Brian Regan

Dear Brian Regan,

Thank you for the ab work out last night, I haven't laughed so hard for a long time. Charee thank you for letting me be your date, we need to go out more often :) No really you're awesome. Wendy and Brad thanks for driving us around and getting me a dipped cone (I haven't had one since High School). I love this bit, I guess next time we'll research his old bits and shout them out during the encore.

Sincerely,
Julee

Just Maddie

This is how Maddie used to say good bye when Jon went to work. After Jon dressed in uniform, Maddie would locate her hat and would wear while we said family prayers, gave kisses, and then said bye. I say used to, because we are no longer working for Coyote Ridge Corrections Center. Bitter sweet, but I'm going to miss this sweet memory. I needed to take some "real" photos of Maddie and I think this is the best thatI got. She was really grumpy, and then I took her outside and she pepped right up. However she was still not interested in taking photos.

I felt like I needed to do a "Maddie post" since the last two were not about her.

Maddie's Latest Favorites:

-taking off her clothes & DIAPER

-SINGING everything (rain rain go away, twinkle twinkle little star, wheels on the bus, head shoulders knees toes, row row row your boat, ants go marching, if your happy and you know it, anything from Dora or Deigo)

-climbing out of her playpen

-pulling off everysingle little cushion on BOTH couches (all of which are removable, ANNOYING that they even build them like this)

-stealing Jon's glasses and running away wearing them

-playing with anything she's not supposed to (laptop, camera, razors, glasses, everything)

-emptying laundry baskets and drawers into ONE pile

-helping me empty the dishwasher

So the list could go on and on, I hope one day I get a mellow child.

Leavenworth- Icefestival

Leavenworth is a small German or Barvarian Village in the mountains of WA located close to Wenatchee River and Lake. The whole town is Barvarian themed even McDonalds and the gas stations. I honestly can't wait to do it again, maybe in the summer time for an anniversary?

So perfect, we were lucky to go the last weekend with all the lights up. There were so many people probably due to the fact that it was Icefestival, but then again probably nothing like Octoberfest or Christmas. I loved how everyone was sledding right in the MIDDLE of town! Jon and I would watch the sledders and sometimes laughed when they crashed. They were out there pretty late too. Friday night we went down to the pool/hot tub at like 10:30pm and out in the parking lot families were just getting back. Crazy.

Nutcracker museum, we laughed about this museum. Jon and I have no interest in $300 nutcrackers, but WHO DOES seriously people. We did find a rare and discontinued treasure that Jon felt impressed to purchase. We found a beautiful Royal Copenhagen hand painted Mother's Day series china plate that depicted a mother and daughter crossing the plains. Jon loves his Danish heritage on both sides of his parents family and it was ironic because we've been reading alot of family history lately. I said look it's your great great grandmother crossing the plains. It was the last of the series and half off so needless to say we purchased it. We already have a Christmas ornament from the year of our marriage made by the merged company Bing & Grondahl that also makes Danish porcelain china. This china is blue and white and is usually quite expensive. It will be fun to create our own family collection over time.

Jon said something about I don't want this to look like a myspace photo so I'm trying to supress a laugh here. We had gotten the sweetest compliment at The Chocolate Cup, where we played antique checkers on a cute table sipping our Italian Sipping Chocolate (MUCH thicker than hot cocoa) served in tea cups, the owner's wife said are you guys married to which we responded yes she said good you guys look so in love. How sweet right?

Dinner that night at Cafe Mozart. It was very high class and we spent more on the meal than I ever want to again in my life, let me explain that I thought I was smarter than everyone else and bought a coupon off of restaurant.com and planned to use it, well at the end of the meal I gave it to our waitress and she sweetly pointed out the fine print stating for parties of 4 or more. If its too good to be true then it probably is.

The romantic lighting, music, and private room was putting Jon to sleep. I quite enjoyed it.

