Woodworking

Over about the last year and a half Mike has developed quite a nice little hobby that he really enjoys and I definitely approve of! He started out with a footboard for our bed and two lovely matching nightstands. We had found a headboard that we really liked so he designed the footboard to match and it turned out awesome!


But that was just the beginning. Since then he has collected lots of power tools (some new, some second hand) and has quite a nice shop going in the third bay of our garage. He's made many wonderful pieces of furntiture, mostly at the request of other people!! I'm scheming up an entertainment center I'd like him to make for us next! He's really enjoyed his projects and I thought I would show them off a bit.

About this time last year he completed a beautiful wine bar for his mom. He built it and she did the staining, which resulted in a wonderful final product!!



After seeing his fine craftmanship a coworker of his mom hired him to build a bathroom cabinet that turned out really cool and she was very happy with.




Next request came from my mom. She wanted a bench for the entryway and this is what he came up with last summer, it's beautiful!




In the meantime he made some really cool cedar planters for our front porch, I love them!




Last Fall a coworker of Mike's fell in love with a buffet she saw in Pottery Barn and asked him if he could make a better one for less money....of course! I have some better pictures of the final product coming...



Next he made a bookshelf for his niece Hailee for Christmas. She likes to store all her toys and books on it!




WHEW he's been one busy guy! I'm so very proud of him that he's been able to teach himself everything and make such amazing things! There will be more to come I'm sure...

Hailee

Feb 14th, 2006 ~ Wow, it's amazing how much she can change since just the three weeks since last time she was here!! Now she will say just about any word you ask her to, or at least try!







Our niece Hailee spent some time with us this past weekend and she is a total hoot. She is already almost 20 months which is unbelievable to me. She's all over the place, says lots of words (her favorite ones at our house are "puppy" and "no, no, no!") and TOTALLY cracks herself up. It's great.




Here are some of my favorites from Christmas...

Jackson Hole

We both had a three day weekend and decided to get out of dodge and do something fun. We wanted a winter getaway and have always talked about how fun it would be to rent snowmobiles. We decided that Jackson Hole was a great place that we've always wanted to go together so kind of at the last minute we booked a cute little cabin and made the 6 hour drive over this weekend. On Saturday when we got there we took an awesome snowshoe trip in some of the most beautiful mountains I've ever seen! Oscar of course loved being out in the snow as usual and lead the way.



We hung around Jackson Hole in the evenings, you may recognize the famous antler arches from the main square in town...


We of course had to check out the even more famous million dollar cowboy bar and pony up to the saddle barstools and do some very interesting people watching!



Then came the best part on Sunday...the snowmobiling! We rented them just outside Targhee National Park and rode on a suggested 50-mile loop along the continental divide. It was amazing and SO MUCH FUN! I know you're jealous of our sweet matching one-piece snowsuits...they came with the rental, I swear. Fortunately nobody walked away with any major injuries!





Our cute little cabin just 4 blocks from the main square. Oscar kicking back with dad.

Whispering Pines Yurt

December 10th we headed up past Idaho City to take part in one of our favorite wintertime activities. We took a snowshoe trip into Whispering Pines yurt to stay the night. As usual we took a very excited puppy Oscar out for an adventure that he loves. The hike in was beautiful, with some fairly new snow and the temperature was just right. We got to the yurt with plenty of daylight left to get the woodstove going and the yurt warmed up while we jumped around in the snow and made snow angels. We cooked up a big feast, enjoyed some adult beverages and played some serious cards. Little did we know what a card shark Oscar is...