A Short Absence...

During a very fun filled August, I fell and broke my wrist and have since had surgery and I'm in the healing process.........That being said, I'm not the best typer right now and this blog will resume when my cast comes off at the latest....thank you for understanding!

July Just Flew By...

Ok, so July basically flew by and I am just now catching up and posting some pictures! I'm so terribly sorry, but you know how it goes...one thing after the next and pretty soon the month is over! Here's the highlights of our exciting month of July...

Barb (my dear friend from work) has an annual barbeque for a group of us from work and it's always a good time. We laugh our butts off!! Here's some fun pics of the night at Barb's house.

Barb and Nancy sharing a story as I rudely interupt with my camera

Emily and I having a cuddle moment....very rare these days!

Ok, doesn't she look way too innocent here? Ha! We all know better!!!

Emily taught everyone to put their noisemakers up their noses....how mature. Here's Franki and Bar copying her

Aunt Pam came out from Colorado to visit my parents and we had the pleasure of hosting a pizza night at our house. It was so fun to have everyone over...even Uncle John came along.

Renee, Michelle, David, and Emily eating pizza and sharing stories

Aunt Pam, Mom, Emily and Michelle in the backyard after dinner...Penny joined us too

Dave and Scott traveled up to Portland to vacation with some friends and we drove down one day to spend the day with them. We had a wonderful brunch at their elegant hotel and we went to the Portland Childrens Museum to play with all the fun displays. We ended our wonderful day with room service ice cream and it was the best ice cream we had ever had!!

Brunch at the hotel...even Rudy was there

Emily pretending to ring Dave up at the little grocery store at the Childrens Museum. She loved this!! What a good little worker she will be one day...

Posing outside the museum

Dave, Emily, and Scott in the sitting room of their hotel suite where we had ice cream

We also traveled to Spokane (this time it was a mini vacation and Emily stayed at Nana and Papa's house). We took the road trip with our friend Kayse who was a good sport with all our silliness and jokes. We had a great time. We were going to Spokane to attend Kate's sister, Elisa's wedding.

Kayse and I at the Iron Horses stop along the way...isn't the view gorgeous??

Todd and I before we left for the wedding on the patio at our hotel
Kim, Me, Todd, and Kayse before we left for the wedding

Todd and I at Azecta having margaritas before the wedding

The beautiful wedding ceremony at the Catholic church in Spokane

Bridesmaid Miranda and Maid of Honor Kate at the wedding reception

For our friend, Doug's birthday we threw him a surprise Luau and it was at Franki's sister's house...it was amazing and it was so hot that day, just like Hawaii! Here's some of those pics.

James, Justin, Doug and Todd

The food table...Todd and I cooked it all that day and it was so much fun!!

Franki and Kate

We also managed to squeeze in a lot of pool time in our backyard. It's about 10 feet wide and 3 feet deep and it's perfect for us and our little Emily.

Our New Oasis

Last week Todd and I decided to tear apart our old pond that we put in last year and put in a whole new setup in hopes that it would look prettier and no leak!! For those of you that don't know the old one had a terrible leak in it that we could never find and we had to fill the thing daily!! It was awful. So anyway, we tore it all up (with the assistance of our friend Kate who was so quick to lend a helping hand) and in a weeks time it looked beautiful!! Here's a couples pics of before and after.

This was the completed pond last year

This is the new and improved waterfall pond....

Isn't it so much prettier?? :) If I do say so myself anyway! Todd did an awesome job!!!

Happy Birthday Kate!

We celebrated Kate's birthday on Friday and did a very small get together at The Richardt house. The theme was red as that's Kate's favorite color. There was a group of about 8 of us who just got together to have some appetizers and some drinks and play some games. It was perfect! Justin's birthday was earlier in the week so we celebrated his too. Here's some pics from the evening.

Franki, Kate and I for a girls pic!

Kate and Todd having a silly moment

Kate and I....nothing like good friends.

Being at Home is the Best Place to Be...

How nice it is to be lazy right?? Over the last few weeks there has been so much going on in the lives of the Richardts that we tried to enjoy every lazy and relaxing moment we could. So my blog today is just that. A few pictures of our moments together.

Emily and Daddy watching some cartoons

Emily likes to find clothes laying around on the floor and loves to wear them!!! Are those mine?

Emily and Jordan - so silly!!

Emily swimming laps in our little pool

Emily and Todd driving.....nothing else but a Ferrari of course!!

"Moose! Moose!"

On Friday we took Emily to see her first baseball game and went to the Rainiers game with a bunch of friends. Kate and I were very excited to see Rhubarb wandering around and so we told Emily to find the "moose" and she kept pointing to him and saying "Moose, Moose!" Finally Todd turned to us and said "it's not a moose!! It's a reindeer!!!" But it was too late, Emily still is talking about "Moose." Isn't that funny?? Anyway, we had a great time and Emily was so good. She played musical laps and finally settled in on my lap to watch the fireworks or as she called it "pretty lights." It was a great night!

