cruise!!!! Very ridiculous—but somehow I no longer cared how cheesy they were about it. I WON! Then the music started. I could hear the fan fair music through the phone (and on my radio in the other room). I was caller number TEN! ME! I won the cruise to the San Juan Islands. I sighed a very happy and content sigh as I hung up the phone after "they" got some more of my "information". I was so very excited to share my news. I was so very proud of me. And a great day it was!

What did I win exactly? It was a day cruise on the ocean around the San Juan Islands and to Victoria where we could spend 5 hours on shore taking in the sites and then at 5:00 meet back on the boat for dinner on the way back with high probability of seeing whales! Oh yes! It was going to be a great day.

We left pretty early in the morning for the station and the boat ride was quite pleasant. A friend of mine from At Home America who used to sell with me was also on board with her husband. They were making their trip a mini overnight getaway! Very fun. We chatted with them most of the way around the islands and then went our separate ways when we reached shore. It was a bright and sunny day—not at all as cold as we were expecting. In fact, once we reached Victoria the coats and sweaters came off as we were both sweating. We had a lot of fun walking around.

We ate lunch at Milestones! Our favorite restaurant there. It is a tradition now for when we go to Victoria. We have been three times there and have always enjoyed the food. It always seems to mark a Milestone in our lives too. Well, this time was just a good relaxing FREE trip for us and we were celebrating. Lunch was delicious as always and since we have been so many times before and we did have a bit of time restraint we decided not to actually site see too far off the inner harbor. We walked along the water and watched multiple amazing street performers doing incredible feats of immense danger and were quite entertained. The street peddlers trinkets and gifts were also entertaining. Lots of amazing talent on the streets in Victoria.

5 o'clock came fast on our little trip and we headed back to the boat. We had our picture taken and watched for wales as the sun set with dinner. Although the buffet style dinner was not spectacular (although Miles liked the salmon) the whales were and that made up for it. The sun was going down the there were several whales pretty close. They were all Orca whales and the Captain on the boat shared stories about them as they had been around the water there for years and years. There were a couple of baby ones that were not so very small but oh so fun to watch! It was an amazing day!

Montana Vacation! JULY 31st -AUGUST 9th

YEAH! It was finally time for Miles and I to just get away! It is our only real vacation of this year and although I did not have any vacation or sick time my work was gracious enough to let me still get the time off unpaid. We were so excited We stayed in Leavenworth WA at the KOA for Friday night and then drove straight up to West Glacier Montana to the KOA. We stayed there through Wednesday when we then drove to the East side Glacier to the other KOA and stayed there until Sat when we drove home. Oh my goodness what a fabulous trip. Miles and I had 13 hours up and back of visiting and it was wonderful! Our weather was pretty great too which allowed for some great wildlife sightings. Yes, i got to see my bears- several of them actually on our long hikes including Grizzlies!! We had one serious confrontation with a Momma black bear and her two cubs. We accidentally got between her and her babies on the trail and she was not too happy with us. She 'fake" charged us on the trail to let us know of her not so impressed mood and we let her know we would continue on the trail and let her (and her babies be) It was so exciting. We were so close! Athe pictures are incredible!

I have many fond memories of family vacations to Glacier. Grandma and Grandpa Eklund were in Kalispell and we often visited them growing up. Miles however had never been there and it was so great to be able to show him all the places that I remember and love. We went into town one of the days and went by Grandma's old house and and Kehoe's Agate shop as well. While in town we had dinner with my ol friend Esther and her husband Daniel in their beautiful home. I have not seen her since our wedding! It was so lovely to be able to catch up with her after several years.

In Galicer, Miles and I took many many hikes along the Going to the Sun Highway. We visited and hiked Logan Pass, Iceburg Lake, Many Glacier, Avalanch Lake, trail of the Cedars, and many many others. There were way too many pictures to post so we uploaded them all to PICASA.

http://picasaweb.google.com/milescustis

Enjoy!!