Photo#2: "Photo with an animal"



Team #1 - Is he actually touching that thing?



Team #2 - Can you see the fear in her eyes...he's about to snap your head off!

Team #3 - the things people do to win a game...

Photo #3: "Can you find us?"

Team #1 Behind the fense...tricky, tricky.

Team #2 Is that a finger I see at the top of the bush?

Team #3 They are behind the fense too...a ploy of distraction taking place.

Malibu Tool & Tackle 2008

Last week, Nick, Ami, Matt, Dad, Uncle Paul, Aunt Bettina and I headed up to a Young Life Camp in Canada called Malibu for a week of working, eating, fellowship, eating, recreating and did I mention eating? Tool & Tackle has been around for years...volunteers spending a week of their lives each year to de-winterize the camp, in preparation for summer campers. Jobs include, rebuilding docks, landscaping, plumbing, remodeling dorms, cleaning the pool...basically everything that needs to be fixed, gets fixed. It was a great time being at camp again...a place where God certainly dwells. We work hard, but they keep us going with our various meals:

8am - breakfast

10:30 - snack break
1pm - lunch
3:30pm - coffee break
6pm - dinner
8:30pm - coffee, tea and eating up all the treats that didn't get eaten during snack break.

We had "club" each night (time for song and a mini-sermon about God's love) and got to recreated a little each afternoon. It was an amazing time to serve the Lord...such scenery and lots of laughs with the family and new friends.

The ferry ride over:

How about that being your view from work? The outer dock team...gettin' it done:

A view from the top. A short, but steep scamper up lots of rocks puts you over the top of Malibu:
They even have disc golf! It really is the perfect place!

Texas

Last week, Nick and I had the pleasure of flying down to Texas to visit his family. There were a few familial business things to take care of, hense the last-minutedness of our trip, but it was time well spent none the less. We stayed at Nick's father and his wife's house on the farm. They have a fabulous chunk of land in Saint Hedwig (a little town outside of San Antonio) so we got to get the real "country" experinece.

Brother in law, Matt, and step mother in law, Leslie prepping the patio for a BBQ with friends and family that evening

Nick taking me on a ride on the wild side...when in Texas, drive tractors like the Texans!

A shot of their backyard...beautiful, expansive land.

Nick Sr. has an organic landscaping business. He keeps all his plants stored at the farm. It's a great place to wonder around.

Yeah...that's right...I'm blogging about our lawn mower

About 12 weeks ago, I joined a boot camp at my gym. We meet 3 times a week and do various cardio and weigh resistance workouts for an hour. My main motivation for signing up for boot camp in the beginning was to get motivated about exercising during the winter. Daily outdoor recreation is a bit on the shabbier side during the cooler winter months. Meaning my motivation to get outside an do anything was slim to none. I had a few days when getting the mail was a challenge…I like warmth. So back in February, when I signed up, it made sense. Boot camp has been a time well spent; I got into a regular exercise routine, I have met some great people and I even got weight lifting back into my routine.
Slight, yet related, subject change:
Today, I was working diligently in the office. After 5 hours of straight work (with the exception of bathroom breaks) I began to wig out. For me personally, my “wigging out” usually starts with a sporadic twitch. Then I can’t sit still. Then I get obsessed with movement of any kind…washing dishes, vacuuming, sweeping, pacing up and down the hallway…anything to release the inner movement bug. Anyways, I happened to glance outside and saw our lawn, realizing it was due time for a mow. I thought cutting the lawn would be a perfect way to release my energy and mix up my afternoon a little bit. Thanks to my wonderful sister and brother in law, Nick and I adopted a push mower. You know, one of those old school mowers that has circulating metal blades and moves by the sheer force of you pushing it. No gas. No pull chord. No loud whiny noise. Just grunting gets this baby going. As I began to push this mower, I realized two things: 1. I was going to get all my built up energy out in about 4 minutes and 2. Now I know why the gas mower was invented. They are WAY easier…they actually push themselves and, as a bonus feature, they pick up the grass clippings that were just mowed. Therefore, a nice crisp clean looking lawn is left over. But, no, no…the Vann’s chose not to roll with one of those. We are doing it the old fashion way (also less polluting. For your environmental tip of the day: Did you know that mowing the average American size lawn puts the same a CO2 emissions into the air as driving 100 miles in a car??? Yikes!) Anyways, back on topic…half way through the lawn cutting, I realized I was sweating harder than I had been in weeks…boot camp workouts included. I just kept on shedding layers and shedding layers (it is still only 55 degrees outside you know). Then it all clicked: I let the perfect business opportunity pass me by. For the past 3 months I have been spending time and gas money on driving to the gym, then paying someone to tell me how to exercise, then spending more time and gas money to drive home….When really I could have started up some sort of “Natural Lawn Cutting” business around my neighbor hood, which would have made me money, gotten me into better shape, and saved the earth from a few more car emission pounds! Ah well, lesson learned; maybe next winter. For the time being, I will continue to mow our yard…and for any of you who want to skip the gym too, feel free to swing by and borrow our push mower. You will get an hour long “treadmill” experience for sure!

