A LUCKY ONE, AT LAST!

O.K., I've got a story for you all today!
Eleven years ago today I married the love of my life. We knew within weeks of meeting each other that we complimented each other's differences, shared so many similarities, and enjoyed our time together and that was that. Kindof blew my family away I think too, because Jeff is NOTHING like any guy I had ever dated in highschool and the first years of college, however I knew he was the one. Fast-Forward, 9 years (Aug. 3, 2004). Instead of expensive gifts, costly evenings out (babysitters cost a lot these days you know..) Jeff and I decided that we would set out on an adventure of somesort every year to celebrate our anniversary. We decided to drive up the highest road in Washington state that day (it's called Harts Passt's an old mining road in the North Cascades that is only open a short period of time each year). It was absolutely BREATHTAKING!!!! The drive up was a bit scary however, and the single lane road with drop off sides had to be shared by two way traffic. Apparently everyone else decided to take on this adventure this day because there were lots of people up there! So on the way down, Max asleep in the back seat, we see a truck hanging off the edge of the steep cliff and a crowd of people in the middle of the road. Then we saw the pile of rocks. A short storm had passed over the mountain with giant hail stones that had caused an avalanche. No one was hurt, but the road was blocked for over an hour and rocks kept falling down all around us. I didn't know if I should grab Max out of the back seat so I could run with him if I needed too, or if he was safer in the truck!

(I told you this was a story right?)
So last year rolls around. It's Jeff and my 10th Anniversary so we decided to make the adventure a little special. Grandma and Grandpa watched the kids and we headed down to southern Oregon to visit some sites I hadn't seen since I was a kid, and new to Jeff. We had a darling little Bed and Breakfast booked for two nights in the quaint little town of Jacksonville. First night we got there late, got up early, had an awesome 5 course breakfast and headed 1 1/2 hours away to visit the Oregon Caves (O.K., this is August 3rd again!) Oh, and I forgot to mention we were borrowing Jeff's Dad's truck because our van was running funny, we left it in the shop while we went on our trek south. So the caves were great, we're heading down the hill to the next little town to pick up a bottle of wine to take back to the Bed and Breakfast (Great Wineries in this area, by the way), and the brakes lock up!!!! Literally! We had to pull over and couldn't go another inch. It was 95+ degrees out and we were 20 minutes from a town in the middle of nowhere on a very unpopulated road. An hour later someone stopped. He said he had to go to town and see his brother, maybe he'd stop and help us on the way back. Sigh.... cell phone's not working....Finally, this great lady and her teenage daughter stop. They take us to their house. They call their electrician friend in town who says he can fix the truck in the morning, they feed us shrimp and fill us up with margaritas... truck get's towed, we stay at a little motel in town (Cave Junction, anyone heard of it?) Missed out on the whole B&B experience, but hey, we can't complain, it was still an adventure right? Sheila and Deano, you saved us that night, we had a great time and we think of you often! Thanks a bunch.

So I stayed up late last night and made this to put in a frame for Jeff for him to take to work. I set it up next to the coffee maker so I knew he'd see it (he always get's up first and makes us coffee). Zoe took this photo of us at Marymere Falls a few days ago.

See credits to this layout here

I awoke to fresh coffee and ELEVEN beautiful peach roses this morning, a computer made card that say's "This was my lucky day 11 years ago, and I keep getting luckier every day", and was filled with 11 Lotto scratch tickets. I guess he figured that would be a good inclination to our luck on this anniversary. Hey, we won $15, not bad!

Our Adventure
today was one I've been wanting to do for awhile. Jeff and Zoe have done it several times and now that Max is older and can swim better we decided it was time to float down the river. It's 6 miles from the next town where we start to the dock here where we parked our awaiting car. It took all day! What a great time. The sky is still filled with smoke, but the water was crystal clear! Jeff and the kids caught several small bass, we took a couple pit-stop swimming breaks, had lunch, and saw lots of wildlife (and everyone who has a house on the river's back yards, I've always wondered about them... nice places!) It was so shallow in spots that the kids had to get out and push (see picture), and so roaring in others that I felt like we were white water rafting. We also rescued this Monarch that was floating down the river on this log it was sitting on (see picture). I can't believe it. I've never seen one in my life and in a few days I see two! Isn't that strange. So all day I was waiting to get a hole in the boat, or loose the camera over board, or something, after all it is our Anniversary! Nothing! We came home and made a late dinner. I sauteed shrimp in butter, olive oil, garlic, onions, mushrooms, cilantro, chili powder and lemon juice (YES, I MADE SEAFOOD, I'm slowly but surely acquiring a taste for it, Jeff is thrilled), we had roasted peppers with Gorgonzola Cheese and Balsamic Vinegar, corn on the cob, steamed yams, broccoli and carrots, saffron rice and bread. Wow! I'm stuffed.

I hope you all had a great day as well. Be watching for previews of the new kit I've been working on. It's called "Ocean Blue" if that gives you any hints. I'm also going to try to dig up some old pictures of Anniversary Celebration 9 and 10 to post later so you can see the sites we saw too!

Take care, Amy