Betty Lou Ammon

Both of my Betty Lou's are gone now from this earthly life. My grandmother, my mom's mom, is Betty Lou Johns and passed away in February of 1998. Chris' grandmother, Betty Lou Ammon passed away on July 21st of 2008. I loved grandma Ammon. When Chris and I moved back to Oregon after going to school out there we moved in with his parents on Mt. Tom in the Coburg Hills. Grandma was living there at the time. I was pregnant with Emma at the time and not working. So during the day everyone would leave for work except me and grandma. Those were the days when I had ample time to read, write in my journal and visit with grandma. We would sit for hours and just talk and talk and before we knew it someone would be coming home from work. I learned all about her life in California and her sisters and one brother who were very dear to her and she would tell me stories from when she was growing up. I was also the biggest fan of her turkey soup. She would take Makenzie on walks to the end of the driveway. Makenzie would look forward to those walks everyday.

Her death came unexpectedly. She has always been relatively healthy and lives in her own home independently. So when Donna (Chris' mom) took her in for her routine blood transfusion that she would have every 9 months or so nothing was thought of it. Donna expected to come back, see a revived grandma with more color in her cheeks and take her for some ice cream before taking her home. That's not what happened. She never ended up leaving the hospital. A few days later she was gone. She went into heart failure during the transfusion.

I know that grandma is happier now. She had been very sad the past two months since her last sister had passed away in May. She told me often how much she missed her and I know that now she is with all of her sisters and parents and is rejoicing. I'm grateful that when we pass from this earthly life all is not lost. What a wonderful plan our Heavenly Father has given us. To be able to live again with those we love. I'm happy for you grandma but I will miss you and your turkey soup.

Grandma as a child

Grandma with Chris and Melissa and Carissa.

Puerto Rico in 7 days - Day 7

On our last and final day we experienced some of the funniest parts of our trip. I was determined to get a picture of the two of us. The only one we had was taken the first day and we were sitting across from each other at a restaurant. So I set the camera up on a table, grabbed a chair for the two of us to sit in and told Chris to sit in it.

Chris: Where are you going to sit?
Me: On your lap.
Chris: I don't think this chair is going to hold us.
Me: Pooey, it will hold us. Those things are strong they are the same ones we have at home.
Chris: I don't think so.
Me: It will be fine.

Chris sits down, I set the timer, push the button and go to sit on Chris' lap. This is the picture we got:

The chair completely broke and if it weren't for Chris' super fast skills we would have plunged about 3 feet backward. I laughed, Chris didn't think it was so funny. I deserved a big "I told you so."

We did take a picture of us and here it is. Why didn't i just do it like this to begin with?


After this adventure we packed our stuff up in the car to head back to the airport in San Juan. When we get to the airport we find out that our bags have to go through a USDA scanner. What? You mean we are going to have to give up the gallon size Ziploc bag we have of passionfruit? The ones Chris very diligently trekked into the jungle to gather for me? I will NOT give those up. I took the suitcase into the bathroom and tried to make them invisible to the scanner. I went back out and we sent our big suitcase through first which had some other unknown fruit in it that we hadn't had a chance to try while we were there so we were just going to take it home. It makes it through. Yay! My heart is doing a little happy dance at this point. But wait, what's this? They are pulling our smaller suitcase over and unzipping it? what? We can't take Passionfruit with us? Are you sure? DARN. Then we had to watch him put my lovely gallon size Ziploc bag on his desk. I wanted to cry but I held the tears back.
Our trip was wonderful. I don't know why more people don't go to Puerto Rico on vacation. From our research and experience it is less expensive than Hawaii and you experience similar types of things. The Puerto Rican people were extremely friendly and were so excited that we had come from so far to visit their beautiful island. I think Chris would pack up and move tomorrow if he had a job there. As for me, good bye Puerto Rico. I'll be back again someday. I still have your southern and western coasts to explore!

