Videos of the week

Having a daughter who thinks herself fairly fabulous, I will admit that it's hard for me not to have the camera on all the time. She is such a cheeser. What I really wish you could see, is a video of her watching herself on the computer playback. She gets a pretty big kick out of how cute she is... and, she is getting very good at the courtesy laugh (as is evident in the video).

She is currently working on tooth number 6, so hopefully she wont look like a vampire too much longer - I think she just wanted to show her dentist father who is boss - can't follow the norm for the order teeth usually come in.

She is also exploring new avenues for getting around. She is quite content with crawling because she can move at lightening speed... but day by day she is getting more adventurous on her feet... now, if she could only remember that her knees bend.

Latest Project

A few months ago, I thought it would be really cool to put together a cookbook with some family favorite recipes. David's mom actually put one together a while back, and we love having the Feller tried-and-true recipes on hand.

Well, you can guess where all of this is leading... I admit that when I started this project, I had no idea what an ordeal it would turn out to be! Already, I have over 75 pages of recipes that need to be polished and categorized; and, that is only half of the list I have requested of my mom.
The goal is to get this all finished before Christmas, so now any spare moment I have is dedicated to things like, "mix till just combined", or "for best results, do not over bake", etc. As anyone can see, it is a glamorous experience.

Thus, if there are not as many bizarre and partially thought out monologues as usual... know that I am blogging in spirit... but for now (and always really) I am centered around food.

Lex-vision

For those who have ever wondered what a camera happy mother and her neurotic perma-grin child do with their time...

Mount Rainer

We decided to spent a day at Mount Rainer... after 2 and a half years of hearing David talk about how wonderful his mountain was, I think I was more excited than him to be there.
It took us about 2 hours to drive to Rainer from the house. The weather turned out to be perfect for hiking; and once we arrived, it was hard to dismiss the grandeur of the mountain. David started by telling me the hike he had in mind took us all around the mountain and was a little over 90 miles. You can imagine my enthusiasm... I felt a sudden deja vu of hiking with my mother.
Through expert communication and compromise, I helped him see that he was out of his mind, and we settled on a pleasant 5 mile hike to a waterfall. Foolishly, we didn't take much water, so we had to ration ourselves. And, David waited till we were sufficiently far from the car to remind me that Rainer is still an active volcano... not something you want to hear when you realize there would be no escape.
In our "what if" evacuation plan, we realized that our lack of water would definitely be a huge problem. To be honest, I'm not sure what Ranger David was so worried about, I told him I brought milk...

Vacation Feller style

When David and I were dating people really didn't start to warn me about being 'sure' until after they learned he was from Washington. It seems there are few good things people have to say about the state of Washington. Most start off the pro list with, "it's green", and there the list seems to die. I have to admit, I have been to Washington 4 times already and really have yet to see what all of the antagonism is about. My extensive exposure has only resulted in 2, maybe 3, rainy days... maybe there is another state of Washington that I am not familiar with?
Over the last week, with David parents, we were able to explore more of what Washington has to offer. We started the trip off by driving to Port Angeles (that's right all you Twilight fans... there were plenty of crooked smiles and heart palpitations to go around), from the port we took a ferry to Victoria British Columbia where we stayed over night. BC was awesome! They had double decker buses, gelato, and other European treats we can't really enjoy in the states.
After ferrying ourselves back into good old America, we had a great time getting together with David's brother and sister (and families). We were especially excited that we were able to overlap a night with Merrilee, as she flew in Friday night and we flew out Saturday afternoon. It was a perfect trip for David to relax away from school, and I was again struck by how pleasant and sunny the weather is.
Ironically, on the flight out of Seattle I sat next to a woman who had moved from California to Washington 4 years previously, and was now moving back to California. "Why to move," you may be asking. Apparently, it rains too much...

Mer, Dad, Lex, and Nana.


Dad, lex and David. Some kids are able to pull off the "I think I was adopted" joke... in David's case, not so much


Does this face say "Nana makes the best spaghetti sauce", or what?


This is what happens when Dad lets Lex decide what movie to watch...

Victoria BC

Port Angeles


On the ferry... BC here we come!




Butchart Gardens






Craigdarroch Castle

All good things must end

I think one of the most depressing phrases known in the English language would have to be: the vacation is over. We flew home from Washington late Saturday night, and experienced the bitter sweet feeling of once again being in our apartment. It was a perfect two weeks filled with family, good food, and new adventures.
We realized that over the course of our trip we were able to experience a little of just about everything. We had plane trips, road trips, a ferry trip to British Columbia, camping, hiking, shopping, swimming, and various other things that have momentarily slipped my mind...
David started classes/clinic this morning; and, Lexi and I spent the day pining over him. As we try and get back into the swing of real life, I keep reminding myself how lucky we are to be where we are - doing what we are doing... the only person who has any reason to be depressed in Lexi, since she is now again left with only me.

camping::cousins::cold::critters

After flying into Salt Lake last weekend, we bummed a ride with David and Kristen and headed for Flaming Gorge... aka: the gorge. Growing up, when summer came, and it was time for a family vacation, our family piled in the car and headed for the Gorge.
We spent four days and three chilly nights enjoying all that camping has to offer. Lex loved playing in the dirt and was quite intrigued with the camp fire. She adored having cousins around - and tho she was the youngest, she perfected her WWF body slams to earn respect (sorry Emme). We were all grateful for Matt's military training and his Air Force issue soft pellet gun when the wild life threatened our chocolate supply. Darn chipmunks get more and more daring every year... somehow they managed to get into the truck bed and the tent trailer to steal their loot.

U.S.S. Lexi

Leaves a big wake...

Body Worlds

David and I made a list of things we wanted to do once our September break was in full swing; on the top of our list was the Body Worlds exhibit. Those of you who have seen the latest James Bond will recognize it as the exhibit where 007 narrowly misses getting the coat check number from the man planning on setting a bomb... good times, good times.
Anyway, it was very interesting. David walked around the whole time pointing out muscles and nerves... I pretty much had no idea what he was talking about... what's new?