Good Old Sam

So....where do I begin with this blog?? For those that don't know already, or don't know all the details, life has been a bit hectic for the Richardt Family since we returned from our Memorial Trip (see blog below). We got back from our trip this past Monday and on Tuesday morning Todd woke to some unbearable stomach pain. He rushed off to the urgent care near our house and called me about an hour later saying he needed to be rushed to the ER at Good Sam Hospital. I quickly packed up Emily and made a phone call to my mother-in-law and we hit the road. The whole ride down Meridian was the worst thing I have ever been through. I didn't know if Todd was going to pass out or what was going to happen. Fortunately we made it. I don't know how we made it thru but Todd and I sat thru 3 hours in the waiting room of the ER before we were taken back to a bed and then 7 more hours in the ER until they admitted him and got him into good old room #365. There we stayed for the next 3 days and it was like a very bad dream. Every day was new tests and bloodwork and ultrasounds and it was never ending. Turns out that Todd had a very bad infection and some issues with his liver but overall everything is totally fixable and he is on his way to recovery. We were finally discharged from the hospital at 2:30 today and are home and he's resting up. I don't know how we got thru this crazy week.....but I do know who helped. Our friends and family were such a great support and kept us in their thoughts and prayers and checked in daily. And my in laws took Emily much of the week to allow me to stay by Todd's side which was such a blessing in itself. The nurses were all so wonderful and took care of Todd so well, and eased my every worry that I must have worn on my sleves. I'm so thankful that my dear husband is ok and that this whole experience has definitely taught us how fragile our lives are.

Leavenworth Trip, Memorial Weekend

Leavenworth is where we go every Memorial weekend and it is a great place to go to relax! Boy did we need it and had we known what we were in store for when we got home we would have enjoyed it that much more (don't worry, I'll get to that in a moment). There was a group of 9 adults and 3 kids that went on this trip. We went to Blu Shastin RV Resort and stayed for 4 days. We'd get up early and make yummy breakfast and head to the pool and lay around pretty much all day! Occasionally we would get together and play some football or fly some kites. It was so laid back. In the evenings we would gather for dinner and huddle around the campfire and chat all night. It was such a great vacation. Here's some pics of the weekend:

Emily, Taylor and I enjoying the pool...doesn't it look refreshing?

Miss Independent did not want much help from me in the pool despite the fact that she doesn't float!

Todd enjoying some pool time too before the football game began

Kate and Todd laughing over some pretty funny things that Kate was saying....be sure to ask her about it!!

The girls: Jordan, Me, Kate, Jackie, and Franki (Jackie didn't want anyone to see her zit! lol)

The guys: James, Pat, Mark, Todd, Doug, and Taylor

Mt St Helens Trip

Todd and I are finally on vacation!!!! Do you know what that feels like? When you've been working pretty much all year and you just need a break? Yep, that was us. And so we decided to kick it off with some relaxing camping...we planned a trip to Mt St Helens. We hit the road on Sunday after lunch and Emily slept most of the way up to the mountain. We pulled in to find that our campsite was closed off because it hadn't been inspected yet for the summer. There were only 3 other campers there when we arrived, so we knew it was truly the beginning of the season. The rangers were great and said that we could pick any other campsite we wanted even a double. We found the perfect spot...number 84. It was right on the river....RIGHT on the river. And it was spacious and had a lot of sun. It was a winner. So we set up shop. During our stay we visited the river beach, hiked to the Layser cave, traveled into the town of Randle, and sat around the campfire playing games and eating yummy camp foods. It couldn't have been more perfect. Emily went down for her scheduled naps and at nighttime thanks to the greatest pack n play ever and a great tent heater. Our last day we were caught off with a surprise storm and ended up having to pack up and go home around 8pm rather than the next morning. The winds were really bad and the rain was coming. It was too much for us to handle in the middle of the woods with no one else around. So we headed home and sleep clean in a nice warm house. Our next trip is laster this week when we meet up with 6 of our other friends and head camping to Leavenworth!!!

All you need to backpack thru Italy: REI gear and a Ferrari

This past weekend, Todd took Emily and I to Seattle to see none other than the Ferrari dealership! We walked around looking at the pretty cars and Emily said "Ferrari" over and over again and pointed at the horses on all the wheels. Todd picked out some decals for our skybox and Emily and I pranced around checking everything out. One owner of a Ferrari walked in to drop off his car and was quite impressed that Emily knew "Ferrari" and she could "Vroom Vroom" to him.

After our car adventure we headed over to REI for their anniversary sale and had a good time checking out all the gear and dreaming about our upcoming camping trips.

That afternoon we bought Emily her first backyard play toy which is an activity table that you fill with water and play with boats and gagets. Check her out playing in the water!