Puerto Rico in 7 days - Day 6

When I woke up in the morning this is where I found myself:


The rainforest was just few feet from our cottage and Chris decided to go for a walk while I was showering. When he got back he brought some passionfruit that he had found. I was so excited because I hadn't had a fresh passionfruit since I served my mission. I immediately made some juice for Chris and I and it was so good it is making my mouth water even now just thinking about it.

There was a river that ran to the side and below the cottage and we were able to see some amazing birds while we were here.

We had decided to go to the Camuy Cave Park which has some of the most amazing underground caves and rivers. When we got there however they had already let in the allotted number of visitors for the day. So we weren't able to see it. We then headed to the Arecibo Observatory. If you've seen the movie contact then you have seen the Arecibo Observatory. It is the largest telescope in the world and is run by Cornell University. When we arrived there we found ourselves in the hugest downpour of rain.

It seemed to let up a little bit so we decided to run for it. The problem with making a run for it is that we had to climb 500 steps up to the observatory. Fortunately there were two little outposts on the way up that we were able to stop at and take shelter. By the time I got to the top I could use my hand as a squeegee and just see the water pour off of my arm. I was drenched. I went to the bathroom to find some paper towels but of course they didn't have any so I just rung out my hair in the sink and went on out to enjoy the exhibit.

After the observatory we went to the Taino ruins.

These ruins are dated back to 1200 yet were discovered quite recently. I believe they were discovered in the 1970's. It is the most complete ceremonial ruins that have been found in Puerto Rico. This place had a very peaceful feeling to it. It was beautiful and I would have loved to have seen some of the presentations that they do here. But because of the rain they had postponed them until the next day. Although our last full day in Puerto Rico was a very rainy one we had a lot of fun exploring all of the winding roads and seeing some very beautiful areas. By the time we got back to Utuado we were starving. We had just been going and going all day and were hungry but never really had a chance to stop. But now it was about 5 p.m. and we were determined to find some food. We drove through the actual downtown of Utuado in hopes of finding something but everything was closed. In Puerto Rico it is easy to find food in a local Cafeteria for lunch. These Cafeterias are little lunch spots where you can get the assortment of fried foods that Puerto Rico is known for. But the problem is that they all close by 3:00 p.m. So if you want anything after that you are stuck with the more "american" foods like McDonalds, Pizza Hut and Chinese food. We opted for Chinese food since we couldn't find anything open that had some beans and rice (yes, we like beans and rice). We ordered sweet and sour chicken with fried rice. When I opened the container there was the chicken and the rice but what was that on top of everything? A big pile of french fries? We laughed at that but apparently that is how they serve it up there. The funny thing is, that sweet and sour chicken was some of the best I've ever had.

Puerto Rico in 7 days - Day 5

Our 2nd day on Culebra was supposed to be spent snorkeling. Since I had gotten a pretty bad sunburn from the day before we decided we better not do any snorkeling. I didn't want to be miserable for the rest of the trip. Instead we went down by the ferry dock upon Terri's advice and looked for sea glass and shells there. We weren't disappointed. I collect sea glass and got an amazing assortment of different colors, sizes and shapes. My favorite ones were these bright blue pieces which were tiny but oh so gorgeous. We were also able to see some fish right from the dock. Tiger fish, needlenose fish and some others that I don't know the name of.

We had an amazing brunch at this place called Pandeli. We both had a breakfast sandwich but the way they made it on french bread and then pressed it together was so delicious.

After our tummys were full we were able to do some serious shopping. We had found a great shop the day before and our luck continued on this great island. I had been looking for some things that had actually been made in Puerto Rico and didn't have much luck in San Juan. We found a lot of things on Culebra that were made by locals of the island. My favorite things were some jewelry made from sea glass. I love the necklace i got and Chris found a couple of necklaces he liked too made from shells. My other favorite thing is a WeBe Bag made out of a recycled feed bag. My sister had a similar bag when she came to visit a couple weeks ago and I fell in love with it. So when I saw one that actually said East Caribbean Feeds on the recycled bag and that it was made in Culebra PR I HAD to have it. I love my new bag!
This sign pretty much sums up the feeling on Culebra. Very kick back, a whatever goes attitude.


