Nine pounds, six ounces

Here's my beautiful little niece born Wednesday, July 22, 2009.

Brynlie Rose Jepsen

I love that she has dark hair. Us brunettes are going to need to stick together!

Jamie's Buzz

My new niece came on Wednesday (more about her later). So I got to spend the day playing with Eugene. And of course we had a blast. We went shopping and watched Buzz for more hours than I care to admit. He's definitely a busy, inquisitive little boy and keeps me on my toes, but I had more fun than you can imagine.

I didn't even think to take pictures of us playing -- although most of it was just at home with Buzz and Zurg shooting each other (and me).

He did get a new t-shirt from Grandma.... he chose Spiderman. And the next day his dad took him shopping for new shoes and he ended up with Spiderman shoes (that light up as well.... he's so proud of them he spent several hours just hitting his toes together so they would light up).


To end the evening I chased him around in circles and wore myself right out. He screamed and jumped in Grandma's lap to save him. We had to relax a couple of times to catch our breaths. Hope Kelly didn't have a hard time putting him to bed!

King George

I seriously almost want to say I could die happy..... but there are some more things I would like to do. The happiness is from none other than the amazing, brilliant, beyond talented, perfection in wranglers (and many more things) George Strait.

I said there was not a price too high for me to go see him in concert. And it really was THE BEST concert I have ever been to. Just typing about it makes me smile and almost giddy with excitement at how perfect an evening it was... and I wish you all could have joined me.

I don't think I can properly put into words what I experienced that evening. I sang every song, danced, and swayed my heart out and wanted to cry when it was over. (Although I literally almost cried when we were stuck in the parking lot for TWO HOURS trying to leave - that was just wrong. USANA, you need to fix this problem).

None of the pictures really turned out, but I had to post some anyway.

Here's Anna and I relaxing (and scoping out all the drunks -- we had some good ones right next to us).

Dot The Earth

I had all intentions of touring the new Draper Temple earlier this year, but things happened and I didn't get a chance. So I took the opportunity to tour the new Daybreak Temple.

It was beautiful, as expected. The church doesn't hold anything back when designing a temple.

It was great to see how many people were on the tour - what a great way to share the gospel.

Stupid Idea?!

I've heard about this moonlight bike ride on Antelope Island for several years. Sounds fun huh... A relaxing ride by moonlight around the island, breathtaking views, cool crisp evening.

So I got Kelly to go with me (since I don't really have any friends that ride on a regular basis) and he roped Doug into going and then decided it would be fun to take the two boys (even though the ride didn't even start until 10pm - is that neglect? do I need to call DCFS?)

Anyway, here I was thinking it was a "nice, easy" 22 mile ride around the island. NOPE!
I also thought, I've ridden 25 miles in 90ish minutes, I should be able to do this ride with no problem. NOPE!
Holy hell, it was miserable. (Although these two had a grand time riding in the trailer). And the moon was behind the clouds for most of the ride, so no moonlight. Just black night on an island that is covered with bison (that I knew would trample me at any minute).

The bugs....... seriously, you can see them in the pictures, and that was before we had our headlamps on. They were horrendous and I ate a ton - but when you're breathing heavily from pedaling up a steep hill, there's no way to avoid not opening your mouth.

See them bugs?! And this is before we had even started when I was all happy thinking about the nice leisurely stroll I was about to embark on.

It took me over 90 minutes to just go 11 miles to the halfway point. I wanted to die! And I still had to ride back 11 miles back to the car. I ended up with a flat tire and had to get a ride back the last 2-3 miles (luckily!)

The two boys kept saying "where's Jamie." Too bad for them I was only with them for about ten minutes of the ride. Then Kelly and Doug took off and left me in their dust.

Apparently I need to do a little more training before embarking on this ride again. Oh, and invest in a bee-keepers net to cover my face from the damn bugs.

My legs are still itching a week later from the mosquito bites - and I wore repellent (these were some serious bugs!) Oh yeah, and my bum still hurts from my bike seat. Guess I should have worn my bike shorts - but really I thought it was a "leisurely" ride.

I'm Not Starving

Stinky Pete, Eugene, and I had a fun day playing at the park. I considered taking them to the Gateway splash pad, but it is always so crowded and there is never any shade or grass to relax on. Liberty Park was the perfect spot.
We wandered through the water of the seven canyons....

