Summer 2009 >> we're very busy :)

On July 3rd we all participated in the Stateline Speedway Demolition Derby event. This had both a racing segment and the crash-up portion, plus a contest for best-looking-car. Skip is quite fond of his trophy collection and was anticipating adding something, preferably three (winning everything ...) We had worked for six months leading up to this event and it really was something. We took pictures of the car, Photoshop-ed it to condense the colors down to five, and collectively created a cartoon-ey version for screenprinting. Just the t-shirt planning took almost 4 months. Ike drew the cartoon version of Thunder (Sponge) Bob over a period of about three weeks of carrying it around to work and home, trying to get happy with it ... ha ha ha. In the end, there were a bit more than 50 people in the stands with the shirt on cheering Skip on. Mike Busby took his awesome photos and there is a great 2 minute quick slideshow with some of his favorites here >>

Ike and Jade flew in on their little mini-vacation on Monday and left Wednesday night. Ike made an awesome birthday dinner for Rob and Rob and Nomi and Shiloh came out and sat around for lamb stuffed with plums, almonds, cherries and walnuts with watermelon and lemon cake for dessert. Wednesday morning Ike gave me my first-ever small plane ride, which I requested be lift-off, circle and land. It went well (meaning I did not have a panic attack from the height). Now I'm thinking I'll be fine for the next round whenever he ends up back up here with another plane. Skip and Ryan went over Hayden Lake and Coeur d'Alene and took a few great pics up there. This next picture is Rick and Sandi's place while they were flying over Hayden Lake, Idaho.

On July 15th we had a birthday/Thunder Bob celebration party here for Skip's Mom. We had 33 people and it was quite enjoyable. We ate cake and ice cream about 6pm outside in the lawn and it was the perfect time of day. Everyone had a great time, including piling into the living room together to watch some Thunder Bob videos and Mike's slideshow. The lemon cake was spectacular, although I could have done a better job on the decorations. I tried to write freehand and I'm no where near as good as Skip at it. He would go out and write something on the demo car in paint and it would come out perfect. Me ... I'm trying to write a simple cake message and I run myself out of space. Ah well, Helen was happy :)

The deck isn't finished yet, but I'm going out NOW to work on it again. Skip helped me put up the top of the front rail and I'm not feeling overwhelmed any longer. Ms. Math could NOT figure out the logistics of how to get my pieces to fit together. And thankfully it is much stronger than he was thinking it would be ... We'll keep you posted :)