Our flight from Culebra left around 4 p.m. and once we got back to our car we were off to find the city of Utuado. Now, I have to say that whenever people would ask us what places we were going to be seeing while in Puerto Rico they were always, without fail, pretty impressed that we were going to Utuado. It made me curious what we were in for. After a 2 hour drive we arrived in Utuado which is situated in the mountainous area of Puerto Rico, kind of in the middle of the island. It was getting dark and the owner of the guesthouse had mentioned her concern with us arriving after dark. We weren't too worried though. Our first task in Utuado was to give the missionaries a ride. We saw them walking down the street and pulled over to ask if we could give them a ride. They gladly accepted and we then drove them about 3 miles to their destination. They were also able to head us in the right direction which I am really grateful for. For the next 30 minutes we went around the curviest road I have ever been on. The sharpest turns on a very narrow road that was meant for two cars. Yikes! I found myself at one point holding my breath. Chris did a great job and we eventually did find it. The sounds were amazing! I have never heard anything like it before. The Coqui frogs felt like they were everywhere and combining that with all the other sounds was an unbelievable auditory sensation. When we arrived, our host Marlene met us and showed us to the cottage. It was beautiful and everything that I hoped it would be. I couldn't wait until morning to see what everything looked like around me. We needed to figure out how to get to our sightseeing things the next day so Marlene even invited us into her home to use her computer and figure it out. she was so friendly and her hugs and smiles immediately made us feel like family.

Puerto Rico in 7 days - Day 4

Chris in Culebra

There are two islands off of the main island that are part of Puerto Rico. Vieques and Culebra. Culebra is the smaller of the two and although both of these islands have amazing beaches, Culebra boasts one of the top ten beaches in the world. How could we not go to Puerto Rico and see something that ranks in the top ten of the world? I was looking forward to our two days on Culebra probably more than anything else on our trip. I longed for lazy sunny afternoons where we could just swim, read, nap and then repeat in that order.

There are two ways to get to Culebra. You can take the ferry or you can fly. To take the ferry you have to get in line starting at about 4 a.m. for the 9 a.m. ferry and it takes about 2 hours to get there. The ferry costs $2.25 per person. Or you can fly on a teeny tiny airplane for $35 and it takes 20 minutes.

We flew from the small airport in Fajardo to the island of Culebra. The day that we flew to Culebra 300 people didn't make it on the morning ferry and all came piling into the airport wanting flights. I was glad that we had booked ahead of time and were all set to go. The flight over was stunningly beautiful.
View from the plane of the Caribbean sea

Upon arrival we were picked up by Terri from the Palmetto Guesthouse. After being shown to our room we quickly changed into our swimsuits and were on our way to Flamenco beach via bus/taxi. We had a quick lunch of beans, rice and chicken kabobs and were soon floating in the caribbean sea. Awwww, pure bliss. The ocean was this aqua blue color and was about 80 degrees. Despite my attempts to get a base tan before our vacation my fair skin was no match for the sun we encountered that day swimming. I ended up with a pretty good burn and I even used sunscreen! Darn. There is a coral reef about 150 yards out from shore so it would break up the waves and just create these soft rolling waves that were fun to float in.
Chris found a live sand dollar! We are used to finding the broken ones on the Oregon coast so this was super cool. We put it back right after taking it's picture.


If you are ever in Culebra make sure that you eat at Mamacitas. It has that caribbean feel with tables near the water and the bar near by where they make your Pina Coladas. I had the best Pina Colada here and they didn't mind making it without alcohol. Really good food and great service. Chris and I make a point of trying Jalapeno poppers wherever we go. They happened to have some on their menu that day and they were the best we have ever had. YUM! I also got the local specialty which was a fried Grouper. I was a little shocked when they brought the whole fish to me. It was like they just gutted it and plopped it in the fryer, head and all. I wondered if the eyeballs were actually in there but was glad that it was dim in there so i couldn't see. It tasted great though which is all that matters, right?

