Happy Birthday Dozer!!

Today, December 9, 2011 is my brothers 12th Birthday. Happy Birthday Nathaniel!! Now I know in the title it says Dozer and some of you may think, 'What?! Dozer?! What does that mean?' Well I'll tell you! When Nathaniel started to crawl as a baby he would 'bulldoz' through everything. Toys, buckets...anything, he would run himself right into it until he came out the other side. He just bulldozed through. So, mainly my grandpa and parents came up with the nickname, Dozer. And he answers to only Dozer and Nathaniel. Even kids at his school call him Dozer. It's pretty funny. I wonder what it'll be like when he is older......."And..Dozer for a touchdown"... "Elder Dozer"... "Dozer hun can you get that"... "Hey Dozer, I mean Daddy"... Ahaha Just kidding, I don't think it'd go that far!
So for Nathaniel's Birthday I baked him a cake! It's a football cake. He loves football, so it fit. And he said he wanted a chocolate cake with chocolate frosting. So that's what he got!! It didn't take very long to do, but the stupid icing was rough. I'm getting better with my baking skills and making do with what I have. Anyway, so here are some pictures of his cake! Enjoy!! Happy 12th Birthday, Dozer!!

Before..

...After...

..of course, with the candles!!

Skipping is just jumping for joy, step after step...

Justin came out to my place to spend time with my family and I over the weekend. It was a lot of fun. We played xbox and pool, watched movies, made food, just had a lot of fun. We tried staying busy and then we couldn't think of anything else to do. So we brainstormed. Then we finally came up with the idea of going to the resevoir. No worries, we dressed warm. Then we jumped in the jeep and headed for the resevoir...which is like 2 miles away. When we approached the resevoir we pick out the perfect spot to stop. It was a great view of the sun setting and the resevoir. The water was really low so that was kind of a bummer, but it was still fun. We skipped rocks pretty much the entire time we were there. Justin is much better than I am. He was skipping all sorts of rocks. I guess I shouldn't say rocks, they were more really super hard dirt clusters. Anyway, we had little competitions, he won. BUT he never told me all the rules, so that's part of why he won. Hehehe. Then it got super cold and our noses were going to fall off, so we left and had hot cider after. It was a ton of fun and we definitely enjoyed spending time together.....

The Christmas Spirit!!

It's the Christmas season already!! Even though the temperature outside is still in the seventies, sorta!! Gotta love the desert Christmas'...Anyway, the holiday has already been filled with event galore! Mom busted out all the decorations, like four days after Thanksgiving! I give her a hand, because everyone else in the world put there Christmas decorations up before Thanksgiving even happened!! Crazy! Well most of the family helped with setting up the decorations. Dad and Nathaniel put up the Christmas lights, Matilda and I set the tree up, and I decorated it, and Mom pretty much finished the house with the rest of the decorations. Brad and Shelby decorated their little place down stairs. It's a nice, classy, holiday look!! The house and the family in it look amazing! Christmas will be so much fun this year! The entire family is coming out! So that means, Grandma Grandpa, Uncle Matt, Hillary, Ryan, Zoie, Josh, and then our family at the house, of course! It'll be a full house!! Yay! So exciting! Oh and I can't forget Tess and Bently. We already dressed Tess up for the holiday!! She enjoys the costume..at least we think she does. She probably just loves the attention she gets with it.

Anyway, Shelby works at a sandwich shop in the town and her boss asked if she could paint the windows for Christmas. She said, "Sure, if you like stick figures! I'll ask my sister if she will help out." So Shelby texted me like two seconds after and asked if I could help. I was nervous, but I knew it would be a fun experience. Shelby and I brainstormed some ideas and made the decision.

We did a stained glass Nativity scene and a Santa Clause jumping with a sandwich! They turned out pretty cute. I drew the outlines, and Shelby colored in. It was a great team effort. And turns out the boss loved it as well as everyone else. It was a lot of fun, even though it took us a few hours to do it. You would think window painting is easy and a quick job, not really... well, for me it wasn't.

