Mt. Rainier - by our house

Our Friend, the Eagle

This Eagle loves to sit in the tree outside our house. Sometimes he sits there with a friend of his. It is so amazing to see Eagles this close.

Padre and Madre

Aren't they cute?

Eowyn - My favorite Niece.

Ben and Galadriel took a little vaca together and I got to have Eowyn for a few nights. It was so fun. She is such an angel. I love her so much. I think she is the cutest thing in the world.

San Jose del Cabo with Matt and Sabrina

Matt and I had the chance to go on vaca with Matt and Sabrina to San Jose del Cabo for a week. It was such an awesome vacation with them. If anyone has ever wondered, they are great traveling partners and Mexico is such a fun vacation spot. Here are some pics of our great time.

Our 6th Anniversary

Saturday, April 26th was our 6th anniversary. We are so blessed to have such a wonderful marriage. That day we spent the morning together and then went out to a nice restaurant. I feel so lucky to be with Matt. It feels good to be married for 6 years and still be so happy and best friends!

Eowyn Update

Have I mentioned lately how much I love this kid?

Happy Birthday Tuff

Just wanted to post a recent picture of our angel Tuff. He's growing so big and strong! He just had his 3rd birthday.

Eowyn

We are absolutely in love with this kid. She's an angel!

The Boys

This winter we all went up to the mountains to get our Christmas Trees. Here is a pic of the Herrera/Hardebeck boys. I love these men!

Hawaii with Jenette

Jen and I went to Hawaii in October with our moms, aunt, cousin and Gramma Mugga. We had a great time. Fun in the sun with the best cuzzo in the world! This is a pic of us at Senor Frogs. Believe it or not, Gramma picked the restaurant! She's a party animal!

Lily, Tuff's other Favorite Cousin

Everyone meet Lily. Lily is dad's, I mean mom's, I mean Michelle's little dog. We love Lily and so does Tuff...FOR DINNER! Welcome to the family Lily!

Maverick, Tuff's favorite cousin

As most of you know, Steve and Alie have a new (4 month old) little doggie named Maverick. We were a little skeptical of how he and Tuff would do together. But, much to our happiness, they love each other. They love to play. Mav chases Tuff around the yard. Tuff paws Mav down when he's tired of him. It is hilarious to watch. So, our concerns are not so strong now and the cousins are fond of each other. Welcome to the fam Mav.

Life is good

I am just amazed at the feelings I have being an aunt. I love this little girl. It is so fun knowing that this is Ben and Galad's baby. Galadriel has been amazing this first week of Eowyn's life. Isn't Galad beautiful? For anyone who's seen her lately, I think we all agree that Galadriel looks so beautiful and has such an amazing outlook on life. I love you Galadriel. Ben also has a great view on life. It is so fun to see him with Eowyn. She has definitely already won daddy's heart. And Ben's still Ben, making jokes with Eowyn, having fun with her. This kid is going to have a good life with great parents. I love you too Ben!

My Beautiful Niece Eowyn Joy

I am so happy to introduce to you Ben and Galadriel's baby girl. Galadriel delivered her on Tuesday, July 25th at 3:34 in the morning. Her name is Eowyn Joy. (A-O-win) She is the most beautiful baby girl that I have ever seen. I never thought that I would love a baby so much so fast. I can't imagine what it's like to be the mom. I absolutely adore Eowyn. She is perfectly beautiful. Congrats Ben and Galadriel!

Matt's HUGE fish

Many of you know and some of you don't that Matt caught a HUGE largemouth bass. This bass was only 7 ounces shy of our state record. It was 11 pounds 2 ounces. Matt has been getting accolades left and right from incredible bass fishermen and women. He was given a standing ovation at his Bass club meeting. Today at Auburn Sports Marine he was told that he is "considered a legend around these parts". I am so excited for him. Way to go babe!

The Boys Turn 30!!!

This past weekend Matt and I met Matt and Sabrina Schlesinger and Luke and Gwen Bumela to celebrate all three boys turning 30! Luke turned 30 in October, yesterday my Matt turned 30 and in July Matt Schles will turn 30. So, to celebrate, we all rondevued to a secret location (kidding, kidding) to beautiful and environmentally friendly Oregon to spend some time together. It was a blast. We went to the body exhibit and got up close and personal with the human body, we ate together at far too many restaurants, we heard Sabrina and her sis Corrina sing karaoke, (well Corrina sang Karaoke, I think Sabrina thought she was leading worship...but, leading worship or not, she was the only one with guts enough to do it...her and Corrina...I think it's a Stratton thing!) we shopped, girls got pedicures, boys went to the fishing store, we went to beautiful Japanese gardens where we were told that we are helping erosion (what the?), we saw about 50 buck-naked people riding their bikes in downtown Portland (Sabrina's highlight, I think...) and most of all, we laughed, laughed and laughed. Matt and I had such a blast with Luke and Gwen, Matt and Sabrina. What fun friends! Thanks for the wonderful weekend.

THANK YOU

I don't have any pics to post right now but I do want to tell everyone that if they are wondering if they have any friends out there in this big, vast world I have discovered how to answer that question...First of all, you have to start a blog. Then you have to abandon the blog for almost one year. Then post a few things...Then, to your amazement, you will discover that you have wonderful friends that are out there...some close by, others far far away...

All of that to say, THANK YOU to all of you who have basically said, "Welcome back." And to those of you who said, "It's about time." And to those of you who said, "I was waiting to see if you'd hit the one year mark." You all really have made me see that I have wonderful friends who really do care about my life. For this, I am reminded how lucky I am!

To tell you the truth, I am so blessed in life. I am blessed with a wonderful hubby and a wonderful family and absolutely wonderful, loyal friends. Thank you for making my life so blessed.

I am so lucky to be blessed with such an awesome cousin Jen...or Jen Venuti...or Jen Jen...or J-Fed...or JW or George. (Not sure where that last one came from.) Anyway, we had the chance to go to Hawaii together last year, October 2006. It was 8 full days of hanging out, laying in the sun and having fun together... mom, aunt and gramma were always within shouting distance...which made the trip that much better.

This post is really just to say how blessed I am to have a cousin who is such a wonderful friend. The best cuzzo in the world.

This is a picture of Matt coming home from Rivers Inlet, BC with a blown motor on the big boat. They drove 18 hours with a put put motor across the open ocean. Thank goodness mom nor I was on this trip with them. The men would not have been happy campers. But I still think Matt looks like a babe in this picture.