Even though I got a burn, our first day on Culebra ended up being exactly what I was hoping for; relaxing.

Puerto Rico in 7 Days - Day 3

We checked out of our lovely hotel and drove down to the El Yunque Rain Forest. There are several different trails you can go on here and so we drove to the farthest parking spot and went from there. As we were making our way Chris and I both commented that we felt like we were in line for a ride at Disneyland. I specifically said it felt like we were in the old Swiss Family Robinson Tree House at Disneyland. Anyone remember that one? There were so many people all with the same destination in mind. La Mina Falls. I had read that it was a popular waterfall because people like to swim in it but that you can also keep going past it and see some wonderful swimming areas that are less crowded. They weren't kidding about it being popular. If you want to get a quieter less touristy version of the rainforest try one of the other trails like El Bano. It was beautiful there and it was amazing to see so many different plants in one area.

From El Yunque we drove a few more miles down the road to Fajardo where we would be staying for the night. We stayed at the Casa Real Guesthouse and we knew it would be big step down in amenities from our previous two nights but our main thing was to stay someplace cheap and clean. I read about this place in my Go To Puerto Rico guide book and it met our expectations perfectly. It was in a very rundown part of town but our room was very clean and we had A/C. Plus it was $50 cash for the night. You can't beat that. Our plan was to do some laundry while in Fajardo. I had read in my guidebook that they had a laundry place in town so off we went with our clothes in tow. Well, nobody told us it was a holiday! The laundry/ postoffice/ stationary store was closed. What to do? I looked in my book to see if there were any other laundry areas around in nearby towns and we also asked around. Nothing. So we went to the store, bought some detergent and washed our clothes by hand in our tiny bathroom sink. I washed in the sink and Chris rinsed in the tub. We hung all of our clothes up on a rack and they were dry by morning. I felt very pioneerish!

There are 5 Bioluminescent Bays in the world. Three of them are in Puerto Rico. One of these is in Fajardo at Laguna Grande so we had reservations with Kayaking Puerto Rico.


We took the later of the two kayaking trips and started kayaking out a little after 9 p.m. It was one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen and was one of the highlights of my trip. For anyone going to Puerto Rico you don't want to miss it. We kayaked across the ocean for about five minutes, through a mangrove canal for about 20 and then we were in this bay. They used to let people swim in it but found that the insect repellant and sunscreen were hurting the tiny Pyrodinium Bahamense, a microscopic plankton capable of producing natural light at the touch of your hand! So when you put your hand in the water, the water around your hand sparkles like fairy dust. Anything that touches the water lights up like that. It was truly breathtaking. It was an exciting yet exausting day going from hiking in the rain forest to kayaking to one of the worlds only bioluminescent bays. What a lesson in ecosystems that I never could get from a book. A day I won't soon forget.

Puerto Rico in 7 days - Day 2

Today is Chris and I's 15th wedding anniversary. I am very blessed to be able to share my life with such an adventurous and humble spirit. I love that he likes to try new things and is able to see the good in everyone. He is a great dad to our girls and he works hard to provide for our family. Since today was Sunday we started off our day going to church. What had originally seemed like such an easy thing for us to do given the directions we were handed when we checked in yesterday turned out to an adventurous morning. Even though we had the directions we still didn't know what time the meeting started. So Chris got on the phone and started to call down the list of 5 numbers in the phone book. One person answered out of the five and it wasn't for the ward we had directions. That was fine. We got new directions from this bishop. Then we decide that we should probably rent a car because if we take a taxi to church and back and then a taxi to Old San Juan and back we would spend more if we had just rented a car for the day. And we need one anyway for tomorrow. Well that takes another hour to do. Finally we are in our car and off to find the church using my new Sprint Instinct's navigation system. I hadn't tried out that feature yet so it was a gamble. My phone worked great to get us where we were going but there was NOT a church at the address we had. It ended up being a different address altogether and the only way we found it was through prayer. At this point there was only about an hour of church left and we had been driving around for quite awhile. I decided to pray and asked Heavenly Father to please help us find the church because we really wanted to go but if it wasn't meant to be to help us find food instead! I was starving! Well, i told Chris to take a U turn and turn left at the next street which just had a bunch of houses on it. We drove down that road and then we decide to turn left. We go about half a block and I scream out "There it is, there's the church." "Where?" "Right there, see the steeple?" We back up a few feet and drive in the driveway. I guess Heavenly Father thought I was better off with food for my soul instead of for my tummy.