There she is...puuuurrrrs like a kitten

As I am posting this last picture, I am realizing that I am a huge NERD. Who blogs about their lawn mower? Ah well, blogs are for expression and that is what I am doing. So here's another shot of my freshly clean cut lawn (fence will be painted when it stops snow/raining all day!)

Disc Golf Fun

Lately Nick and I have really been digging Disc Golf. For those of you foreign to said sport, let me sum it up: It is a combination of golf (as in following those guidelines) and Frisbee (so instead of using a club and ball, shooting for a hole in the ground, you use a Frisbee-esk disc and aim for a metal basket). There is a 9 "hole" Disc Golf course about a mile from our home at Cornwall Park. We have enjoyed many of sunny afternoons there, trying to work on our skills or in other words: trying not to make dents in the trees. We recently took a trip up to Glacier to check out their 36 "hole" course. This course is no walk in the park...it's more like a high endurance hike. The entire course is laid out in a heavily forested area. It is common to "tee off" on one side of a ravine, aiming for the basket on the other side. Or shooting from the base of a huge hill side with the basket at the top (invisible from your starting point). The most challenging task is trying to configure the best toss through a maze of trees. Unless of course you had a really bad shot and end up searching for your disc through the muddy marsh or piles of tree trunks, branches and sticks...that is way more tough. Word to the wise...never buy a green disc. Mother Earth will adopt it rapidly.

Now I wouldn't say that Nick and I will be signing up for the Sunday afternoon tournaments that they have at Cornwall, but we have come to be great fans of this activity. It's a great way to add a little diversity to the common walk in the park, reestablishing that feeling of dirt under your feet after a long winter. We have recently started setting bets and a reward is given to the person with the best (lowest) score. Let's just say that Nick owes me many Mallards Ice Cream cones. Wanna join us??? We would love play with you!

Oops! Nick had to do a little hunting to find his disk...Get out of the woods!

I'm working on using my torso for extra power. Cousin Matthew taught me that...

Do you see how beautiful nature is??? Can you find Nick in the photo?

Crystal Mountain Gett-a-Way

This weekend, Nick and I met up with the Lopez clan at my parent's cabin at Crystal Mountain. We really enjoy our time up there during all seasons because of the vast scenery changes. Currently, there is about 1.5 feet of snow still sitting around the property from the huge winter snow dump. We use this time to tromp around in the snow, knowing that the next time we'll be up there, the warm spring sunshine will be shining on us.

On Saturday, all 6 of us headed to the ski resort area for a few miles of snow shoeing (snowshoes were new Christmas gifts for the Lewis and Vann households this year). This was my big day back to expelling energy since the whole week before I was laid out on my sick bed. Needless to say it was a HARD little jont with the fam. My sister having the energy of horse, pushed me up the steepest hills we ventured up. Matt, brother in law, and his long legs did laps around the rest of us on our assent. Thankfully, my family is beyond understanding and were willing to slow down a bit for me. Yet after too many deep breaths and slight pangs of dizziness, I waived my flag and turned around. Nick joined me in the lodge where I laid across 3 chairs and passed out...waiting until the rest of the family was done with their oh-so-energy-sucking adventure. I must say, even though I had to bag out early, it was beyond wonderful to be up there and breath the fresh mountain air. It was a surprisingly clear day and embraced the fact that our cheeks would get a little pink...nothing like spring sun!

Mom's bringing up the rear...dad next...then me. The rest of the crew are frolicking ahead of us...

Ami pushing me up the Hills...

