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Thursday, February 24th, 2011

Winter blast February 2011 turned out to leave a measurable amount of snow (thought not as much as anticipated). Here is my mom’s side yard. It’s nice to enjoy the pretty snow; we don’t get it that often.

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Wednesday February 23rd, 2011

WINTER BLAST FEBRUARY 2011!!! (Or so the nightly news told us). We know you snow bunnies are all jealous of our massive amounts of snowfall, pictured here. School was cancelled, garbage pick-up was delayed, businesses closed early in anticipation for the coming snowpocalypse. There was even some left the next day. 

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Tuesday, February 22nd, 2011

Day 2 of our beach getaway: This starfish was relaxing in the cool of the Pacific Ocean, getting gently rocked by the incoming tide. Check our “normal” blog for more pictures of our trip.

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Monday, February 21st, 2011

Happy Presidents’ Day! We took a trip to beach with my Dad and Terry. We tried to set up a nice shot of all of us next to the water, but some of us lost heart when a sneaker wave approached menacingly. Some people got their feet a little wet, but the camera survived (thanks, Dad) and thanks to the timer, got this picture of us.

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Sunday, February 20th, 2011

Dana thought the way I took my shoes off after church was funny. They must have had a disagreement; they won’t even look at each other.

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Saturday, February 19th, 2011

Despite some “winter blasts,” some flowers have begun peeking out of the ground. These ones are from my Dad’s office. Maybe this winter will end…

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Friday, February 18th, 2011

Dana’s mom is excited to have another grandbaby around. She bought these clothes for him. Good thing, too, because they are too small for us.

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Thursday, February 17th, 2011

We caught this water bug several weeks ago and he has outlived all the other pond residents (mostly because he ate them).

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Wednesday, Febtober 16th, 2011

Watson, a computer designed by IBM to understand human language, played Jeopardy in a three day series against former champions Ken Jennings (who won 74 games in a row) and Brad Rutter (who never lost and won almost 3 million dollars). Dana took this picture of the end of the second game. Ken Jennings’ board read (after the correct answer), “I for one welcome our new robot overlords.” Watson beat them soundly.

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Tuesday, February 15th, 2011

After a long day of work we sat down with some clearance Valentine’s candy and watched Casablanca together, since we did not do it the day before. It was my first time watching it…and I thought it was quite good; I recommend it.

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Monday, February 14th, 2011

Valentines Day! This was a nice day. I had to work in the evening so we did everything in the afternoon. We had some delicious bison buggers; with bacon, mushrooms, ranch, peppers, and sharp cheddar. Also, some boysenberry juice to go with it. These are the gifts we gave each other. Ruth got me Legos (a tradition) and I got her some movies.

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Sunday, February 13th, 2011

We had the chance to go over to my Mom’s house to Skype with Steen and his family in Florida. It was nice to see them and talk for a little bit. On the screen are the three kids, Daniel, Megan, and Natalie. It was great to talk with you guys!

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Saturday, February 12th, 2011

This is looking out our back door. A coming rain storm made for some low pressure zones in several areas. This caused some rather blustery conditions. All those little black dots are leaves blowing around, it was like a windy fall day. The wind was enough for our neighbor to tie up his wind chimes, because they wouldn’t stop chiming.

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Friday, February 11th, 2011

Today, I finished this book that I got for Christmas. It was an interesting look at many of the ways that insects have shaped culture and many of the useful thing we get from insects. Ruth has also had a chance to read some of it, like the chapter on paper and ink in the ancient world.

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Thursday, February 10th, 2011

Terry brought us some Valentines Day cookies today. Apparently right after she got home from skiing, she started to make piles of cookies, and only stopped because they ran out of butter. They were good cookies…Thanks, Terry!

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Wednesday, February 9th, 2011

I went skiing with my dad and Terry at Mt. Hood Meadows. It was a beautiful day, clear skies, little wind, and about 27 to 30 degrees. It is one of the best ski days I have had. Here is a view of Mt. Hood from one of the ski runs. Read more about it here.