Played at the playground...Then went to Old McDonald's to get some food - because by then Eugene was starving.
It was a great Friday!
And I had to throw in this picture because it is just way too cute to leave in a folder on my computer. (He really is as cute as he looks!)

The End

So the trip finally had to come to an end. But to end, I still had to get back to Spokane and fly home. The drive is about three hours, yeah for me!

It was a pretty drive through the mountains

and across a bridge

When we got to Spokane we stopped to have a quick lunch, which turned into a long lunch (due to the slowness of the waitress). So we only got to stop at the river/falls in town for about 15 minutes (guess when I go back to Canada to float the river I'll have to stop in Spokane to sight see). It was beautiful. My mom said when she first saw it, the water was a lot higher and there was mist everywhere. Definitely need to plan another trip (and soon.....)

Then I flew home, did laundry, slept, and was back at my fantastic job the next day. (Although I avoided my work and tried to get caught up on all the gossip I missed while visiting the backwoods).

Canada (aye)

I finally made it to Canada. And it was just as fun as I expected. (Actually it was about the same... well except for kilometers rather than miles, signs in English and French rather than Spanish, and the money is Candadian (go figure) and they speak funny, and..... ok so it really was like a different country).

We drove through Osoyoos towards Penticton. All along the road there were hundreds (not even joking) of fruit stands. We did stop and get some cherries and peach syrup - which was delicious on pancakes.

Penticton has a lake on both sides of it with a river between the two. And it is a lazy river like none I have seen. There were thousands of people floating in tubes down it and hundreds more walking towards it to begin floating. Tubes of every kind and cooler tubes full of beer. If we had know we would have prepared better and brought swimming suits. Guess I'll have to make another trip up there.

The town was definitely busy - it was the 4th of July, so I'm sure they were all celebrating with us!

My parents had fish and chips (I had a burger) and then enjoyed myself a nice deep-fried Mars bar. Delish!

A Tisket A Tasket..

...I'm going to Tonasket. Actually I already did, a couple of times. To get to the Walmart you have to go through Tonasket, so we made 2 trips there (within five days, that's just wrong).

It wasn't much more exciting than Republic. Although I did buy a new knitting bag.... mostly because I have a dozen projects going and always need a place to store them. Oh, and it's fabulous, so that is all that matters.

I thought about buying this hat and joining the Amish, but apparently my head is HUGE in Washington. I'm not even kidding, I found a really cute vintage hat that didn't even fit my head. I guess it has to be so big to store all those brains that I expanded in graduate school.

And here's a Warshington cowboy. Who says everything's bigger in Texas? Apparently the hats are bigger in Washington.

Omak actually had the Walmart, so we spent some quality time there. Including grubbing on some Mexican food, yum. And seriously thinking I need a pair of these....

On our second trip to Omak I found some outstanding rings, large and fantastic - just what I like. And we also found the cutest little store featuring wood signs with tons of different sayings. We made sure to write down all the good ones so we can make them ourselves.... who wants to pay $25 when you can make it yourself for $10? Is that stealing?!

Interruption

I need to interrupt the vacation blogs to share this e-mail with everyone.....

From: Charlotte Jepsen
To: jhickens
Sent: Thursday, July 9, 2009 2:06:06 PM
Subject: still screaming

I, like the nice person I am went up and offered my serving services at lunch. All went well. You can't really screw up serving jello. The line of people was gone so I got in line to get my french dip sandwich. I was waiting for more green salad to be brought out. In the corner of my eye I saw something fly by. It was a huge bird. Larger than a sparrow smaller than a buzzard. I screamed, others looked and said, oh a bird, real casual like. I ducked behind a tall kid thinking he could protect me. No, the bird just fly over by us. I was still screaming. As I cowered the bird flew out the door. My heart was racing. I told dad I quit. As I have always said, "NO GOOD DEED GOES UNPUNISHED".
I will be home soon, MOM


**laughing hysterically**

My favorite line is "larger than a sparrow smaller than a buzzard" because that is definitely a key point to the story.
Sorry mom!