Sunday was yet another day up at Crystal Ski Resort for Dad, Nick and myself (Ami and Matt headed back south, while mom and Brea stayed at the cabin to relax and make cookies - yummm). We hit the slopes hard and had many Thanks to God for blessing us with yet another amazingly sunny day! This was the first time back on the slopes for dad in 6 years! Due an accident on the mountain resulting in two shoulder surgeries...he decided to take some time off. He even sold his skis! But alas, Nick talked him into it and so he ventured up with us (and Nick's new A-Line Arbor board). This was by far one of the best days skiing I have ever had. Certainly not skill wise, but weather wise! There were hardly any people up there, we wore light clothing, ate lunch outside and had a crystal clear view of mountain ranges from the top, Mt. Rainer and Mt. Adams included. The snow was a bit slushy towards the end of the day, but really didn't affect us at all. Dad had a blast and already started talking about his next trip up for next weekend. Best of all, we came home to a huge batch of fresh chocolate chip cookies! Ahh, I love weekends!

Check out the view!

Valentine's Day

Valentine's Day...a holiday we embrace or a holiday we despise? I personally have always been in the middle somewhere. I am not to keen on the idea that as a country we are fed the message that on February 14th we are to treat that special someone with the utmost care...spoiling them with flowers, chocolates, romantic dinners, etc, etc, etc. Why can't we do that everyday OR any day of the year? I suppose we can and some people do. AND I also recognize that some people fall into normal patterns of day to day grind which doesn't always send the message to their significant other that no matter what happens, or what is at stake, he/she is the highest priority in life (besides God of course). My wonderful husband claimed to have fallen into this category, although do to the constant love I always feel, I begged to differ. But to Nick, that didn’t' matter...February 14th would be a day he would insist on being EXTRA special.
At 7:35am I woke up to the sound of something being chopped in the kitchen. This was a bit of a surprise, considering the normal breakfast routine for Nick is a bowl of cereal. I ignored it for a bit, but then my curiosity got the best of me, so I staggered out of bed all big haired and sleepy to investigate. To my great surprise, I did not find Nick in the kitchen but Le Personal Chef of Love, wearing a red apron and huge white Chef hat (made of recycled paper of course). With a tremendously large French accent, Chef promptly greeted me, encouraged me to sit at the breakfast bar and watch him get to work of preparing organic bananas and fresh cantaloupe on a platter. I happily sipped my fresh squeezed orange juice and admired the scenery: Two tall candles standing in recycled wine bottles wrapped with ribbon, a yellow table clothe with red glass beans spread all over to up the decor and a personalized menu lacking food options but full of nice complements to yours truly. Oh it was a sight to be seen. Chef asked me what I would like for breakfast...everything he says with his accent: "Omelet, waffles, eggs...anything for you." Oh I could get used to this. So I put in my special request of a dippity-doo egg and he got to cooking. My chef must have been new, because he got so distracted while making his coffee and answering my silly questions (where are you from, what did you do with my husband, etc) that he burnt the first go around of toasted eggs. Oops! Apparently he is not a multitaskter. The second one turned out much better (although the slightest bit charred), and was delicious. After serving me tea, extra hot just like I like it, Chef announced that we would be eating all three meals together that day. I would meet him in town for lunch anywhere I wanted to go, then for dinner he would create a fine feast for us. It was a great surprise and as the day unfolded, I told him I felt like I was on vacation...all three meals with my man, I mean, Chef of Love, and thoughts of him...Blissful.
So I suppose Valentines Day is a day to be celebrated in any way you want to. From burnt eggs to dinner at a 5 star restaurant. The important thing to remember is a little extra special treatment can happen every now and again...not just the specifically designated days.

Ahhh...Books!

I Love to read. A passion that started during my late high-school years. My own personal library has been growing ever since. I have this certain fondness of owning what I read. Don't get me wrong, the library is a fantastic resource, but there is something satisfying about looking at the lineup of books on my shelves; sighing with satisfaction due to the endless hours of my life dedicated to these stories. Diving deep into a whole new world...differing cultures, eras, and places on this earth I have never dreamed of visiting. It brings me much pleasure.

