Oh Edward!

When I first went toWashington to leave Tren for work, back in early January, I had just started reading Twilight (book one of the four book saga). After sitting in the airport for my 3 hour delayed plane, I nearly finished this first book. So. I became "obessed". I am now on book 4 and almost done! I did my research and discovered all the places, Port Angeles, Forks and LaPush are all within 2 hours driving time of Tren's new home. Heavenly Day!! So, on my visit I just made to Washington this last weekend, we made Saturday "Twilight Day". We headed out around 11 and our first stop was Port Angeles. We only zipped by the port and headed out.



Next stop? FORKS WASHINGTON where the hometown of the books is written about. I was so excited! Tren... not so much. As we got within miles of the town, his hissing at me began (the vampires in the movie hissed/growled at danger or anger). Yes. Yes. It was funny at first, but then I just got annoyed with him.



(please note the tourists getting their pic taken with the sign) Forks was definitely a small town, with one road as the main strip. We are driving down the strip and I see this!!:



I thought I was going to jump out of the car! Tren saw what I was squealing at and said "I am not going in there". But, he turned the truck around and we did go in! The store had tons of little collector things. Clothes that said things like "My boyfriend glitters" or "Team Edward" or "Team Jabob". There were little phrases that were on blocks of wood and they had little charms for a charm bracelet. They had so much stuff I can't list it all. I got myself and Annie a little something (I can't be specific as she has not received it yet). And then I got myself a black shot glass that said "twilight Forks, WA" in white writing in the twilight font. This store would have been 100 times better if Tren wasn't the one following me around and bringing me down. Annie and I will be going back someday and the store will be the experience it should be!

After the Twilight store we went and had pizza at a place there in Forks and then headed on to LaPush. Again, Tren is hissing at me and saying he keeps seeing Edward running in the trees along side us. He had too much fun mocking me. As we got to the city limits, I'm assuming, there was this:



For those of you who have read the books, you understand and will probably chuckle at this sign. I will do a separate post of LaPush...

I have to say that I do complain about Tren hissing and being a party pooper, but he was such a good sport in taking me there to see all this ridiculous stuff. When we were in the store he was asking me what things meant that you would only understand if you had read the books. And he also remembered things, like where Jacob 'came' from, from the movie. I was surprised at his questions because I thought all he was doing during the movie was trying to come up with jokes about vampires or hissing at me. On to LaPush...

Our Family

Tren asked me to have Belle draw a picture of our family for his fridge in his new apartment. A couple of nights ago, we finally got to the drawing. I gave her a piece of cardstock and some markers and crayons. She chose the black one and started first with herself and Rooster. But she drew them so big there wasn't a lot of room left for me and Tren. She started with some legs for me and then sighed and said "I ruined this, Momma! I need a new piece of paper... look at all this crap I just did over here!" and pointed to my two long line legs. They started about an inch from the top of the page leaving no room for my head. She seemed very upset about it and started to scribble over them. I gave her a new piece and she tried again. Here is Rooster on the first draft... I love it!



I told her to start smaller and she would be able to fit everyone in. So, she started with herself and then Rooster and she noticed there was plenty of room for me and Tren. After putting on her finishing touches, I gave her some heart stickers I had and told her to put a few of them on. First thing she did was pick the tiny-est heart and put it on Rooster's body like it was her little heart. I thought it was so sweet! But, then she removes the heart and puts it as a bow on Roosters head. She started to put hearts between me and Tren and coming off her body. These hearts were "love we were giving each other". She used a ton of the hearts and I finally had to tell her to stop so I could have some for the Valentine's I'd originially bought the stickers for. Then she signed her name and was quite pleased with her artwork.



She has changed the way she draws her people. They used to have huge ears the size of the eyes, but now no one has ears. I still love that they don't have bodies. Just a head with huge eyes, a huge nose, a little smirk of a mouth, arms, legs and some hair. Rooster doesn't even have ears. And her signature has changed too. She just does lines for her "L's" now. So cute!

Falling asleep is hard to do...

Belle has been having a hard time actually falling asleep lately. Our bedtime routine:

Have a snack of applesauce or fruit or something. Brush teeth and go potty. Then she gets tucked in and I turn on her music (currently a Phantom of the Opera/Johnny Cash cd Tren made her).

