"No more burnt toast..."

This is a video my hubby came across the other day. I am not sure how old it is but it couldn't be more than several years old. It features my brothers-in-law Taraz and Rahmat and my mother-in-law Bonita is holding the camera. We all got a good giggle out of it!


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Dannells Family Camping Trip, Lake Wenatchee, May 2008

Once again we had a wonderful time camping with our family at Lake Wenatchee! I always miss everyone so much after we go camping.


Thursday morning Ruh, Taraz and I went on a little hike along the lake. There wasn't really a trail and Taraz really likes bush-whacking. Taraz pretty much pushed down every old dead tree he came across and sometimes he needed a little extra help from Ruh. The last tree in the video is the most exciting!! Here is video of our little hike.


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Ruh woke up very early every morning to start a fire and cut wood.



My mom caught Ruh and me. ;)

I thought Bonita was very cute in her rain gear! :)

On Saturday morning we woke up to sunshine and there was fog out on the lake. Taraz and Rahmat hopped in a canoe and paddled out into it.


Later on after the fog had burned off Taraz , Melanie, Rahmat and Ruh went for a paddle.

Here is a little slide show with some video mixed in.


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Another Dannells Family Camping Trip

Yay! On Wednesday we head out to Lake Wenatchee for another Dannells family camping trip! I am so excited! I am going to be VERY busy the next couple of days!! I will have lots of pictures and video to share when we get back! Woohoo! :)

Home Run Skittles

The other morning Patti came in to work with a big smile spread across her face. In her hand she proudly held up a baseball. She went on to tell us about how this ball was her 15 year-old son Max's first home run.

He was up to bat. One more strike and he would be out. Max never goes for outside pitches but he told his mom afterward he just had a feeling about this pitch. He swung hard and his bat connected solidly with the ball. He stood at the plate and just watched the ball for a long time. Then he took off around the bases like a bullet. His coach shouted for him to slow down because he knew the ball was out of there, but Max ran those bases as hard as he could. His first home run!

Patti was so proud of Max! After the game a little Spadoni boy came up and asked if Max wanted him to go find the ball out in the field. The little guy ran out there and hunted until he found the prize. Max gave the little guy a dollar and he announced he was going to buy a bag of Skittles!

Mother's Day 2008

Hannah and Willie

Last year my best friend Hannah met Willie Clark. Pretty soon they started spending lots of time together and eventually started dating. In January he popped the question. The big day is July 5th!!

I am so very happy for Hannah. It will be two years ago this August that her husband Gabe was killed in Iraq. I know it has been a long journey for her but her faith in the Lord has been unwavering. I know Gabe would be very proud of her and of his little guy Gabriel who looks more like Gabe all the time.

Gabriel loves Willie! He gets really excited whenever he hears someone talking about Willie. He is a high school math teacher and was just hired at Gig Harbor High School starting next year. They are going to live in Hannah's house here in Gig Harbor after the wedding. I can tell he absolutely adores Hannah and loves little Gabriel so much! They are going to make a wonderful little family! God is so good!

The Family Baristas

I love having my brother-in-law Taraz as a fellow barista! He works at Forza in Tacoma and I work for Starbucks. One would think there would a rivalry going on between us about who's coffee is the best but you won't find that with us. (Even though I do think he should come and work for Starbucks!)

The other day Ruh, Daisy and I stopped by Ruh's parents' house after a short hike to say hi. George and Bonita were off enjoying the sunny day in their canoe but Taraz and Rahmat were there getting ready to go on a bike ride. I asked Taraz how work was going and pretty soon we were having a conversation about coffee. We talked about the different ways to make perfect foam. I love foam!! Perfect foam almost has the consistency of whipped cream. The milk has to make a specific sound when you are steaming it in order to get this kind of foam. If you are in a hurry your foam will not turn out the right consistency. One of my favorite drinks to make are cappuccinos, 'especially bone dry cappuccinos. With bone dry cappuccinos you scoop the foam out of the pitcher instead of pouring. It is so much fun to do when the perfect foam has been made. You usually hear, "Hey you guys, you have to come see this foam!!", and then everyone looks oohing and ahhing. The longer I have worked as a Barista the easier is gets to make the perfect foam. Before I started working at Starbucks I thought you just stuck the steam wand into a pitcher of milk and let 'er go, but there is a special touch to it and that's what makes it so much fun.

We also talked about brewing coffee. At Forza they brew new coffee every 3 hours. At Starbucks we brew new coffee every 30 minutes! There is a big difference there. I went to work and told the girls that Forza changes their brewed coffee every 3 hours and we all had mixed emotions about this. Our first reaction was, "Whoa! That's a long time!". Our second reaction was, "Wouldn't THAT be kind of nice!". We have four urns of coffee that have brewed coffee in them at one time. We only have two coffee brewers. There are little white kitchen timers hanging on every urn that we set for 30 minutes as soon as we brew new coffee into them. It seems like every time we turn around there is another timer beeping! One of the girls I work with compared it to having an obnoxious two year-old! As soon as you think you have all the coffee caught up and brewed there is another timer going off. But one thing we all agreed on is that our customers love our brewed coffee and if we have to brew new coffee all the time to keep them happy and coming back then it's worth it.