I have friends who can read a book in a day. This amazes me. The discipline and focus it takes...amazing. I have always found myself a bit jittery after a few chapters. The need to get up and do something "productive." Lately, I have decided my philosophy about productivity sucks (to put it bluntly). Here I am...currently reading Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert...absorbing her journey through Italy. How she is purely focusing on doing what she WANTS to do...not what is EXPECTED. Oh you know...when you go somewhere new you are supposed to see the "it" things..certain landmarks, museums, etc. Instead, she chooses to explore on foot, with no maps or directions AND to eat a lot of really good food. I am inspired by this freedom she has allowed herself to have and realize that I can have the same freedom. Now, this by no means that I am going to sit on the couch all day, eating bon-bons and reading a book a day. Or just hop on a plane and venture to some new place (not without my husband at least). No, no. That is just not in my blood. However, I strive to find more joy in doing what I love and not being so ruled by the clock. If I choose to read for an hour or two smack in the middle of the day...dangit, I'm going to.

I may be especially giddy about reading lately because of the lucky "good-book" streak I am on. I am three for three and hoping it doesn't stop there. First came: The Namesake (by Jhumpa Lahiri), then was Water for Elephants (Sara Gruen), and as mentioned before, currently Eat, Pray Love (by Elizabeth Gilbert). If any of you are in hunt of a good book, I would recommend any of those without a doubt. At the end of Water for Elephants, I actually put the book on my lap and applauded it. "Well done!" I shout, "Well done in deed!" Now that is a Good Book.

The latest:

A few of my all-time favorite books:

New Years Eve

The Fly Boys

Nick and I decided to throw a New Years Eve party this year. We were ready to celebrate the soon approaching 2008 with a BANG! Something fun...something crazy...something loud! And no, I don't mean fireworks...I mean BUNCO! After receiving 20 RSVPs we were set...the perfect amount players to cram into our home. And just to add some more hecticness to the mix; we had Fondue! That's right...three different kinds of cheese fondue, chicken skewers with four different dipping sauces and a chocolate fondue fountain to wrap it all up. Talk about a good use of counter space! You must know that the entertainer in me was thrilled to have a house full of people in our home. I had visions of people pouring over the counter, reaching for the next goody to be stabbed on their stick. People screaming "BUNCO!!!" so loud the whole neighborhood could hear. I couldn't wait!

Our preparations started on Sunday (party was Monday). The house had to be cleared away of all Christmas decorations and room made for 3 extra tables, chairs brought in, a clear counter for the serving dishes, recipes ready to go as guests brought their assigned ingredient, punch cards created, dice counted, champagne chilled, and on and on and on.

Finally, 7pm arrived and guests started rolling in. This is when I discovered that Fondue is a high maintenance food. Please don't confuse some cheese in a pot to be on the same caliber as a casserole. No, no. Casseroles are easy. Put it in the oven, leave it in the oven, serve when ready. Fondue requires simmering of some ingredients then slowing adding the cheese and stirring the spoon just so at a specific temperature to prevent clumping AND then keeping it that way. Now try making three different kinds at the same time, so everyone could equally enjoy it! Thankfully, I had some fantastic helpers in the kitchen...at the ready for their next task. As Kristen shredded and Diana stirred, Nick chopped and I filled. It was a beautiful, chaotic process.

After filling our bellies with cheesy goodness...the games began. People paired up, rolled, won, punched cards, moved to the next table...losers, sulked sadly that yet again, they had to stay put. "Buncos" being yelled (mostly by Anne Marie) and no matter what room you were in...you could always hear where Dustin was. I love the loud ones! (for those of you who have never played Bunco...you MUST!!! then all of this will make sense!) It was great fun!

We took a break between the second and third rounds for dessert: Chocolate fountain with various fruits, pound cake and brownies for dipping. Given I had just taken the fountain out of it's brand new box that day, a new daunting feat was soon to be overcome (remember I am not so much a detailed person when it comes to directions). With some encouraging words from Brian and Kristi, it was a success! We poured the melted chocolate into the base and soon, gooey, smooth chocolate was flowing! Well, that was until a small figurine tried to make it's swimming debut in the fountain and ended up turning a nicely flowing stream into a sprinkler system. Chocolate ON everyone...if you like it or not!!!
All in all, the party was a blast. We had a few high rollers walk out with fatter wallets (hey, who said coming to our house wouldn't be profitable?), a lot of really good laughs and hilarious moments to remember! Kara and Kevin's "special dance" will be locked in my memory forever!

Alright...so the big question: Who's hosting next year?

The line up...

...the food....

...and the mingle.

Oh yeah....and the culprit for a spraying chocolate fountain. OR maybe the real culprit was Diana.