Since we got a late start to our day we skipped most of day two of our Walking Tour and instead just chose the things off that tour that we really wanted to hit. We went to the Fort Christobal Historic Site which houses the fort that protected San Juan from invaders during pirate times and during war.

We ate at two restaurants today. The first one is in Old San Juan and is called Raices. The service was fine, no long waiting times. I had a traditional Puerto Rican dish, Mofongo with skirt steak. I rarely eat steak of any kind. Maybe once every couple years. But I do like skirt steak and I do like plantains. Mofongo is a mixture of mashed cooked plantains with a meat or fish of some type. I was disappointed with my dish. It came in what looks like a wooden cup with the plantains on the bottom and my steak was on the top. The steak was greasy, so much so that there was a layer of liquid grease between the steak and the mashed plantains. I didn't eat very much of it. Chris got the fish Mofongo and his was really good. Our other restaurant was latin Star. It gets two thumbs up from me. I had the Arroz con Pollo and it was cooked perfectly. Yum.

Here is Chris in our cabana. This is right on the private beach of our hotel. We hung out here for an hour or so tonight and watched the surf, read and well...this is a G rated blog.

Puerto Rico in 7 days - Day 1

We have arrived. I don't even know what words to use to explain the view from our room or the hospitatility we have been shown since stepping off of the plane. Amazing, breathtaking, beautiful, inspiring are a few I would use.

Our trip began last night with a red eye flight to Atlanta Georgia. It was fine as far as red eye flights go. Chris had a hard time getting comfortable. I took a blanket with me which I recommend on overnight flights like that. You can scrunch it up to use as a pillow or use as a blanket, whichever you need. In Atlanta we had to go to a different terminal for our connecting flight. I've had to do this numerous times on flights and this is the easiest airport I've ever navigated. The sign of a good airport is how clean the bathrooms are. Atlanta gets an A in this department. It was so nice to get off that long flight and have a clean, bright place to put my contacts in and wash my face.

Flight from Atlanta to San Juan was great. Once in San Juan we got our luggage and followed the signs for ground transportation. There was a man from the tourism board of Puerto Rico ready to help us. It's my understanding that the only real taxis in Puerto Rico are from this Tourism Board. It's nice that way because there is no haggling and you won't get cheated. A definite plus in my book. The downside to this is that if the taxi drivers go on strike (which they did about a month ago) then there are no taxis at all. I heard that this was a real mess. Within 15 minutes of getting our luggage we were greeted by Raul at the La Concha Rennaisance Resort. He took our luggage and while I was getting us checked in Chris asked him if he knew where the nearest LDS church was so that we can go tomorrow. Raul was immediatley on the phone getting that information and next thing we know he is handing us a map with directions to the church. Fantastic! The gal checking us in asked if this was our first time in Puerto Rico. I told her it was and that we were celebrating our 15th wedding anniversary. To our surprise she upgraded our room to a suite!

After getting settled in our room we headed out in search of some authentic puerto rican food. The concierge recommended a place across the street. It was just okay in my opinion. We both had Arroz con Pollo and I've had better. But it was still good and a great first meal on the island.

Next we took a taxi to Old San Juan. And did the first day of our Old San Juan walking tour. You can check it out here. I loved the insider tips that I learned from that blog like the free drinks on Saturday afternoons from the Tourism Company. Or that there is a really good tapa restaurant at one of the hotels that you pass. What stood out to me the most today was the color of the buildings and cobblestone streets.


