Wow - What a Halloween and Fall we have had! Mom needs to rest now!

Our Halloween started on Sunday this year, our church had a Halloween party! Yes they actually called it a Halloween party. No offense to other churches out there - but it has always bugged me that we can't call something what it really is for fear of something being not politically correct. Anyway - the kids had lots of fun. John was batman and Josie, Tigger !















Then came a party at the local highschool. This John was Spiderman and Josie was Cinderella!












Halloween day we went to go visit Great Grandma Candy (Derrick's Grandma) I asked John what he wanted to dress up as, and he said Seahawk. So here is the newest Seahawk John Young and the newest Seagal Josephine!

And finally we actually got to Halloween night!! We trick or treated at Grandma & Grandpa Cotton's and around there neighborhood. We then went to Grandma Mary and Grandpa Lou's community Halloween party.

Here Here is John dressed as a policeman, with Squeeky the clown. Josie was back to Tigger.... however was a little cautious of the clown. She did warm up but not close enough for a pic. Squeeky hasn't made an appearance in a while, can you guess who it is?

For those of you wondering, yes John loves to dress up. He was batman for almost the whole last year straight!

Pony rides!

We went to a different pumpkin patch on Sat evening. They didn't have too much for the kids to do that was open. So we rode the ponies and then looked in the barns.


Josie was shaking when we first put her on the horse, but she pretty quickly stopped shaking and had a great ride!


John had lots of fun on the ponies! He would have stayed on all day if we let him.

We made cookies!

I thought it would be fun on Friday to make cookies. So I made the first batch of the no bake cookies then moved on to the sugar cookies. I hadn't made sugar cookies in so long that I forgot the batter had to go into the fridge for a while, or overnight. So on Sat Grandma Mary was over and helped us finish the sugar cookies!





Josies had lots of fun, smearing the flour all over the counter. I gave her, her own pile of dough and she had lots of fun.





John did a great job of rolling out the dough. He would then push the cookie cutters to make the shapes.



Grandma or Grammy as Josie now says was a big help keeping the cookes going! Mom got tired of cookies half way through, so Grandma stepped up and decorated them for us!

Kudos to the fire department!

I posted this on myspace, but I thought I should put it here as well.

I have wanted to say thank you to many people, for all the help they gave us, it is hard to find the words to say thanks. Friends and family are some of the people that I still need to thank for helping Derrick and I through our hardship this summer. But I felt a big thanks should go tot he fire dept.
This is the letter that has taken me months to write, everytime I sat down to write it I just couldn't it was such a hard time for us, that it is hard to relive the pain. I know the outcome was awesome, but the pain of it is still very much real to me. To almost lose someone, well words can't describe how that feels. That is why I haven't written personal thank you's that are so well deserved and so over due to all the other people that helped us. However after months I finally penned a letter to the heroes who brought Derrick back to life.

Editor, the Voice:

On June 24th my husband, Derrick Young, was airlifted from our home in ??????? to Harborview Medical Center. At the age of 33 he had a stroke.

I wanted to write and say thank you to the men and women of the Black ???? Fire department. At some point in transit my husband literally died, and the paramedics and firefighters brought him back to life. Words can't describe how grateful I am to the men and woman who saved his life.

Derrick is a volunteer Chaplain for the ??????? Fire department, I wanted to also say how much we appreciated the outpouring from the ??????? Fire Fighters as well. Derrick found out what it is like to have a real Firefighter family. Thank you all for helping us in our time of need. Derrick is typically the one that helps others in their times of need, so this meant a lot to us to know that there were many people out there looking out for us.

Thank you again to all of the Firefighters, for everything that you do. Derrick is now back at work, and has made a full recovery.

Emily Young
I realized I had to block out the cities, so I took the names out and replaced them with ??? hope that makes sense!! Those of you who know us, well you know the community!!

Remlinger Farm

Grandma Pris took us to Remlinger Farms! They were doing guided tours during the weekdays(we went on Wed.), so we hopped on to a tour with other little ones, and away we went!


They had a big huge area filled lots of hay - and called it a hay jump, so the kids got to jump and jump in tons of hay, here is John in action! Next door to the hay jump was a hay maze. It was great to watch all the kids go through it.

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Here is Grandma and the kids on the train ride. They actually have tracks train going around the property. I think it was a steam engine. It was not a regular sized train, but very big none the less! Lots of fun. We got to see Emu, Alpaca, and horses from the train.

Do you know how hard it is to get two kids to look at the camera at the same time in one of these cut outs! Very difficult.

At the Puyallup Fair Josie wouldn't even go into a barn, so we have made much progress in a months time. She actually was near the animals, and didn't freak out. I think she even stuck her hand out to a rabbit.

John and Josie got to see pot bellied pigs!

Not your ordinary pumpkin patch!

Grandma Mary took us to the pumpkin patch. It was out off of Hwy 410 for those of you in the area... I had no idea pumpkin patches had so much to do! Hay rides, haunted house, sling shots, bouncy house, corn maze and monster truck rides! Yes I said it monster truck rides! Let me tell you us hick folks know how to have some fun in the mud with the monster trucks.
Yes, this is not a wonderful picture of me - however you can see how much fun I am having!

