Leaving on a Jet Plane

In about three days we will be enjoying some of this:

(Actually, hopefully we will not be "enjoying" any of this!
At least not knowingly.)

Vietnam, here we come!

What Matters Most

Last night I received some sad news about family friends from our stake in St. Louis. Their mother passed away this week after a battle with cancer. As I was thinking about them and have been inspired by their strength and their testimonies, I was reminded of this video on Mormon Messages: .
I feel very blessed to have been raised to know the importance of families and to know that families are forever. I hope you enjoy this video!

Fall has arrived.

Earlier this week I woke up to a chilly morning and RAIN. Summer has gone away and fall has replaced it. It's interesting how this change seems to happen so quickly, but in reality, there are several things that have slowly, almost imperceptibly led up to this change in seasons. But this year it literally seemed like one week it was summer and the next was fall.
One of my most favorite things about fall, that I missed while living in California and Arizona, are the leaves changing colors. The colors are magnificent, especially here in the Northwest. The reds are so vibrant. I don't think I have ever seen anything like it before. This picture does not even do it justice, but that's what you get when you have an amateur behind the camera!

Cool Video made by Amber and Jon

My little sister, Amber, called to tell me to check my email because her and her husband had put together this video they thought David and I would like. We watched the video and it was awesome so I had to share it with you guys. They made this with their digital camera and just combined a bunch of still frames together so they look like they're moving. I got their permission to post it on my blog since it is so cool.

Check it out:

Jeans from Jon Troutman on Vimeo.

(If it has problems loading, hit pause right after you hit play and then let it load all the way before playing it again.)

I didn't think much about them making this video since Ambie and Jon are both really creative and Jon is a graphic design artist that has made videos before. Did you notice anything in particular about the video? Pretty creative, huh?

Dear Doernbecher Children's Hospital,

Please send Dr. Bailly home. His wife misses him and her side of the bed is beginning to droop because he is not on the other side to balance it out.

She will continue to share him with you every 4th night, at least one weekend a month and some holidays because she knows that the sick kids at the hospital need him too.

Your cooperation is much obliged.

Sincerely,
His Wife

The Perfect Weekend

I love General Conference. It makes for two whole feel good days and lots of inspiration. I always come away with a renewed desire to be better. This weekend was no different and David was home the whole weekend to enjoy it with me.

We also got to experience a little bit of the outdoors. We headed out, with friends, to the Columbia River Gorge. During our year of living here, we have only gone out there a handful of times, and let's just say we could go out there every weekend until we move and still have so much more to see. It is amazing. This trip entailed hitting four more destinations and it only took about 4 hours one evening to do them all.

Crown Point State Park that overlooks the Gorge:


The Vista House:


Wahclella Falls:




There are so many waterfalls in the Gorge and waterfalls happen to be one of my favorite things, so I better take advantage of having so many nearby.

Bonneville Fish Hatchery:

Honestly I was not really sure what to expect at the Fish Hatchery, but it ended up being my favorite site. We got to see Herman the Sturgeon.
Herman's Stats:
70 years old
10 feet long
450 pounds.



He was impressive. If I were to see him in the ocean, I would be sure I was seeing a shark. He was that huge. And the even more impressive thing is that sturgeons can get up to twice as big as Herman. CRAZY! These are a type of fish that live in the Columbia River. I'm having second thoughts about getting in that river. A while back a friend of ours told us a story about back in the day when fisherman would fish from the shoreline of the Columbia River and would use horses to pull out these enormous sturgeons. After seeing Herman, I believe it.

I thought nothing could top seeing Herman. But, I was wrong. Last minute before we left we decided to go and see the adult salmon. Oh my gosh!!!! The salmon are in a salmon ladder and they await their turn for spawning. I don't understand how it all works, but let me just tell you that salmon are incredible. I could have stood there and watched them for hours.
This video will show you a bit of my excitement:


I could not believe that they would leap about 4 feet up out of the water. We were even privileged enough to see one salmon jump up, throw his body just right, and land up on top of the barrier. Then he flopped around until he flopped right off the edge into the next level. I wish I had a video of that but we couldn't get our camera to turn on quick enough. Dang slow digital camera. Here is a video of some of the jumping action:


(Karstaroni: when you come to visit next summer I will have to take you here. You will LOVE it!)