Well last night I headed to my room right after tucking her in. I have been reading the Stephanie Meyer TWILIGHT books (love them! freaking love them!) so I jump in bed and READ! I shut the door just a bit and began reading. I left Rooster in Belle's room, at Belle's request. I can hear her Phantom music WAY too clearly so I hollar at her to turn in back down. She can't hear me since the radio is right next to her bed. So, I go in and turn in down and tell her not to mess with it or it gets shut off. I head back to my room. A few minutes later I can hear a Johnny Cash song on that is also my ringtone when Tren calls me. Belle knows this and I can hear her call out to me "Momma its for you!" as if it was my phone ringing because Tren was calling. She laughed at her funny self. So, I too quitely laugh and get back to my book. A few minutes later, I can hear giggling and then some footsteps and pouncing and Belle squeals. Then I hear Rooster come to my door and I hear her sniffing and snorting. I quietly pull the door open, thinking Belle is out there too, but instead.... this is what I found.



(This picture is kinda crappy because I was using my phone and I didnt want her to wriggle out of it before I got a picture.) If you notice her front right leg has a pony tail wrapped around it too, pushed up to her 'thigh'. I called Belle and she came rushing into my room with a little smirk on her face. Trying to be serious and not laugh, I asked her how Rooster got into her sparkley shirt and Belle said "I put her in it,... don't you think she looks soooo beautiful?... I wanted her to look fancy for bed!" As you may know, Belle can go from being in the real world to being in her world in the matter of a split second! That is exactly what she did in her confession. She forgot she might be in trouble, but who cared?...Rooster looked fancy and that was all the mattered to Belle. She is nuts! And I love her!

16 Questions

I am going to start asking Belle a series of questions with each new year. I weighed her and measured how tall she is. She is a mean 33.5 pounds and 42.5 inches tall!! Here are the results of the questioning:

1. What is your name? " Bellami Bea Bare "

2. How old are you? " 4 "

3. What do you like to do for fun? " I like to play in the spring and sometimes in the winter I like to wear a skirt and tank top. " (she did this today and learned that if there's snow on the ground you should wear jeans and boots!)

4. What is your favorite color? " pink "

5. What is your favorite song? " Twinkle Twinkle Little Star "

6. What is your favorite thing to eat? " Peanut Butter and Jam "

7. What does "I love you" mean? " That you are sweet and you are family "

8. Who is your best friend? " Oakley "

9. What was the hardest thing you had to do today? " Clean my room "

10. What is your favorite toy? " Polly Pockets! "

11. Who is your hero? " Tren " (priceless)

12. What is a secret? " When you get someone a present but you don't tell them what it is "

13. How many brothers/sisters do you want? " 4 brothers and 4 sisters " . (yikes!)

14. What are you most scared of? " Monsters "

15. What is the most important thing to you? " The thing that is the most important to me is not telling people that I love them and to keep it a secret ". (I think she got all these questions going into one thing here... ?)

16. What do you want to be when you grow up? " A ballerina "

I can't wait to see what she says next year! I wanted to come up with some questions that required more thought, but I was unsuccessful. I will keep a tally of them as I think of them throughout the year.

Just checking...

... to see who's checking my blog today! Enjoy if you are!

Butte Wheeling

A week ago Sunday, Tren, Belle, Rooster, Lewis and I went for a 4 wheeler ride up to the Butte. I told Belle to get into some pants, long sleeved shirt, boots and find her jacket. She comes into my room wearing her black "party" dress, brown tights and her pink ballerina shoes. I told her to go outside and see if she feels warm in her party dress. She goes out and comes in and says "it's not cold out there mom". Trying not to let her see me smile, I finally get her to change into warm clothes. She gets some jeans on and her boots and a long sleeve shirt and her coat. She chose her skinny jeans and insisted on stretching the bottom around her boot instead of tucking them into the boot. So! We load up and head out. We arrived at the boot and unload the wheelers. We started out with Rooster running along behind us and I felt so bad for her. She did pretty good for a while, but I just couldn't take it anymore.



I put her in my coat so she would be warm. Belle rode between Tren and I so she wouldn't be right in front in the wind. I told Belle to hold on to Tren so I could keep Rooster in my coat and hold on myself. She kept losing focus and would end up reclining back on me as if this was a smooth ride down the river or something! Rooster would get all nervous before we went over a cow crossing bridge and would try to jump out, so I would have to hold her in and smush Belle into Tren so she wouldn't fall off! We stopped along the way to take a few pics... Belle cracks me up!



After this little stop, we got back on the trail and Rooster got into Tren's coat. I could finally relax a little! Belle spotted a creek and she wanted Tren to drive through it. First Tren almost bumped Belle off the back of the wheeler into the water because he didn't know she was standing up and then Rooster tried to jump out and come over to me. What a mess!



And with Lewis in the creek... please note Rooster in Tren's coat!



We headed back and Belle climbed over a fence. At first she didn't think she could, but she did a great job!



