Central Washington State Fair

Every year, once the apple harvest begins/beginning of fall, the Central Washington State Fair takes place here in Yakima. It is a fun fair. It's very large with plenty to do and see. Growing up in Yakima, my mom always encouraged us to enter things into the fair for judging. We entered anything from sewing projects to baked goods to dried or canned fruit to flowers. It was lots of fun.

We would enter about 20-30 different items per child (times that by how many kids are in my family and you have a lot of items going into the fair from the Carlson home over the years). You would earn ribbons and if you got a blue ribbon, it was worth $3, a red was worth $2 and a white one was worth $1. One year I got 3 Best of Shows. One was for peanut butter chocolates that looked like chocolate peanuts, one was for a pineapple upside down cake, and the other for a flower I entered. I brought in bank that year!!!!!

What a great opportunity for children to learn and be rewarded for their efforts. Then the pride of going to the fair and seeing your items is awesome. What a fun fair!!!! It helps to get you excited about Fall time with the changing of the leaves and fruit and vegetable harvests.

Anniversary Gift - Collective Soul Concert

My whole life I have loved listening to Collective Soul. I have never met anyone who doesn't like them. They may not be on some people's top 20 bands ever, but no one ever dislikes them. I have never been to their concert.

Well for our anniversary in August, Em asked me what I wanted. I simply said, a Collective Soul concert. She made it happen. We went to Seattle last night to the concert and it was everything I had hoped for.

The members of the band stuck true to what I know of them. They were sincere, grateful, fun, and entertaining. Here are a few photos of the concert and even a video.

Oh yeah, and thanks to the Lawsons for babysitting.

Maced is pregnant . . . . hopefully!!!

So we just took Maced to be bred. We hope that this time she has puppies. We are optimistic. There were no issues that we know of and we watched her progesterone levels very closely (to the tune of over $200 in testing at the Vet).

We have also started a new blog to handle any and all inquiries for puppies. Feel free to take a look at the blog here. Also feel free to send anyone interested in puppies to our new blog site.

Trip to Utah

Well we took advantage of the three day weekend for Labor Day and made it into a 5 day weekend. We headed out for Utah on Thursday and are heading home tomorrow morning. We have a lot of family and friends in Utah so sadly, our time was limited with everyone we visited. Here are a few pictures of the people we were able to see.

Russ with Syd and Mirian


Uncle Scott and Mirian


From left to right, Ashley, Aunt Julie (who shares Mirian's birthday with her), Mirian, Amie


From left to right, Matt, Mirian, Ashley, Amie


From left to right from front to back,
Amie, Aunt Julie, Ashley, Emily, Mirian, Jessica,
Russell, Matt, Uncle Scott


From left to right, Aunt Olivia, Mirian, Uncle Scott


All of our family has been so loving to us and Mirian. Russ and Emily have officially become the second most important people in our family of three. Thank you for your love and support.

It was a short weekend, but it was a blast, thanks everyone, we love you and we will miss you.