Halloween Open House Extravaganza

We hosted a superfun Halloween open house this year. Our neighborhood gets around 300+ trick or treaters (no, I'm not exagerating) so we decided to combine our efforts with friends and have a party at the same time. The parade of costumes at the front door was so fun to see as we all took turns on door duty. We also ate a lot, played guitar hero and pinball and just had fun talking. I kinda went crazy on the decorations, but had oh, so much fun.

Missing you.....

Have I written how much I love having visitors? Well, I do and I was looking at my pictures the other day and missing my sis. She and her fam came to Bend about a month ago and if you need a commercial about how great Bend is to visit, just ask them. And how cute are these girls? Love you Ang.

Smoke gets in your eyes

So sorry about the large time lapse, but the computer which is normally used for this blog and all its pictures recently died.

moment of silence


Today there is a haze of smoke in Bend from a forest fire somewhere nearby. It is making the sunset a beautiful orange, but we cannot go outside to enjoy it because we start hacking.

SUMMER ROCKS

Our summer so far has been so great- I can't believe it's halfway over. It's been a month so there's lots to catch up on.

First was Bryant and Sandra came to visit us for forth of July. They enjoyed Bend with us on Bend's biggest city-wide celebration of the year. We walked the downtown festival, saw Tumalo Falls, and then watched the great fireworks on Pilot Butte. We scouted out an awesome place for watching that was really close and not very crowded. We all went to church together the next day which was also really nice.
Thanks Bryant and Sandra for coming, we love you!

Next on the travel log is the first ever Olmstead family reunion, held in Monterey, California. We made the trek by car and stopped in Ashland, to see a play at the Shakespere festival- which was excellent, as usual. The next stop was Monterey and our lovely family who, for the first time since the little ones were born, got together.

We had such a great time catching up, going to the beach, eating good food, going to the aquarium, sightseeing and playing with the babies.
Lily, (Mark's sister Joy's daughter) had grown up a lot and was as cute as could be. She is a delightful, curious little girl with lots of energy. She was captivated by the other guests' dogs that would play in the courtyard.
Fhynn (Mark's other sister Alicia's son) Had grown a lot since we saw him in December. He can walk now and loved getting so much attention from everyone. He is still as cute as ever and was really fun to watch eat, picking everything up and feeling it before putting it in his mouth.
Being with our family made me wish we weren't so far away from each other. MISS YOU GUYS!

After we said goodbye at Montery, the 3 of us went on to San Francisco. Wow, what an awesome city. The history is so rich there and there is so much to see. We did a tour, seeing Chinatown, Golden Gate Park and the Japanese garden, the Painted Ladies victorian houses (and go to go inside one), the Palace of Fine Arts and then at last, -Bailey's favorite- drive over the Golden Gate Bridge. The weather couldn't have been better. Even though it was pleasant, we still got to see the fog roll over the bridge- just beautiful.

Well, that's it so far. Next week it's off again. We'll be taking Bailey to EFY in Tacoma while Mark and I drive up to the San Juan Islands to celebrate our 20th wedding anniversary. (Yes, I can't believe it's been 20 years either! Go us!)

Viva Pandora!

OK, for any of you who spend any time at all on the computer and haven't heard yet, the greatest invention of this century was discovered by me recently---- PANDORA.COM

If you already haven't heard of it, go to it - right now.
You can program your own personal radio station on your computer for FREE, and you can make as many radio station styles as you want so you can listen to your favorite songs, depending on your mood. Let's say you're in a Rock mood, so you type in Van Halen (that's a nod to Mark) and it will play Van Halen songs, plus other songs that match their music style. If you don't like the song, you just click the thumb's down button and it will never play it again. PLUS they give you info about the artist, the song and the album it comes from.

I don't know how they do it but it's great. I have 7 different stations including David Bowie radio, mellow Sunday-type music, new wave of the 80's and a Broadway songs channel just to mention a few.

Seriously, I have discovered Nirvana- and I don't mean the band


Oh Yea and SO YOU THINK YOU CAN DANCE TOP 20 ARE CHOSEN TONIGHT!!!! Woo-Hoo

Stacy very happy now

To Face or Not to Face.........

So what is it with Facebook?