I always forget to take a picture before we eat, kinda nasty that I took one while we were eating. Well Jon had delicious roast beef in a bordeaux sauce, the most tender we've ever tasted, and I had pork tenderloin in a wild mushroom sauce. The red cabbage you see here is very common in Europe and Jon was excited, but decided it was mushier than the Danes serve it. We had delicious international cheeses (smoked gouda, danish brie, motzarella) that we're fried and served w/ a berry sauce or marinara sauce. We also had a salad plate w/ 5 different types of salad my favorite was the spinach and the cucumber salad.

We got to this Danish bakery 30 minutes after they opened. Jon was determined to find a chocolate triangle. No chocolate triangle, but we did had a good almond kringle, burnt cream pastry, a strawberry pastry (Jon didn't think was too awesome), cannoli, and a cream cheese pastry, raspberry turnover that we took to our Gma Jean and Mary.

I've been craving a burnt cream pastry since the day we left, just think elephant ear meets cream cheese. Amazing.

Underneath the flag our his ancestors. We actually went to a shop where Jon learned that the name "Heslop" orginated in Scotland and means By Hope (Hope meaning the valley). We got to view the HESLOP "Coat of Arms" and WALKER "Coat of Arms". I found out that "Walker" actually meant that we were cloth workers and we would walk on the fabric to flatten it out. It was very interesting and would be cool one day to have it printed up w/ a copy of our "Coat of Arms". Also HESLOP has a family moto, it is "By these little things grow great". How perfect and almost scripture mastery like (small and simple things...).

Here waiting for our lunch, Saturday the last day we were there, we had some more delicious food. I had hungarian goulash (similar to my mom's recipe for beef stew) and Jon had the best reuben sandwich he's ever tasted. We were in the top floor of the building. The waiter and waitresses were dressed up in lederhosen and barvarian dresses. Jon said it was the first time he's ever seen a mexican male in lederhosen.

Farewell Leavenworth until we meet again.

Wild West

Jon and I have been wanting to take an Old Time photo for a long time. Several of my siblings, Jon's parents, Jon's Grandparents all had a antique photo. I wasn't so keen on all the booze in the photo and told her I didn't want to hold the bottle. If you find this offensive I guess I can remove it. It was fun and I suggest if you ever get a chance to do a photo shoot like this do it. The photographer complimented Jon on his cowboy appearance. The rest of the day Jon kept saying I should have been a cowboy.

Clownin Around

The bowl was full of ketchup and hot dog slices. She was finished and I guess this was my punishment for not coming fast enough. She was laughing and calling for me, when I rounded the corner she said "look hat mom". So she had several baths that day. Such a clown. My kid is the biggest knuckle head ever, lately she's been stealing Jon's glasses off the bathroom counter while he's showering and runs away wearing them! I'm not sure if this is really going to damage her eye sight, but I guess I shouldn't have encouraged it by asking her to wait while I took a picture. Funny thing was that she ran right to the TV, hmmm I hope that doesn't mean she'll need them anytime soon.

Yeah we only wear pjs around here. We've also been sick for the last two months it seems so give me a break. Maddie pulled out her scooter tonight and so we cruised around the house. She would say "ready go" and "stop", it was fun.

Cheese PLEASE?

Need I say more? This girl loves her cheese, definetly of danish descent.

New Year's Eve with the Heslops

This year we rung in 2011 by playing games, eating good food, and "just dance"ing with the Heslops. Lots of good laughs that night, we are so lucky to have family so close. Thanks for hosting the party Brandon and Jenica it was a blast. Also brownie mix covered with toasted marshmellow and frosting is sinfully delicious.Conner and Brandon having a dance off. Probably the top two dancers of the night. Beyonce better watch herself. Brandon you can thank me later for not posting that video.Maddie and Presley being cute and funny. They gave each other turns spinning around in Jenica's salon chair. They came out wearing all the headbands they could find around their head and neck.Happy New Year, may your 2011 be marvelous. I hope something fun and exciting happens this year, guess we'll see.