I really want to go and visit Taraz and work sometime! From talking with him I can tell he really cares about each drink he makes and I bet he makes a good one! Here is a picture of an espresso with foam and cinnamon sprinkled on top he made for my mother-in-law Bonita.

Seaside, Oregon with my Sweety

Miraculously my hubby was given the weekend off a couple weeks ago. This rarely ever happens! So we took advantage of it and headed down to Seaside, Oregon for a little romantic getaway. The temperature on Saturday was in the 80's and it felt like summer! After we checked in to our hotel and checked out the ocean view from our window, we strapped on our tennis shoes we walked all along the beach and all around Seaside. We checked out different places to eat dinner along our route so we could think about what we were in the mood for. After we got back to our room and sat down for a little while we realized how hungry we were from our walk so we put our shoes back on and walked to a little family restaurant we thought would be a nice place to eat. After dinner we walked around some more and enjoyed the setting sun. Our room had a jacuzzi tub (and a fireplace) that I enjoyed not only that evening but also the next morning before Ruh woke up.

On Sunday we slept in and then went out for a pancake breakfast. After we checked out we drove about 10 minutes south to Ecola State Park. From the park you can see Haystack Rock at Cannon Beach and the lone lighthouse way out on the rocks. We decided to do a 3 mile round trip hike. It wound through the woods and along ocean cliffs and led down to the beach. On the trail we saw lots of elk tracks that looked very fresh. At one point I heard bushes breaking and the sound of something very big running through the woods. We stopped in our tracks and only feet from us were four HUGE elk. They were so majestic and beautiful but it also terrified me because they could have run over me in a second! I ran back down the trail in the opposite direction and Ruh just started clapping his hands and yelling. They took off up a cliff overlooking that part of the trail. Once they were completely out of sight I felt safe to continue. I did get some video of them but they are kind of hard to see.


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Once we reached the beach we climbed all over the rocks and cliffs and did some exploring. I decided I would like some time to just sit and enjoy the scenery so Ruh headed off to do some of his own exploring and I found a very comfortable rock to relax on. When Ruh came back we decided to find a different way back to the trail. But we would have to climb up some pretty steep cliffs. I was a little nervous about it but once again Ruh called me wimp and challenged me so once again I couldn't refuse. About half way up the cliff I realized I could not go any farther so we had to carefully make our way back down. But I have to say that is the highest I have ever climbed on a cliff and afterwards I really felt like I wanted to have another try at it. But by that time my arms were really limp and I was getting tired. So I went around back to the real trail head and Ruh met me. By the time we got to the car the rain started coming down. The jacuzzi in our room sounded so nice at that moment but we had already checked out. I am very thankful to have been able to go away with my hubby. Sometimes you just need to get away even if it's only for a night.

Winter Highlights

FINALLY! I have taken several months off from blogging and now I can say I am ready to come back. It feels fresh again and I am starting to have ideas of things I would like to post.

As you can see I added an e-mail subscription to the top-left hand column on my blog. If you would rather not come back and check my blog everyday you can put your e-mail address in there and it will automatically send you an e-mail letting you know I have a new post. I think it's a pretty nifty little device! :)

The New Year started out with a wedding. My cousin Mary Beth married her high school sweet- heart Daniel in January. I headed down to L.A. on New Year's Day for the wedding. I was a bridesmaid. I loved spending time with all my beautiful cousins and I can't wait to see them again this summer when we head down there.



Ruh, Daisy and I headed up to the snow in late January to do some sledding. There was a great place up at Snoqualmie Pass that was free. I had fun taking pictures and video of Ruh and Daisy. Ruh even talked me in to sledding down a couple huge hills by calling me a wimp. He knows if he calls me a wimp I will do anything! (Like climb up a cliff at Seaside and get stuck half way up because he wanted me to prove what I was made of!) Anyway, here are some pictures and video from our little snow-trip. :)Daisy is on Ruh's back! :)


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In March I was dying to get out and go on a hike so Ruh and I headed up to the Olympic National Park. We found a hike to a hot spring and decided to try it. Pretty soon we hit lots of snow and we weren't sure whether or not we should continue. But someone had made a compact trail through the snow. We think it might have been made with a sled. We were able to walk on the snow without falling through. After about 3 and half miles we started smelling sulfur but we couldn't find the hot springs. We came to a washed out bridge and after that the compacted trail ended and we couldn't continue. We sat down on the snow and enjoyed a little picnic. My mother-in-law Bonita had given Ruh some picnic supplies as a gift and they were a part of our lunch. I took a picture of Ruh's little picnic just for her. :) We never did find the hot springs but we really enjoyed the hike. It really got me fired up for some great summer hiking!



A couple weeks later my dad and I went back up the Olympics and went for a hike on the Spruce Railroad Trail along Lake Crescent. This an old railroad grade from World War I. It was a very easy hike but round trip it is 8 miles. We went only about 3 miles. We enjoyed the beautiful scenery of the lake. We even came across the remnants of an old railroad tunnel and came to a tiny little cove called the Devil's Punch Bowl. It is about 300 feet deep and a popular spot in the summer for swimmers to jump into.

I have a list of hikes that I want to do this summer. I hope to do a hike a week. I will have my camera with me! Bring on summer!!!