RIP Little Birdie

For my 13th birthday I convinced my parents that the best present in the world would be a little birdie. Of course I have the best parents in the world because I got Angel, an adorable cockatiel for my birthday.

I loved that bird when I first got it and would take her out of the cage and she loved sitting on your shoulder. We even got her to "whistle" at you and say "Angel pretty girl" and "Sweet baby."

As it was time for me to leave for college I am sure my parents weren't too thrilled that they were now "stuck" with the bird. But all-in-all she was good company.

My dad called me yesterday to say that Angel was no longer around. I will miss your chirps little birdie. RIP Angel

My First Hunting Trip

Last weekend Reid took our "dog child" out on his first hunting trip. We were both working on him in the weeks building up to the trip on some training techniques and he didn't catch on or seem interested at all. So going into the trip Reid wasn't expecting much from Snyder...

(Give me the bird Chris....come on give it to me)

But he surprised us all and took right to it! His "dog friend" Banks had been hunting before and after Snyder watched him flush out a couple of birds Reid said it was like a lightblub went off and he instantly understood what was going on.

Reid said he was proud of Mr. Snyder and hopes to be able to take him out again!! Successful first father/son hunting trip :)

Here's To You Jeep Liberty

Dear Jeep Liberty,

You came into our lives 3 years ago from a car lot in Manhattan, KS and today you rest in our car port in Spokane, WA.

You have taken us on many road trips, moved us half-way across the country and our favorite driven us up tiny dirt roads to trail-heads to experience the beauty of the mountains and we couldn't have asked for a better travel companion.

You survived one minor car accident and we still don't know why you keep telling us we need to check your engine but you do a great job driving Reid back and forth, up and down the hill to work and school, so keep up the good work.

But today we want to celebrate because we can finally call you "ours" as we mailed off your final payment. So from Reid and I both, Welcome To The Family Jeep Liberty!!

Happy H'owl'oween!!

Reid and I aren't much of a halloween celebrators but we do like to carve a pumpkin each year. Here are our pumpkins...

After a lot of debate about what we should carve, we settled on a "bat cat" from our carving book. However our pumpkin was only big enough to fit the head, lol.

This year Tara tried pumpkin painting with a friend. It was a lot of fun and way less messy!


Hope everyone else is having a fun and safe halloween weekend. We have struck out the last two years with no trick-or-treators so this year we did not cave in and buy candy because we didn't want to be stuck with all the left-overs.

Workout Buddies

As I mentioned earlier, Reid and I started working out together and have loved the results we've gotten. We got started on the P90X which is where we saw all of our changes. It was challenging at first trying to stay motivated/committed and fit the hour long workouts into our schedules, but now that we've been doing it for a while we have fell into a routine and can't imagine a day of no workout!

We started the program back in December 2010 (pictures on the left) and were off and on with it through July 2011. In July we re-started from the beginning and also decided to follow the diet plan that accompanies the workouts. The pics on the right were taken October 2011!

Tara has decided to take a small hiatus from the DVD programs and is currently working with a workout routine she created while Reid has started to tackle the Insanity program.

Aside from our new "love" for fitness, we stay extra busy working Snyder who loves the cooler fall weather and all the squirrels. This past weekend Snyder enjoyed a mountain bike ride and a trail run!! He fits right into our active family :)

It's Almost "The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year"

Well I think fall is the most wonderful time of the year but Reid would beg to differ. Anyways this year we made Amazon Wish List's for Christmas and wanted to share them...

Tara: http://amzn.com/w/YJH0BXJVDOQ3

Reid: http://www.amazon.com/gp/registry/33X02LHHFCFNR

Purple Pride Weekend

This weekend Reid and I participated in a 5K mud race called Hell Run in Seattle. We found out a week or so before that our start time was the same as the K-State game time so we went for the K-State themed costume...

This race was much better than the 10K Dirty Dash we ran in Spokane earlier this year. Much more mud, better designed course and better obstacles to tackle. We enjoyed ourselves despite the chilly/misty weather

Posing with our muddy shirts...we were unable to get a pic right after we finished so this is after we rinsed off in the showers provided. We left the shirts untouched to you could see some of the muddiness we encountered.

K-State wasn't getting blown out by Baylor so we decided to drive into Seattle to catch the 3rd and 4th quarters at the alumni watch party. At first we were bummed we made the drive in because K-State fell to a 9 point deficit but they made us proud and pulled off the upset!! Should be a fun Thanksgiving when we go to Texas (my cousin and husband are Baylor grads)

Back to the grind this week though as Tara is finishing up her P90X program on Wednesday and Reid gets to look forward to his first midterm.