Now a little off the Christmas topic, Justin just had a show! They lost their drummer, so they've been out of commision for a little bit. (So if you know any drummers who play pop/rock music let me know!!) But they had a friend who just plays for fun fill in for this show. And it was just amazing!! It was the Gibson Showcase at the Palace Station. The Gibson Showcase means, every band that performs, plays all Gibson equipment. So, Justin got to play a fifteen hundred dollar guitar!! Crazy!! He rocked it! Anyway, this a photo of the band that night. My video wouldn't upload, so a picutre will suffice. Hope you enjoy it!!

Above: Justin playing the guitar solo to Say You're Mine.  Left to Right: The Fours J's! Justin on guitar and vocals, Jay on drums, Jared on vocals, Jerry on bass guitar.





In the season for Thanks!

Today, November 21st is my ten months of dating my love, Justin Turner.

He is a great man. He has many qualities that I love and adore, and he is all mine.

Now, we have had our rough patches as everyone does, but every minute of every day I'm happy to be with him. I'd want to be with him through anything and everything, no matter if it's tough and hard or great and fun, I want it all. Now, with Thanksgiving right down the way, I want to thank him for all he has done for me. He has been honest and trusting and I appreciate that.

Also, my family. I thank them for loving me and caring about me and the choices I've made. To my friends, thank you. Thank you for the talks, for understanding, and for the willingness to listen and give advice. I appreciate it all. I especially want to thank my Heavenly Father for always being there, even in my hardships and disagreeances, he was there. He is always there, the one to rely and trust on. I love him and know he is the only way to true happiness.

I love You, Justin. Happy 10th!

Thank you everyone and have a Happy Thanksgiving!

Long Time, No blog!

Well I have obviously finished working this summer, yay! Towards the end it wasn't super tough. It was pretty much all down hill after the northwest fairs. We finished the up north states and traveled down to the southern states, such as, New Mexico, Texas, and California. It was especially nice because I didn't have to find workers for each fair. I already had people set up for the New Mexico fair, then the Texas and California fair had only the bubbles so I didn't need to find anyone. I had Justin and Joe to help and it was very nice. They were so great! They really knew what they were doing after the first couple of fairs. They also took care of me. Kept me calm, safe and happy. It was a fun summer. Now, there were still problems, but having Justin and Joe made things easier. Anyway, I learned a lot over the summer, as I do every summer. 



Justin workin!! So Good!

Joe playing Guns with some kid

Me, standing next to a Giant Tractor!!

We put a Nemo doll in the pool for the bubbles, and when kids would see this they'd stop crying and have fun!

Now, my next adventure. When I came home I had some decisions to make, such as, where to live, if I should work, schooling, etc. I stress out really easy and these decisions made me really stressed out. I'm still deciding on some things, but most of it is coming together. It's amazing if you let things go and trust the Lord and have faith in him, he will help things fall in place.
Right now, I'm still dating my wonderful boyfriend, Justin Turner. It's almost been eleven months and its been an amazing eleven months. He takes care of me, understands me, and puts up with me very well. He is a great man. He worked with me over the summer a little over half way through the season, so now that he is back he is finding a job. He is having success as well. He has always been very blessed with job opportunities. I'm also currently living at my parents. It's not bad, but you know, there are very few who say they like living with their parents. I'm looking for a place to rent that way I can attend school this next term. Contacted my Bishop and he is helping. Such a sweet man. I'm also looking for work, just to fill in time, and I like making money, who doesn't!?! I'm going to start working on some paintings and drawings as well. I'm very excited for that. It'll be an experiment for my paintings since it will be a first time, but it'll be fun!

