Welcome to our world Russell William!

Ah, road trip time. Time to drive on up to Washington and visit the Ouderkirks and Vander Yachts. Always a good time to be had.


We were greeted at the gate. Always a warm welcome.

And have you EVER seen such a cute face? Well, HAVE YOU???

Mary Jo prepares for a baby shower for Danielle. She and her husband are expecting a certain young man, Russell William, to arrive soon. And I sure hope he's ready to be a Seahawks fan, cause he ain't got no choice. Go Hawks!!!

Maybe he'll like strawberries, sour cream, and brown sugar. Man, he should. It's good!

And cake. Gee, I hope he likes cake.

Here's Russell's mom, ready for some strawberries and cake.

Here's Danielle and Jo Ann. My mother-in-law. Aren't they cute?

Mary Jo and Russell's mom. Cute.

Trying to take pictures. Cute.

The card is of a 'tater tot'. A potato in a diaper. Tater tot: get it? Funny Mary Jo. Very funny.

Gaven hung out with us. Not a lot to do when you're a boy at a baby shower, but he was a good sport.

Like I said, he'd better be a Seahawks fan!

Lots of gifts, and lots of wonderful people.

Russell's mom and Grandma. Lucky young man. Very lucky.

Not much to say about this. Speaks for itself.

How cool is that Megan? Cool.

Bye Russell's mom. You're in for a wonderful, lovely, exciting, and loving time.

Rip City

Mark, Doug, Steven, Jennifer, and I went to the Trail Blazer game against the Sacramento Kings on Friday night. It was Greg Oden's first start and we were glad to be there for that. Okay, granted the Blazers didn't play very well, but they won and that's a good thing. Okay, so the Blazers didn't score over 100 points and the crowd didn't get free chulapas from taco bell, but they won and that's a good thing. Right?

One of the best parts was the martial arts group from Hillsboro that performs at our Relay For Life was the half time entertainment. They did a great job as always.

I was proud of them, and I'm so glad they had this great opportunity. They work hard and they deserved it.

So, even with no free chulapas, we had a good time. And aren't Steven and Jennifer such a cute couple? I'm so glad she's home from school and was able to go.

Turkey, turkey sandwich....

Thanksgiving: we all know what that means at the Vander Yacht house hold. Wii! Wahoo! Cari shows off her skills.

Richard watches (and he is AMAZING at Wii) while Doug shows off. Cari is skeptical.

I give it a try.

I SUCK! But I have fun and that's what counts.

I also suck at cooking (well, let's just say I don't like cooking and leave it at that). Cari cooked most of the dinner, Steven helped with the potatoes, and Richard baked up a mean chocolate pumpkin pit. It was awesome.

TURKEY!!!!

And now for a picture of the cook. What the heck?

HEY, STEVEN! GET OUT OF THE WAY!!!!!

Brat.

Here she is. Thank you so much for cooking an excellent meal. You have a gift and I love it when you share it with us.

Halloween Fun!

One of the fun pictures from the Halloween Party at W&K. Ain't we cute?

Grab a shovel people and get busy!

Yesterday our group at work had an off site, working in a wetland in Hillsboro. One of the best parts of going there is seeing the eagles nest they obtained: amazing!

Oh, and the little animals that are scattered here and there. A muskrat: now you don't see those everyday.

After a wonderful box lunch from Panera we went outside to grab some tools. Hey, like I said earlier, grab a shovel people! We're going to plant some trees.

Yes Laura, this means you. I see the shovel: you're ready to get to work!

This is my shovel. Yes, even I grabbed a shovel.

Jan, the gal who works at the wetlands, directed us and ensured we planted the right tree at the right spot. We were planting three different types of trees, and there were different colored flags everywhere showing where they were to go. That made it so much easier!

And THANK GOODNESS I went out and bought myself some boots. We had lovely weather, sunny and just brisk enough to be fall type weather, but it was wetlands after all, and after a big ole rain fall like we had earlier in the week these wetlands were REALLY wet. And aren't those some styling boots I got myself there?

Yes Laura, I know. You have some styling boots just like mine. And yes, you had yours first.

Look past the sunshine folks, and there I am. Planting trees. Having fun.

A bit of this, a bit of that.

Last Friday was the last game for Tigard HS football. It was a good game, and Sheldon won. I wish them lots of luck, and it's time to start thinking about the holidays.

But, as always, GO TIGARD!

And it's time to start the wait for the Twilight movie to arrive. My girlfriends are SO excited! Bonnie, this means you! And Mary Jo: are YOU ready my dear?

Which team are you in? Lire seems to have turned her back on my team.

Steven and his friend Jennifer were working on an experiment (for lack of a better word this early in the morning) for school. They're in the process of having 20 folks drink 4 oz of coffee, half with caffeine and half without, and then taking their pulse to see what effects happen (or not happen).

So, if they're working on a school project, why are they laughing? Hmmm.

Because Hooper hid in the hallway and jumped out at Mark when he came home. Okay, pretty funny (yes, I laughed), but probably not a good idea to do before having him drink coffee and taking his pulse. Hmmmm.

Steven keeps careful track of the pulse rates.

Hooper HATED drinking the coffee. He HATES coffee. Not a Starbucks kind of guy.

Steven measures out the 4 oz for Mark.

Pulse taking time. What a good dad!

My problem is unlike Hooper I LOVE coffee. I wanted more. Darn.

Bye!!! It was fun, but I gotta go to work.

Big ole Cat Head Girl

Yep, that's me. Big ole Cat Head Girl.

More pumpkin patch stuff

Cari gave me a CD with the pictures I took with her camera. Thanks Cari, I love them.

Here Kseniya and Cari share a laugh (notice Cari is not sharing her apple...must have been raised in a barn by wolves on crack or something).

And I LOVE Jennifer's finger pointing in the right hand side. Cracks me up. You go Jenn! "What did mom say? You stay right HERE!" Yes, I'm sure that's what was being said. I would have tried that on Cari, but for some reason that kind of talk doesn't work with her any longer. Bummer.

Hanging out with everyone, still not sharing. Darn those crack smoking wolves.

We decided to take Cari to the other pumpkin patch after leaving 'Pumpkin Heaven' (see earlier blog). We needed to introduce her to some folks.

Giant Chicken, meet Cari. Cari, meet giant chicken.

AND then we took off for another pumpkin patch, one we've gone to for years and years and years. Cari really wanted some apple cider and this is one of her favorite places to get her some.

AND doughnuts! They make them and sell them 'hot off the press' and we had to stand in line for quite a while for Cari to buy some and share them with her parents (thank goodness the crack smoking wolves that raised her did make sure she shared doughnuts).

Thanks Cari. The doughnuts were the bomb. And mom, look at those sunglasses. Aren't they great?


As we wandered the pumpkin patch, remembering all the times we've gone there and all the fun we've had, we decided to do a bit of trickery. For the old days. Wow, I'll bet you're wondering how we did this?

Ta da!

It was fun Cari, hanging out with you. You bring out the joy in us.