Harrison Summer 2011 (long w/lots of pics!)

The Harrison's have been busy, busy, busy this summer. I know I have been a bad blogger and really it has not been from a lack of things to blog, just too damn busy. I won't bore you with ALL the details, but I will hit the high points.

I am not sure I can even remember back to the beginning of summer. We were pretty busy with baseball. Drake had his normal summer team/league and then Gunner was playing summer league for the high school. The high school did not have enough kids to fill 2 full teams so the freshman/jv summer team pulled a couple of kids up from Drake's team, Drake was one of them. For about a month, we had 2 of them playing on 3 teams, which made it almost every night and several weekends. I am sure there are highlights I should share, but quite honestly, who can remember that far back???





We did manage to get some camping in as well. In June we went down to Diamond Lake fishing. We all know how crappy the weather was here, well it was not much better there and the fishing sucked on top of it. Got skunked but atleast we got away for the weekend (Saturday poured buckets, was socked in and couldn't even see across the lake!)




We went to South Beach for 4th of July, that was nice, the weather was great, had lots of vistors at our campsite, went the beach and Drake made a new friend. He had a squirrel that he had feed peanuts and would come up and sit on his belly while he feed it. Very cute!! (again, we had crab, they went fishing, don't remember the details but nice to get away)



The next weekend we went to Clear Lake, had a game on Friday, so did not even get out of town until 10:00. That campground is not a good one to pull into at 11:30 at night and try to set up and set up a tent. I don't think we woke too many people up. Drake took a friend so they were out in the rubber raft, Mark Gunner and I were in a boat. Caught some fish, threw most back, got some sun and relaxed. Walker did catch the monster fish of the weekend, he was surprised, I think it was the biggest one he has ever caught. Not sure he was real happy with us making him clean it. Gotta learn sometime right?



Then it was time for the Linn County Fair. Last year was chaos for us at fair time and so I had promised Gunner this year we would camp at fair. WOW!! That was an experience. It was fun and he enjoyed, but momma was tired by the time it was over. Gunner did well, he ended up placing 4th over all (over 100 pigs) in Market and took Champion Reserve (2nd) in his class in showmanship. He was able to auction this year and did really, really well, we were very please (Thank you Grandpa Bill!!)



During that time Mark's sister was here from France with her girls. The boys spent some time with them, we went to a couple Corvallis Knight's games and FINALLY finished the other side of our fence (Did first side in May!) (Had to cut a big limb off the tree and made a bigger mess before we could finish!)

August was still pretty hectic, we spent a weekend in Seattle (I did blog that!), Missy had her 40th Bday (blogged pics of that HEHE) had a wedding and then spent Labor Day weekend at the coast. WHEW!!! It blew by!! I did manage, pretty much all summer, to keep with my exercise, I try get my 3.5 miles in everyday (some days more, some days a little less) and even had some sessions with a personal trainer (he kicked my butt!).

We are now officially back in school mode, football mode and soon hunting mode (Gunner has never left the fishing mode, he is at Diamond Lake fishing as I type!) I will try to be a little better with keeping up, but sometimes there is just not enough hours in the day!!

1st Day of School

It's one of the best day's of the year, 1st day of school!! I will be sooo happy to be back on a regular schedule, well sorta.

Gunner is going to be Junior and boy do I feel old!!
Drake has his last year at Middle School (two in high school next year, yikes!)

My little boys are no longer little boys, they are becoming young men!! They both survived the first week, but were both complaining they have homework already, boo hoo :D

Never Before Seen Photos........

Missy's birthday party was a few weeks and as most who read my blog, they were there and/or read her blog and saw the pictures. Welllllllll, my camera was out and about during the party(HEHEHE EVIL LAUGH) and quite honestly, I was kinda afraid to look a the pictures.

There are a few things people should NOT do once they have been drinking and supposedly drinking alot (WHO ME?!), those include driving (duh), drunk calling or texting (another duh) and bring out a camera! I did finally have some time, nutted up and decided to look at them. There were quite a few that needed to be deleted, too dark, blurry (all clothes did remain on in all pictures, phew!!), repetitive or just plain crappy.

I evidently was not shy and had come out of my shell and decided I wanted my picture taken,alot, cause damn, I am seem to have made sure I was in several!!! I'm not really going to caption them, I will just let them speak for themselves (for the most part) and it is obvious the progression of the evening!! But I do know a good time was had by all and it was great party......When and where is the next one, I'm ready (and I will make sure I eat somthing before drinking!!)




(hey, don't judge, doesn't everyone drink wine with a straw from a plastic Dutch Bros cup?)
(yes the camera really was upside down and not really sure how the picture turned out so clear!)
(yes, put a fork in me, I was seriously done!! I needed to be headed home to bed...)

There were a few more, but you get the point :D

Weekend in Seattle (yes I am updating my blog!!)