This upcoming week I'm excited for as well. My little brother Josh is coming home for Thanksgiving. I vistied him on the way home from Texas and it was really nice. He showed me his campus and room, some friends. The college is decent, but lonely. It was nice for both of us. It'll be a lot of fun for him to come home for a few days. Then a couple weeks later is Christmas break, so he will come home again for a few weeks! He also had his Cross Country Championships this last weekend. He took ninth, which was a bummer for him. He just didn't have a good race. Although, he has improved a lot! Cut off a couple minutes on his 8k's and averaging a five minute mile. He is pretty much amazing!

My sister Hillary is doing great. Zoie is already a year old! Times flies fast! Ryan is working a couple jobs and is going back to school for another degree. Shelby is doing great as well. She is working at a sandwich place in town, called Tiffany's. She enjoys it. Our family has always liked to work, whether easy or hard work. Brad is doing great as well, he works at McDonalds. Going to get a promotion pretty soon. He also helps coach football at the high school. He loves that. The team is going to state this next weekend!! They are playing Truckee, should be a good game. Matilda finsihed volleyball. She loved it! She is pretty much the best and is very talented! She is starting basketball soon. She asked me to help her, run drills with her, defense, etc. I was happy that she asked. It'll be fun. Nathaniel finsihed football as well. He enjoyed it. He is also very humble. He knows he isn't the best and is not going to say he is either. But he loves to play. He is also going to start basketball soon. Him and Matilda play one on one occasionally. It's fun to watch. They are so determined and really look up to us, the older siblings. My parents are doing great too. They are excited for the holidays and having the families together.

Well that is life as of lately!

I'll try to do better with posting blogs, but thanks for being patient and reading!

Have a great week!!

Over the Hump!!

Oh my, oh my..where do I start this adventure?? Let's see, first I just have to say, it's surprising that I'm still alive! Okay, next..

In my last blog I told you all I was in Port Angeles, WA. That fair had only the Rock Wall. The bubbles were lucky and got a week off! Anyway, it was a small fair, we were busy maybe one day out of the four. But other than that, it was a constant flow of people every day. The people there were friendly. The weather was nice as well. I was freezing the whole time though. Joe and Bret were just fine and loved it! It was too humid and cold for me. I was in a sweater most of the day working. Our set up was pretty cool too! We set up on top of this hill and the whole fair is surrounded in trees. The fair is in a park which was pretty much a forest! Then right below us was a Kids Tractor pull and then the carnival and so forth. It was really nice because after each tractor pull show the parents would come up to the rock wall to have their kids bungee jump. Those were good rushes. As mentioned earlier, I had Bret and Joe working for me here. Joe mainly worked the front and Bret jumped. Joe is really good at reeling teenagers and adults in to do the jump or the rock wall. Anyway, so the fair finally ended on Sunday at 7pm. I needed to take down as soon as I could to book it over to Kennewick, WA, which is about a ten hour drive! The next fair started on Tuesday and I needed to be there by Monday to set up. I had the bubbles and the rock wall at this fair! Lots of time setting up. Anyway, we started to take the rock wall down at Port Angeles and realized that a cable that hooks up to my battery melted off. So there wasn't any juice getting to my hyrolics.  So I had Bret and Joe run to Walmart to get the piece that needed to be repalced and then I had to re-charge the battery and clean up anything extra. After this was all done we finished taking the wall down and packed up. We didn't get out of there until around 11pm. Now, the drive could have been a lot shorter if we had taken the ferry across Washington over to Kennewick, but the odds of us making it in time to catch it, as well as if they'll take us on, was close to impossible. The other route was to go back down through Portland, OR then over to Kennewick, Wa. We also parked the bubbles at Bret's house for storage so we had to go that way anyway. Continuing, I was driving the RV and Rockwall  and it was about 2am and BAM!!! I was passing a Semi-Truck and moving back over out of the passing lane and then a car hit my rock wall! Yup! HIT ME!! They spun a few times then off the road. I was freaking out. Joe was sleeping in the front seat and I yelled his name and he told me to pull over. I pulled over and tried to calm down. It was hard because I was so scared! I called my dad and told him what happened and he helped me through it as well. There were statements from the people in the accident as well as the semi who saw everything and me. No one was injured and everyone was okay, just shook up. A tow truck and cops helped the family and got them off the road. I felt super bad because it was two parents and three kids on their way to disney land. But they were all okay, just scared. What the semi guy said happened was, I was moving back over and the car sped up and hit the median, over corrected, then hit me and spun out of control. The cops think the man driving fell asleep and that was the main cause of it. They cited him and everything is being taken care of. Now the damage done to my rock wall was a blown tire, bent fender, and a couple other minor damages. And then, guess the award winning damage?!?!? Yup! A broken axle!! The one I just recently replaced!! AHHH! UGH!