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Tuesday, February 8th, 2011

While our Wii was at the Wii Doctors we have had fun playing retro games. Here, Ruth is playing a classic from 1982 called Word Zapper on our Atari 7800. You have to zap letters to spell words, not too complicated.

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Monday, February 7th, 2011

Tonight we had Parmesan Tilapia fillets with baked sweet potato and broccoli. (Next time we only need half a sweet potato per person.) Yum yummy.

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Sunday, February 6th, 2011

We got this baby toy from Courtney’s mom (Thanks, Andersons!) for Christmas. We got to use it in our primary class for an object lesson about the Restoration. Our 7-year-olds first response was “that’s a toy for babies!” which is true. But they still had fun helping us put it back together in the right order.

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Saturday, February 5th, 2011

We had a wonderful day that included a stop at our friendly neighborhood See’s Candy shop. We had received gift certificates for a pound of chocolate each from Santa. We like to share the certificates and only use one at a time to get a 1/2 pound box each. See’s is a magical place with delicious chocolates. My favorite are the truffles (especially the lemon ones).

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Friday, February 4th, 2011

I worked the whole evening and so we just had a nice meal of macaroni and cheese before I left. Then Ruth found out it was National Homemade Soup Day. So, I texted her and told her to go ahead and make some soup and we could eat it when I came home…for it was a holiday. She ended up making a delicious creamy potato soup. Hurray, Ruth! Hope everyone had an equally joyous National Homemade Soup Day.

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Thursday, February 3rd, 2011

A few days ago our Nintendo Wii decided it was done being a working Wii and…no longer worked. Nintendo told us to send it in to them and that is what we did. So, now we pulled out the good ol’ 64. It is fun to play the games that we grew up on. This is the very system I bought with my own money when I paper route back in 1997. I have good memories playing this system with my brothers.

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Wednesday, February 2nd, 2011

Dana has this tendency to shout out random things when I ask him if there is anything I’m forgetting to get from the grocery store. His most common answer, however, is, “toaster strudel!” Come to find out, Dana has never actually eaten a toaster strudel. So we bought a box last time we went to the store. This is Dana about to bite into his first ever toaster strudel.

The verdict? “It was really good.” We might have to get some more another time.

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Tuesday, February 1st, 2011

This day was a particular beautiful day outside. The clouds took a small vacation and the rain went with them. This let the sun have a nice appearance. Ruth decided it was a nice day for a walk. This is one of those times we are happy to have a nice Historic Reserve next door. Ruth went down Officer’s Row and took this nice photo of the Marshall House, former home to George C. Marshall.

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Monday, January 31st, 2011

We finally got Else’s Christmas tree put away, after many scheduling conflicts, and grunting and twisting. All that’s left of Christmas is her Nativity scene.

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Sunday, January 30th, 2011

We teach the 7 going on 8-year-olds in Primary. They had a fireside tonight about getting baptized. I wish I had gotten something this cool when I was their age.

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Saturday, January 29th, 2011

I had a hankering for sugar cookies. Dana came home from work and asked me why I made “pumpkin ghost” cookies. Which one do you think is the pumpkin ghost?

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Friday, January 28th, 2011

We got to babysit Dana’s cousin’s kids tonight! They went to see Brian Regan in Portland and we got to play with their cute babies. Here Gabby discovers that the hippo plays “Mary and yittle yam!”

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Thursday, January 27th, 2011

Dana got some cool bug origami for Christmas. Can you name all the bugs? (hint: two of them are the same insect). Thanks, Guptills!

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Wednesday, January 26th, 2011

Homemade pizza for dinner. (Pepperoni, spinach, bell peppers) Yum! I learned that if you roast your bell peppers before putting them on the pizza, they are much easier to eat (not so crunchy). On our second pizza we cracked an egg on top before putting it in the oven: a Danish thing, apparently. The process will need tweaking before we try it again.

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Tuesday, January 25th, 2011

George Michael looks at us disgruntledly: we are not providing him enough sun. When the sun does come out, he sits on his rock with his neck out, like a giraffe.

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Monday, January 24th, 2011

We treated ourselves to dinner at the Starlight Diner. Yay for gift certificates! and cell phone pictures!