Old San Juan is very beautiful and old. the wall that surrounds the old city is 20 feet thick and was built hundreds of years ago to keep invaders out. It's really amazing at how good of condition it is in after so many years. In this picture below, Chris is standing on the top of the wall. So it looks like it might be a road but that is how thick it is. This spot overlooks a very old cemetary. It is a pretty amazing site.



On Saturdays at La Princessa Promenade it is an artisan's market with lots of people selling their wares. This is one of the streets we walked down and I bought a Puerto Rican version of a snow cone and a coconut pineapple sweet. Both were really good.



We were so hot after walking around Old San Juan that we decided it was a good time to head to the beach. By the time we got there the sun was starting to go down and most people had left the beach to head to the party at the pools of the hotel. So chris and I swam in the salty caribbean sea while the sun was going down. It was very romantic until a really good wave got me and I swallowed a bunch of salty water!

When you go to Puerto Rico you need to allow at LEAST two hours for each meal. They are in no hurry over here. Which is fine for the most part. Our dinner tonight was a little excessive. We left our hotel at 9:00 p.m. and got home at 12:30. The food was fantastic and the waiter wasn't rude in the least it just takes a while. You give them your credit card to pay and it can take another 20 minutes to get the copy you need to sign. I think as long as you keep that in mind and decide to relax, enjoy the music and each other's company then you will have a great time.

Speaking of music. This place is one big party. We are used to Beaverton, Or where everything is closed by 10 p.m. Not here. Everything is open late. And they are playing their music. Chris and I were laughing when we went into Haagen Daz. It was midnight and they weren't even thinking of closing yet and had music blaring. When I say blaring I'm not kidding. Chris and I could barely hear each other. But it's fun at the same time.

My favorite part of Day 1 would be swimming in the ocean and laying on lawn chairs right at the water's edge while the sun went down. Tomorrow we will still be here in San Juan so Adios for now.

My name is Sam

Hello, my name is Sam. I decided I better go ahead and introduce myself since my mom hasn't talked about me one bit on her blog. My sisters get all the attention. I am a 2 year old Quaker Parrot and I have been with my family since I was a baby. My mom hand fed me until I was big enough to eat on my own. I love her extra because of that. Speaking of food, I like to eat lots of things. My favorite foods are peas, watermelon, blueberries and pumpkin seeds. I only get the pumpkin seeds as treats when I"ve been really good or when they want me to say something. Which is pretty much all the time since they like me to show off. I mostly eat organic pellets. That mom of mine is a health freak. They don't smell too good and I didn't like them at first but mom was really persistent and I like them now.

I enjoy all sorts of activities like dress up:

And riding horses:


Taking baths:

Playing the piano:


And I really like giving my mom kisses.


Can you see how talented I am? My big sisters love playing with me and have taught me all sorts of fun tricks and words. My favorite game to play with them is peek-a-boo.

I had to tell all of you my big news. My mom and dad found out that I was a boy. Yep, I'm a boy! My mom says she knew it all along. The only way you can find out if a Quaker parrot is a boy or a girl is to have a DNA test done. When I had my nails trimmed recently one of them started to bleed a little and so the nice lady took some of my blood and sent it in to be tested. And it came back that I am a boy. It's such a relief since I have been referred to as He and Him since I was hatched. Mom says it was mother's intuition and she knew it. I don't know about that. I did over hear dad say that if I was a girl, Sam could just be short for Samantha. But that's not necessary now!

I'm a boy! Im a boy! I'm a boy!

Check this out!

