So much to do, so little time!

I just realized that TUESDAY is July 1st!  For some reason I was thinking it was Wednesday, which isn't that far off, but would have made me feel a bit better... I have a lot to do!  Here's a list of the things I can think of at this very moment:

1.  Find a boarding place for Taco for both of our trips.  We're going to take a little tour of two different places today, but the biggest thing is hoping they have an opening for both trips!  I know for sure one of the places has the opening for Tennessee... but since Hawaii is so close to the 4th of July, they seem to be a little full... yikes!

2.  Work around my work schedule... of course I have a lot to do, and I'm working all weekend... that never helps!

3.  a. Think about packing to go to Moses Lake on the 1st...

3.  b. And then be ready to come home, unpack, wash clothes, repack, take Taco to his boarding place, and get ready to leave for Hawaii on the 8th!

4.  Wedding wedding wedding stuff... yes we're married, but we decided to still do a ceremony in Moses Lake since we just went to the courthouse.  Right now, it's proving to be MUCH more difficult than I had anticipated.  I WILL have invitations out before we go to Hawaii!

5.  Hope to God that the bridesmaid dresses get here on time... I feel like I'm nagging the bridesmaids, but they NEED to order their dresses... ugh.

6.  Try to make some definite appointments and plans for when we're in Tennessee later in July... ie appointments with job prospects, our realtor, apartments in case we don't go the house route, and of course Jason wants to find time to fish and scout his hunting lease!

7.  Try to get up to Dayna and Shane's to help in case the baby comes.

8.  Return my printer (it's under warranty so it's ok) because it decided it doesn't want to feed paper without jamming anymore... which makes it difficult to print invitation stuff!

So yeah... those are the things on my mind right now--busy busy busy!!  Sorry no pictures this time, I just needed a little vent session and a place to write down all the things I need to do... and I know I won't lose this list like I might if it was just on a piece of paper.

Mt St Helens

We've been going on little day trips here and there lately.  It's nice when Jason only works 3 days a week (Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday), and those are only half days at that!

Our trip yesterday was down to Mt St Helens and the Johnston Ridge Observatory.

The mountain from the first visitor center... but you can see the damage it did in the Toutle River Valley.
If you look real close, on the left side of the picture you can see Mt Adams peaking over the other hills.  It was a pretty good day... clear, but not too hot.  We also learned that the little mounds in the valley are called "hummocks".  They are big land deposits left over from the landslide that began the eruption.

We also saw a TON of elk.  You might have to click on the picture to see them, but they are down there.  There's an entire herd, and even a few babies.  I zoomed in as far as I could... that's why we had binoculars! ;)
Good thing the mountain decided not to blow up yesterday... we would definitely not be alive!

Jason's picture taking "skills"... haha.
Oh yeah.... and we found Big Foot too!!
Once we got home, we decided to try out the new grill we bought last week.  Jason decided it's the man's job to grill... I think his words were something like "I can't tell people my wife grilled for me!"  He was very cautious and afraid something was going to blow up because he's never really used a propane bbq before, but I told him mom puts meat on hers and doesn't watch it constantly, so he got a bit better after that.
It turned out VERY good.  Steak, baked potato, and corn... YUM!!  Jason says we'll be using the grill more often because it's easier than he thought it would be!  

Fishing

Happy first day of summer!  Since we knew it was going to be a nice day today, we decided to rent a boat off the dock at Spanaway Lake.  We still have the trolling motor and battery from the boat Jason had before the deployment, so we just needed a little boat.  At $4.25 an hour, it's not bad there at the dock!

We were on the water at about 8 this morning, and fished until just after noon.  I'm not allowed to give away Jason's fishing secrets, because as he says, "the two things you want to protect are fishing secrets and hunting spots!"  We ended up with 6 fairly good-sized trout, and I also had two that got off my hook while I was reeling them in.  There were a bunch of other bites on our lines too.  Apparently we were the first ones to catch anything this morning because the guy at the dock that we rented from said he was told we were the first to get anything... "two right off the bat".  True true...

I was smart enough to wear sunscreen on my face, but didn't think about my arms, so they're VERY red.  I guess I learned my lesson... even if it's earlier in the day, put sunscreen on everywhere!!!

Here's a few more pictures of our fishing adventures...

Jason caught 4 of these, and I caught two.  We would have tied if my other two didn't get off my hook... darn fish just want to taunt me!