A little mini vacation in the middle of Summer, oh what fun!! Back in May, we must have been bored and decided we need somthing else to do and needed a little more baseball, so we decided to go to a Mariner's game. Well, you can't just go to the game and not see Seattle, right??!! (We have gone before, but it was several yars ago and the boys don't really remember much). We purchased our tickets, marked the calendar and anxiously anticipated the day......(Safeco, here we come!) Well, we figure it takes about 4 hours or so to get to Seattle, so if we leave by noon or 1, we should be all good, game is at 7:10, no worries.....I took the day off and figured I would squeeze in a cut and colr since Mark was working a 1/2 day. Well not all things go as planned, we didn't get out of town until almost 1:30 and let me tell you, it took 5 1/2+ hours to get to Safeco Field. I don't know how those people drive in that kind of traffic every day. It was pretty much stop and go between Lacey to Tacoma, Yes, I was getting pissy, I hate traffic and it was starting to look like we were going to miss the start of the game.

Luckily, traffic did break up and we pulled in the parking garage about 6:45, I was really glad I had pre-bought a parking pass, that made it really easy (would recommend it, well worth the money!) Off to our seats we go. Marner's were playing the Red Sox and let me tell you, a couple of times, I was not sure who was the home team, Mariner's or Red Sox, there were ALOT of Red Sox fax in the crowd. It was a beautful evening for a game, we had pretty good seats and watching it on TV is nothing like being there in person. It was a good dame, even though the Mariner's lost (the only game they lost in the 3 game series). The boys had a good time, Drake was just soaking it in and Gunner was enjoying some of the goodies (Man those nachos were good!)

After the game was over, getting out was hectic, I dont' understand why people push, they are going to let us all out!!

Off to the hotel we go, thanks goodness for the GPS on the iphone, it came in very handy, except it doesn't really tell you which streets are one way (That could also be operater, me, error LOL) Finally get there and try to find a place to park (HOLY COW parking in Seattle is expensive, have to pay everywhere you go) and go to our room. Didn't plan it but we had a good view of the Space Needle, but we were all pretty well done so it was off to bed we go.....

Our first adventure on Saturday was the "Ride the Duck", if you go to Seattle, this is very much a must do. It was a 90 minute ride thru the waterfront, downtown, over the bridge to Fremont and then you take a boat ride on Lake Union. It was a beautiful sunny day and we all enjoyed the ride. Our driver, Chuck(wagon) was very good and made it fun, showed us lots of sights and man, oh man, truly a Starbucks on very other corner!


After the duck we were all hungry so we headed down to the waterfront. After finding and paying for a parking spot (plus big rigs don't always fit so well), we started walking. It has also been recommended to at the "Crab Pot", man oh man was it yummy! We pretty much ate everything.
We had a "pot" of clams, mussels, crab (dungess and snow) shrimp, sausage, corn on the cob and red tatos. I know I am repeating myself but man was it good! (kinda expensive but oooohhhhhhh so worth it!)
After we were done we walked along the waterfront, had to walk off our lunch LOL. There were alot of people and some of the shops were crowded but the weather was perfect. There was a cruise ship sitting, loading, waiting to pull out, make me want to go on another cruise, but I think this is a close as the boys are going to get. :( After we saw everything we wanted to see on the waterfront, we headed to Pike Place. Now there were ALOT of people there too. Evidently Starbucks there is very popular, don't know if you can tell, but the line waiting to go in, goes back to the last flower and pole, Umm No thanks! got mine down on the waterfront, thank you very much!

We cruised thru the market, taking it all in, the flowers and fruit and veggies all looked beautiful and wish I could have brought some home, but it wouldn't have made it (no ice chest) or lasted very well. Of course my hubby was soaking it all in too (ummm, hello, give up the crackberry already!), so we took pictures, my favorite thing :D
We pretty much saw everything and decide it was time to move on, off to the Space Needle we go. Our plan was to hit the Space Needle at dusk, it didn't work out so well. We get there (again had to find a place to park and pay) as we go past we see a line to get in, well, looks like its going to be a wait. As we are buying our tickets, it shows a 1 hour wait, is everyone in Seattle that day???!!! The line actually moved pretty fast and we made it to the top. After about an hour we were done and headed down. Wish it would have been clearer so we could see the mountains but it was still pretty.


I have come to the conclusion that in this day and age, people cannot fly by the seat of their pants anymore. Our plan was to stay they night in Tacoma and then go to Cabela's on Sunday. Well, not sure why, but we had a terrible time finding a hotel between Tacoma and Lacey, we finally found one in Olympia and we got the last room with 2 queen beds, so it was backtrack to Lacey on Sunday morning.

The boys were pretty happy,
He kept saying "It doesn't look that big", well he thought otherwise when we got inside. We browsed for a couple of hours, didn't really buy much, but it sure made all 3 of them want to go fishing, bad!!Finally finished up and headed South. Traffic wasn't too bad, but there was still some slowness in parts and I sooo could not drive that all the time, it would give me major anxiety!! Overall it was a good weekend, really enjoyed the family time but was happy to sleep in my own bed!!