Lizzy, creator of ShabbyKnapsack


I'm sure many of you have read the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants series. What? You haven't? Run out right now and get it. Or at least watch the movie. It will make you feel like a teenager again. But I digress. In the books there is a pair of pants that fits all of the four friends perfectly even though they are all different shapes and sizes. Well, I've got something even better. This is a skirt that will not only fit you but any other female in your home. It is the ultimate "traveling skirt". The name of the company is ShabbyKnapsack. I first discovered this gem of a skirt while at the Portland Saturday Market with my sister 2 1/2 years ago. She bought her first one at that time and has since bought two others. I have two of them myself.

What are they? They are wrap around skirts made from different panels of recycled and vintage clothing. They will literally fit almost any member of your family. I bought one this past week that my eight year old picked out. It is so cute on her and she wore it right after we bought it and wore it all that day. I washed it that night and Emma wore it on Sunday to church. I wore it Monday. Makenzie can wear it too.
Our latest "May girls" ShabbyKnapsack skirt


Some may say that these skirts cost too much. How often do you spend $20 on a skirt? I bought this latest skirt for $78 and four of us will wear it. Not only can we all wear it, Lizzy, the enchanting genius creator of Shabbyknapsack, will fix anything that ever goes wrong with it at no charge.

While wearing her new skirt on Saturday Heidi got some mustard on the front of it during lunch. I treated it with my shout wipes and then went home and washed it applying more stain treatment to it. The mustard didn't come out. I mentioned this to Lizzy when I saw her on Sunday and she said "no problem, bring it to me and i'll replace the whole panel and mail it back to you." How cool is that? She said to me, "I want people to be comfortable in these and even wear them camping if they want." So if I wear mine camping and stand too close to the fire and get little burn marks will you fix it for me? Yes, she will. You basically get a lifetime guarantee on your skirt.

I obviously love these skirts and I think you should check them out too. Shabbyknapsack can be found online at their website and at the Portland Saturday Market. Tell them Krista and Darilyn sent you!

My sister

My sister went home last night. All day I have found myself looking for her and wondering where she is. It's strange to have her gone. I'm looking forward to her being done with school in December and moving back to Oregon. We did some fun things while she was here and it's hard to pick a favorite day.

We fought a lot growing up. Or more correctly, I was always really mean to her growing up. I feel terrible for the way I treated her when I became a teenager. And it's really me that lost out. I'm glad that all gets remedied as you become adults. It makes me really glad that my girls will have each other when they get older. Someone to call about all the little things in life that either make them happy or make them sad.

My sister is in nursing school right now and she will be such a good nurse. I had to have some blood drawn while she was here and I know i felt better with her beside me. We love to laugh, act goofy ( as shown in the photo above), love Thai food, have terrible veins to draw blood from, tan red not brown and we love Shabby Knapsack. LOve you Krista!

Mosaic of me

My sister did this on her blog and I loved it. I tag anyone who want to do this. Just make sure to let me know so I can see yours.

Here are the instructions:

1. Type your answer to each of the questions below into Flickr Search.

2. Use only the first page of results, and pick one image.

3. Copy and paste each of the URLs for the images into Big Huge Lab’s Mosaic Maker to create a mosaic of the picture answers.


Onto the questions and my answers:

1. What is your first name? Darilyn, This picture makes me laugh. I'm glad to see that this Darilyn is a party girl like me. But what's up with the old guy in the background with no pants on?

2. What is your favorite food? Cantaloupe ~ I love pretty much all fruit but the cantaloupe has to reign as supreme. I buy one every single time I go to the grocery store.

3. What high school did you go to? Marshfield High School in Coos Bay, Oregon ~ Whoa, this picture brings back some intense memories. Mostly memories of yelling out my lungs for the Pirates. And when I was younger (jr. high age) I could be found behind the bleachers kissing my boyfriend. AWWW memories.

4. What is your favorite color? Purple ~ My eye immediatley went to this picture. I love the different shades of purple and lavender in this and when I saw that it was taken in Brasilia, Brazil that sealed the deal. That is where I served my mission so it's a perfect pick for me.