Anyway, so I drove to the next exit thinking that the wheel would straighten out and it didn't. It was around 5am now and I was tired. I got up the morning before for work at 8am and then worked all day, packed, and then starting driving, so I haven't had any sleep. When I pulled off the exit, there was a trucking company. They fix their beaten down semi trucks. SO I for sure though I was in luck. Well, I obviously ran out of all that, so of course not. They wouldn't be able to fix, let alone get the parts to fix it. As time went by I made a few phone calls. I made calls to people who could fix the rock wall, to get the parts from, everything! I got a hold of a guy around 7am who said that he could fix it he just needs me and himself to find someone who has the parts on hand. He made calls and I made more calls. I ended up finding a place in Portland who had all the parts in stock. Now, the exit I got off on was about 70 miles from Portland. That was relieving. So I unhooked the wall and left it with this truck shop and took off to Portland. I picked up the parts and headed back to the truck shop. I hooked the rock wall back up and drove it a mile north to the guy's shop. It was a shop where he sold trailer as well as fixing trailers. He said it would only be a couple hours to do the work. Well, by this time it was Monday, around noon. I wanted to be out of there BY noon, latest 2pm. I walked down the street to get food and relax. It was so hard to relax because I had no control of anything. I just had to wait. Nothing could be done and that was killing me. It was nice having the RV because I could watch movies and have time go by. Anyway, the guy ran into a few problems and the axel didn’t get done until 7pm!! Reminding you, it’s about a 7 hour drive from there to Kennewick. I hooked everything back up, picked the truck up from Bret’s house and took off to Kennewick. We were about fifteen minutes out of Kennewick, (and there is nothing on the way, food gas, etc) and the RV runs out of gas!! Ugh! Something I don’t need to happen. It’s now almost 2am Tuesday and I’m running out of time! I take the truck and get gas for the RV. Down the street is the fairgrounds and we start setting up. It’s about 3am when we start setting up and the fair starts at 9am. I have both items at this fair! Craziness. We set up the bubbles and the rock wall and finish about 7am. I had my workers go sleep for a couple hours while I took care of some other minor problems. Then we worked all day until 11pm that night. Then finally I was able to get some sleep. I hadn’t slept in four days! It was terrible. But everything worked out and we were all safe. Pretty crazy, huh?!

Now, let’s talk about the actual fair. It was a five day fair, one of our best. But it seemed pretty slow this year. It was very hot outside and I don’t think the people were use to that kind of weather. It was about 90-100 degrees out every day with a high percent of humidity. It was tough. Something way cool about this fair is the concerts they have! I have the Rock wall and bubbles set up right in front of the stage. They have assigned seats, then grass opening, then bleachers, then us. So, it was great being able to work at night because of the concerts! They had, Joan Jett and the Black Hearts, Bret Michaels, Kenny Rogers, Blue Oyster Colt, and Lee Brice.  They have good shows every year, classics too. Blue Oyster Colt was my favorite. They just rocked out and had great songs! I got, “Don’t fear the Reaper” on video! Pretty sweet.

