New Jobs

So today was my first day of work at Washington Mutual (a.k.a. Chase). It was awesome, the people were great and the work so much more relaxing. A very nice change from T-Mobile. The people were really nice there too, but you never got to talk to any of them. It also has all the same perks as T-Mobile, included discounted rates for home loans, which will come in handy.

The other good news is that Russ also go a new job, or a job offer for the winter. He will be working at Hascal and Sjoholm accounting firm in Everett. It is the biggest firm in Everett, but it is the only office. They are definitely growing though, as this is the first year they started actively looking for interns at Western. He will be there for the tax season and then they also usually have the interns work a couple of hours a week while in school.

We are really excited about the new jobs that we both have and hopefully things will continue to work out. Hopefully we will be able to update you soon on things that are going on.

Cattle Herding in Goldendale

Welcome to Goldendale!! While we were there we were able to witness a cattle herding. They were moving the cattle from one field to the other. They move them about every 6 months. They move them by pushing them out of the field onto the road and the make sure they don't take any turns they don't want them too. It was pretty interesing. We wanted to help, but knew that we would be in the way more than anything, so we decided to watch. To the right are some cows that were really mad at us for driving in the middle of them. Below is Andrea who lead our car through the herd of smelly and angry cows.

Here are some cows below that got out of our way by trying to jump the fence, when they were unsuccessful they would MOOOO at us. I told them to move faster and not worry, but they just kept mooing.

Here are some more upset cows. We also noticed that when they got more confused and scared on where to go they would go to the bathroom. And if you notice they are moving the cows on the road. So let it be said, our tires were covered in cow droppings.

Here are more cows running from us and trying to get where they were suppose to go. But they don't know where that is.

Here is my uncle Ray, he held up the back, making sure all the cows went where they were suppose to go and that none got left behind. What a smelly experience.

Goldendale Wedding

We went to visit my Great Grandma Willis this weekend. My cousin Joe was getting married, so we all got together. Goldendale is about an hour and a half south of Yakima, and it is a total farming community. As I am sure you will see with the cattle herding pictures that I will post later. This is my family with my Grandma Willis. Yes, I know Jake looks like a girl.

This is Joe and Amy Willis, my cousins that got married. It was a very beautiful wedding. The weather was perfect with a small breeze to keep us cool.

This is their "hick" cake. The cake topper says "just hitched" and it is a parade float. The cake was actually really good. The dancing was another fun hick aspect - they made everyone do the chicken dance. I don't think I have ever done that dance in a skirt, let alone at a wedding. It was a lot of fun and that was only Saturday night.

Leavenworth Vacation

We had the pleasure of going to Leavenworth, Wa over Labor Day Weekend with the Rigby's and the Webb's. It was awesome!!!

There was some amazing weather as you can tell from the picture - of course really dry as well. This picture was taken at a park that had some really crazy looking rocks.

Here is Russell climbing up one of these crazy looking rocks. I told him not to since he was wearing sandles, but at least he came back alive. I am just glad that he didn't try to go any higher than that...

Last but not least we have us as Bavarians... Aren't we SO cute. This was outside the resort where we stayed. We went with Nathan and Sarah to take some pictures (well they took the pictures because we are pathetic and always forget our camera). It was all wet because Nathan decided to pour water all over Sarah's head during their photo. He thought he was so cleaver - but Sarah got him back and poured a water bottle down his shirt and it even got his socks all wet... he totally deserved it.

It Runs in the Family

We really liked this picture that we took at the zoo. We thought it was very descriptive of how my parents house looks on Saturday morning. My mom is on the right and my step dad on the left. But then we realized that that is how our house looks on Saturday morning as well. Casey on the right and Russ on the left ... haha!

Our Anniversary Take Two

After the Zoo we went to the Japanese Gardens. They were so beautiful. This was the sign at the entrance warning us what was to come. But there were actually 32 stairs at the top... LIARS... :)

Here is a Haiku tablet from the garden. The Haiku was about the weather being so beautiful in the new found place in this garden, it was pretty cool.

We were able to get someone to take a picture of us while we were in the garden.

After the Japanese Gardens we went to the Rose Garden that was just down the way from there. There were roses everywhere and of every color you could possibly imagine.

We both took pictures next to the pretty roses... there were lots of people there that were taking pictures, like seniors in high school and models too. We just took pictures for our scrapbook...

Our Anniversary

To celebrate our anniversary we went down to Portland, Oregon. We first went to the Portland Zoo, there were so many different animals, so much better than the Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle. We actually were able to see the animals. Here are some of the animals that we saw. This was the biggest eagle that I have ever seen...!! He was a little testy so the trainer had to come and get him.

This bear was hilarious, he just kept walking the perimeter of his pen. He had the cutest little waddle.

This elephant kept trying to eat the rocks. I hope they feed them better than that...