5. Who is your celebrity crush? Jeffrey Dean Morgan ~ Ahem ( clearing my throat, looking over my shoulder) I am not one to really get all ooey gooey over celebrities. But when this guy was on Grey's Anatomy I was reeled in. It is also the reason why P.S. I love you is my favorite movie of the year. I could stare at his ruggedness forever.

6. What is your favorite drink? Milk ~ Is this picture crazy or what? I love it. I'm am totally going to do this for halloween. But I think fruit loops would be even better.

7. What is your dream vacation? Backpacking in Europe ~ This is a picture of some huts on the Swiss Alps. It is a trip that I will make someday.

8. What is your favorite dessert? Lemon Cake ~ This picture is great because not only do I love lemon cake but I love lemon curd and this picture has both. It makes my mouth water just looking at it.

9. What did you want to be when you grow up? World traveler ~ I think we can truly know how to make our world a better place when we can see and understand people that are different from us. I have a passion for travel and I want to see the world.

10. What do you love most in life? My family ~ I would gladly pack my family in this van. I love old VW buses.

11. What is one word that describes you? Happy ~ This picture speaks for itself.

12. What is your nick name? D-lyn

credit goes to the following pictures from Flickr:

1. Darilyn and Rich, 2. Kaleidoloupe, 3. Marshfield against North Bend, 4. Soft purple, 5. jdm_1, 6. 365.22 : O-Me, Oh My!, 7. Alpine Huts in Switzerland, 8. lemony goodness, 9. Watering the Wall of Indifference, 10. dVan, 11. The Earth is God's Canvas., 12. D'Lyn's message

Family Reunion 2008

This is the picture that is the start of our family reunion. My mom with her 5 siblings. My mom is on the bottom right. Notice how my mom has a different skin tone then the rest of her siblings? She got her coloring from her grandma on her mom's side. The rest of her siblings got my grandpa's (their dad) coloring. And my sister and I have our mom's same coloring. So all of our cousins have this great olive skin and tan amazingly well and then there is Krista and I. We don't look like we fit with the rest of the group. I love these aunts and uncles like you wouldn't believe. They are getting older and the thought has crossed my mind that someday I will get a phone call that one of them has passed away. I don't know what I will do when that day comes. I love them so dearly that I can't even imagine it.
On the 4th of July we had a children's parade.


After the parade we had our Dutch Oven cook off competition.

I had the best week. This last week was spent at Camp Attitude in Sweet Home, Oregon. It was a beautiful place to be with my beautiful family. One of the highlights of the week for me was our very own family version of the Amazing Race. Thanks to my cousin Reagran for planning and executing this very time consuming event. We spent one whole morning playing it and we (chris the girls and I) were in the lead until the very last leg when we were yielded by my cousin Kerry and his family. I rocked at the the first Roadblock which was called "Emma or Elizabeth". I chose Elizabeth and quickly went through about 20 questions on Lizzie from Pride and Prejudice. My cousin Kerry ended up winning and got to take the trophy home. I'm glad they can take care of that for us for the next year because we WILL be taking it home with us next reunion. Unfortunately i hurt my ankle pretty badly during the race and I'm still limping.

I loved our day spent at Foster Lake. I layed on my beach blanket, worked on my tan and read my book. Does it get much better than that? I drank my share of stock in Diet Pepsi, Diet Dr. Pepper and Cherry Coke Zero, my newest favorite soda. But these beverages did nothing to compare with the Cotton Candy Machine and the Shaved Ice machine. I'm convinced that we need to buy our own Cotton Candy Machine. That thing is so much fun. I ate 5 sticks worth of fluffy, melt in your mouth sugar in blue, green, yellow, pink and I think orange. YUMMMMY. I got the feeling though that being a cotton candy fanatic as an adult is a rare thing. None of the other 40 adults at the reunion seemed as excited as me when that big silver machine came out.
This is what 6 Johns Siblings can create. A family group like this. We are missing tons of people in this photo. This is probably half of our family. Of course with a group our size not everyone could make the reunion. But this is who we had at our week long party.

We had such a great time and I can't wait to do it again in two years!