Anyway, all of my workers did a fantastic job! They worked fast enough and hard enough. No one complained and they had a blast working with each other. We finished this fair on Sunday and took everything down on Monday. We all wanted more sleep. After, we headed out to Walla Walla, WA. This was only an hour drive, so nothing could possibly happen in an hour, right?! Right!!! Nothing happened and we made it safely to Walla Walla and set up. We went grocery shopping, worked out, and relaxed.

 This is the wall and bubble set up! They were right next to each other! 

We also got new colored bubbles, red, blue, yellow, and green!! So COOL!

I completed the first half of the season! I’m now over the hump and its downhill from here! Yes! The Lord has been with me, helping me, and keeping me safe. I have been very blessed. And I’m very grateful to have this blessing to work and to gain knowledge in this real world. I’m learning so much and am struggling through it, but I wouldn’t trade it for anything. Thanks for reading these long and crazy stories. I appreciate your time and support!!

Finally, Internet Use!!

Of course, in this generation, internet is so important and useful! Well, I've been without a computer and internet for a couple weeks. I have internet on my phone, but a computer keyboard/screen is a lot better to use for blogging rather then a touch screen phone. So sorry it's been so long, I'll try my best and update you on the adventures!
Before we started the next fair we were staying at an RV Park close to Bret's house. So, Bret called me one day and asked if Josh and I wanted to go shooting with him. So we did! We shot some pretty cool guns. And really powerful. We shot a 38 special hand gun, 338 rifle, and a couple 22's. It was a lot of fun! We were super bored so we were very thankful Bret had called and was willing to take us out to do something.

 

Josh and I shooting the 38 special hand gun!  

 

  This is a video of Josh shooting the 338. Hopefully it turns out.

Well first off we've finished a few fairs. One fair we went to is in a town called Hillsboro, OR. It's a town consisting of about 20,000 people. Decent size town. The cool thing about the towns location is it's by so many other towns or cities, such as Portland. At this fair, we had the Bubbles and the Rock Wall. And it was super nice because they were right next to each other! Also, the weather was just about right. The whole weekend was about 80 degrees, that was nice. The down side was it was about 80 percent humidity! Maybe not that much but it got pretty close. The first day was also super windy!! Other than that, the weekend had decent fair weather.I had my brother Josh, Grandpa, and Bret working for me. I also had the same guy who worked at Salem there, his name is Brendan. (Bret's cousin) Then I had two others from Hillsboro to help. There names are Kyle and Michael, 19 and 18 years old. They were great workers. Michael was shy and didn't say much and I only had Kyle for a couple days so I didn't get to talk to him much. But they did great and would love to do it again! Pretty exciting!

Left- is Brendan and Michael working the Bubbles. Right-The Ladies just Loving Josh.

Before the next fair I ran into another problem! Right?! Only to me. So, Grandpa, Josh and I were just chilling in the RV and we decided to go to  Borders and a couple other stores. We took the truck down towards Vancouver, WA. It was trying really hard to accelerate on the freeway but just wasn't doing it! We got to our exit and it was putting. I could hardly accelerate on the road. I was maybe going 20mph and people were honking at me! I finally just pulled into some apartment complex and the truck just died! Yup. Just died and I couldn't start it. I called my dad and he said he had had the same problem before, sure enough! He said that it was probably the transmission. A blown transmission, I always have the best luck! Anyway, so I called Bret and he picked us up and we towed the truck to his Grandpa's shop in Portland. They took a look at it the next day and told us they would take it to their specialist. The specialist said that the clutch was shot as well as the fly wheel and the hydrolic system. Oh my Goodness! More money!! Ugh! Not the best day. They told me it would be done within the weekend, which is what I needed because I had to travel to Tillamook for the bubbles and all the stuff was in the truck. Craziness.

So, the next fair was in Ridgefield, WA. The Clark County Fair!! It's a long ten-day fair! I had Josh, Bret, and me work the first three days and then I had to leave for Tillamook. Bret handled the rock wall the rest of the week with a couple friends. I took Josh and my Grandpa to the airport. They both left for home. Josh started school the next Monday and Grandpa really missed Grandma. They both flew and landed safely in Vegas. Josh wasn't too excited about school just because he knew he would be running and he was seriously out of shape! But Josh is a Thompson and he is doing a lot better now and is getting in shape plenty fast.