And just another of her in her skinny jeans and pink boots! Oh! I almost forgot. As we are riding, she starts wiggling around and saying "my husband is calling... oh my gosh... my husband is calling... i have to get him from work..." I wasn't sure what she was talking about, but then she got her phone out of that skinny pocket and I about died! She was on the phone with that "man" for a good 10 minutes on the way back to the truck. Such an imagination.



She fell asleep leaning back in her "lazy momma" and had a great time. She really likes to go for rides and is asking when we can go again. Maybe next time she'll wearing some boot cut jeans?

Pumpkin Patch fun!!

A couple weeks ago, Belle and I went to the Ontario Walmart, (for a change) and while we were in route, we passed the SWEETEST pumpkin patch. I told her we would go back the next day when Tren was back from hunting. So! I informed Tren we would be going and the next day we were off. I could hardly wait! I knew there was a hayride and I didn't tell Tren about it, because I knew he wouldn't really want to do that. (Party Pooper, that's why I invited him.) We finally got there and there were soooo many people. We went over and posed on the stacked up straw for a few pics...



Then around came the tractor to take us to the patch! Tren was not a happy pumpkin picker! I took this great pic of him and I love you can see the wheel of the tractor, so you know he was on it! (Party Pooper Party Pooper!)



We were dropped off and headed out to get our treasures! I wanted a white pumpkin, and now that I think about it, I didn't even get a pic of it... Shoot. Belle chose a small white one and Tren picked a squatty white-ish green one.



I know Belle and I had a great time at the pumpkin patch. And I think Tren secretly did too.

The Cabin

On October 4th we made a trip to the cabin. Tren, Emmy, Belle, Rooser, Lewis Kipper, his wife Ashely, and their daughter Blythe, Russ, Keith, Carmen, Vince and Randi. Tren's family built an "A Frame" cabin on West Mountain a lonnngggg time ago, and we go up there when we can.



We took the wheelers, and '70s and did some riding and trail breaking. We went for a ride the first night and Belle started out riding between Randi and I on Tren's wheeler. Then she moved to Vince, I think, on his '70. She rode with him for quite a while. They went off the road and into the weeds and she just kept on smiling and hanging on. Then she got too cold from being right in the front, so she switched over and rode between Russ and Carmen on Russ's wheeler. When we got back to the cabin, it looked like she had grown hundreds of new freckles! This was actually mud...



We had a great time, and hopefully we can make another snow covered trip this year!!

While Rooster's running the coop!

A few weeks ago, I came home from work to discover a dolly had exploded in our bedroom. Actually, Rooster had chosen one of Belle's many dolls (darlings) and snuggled up with it on our bed. She proceeded to chew the side of it's face off. Somehow, she can get the stuffing out and EVERYWHERE! By the looks of things, she had to have been having a great time. The stuffing was under the sheets, on the floor, and all over the top of the blanket. I called her into the bedroom and said "Roosterrrr..." and she slicked her ears back against her head and stayed there. I got her to pose up on the bed to take these pics. She knew how much trouble she was in and didn't move until I told her she could get down. It was funny and I felt sort of bad for making her sit there. She looks like she is in trouble, so it makes the pics even better! I didn't show Belle these pics... we'll see how long it takes her to discover Britta is missing.



Naughty Rooster



Poor Britta

Combine Derby!

This past weekend, Tren and I went to visit his brother, sister-in-law and his new nephew! Bryce and Cassie had Gage this summer while Tren was gone to Minneapolis. They live just outside Orofino, Idaho. Cassie works for the Clearwater Fish Hatchery and when we were there we got a tour.



These are just a few sockeye salmon eggs. If you look close you can see their little eyes in them! Then....



This is Cassie pushing the tray back into the shelf and all those trays are filled with the eggs! I wish I knew the number she said was there, but I can't. It was very neat.

Sunday we went to Nez Peirce, ID for the annual Combine Derby. I have a video of it, but I don't know how to post it, so we'll wait for that for later. To start out they did barrel racing in their combines. There was barrels set up exactly as they would be if you were on a horse and the drivers and to spin around them and go as fast as they could. It was a great start! Then there was some lawn mower racing and those things could really haul. A few times a driver would take a corner to fast and roll his mower. Then the combines. They all lined up and then the whistle blew and it was time to bump into each other and destroy everyones combine. The last combine running and moving was the winner. The prize ? $2,000.00!!! Here are a few pics from the derby...



The line up....



The aftermath!....



I had to!

And the last one... what Rooster did the entire derby.



We had a great time and it was well worth the drive to visit Bryce, Cassie and Gage and of course to see the Combine Derby!