Bonaparte(land)

We stayed in my dad's brand new trailer. It is totally nice and WAY better than a tent, but the bathroom..... well let's just say you have to be a contortionist to use it (and I'm not even joking - it took some serious bendability to be able to close the door while using the toilet. Something you all wanted to picture I know!) Although I really am not complaining because there was no way in hell I would use a Kybo (outhouse for those of you none Boy Scouters).

The view was elegant, just elegant...

The camp is on a lake and seriously is a beautiful place. I didn't see any bears.... which I'm totally ok with. But I did see a lot of squirrels and birds. And thousands of flies and mosquitoes - worthless bugs.

As usual I'm not tall enough to participate.... (And no, I wasn't pretending, I really wasn't tall enough even with my tall flip-flops). I don't like Boy Scout camp anyway!

We also visited the nearest town, Republic. There isn't much to see, but it is quite interesting to see what they're selling..... things I would never buy (even if I was destitute).

Day 2.... Big Sky Country, Paul Bunyan, and Ferries

After a basic night at a basic hotel (I'm still wondering about the chiggers) 20 MILES OUTSIDE of Butt(e) we headed off on the last driving day of our journey. We traveled across Big Sky Country (which really is a lot of sky and not a lot of anything else).

Then through the pan-handle of Idaho..... and really, who knew it was called the pan-handle (ok, a lot of people, but I am not one of them).

We didn't even see any White Supremacists. We did see a beautiful lake and wished we had a boat (or even a swimming suit) to enjoy the water. And we had a quick bite with a very sad looking Paul Bunyan (his blue ox was even more sad looking, but I didn't get a picture of that).

On to Warshington. And no picture of the state sign because it was in the middle of the road, not on the left as expected. Why does Washington think they have to be all different and mess with the signs so nobody can get a picture?! (And there was never a sign for Montana, we didn't even know we were there until a billboard announced Big Sky Plumbing or what-not.... just plain ridiculous!)

So, I was told we would get to go on a Ferry boat on the last leg of the journey. But Owen (stupid cousin) changed his mind and re-routed us. And I was promised a ferry ride, so dammit we were going to find a ferry. So, we used our trusty back-up map and found the ferry. Which was NOTHING like I had imagined... I wanted the fancy ones I have seen on Grey's Anatomy where you park your car and walk to the top deck and relax and enjoy the ocean (or lake or river). Nope, we got none of that. Our ferry reminded me of those little ones that are pulled by ropes from each bank or possibly the kind with those giant sticks to push us. We didn't even get a view because two stupid trucks were blocking us in (one of which contained flammable liquids, and the sign CLEARLY said vehicles containing flammable liquids had to ride alone - we could have blown-up at any minute).

See, that's our ferry in the middle of the river (below). (Now you can see I wasn't joking about that rope pulling thing).
This was our sad little view out the front....
And the side. What the crap is a BO'SN anyway? And what's he stowin?

FINALLY we made it to the camp. Ate some dinner and went to bed. More to come....

Day 1... Second Coming

We headed off on our cross states (since technically it wasn't cross country, but at times it felt like it) trek Tuesday. Our plan was to get to Butt(e) (and I prefer to say it like the body part it is.... none of that fancy talk for me) in the first day. And we had to get there because that's where we booked a hotel.

Anyway, as we finally reach Butt(e) it had been a LONG drive and I was tired and hungry and all the in-betweens. Then Owen (who just happens to be the stupid cousin of my dear Foster) led me astray and we were off in the direction of (Oh) Helena. And the only exit was five miles up the canyon..... yeah for us!

But as we headed up the canyon, my mom so nicely exclaims "it's Jesus" then proceeds to announce "it's the second coming." I'm speechless and just look at her thinking she's crazy (which was highly plausible after 7+ hours in a car) and then.....




That tiny speck on top of the mountain really is Jesus and he is in Butt(e) of all places.

And We're Off...

Sometimes I wish I was from England so I could use fancy words like Holiday rather than Vacation. But I guess if I was from England I wouldn't think it was fancy and maybe Vacation is fancy. Who knows?!

Oh, back to my point..... I'm off on

HOLIDAY!

(I know, I just went to Vegas (baby!), but that wasn't a Holiday, that was a mini-break).

I will return in a week with loads (another English word I enjoy!) of pictures.

...crap, I better go charge my camera battery.

Oh, and if you wanted to know, I'm going to Washington (warshington to them locals) and possibly a quick trip to Canada (aye)