This is the monster truck! Full of mud, we did donuts in the mud bog. There was chunks of mud flying up over the sides, the were big balls of mud!







The corn maze....
I have never been in a corn maze before... and I think I would still be in the corn maze today if I wasn't with Derrick and everyone! In the middle of the maze they have a pirate ship... so the kids got to play on it, it over looked the whole corn maze. Pretty cool.

Picking pumpkins! John was so excitted to pick out a pumpkin! We scoured the big field and finally found the perfect pumpkin!

Here is little Josie on a tractor! Too cute.

IronMan in Kona today

** I have just tracked the winners on line... the winning time for men was 8:11:56 the fastest woman was 9:18:31 Is that just the craziest thing ever they did amazing physical feats, all in 8 and 9 hours! wow I would love to be that in shape!**
While the actual race won't air on tv until Nov... THE Triathlon, of all triathlon's is happening today in Kona, Hawaii. Would I want to do it someday, well no in a nutshell. It is 2.4 mile swim in the ocean, 112 mile bike ride and a marathon if you weren't tired enough to round out the end of this grueling sport! 26.2 miles is a marathon if you were wondering.

If you watched the Amazing Race that is airing right now - you will see the amputee, well she is in the race today - she is one determined woman.... does it matter I think she should dump the guy she is with on the show? No probably not, but I think she deserves a little more out of a man... just my thought.


I have a link to the side if you are interested in hearing the latest and greatest on this wonderful, pyschotic sport! I 'll let you know who wins!

I am thinking I may work my way up to a 1/2 ironman, but I want a few more race seasons in before I try that. That would be 1.2 mile swim, 56 mile bike, and 13.1 mile run. . . I feel crazy for even writing that now... however I have coaught the fever of the sport and am ready to train, train, train!!!

** You might have seen this in an email... but here is the story of one of the most amazing fathers... This was written by the triathlete blogger... The first time I remember seeing Rick and Dick Hoyt, it was at a sprint triathlon in Canada. I was amazed to see what Dick did … towing his son in a raft, running up a steep hill with Rick in his arms, pedaling that heavy-duty bike and pushing Rick along in the running stroller.The story is likely all-too-familiar to you all. At birth the umbilical chord suffocated Rick for a time leaving him paralyzed and unable to talk. In 1977, Rick asked Dick to push him through a running race. Within a few years they had completed their first marathon. Then came triathlon events. Then came the Ironman.
The Hoyts competed at my first Ironman, the Bud Light Endurance Triathlon in Cape Cod. While they were in the race, I somehow managed to miss their exploits. In 1988 the Hoyt’s first attempted the Ironman World Championship here in Kona. Unfortunately they didn’t finish. A year later, they did – I was there that year, too, but once again I was racing, and managed to be oblivious to their achievement.
I saw them on the television coverage, though … who could ever forget that.
I was here a decade later, and won’t ever forget watching them come across the line.
Tomorrow will be the last time we’ll ever see the Hoyt’s compete here in Kona. At 66, Dick feels it’s time to change his focus to the shorter Ironman 70.3 series.
It’s been quite a run for the Hoyts. They are possibly the most inspiring people I’ve ever seen here in Kona … their final appearance here at the Ford Ironman World Championship adds another amazing dimension to what is shaping up to be an incredible event. **

I know I know I can't stop writting about triathlons! Amazing people doing extraordianry things!

After 21 months....

Finally I can get Josie's hair into pony tails! If you have boys well you won't understand this post ( I wouldn't have before having Josie) Most of you know Josie had hardly any hair, and what hair she did have, well it stuck straight up no matter what we did to it. But about 4 months ago she finally started to get some hair. I can't even take credit for the pony tails! Yesterday at the gym, after I was done working out I walked into the kids room and she had two pony tails in her hair the girl says I hope you don't mind but I put pony tails in her hair! I wanted to cry - cuz well she looked so cute and she didn't look like a baby anymore she looked like a little girl. sniff sniff. It is hard but fun to see your kids get bigger. The gal at the gym said remember when she only had hair that stuck straight up when she first came? I just laughed and said yes I remember! Anyway she looks too cute in the photo, yes I am gushing all about my baby girl. I think she is on her way to being a little diva. She loves to watch me put on make up - when I wear it! And loves to have you play with her hair.... I know I know I was sure she would be a tom boy - guess she'll be the tough girl on the soccer field that looks fabulous! lol....