It seems I am fast becoming the only one on the planet who does not have a face book page. What is it with Face book anyway? -And I'm not just saying that, I honestly don't get the appeal. I barely have enough time to do this blog let alone devote any time to "talking" to people online. Besides, YOU'RE NOT REALLY TALKING. That is done with a device called a telephone, and no I don't mean texting either. Although I do find texting a good time saver in certain situations, nothing beats hearing my daughter's voice during a boring day, or the way my best friend Lisa giggles when we're joking around.

Ranting now over.

Seriously, if you read this and come up with a good, no great, reason for me to have a Face book page, let me know. I will be open. Promise.

Awesome Photos by Lisa

Here are the promised pics - WOW!

Update for April

Ok, so all blog entries aren't wonderful and exciting complete with jokes and pictures, right?

So a couple of weeks ago during our spring break, Bailey went to Portland on the shuttle to visit our good friends the Dillons. She had a great time with her BFF Jordyn. Lisa, Jordyn's mom (my BFF), is a professional photographer and did a photo shoot with the girls and J's boyfriend Troy. The girls got their hair and make-up done at a salon that Lisa is cross-marketing with and they felt like professional models for a day. They, including Lisa, had a blast. I will post the awesome pictures soon.

Friday of that week Mark and I took our dear friends Pat and Penny clouser to a Blazer game where they beat the Grizzlies, WHOO HOO!! Playoffs here we come! It was so awesome being able to share that fun experience with two of our great friends. I hope we can go to another game in the future.

Today Bailey is going to Portland again with the youth of our ward for a Temple trip. We'll see her back tonight around 8 pm. So, Mark and I will do what we love, but Bailey hates, which is hiking. We're going to hit Smith Rock state park AND the weather is actually supposed to be over 60 degrees today. We have been waiting a long time for the warmer weather here in central oregon. Just last week we had another round of snow (that didn't stick). That's our spring!

Songbird sings from the Heart

This last week we were able to hear our lovely songbird sing at her school choir concert. Bailey had a solo for the song "Jonah in the Belly of the Whale". She started the song out -without a microphone. It's been great to hear her voice mature. Bailey and I (Stacy) will also be performing in a musical titled, "The Parable of the Ten Virgins" to be performed on the 31st at our church. It's been a while for me, and my voice is much lower now so we'll see how it goes. I know Bailey will totally rock it.

This Bailey and her choir friends Maddie, Katie and Jazzy.

DRIVERS BEWARE

Who would believe this innocent little child would be one day behind the wheel of a car? (this is her 12 year old birthday picture).
Yes, it is true, Bailey got her driver's permit this week. She's driven in the empty church parking lot, but now she officially on the road. Watch out Bend drivers!
Actually, she doing really well. We even went on the Parkway on Saturday (got up to 50 mph!). She wants to drive every chance she can get-even to school which is not even a 1/2 mile away. I guess we'd better get used to it :)

A Beautiful Flower

Sunrise, Sunset, Sunrise, Sunset........

As a mother you have the right to brag-Bailey attended the Winter Formal at her school with a group of friends. She looked unbelievable in her red dress and had a wonderful time.

She continues to amaze and delight me. Love you Sweetie :)

More snow WooHoo!

Yes, it is snowing once again in beautiful bend. Not to worry, here in the high desert the world doesn't come to a screeching halt when the white stuff comes down. We get it enough that our dept of roads takes care of it in a jiffy. -And people don't freak, unlike some other places.......

Maybe I'll be able to ski again this season after all.

Trying to load pictures

Try, try again.......

Ok, so I couldn't figure out how to edit the blog we started, so I made a new one; and since I seem to be the one running the thing, I just took the easy road.

So here's the new Olmstead blog version 2. Olmstead's in 2009! Woohoo!

We recently got back from our Christmas trip to Austin visiting Mark's sister Alicia and her Husband Alan and their beautiful new baby boy, Fhynn. He was one of the happiest babies we have ever met and oh, so cute. It was a joy getting to know him and spending time with our dear family. We went some cool places and did some fun things, but the best part was just being around them. :)

What does 2009 hold in store for us? Good question. I'll have to get back to you all on that one after I think about it a little bit.....