If you notice int he pic - she has both of her ears pierced too. Funny story - a few years ago before kids... I think I may have been pregnant with John in the nursery at church there was this little girl who only had one ear pierced. We didnt' know the parents very well at the time, so we just never asked why she had one ear pierced. It must be because they are Norwegian. We came to the conclusion. Along with other members of the church. After all Dad's name is Olaff and the little girls name was Kjersti.... I thought If I have a little girl I would never have one ear pierced! Well I am sure you can guess the rest. After getting Josie's ears pierced a couple of months ago - she ripped out one of her ear rings two nights after we got it pierced. I so laughed when it happened. And now that we are great friends with Christine and Olaff, well it just made us laugh all the more! We had eventually asked them what happened to Kjersti's earring. We then told them our "theory" they both laughed. Anyway - funny story. And yes, you should have seen the looks I got from people when they noticed Josie only had one earing. I was half tempted to say - She's Norwegian, it is a Norwegian thing! (Which I am 1/2 Norwwegian!) Have a good day.

Flush....

Well today, bless his heart John found out what happens when you put to much toilet paper in the toilet! Yes, he flooded the bathroom floor. It was sort of cute- I went to go get Josie out of bed, and John was in our bathroom. Well he flushed once, (is what I think happened), then decided to put more paper in the toilet. When he flushed again he had put so much toilet paper in that, it flooded. Ofcourse bless is heart he had to fush again cuz the water "scared him" so he flushed again and well out came all the water... when he came down stairs his pants were soaked (they were still at his ankles) and he just kept saying "water scared me mama, water scared me!) by then I knew something wasn't right, came up to find water all over the master bath... Guess I needed to mop the master bath anyway! These are the types of things that you just have to laugh at, and try to explain to John what happens when you put too much toilet paper in the toilet!

I have about a million things I can write about right now - so many things going through my head, but I will just say this...

Be thankful everyday for your life and make the most out of each day! Don't let a day go by that you are full of regret. Regret doesn't do anything for the future. So instead of being regretful about things in the past, make a new way and be hopeful about what is ahead of you. I have some wonderful years ahead of me with my husband and family! I can't wait for the next chapter. The past makes you who you are, all of the past, all the good the bad, the friendships. All the past people represent who you are today so stand tall and know many people have built who you are. Even if things with people or family didn't go how you thought they would, well it still makes you a strong, happy, educated, tough, humble, proud (what ever you are insert here) person that you are today. Live life with no regrets, live your life to the fullest. Love your family like it is the last day on earth... To truly live means, you truly give of yourself! Make today really count.

It was 7 years ago today....

That Derrick and I walked down the aisle. One of our favorite songs is "Looks like we made it" I think that is the name of it! We have had many ups and downs, many great times, plenty of bad times. A few knock down dragouts... but over all we have had a good time coming together in the last 7 years. It takes time and commitment to really build a relationship and I think we have done that. You can't go through major traumas in life and not come out together if you didn't have something there in the first place! Happy 7th Anniversary Derrick!
** Note from Emily - I am laughing as I write this, for you who may not know Derrick and I's knock down drag out story - it happenedbefore we were married in Las Vegas. As the story goes, Derrick borrowed a dollar - then proceeded to win $$$ I can't remember how much exaclty but enough that I wanted my half! Derrick gave me my dollar back trying to be funny - and well I didnt' find it funny! So the knock down drag out began, in the middle of Bally's casino. The funny thing is that no one looked at us at all - middle of the casino arguing well it was an everyday occurence in Vegas... so we laugh about that all the time! Thought the story is funny and worth the add... **


We celebrated by going to the beach, Ocean Shores! We had some really nice family time It was lots of fun.

Here is dad and John running around in circles on the beach! Yes John has on pink boots. We couldn't find one of his frog boots, and the other pair I brought for him I did't realize until we go the beach that it was too small. So John took Josie's that we too big for her, and John's too small boots went to Josie. Hey it worked and they got to play, so all was well!!


John and Josie doing circles together.

Derrick had the great idea that we would rent one of these rigs for a while. Let's just say it is harder than you think to geth these going! Derrick's mom came with us to the beach too and even with her help we were really getting a work out!

Clamming

While we were there the razor clam season opened up. So we went out and dug up clams. It is actually alot of fun. I remember as a kid going to the ocean to dig clams. You find little holes in the sand then dig them up with a clam shovel. It is a bit of work but pretty excitting to get the clams up.








High fashion at ocean shores!


I would like to know when I became the woman on the beach with butterfly waders on, and brown sweats with a white shirt, grey sweatshirt and a lamp on my head? hmmmm somewhere along the way at the beach I forgot about fashion! The headlamp though was quite attractive. When you dig clams at night - well you have to have the headlamp!

Lazy Days of Fall

Today we went to take advantage of the last few days of nice weather before the rain sets in. Josie has had a bit of a runny nose so I haven't wanted to put her in day care at the gym. So I have been itching to get out of the house myself. I actually think her nose is running due to the molars coming in but given the time of year it is I dont' want to freak out anyone at the gym. I loaded them up and walked down to the post office, then on the bakery for a special treat for the kids - then on to a field. So here are some fun pics of John and Josie running around at a nearby field.


This is the Little House on the priarie picture. You know in the opening scene the little girl falls in the field. OK, I am old I know! But isn't she adorable!

John ran all the way across the field (probably about a football field length) - to pick an apple. He was so excitted to show me the apple. It was great excersize too. He ran down there atleast 4 times! He is now on the couch resting! woo hoo.