 

This is the Salem/Marion County newspaper. We had our bubbles here and it got in the Newspaper! Cool!

I dropped Josh and Grandpa off at the airport and ran errands the rest of the day. One of which was to go to the shop where the truck was being repaired and unload all the bubble stuff and put it in the RV. That was a lot of work. Got that finished and completed a couple of other errands. The next thing on the list was to pick up two guys from the airport. My friend, Joe and boyfriend, Justin, flew up to help me work the bubbles and the wall for a little while. After picking them up we drove the RV to Tillamook. Tillamook is about two hours from Portland. We arrived and went to bed. There really wasn't anywhere to sleep so Joe slept on the top bed in the back of the RV, Justin slept in the shotgun seat and I slept on the top bunk of the RV. Very squished. The next morning we set up the Bubbles and then ran into Portland, because the Truck was done!! Yes!! I was relieved because if the truck wasn't done I would of had to of drove the RV to the fair everyday. And that's just a hassle. Anyway, so the Tillamook fair went great! We had so many kids and adults go through the bubbles. Joe mainly ran the front and he was just talking to everyone and getting everyone in the bubbles. He was really outgoing and very eager to work. Justin and I ran the back. Which is loading and unloading people from the bubbles. It's tough and tedious, but we got through it.

Justin and Joe getting the feel inside the bubble.

I have a really amazing and humbling short story to tell. While we were working, Joe came back and asked if it was okay if we were to put a blind man through the bubbles. I hesitated at first, but then said it would be just fine. He got in line just like everyone else and waited for his turn. He came up and just told me that I had to talk him through everything. It took us a couple minutes but were able to get him in the bubble and he rolled around and had a blast! He got out and was just smiling! He said, "That was amazing, you definitely don't need to see to know what's going on in there!" I was so touched. The man then talked to Joe some more. Joe had said, "Pretty fun, huh?!" The man said, "You don't need to see to have fun." It was really humbling for me. It uplifted me for the rest of the day!

We finished the fair on Saturday night and took down that night. Bret was going on a vacation with his family and wanted to leave after working on Saturday. I told him it was fine, I would just come in with Joe and Justin and work on Sunday. Yeah, that was a crazy night. We took the bubbles down around 10pm so we didn't finish until 2am. Then we drove all the way back to Ridgefiel. We arrived at 4am. Went to sleep and then woke up at 930am to go to work. I trained Joe and Justin and then we were consistently busy the rest of the day. We finished working the Rock Wall and took it down that night. We went to bed probably about midnight to 1am. Yeah, you bet we slept in the next morning. Once we woke up I took Joe and Justin to a 24 hour fitness to work out while I ran errands. Then on Tuesday I took Justin to the airport to fly back to Vegas. He is playing a House of Blues show again on Saturday so he needed to go play for that. If you want tickets, call Justin or get on their South for the Summer Facebook page and they will get you some. Joe and I traveled to the next fair.

So I am now in Port Angeles, WA! I am literally looking at the ocean right now! The ocean is like one minute from where I am staying. So, it's cold up here, to me anyway. (Maybe 65 degrees isn't cold to many people.) The fair starts on Thursday and ends on Sunday. A four day fair. This fair only has the Rock Wall. I'll have Joe, Bret and Me working it. Should be fun!

That's pretty much the update for the past few weeks. Sorry it's been so long. I am still alive and kicking. I've been having a lot of stress and worries lately and I'm trying really hard to get through it all. It'd probably be a lot easier if it were possible for me to please everyone, even myself. Thanks for reading. I'll try really hard to get more updates about these adventures!!

Random fun and misery!

This past weekend we did a fair, called Harvest Days. It's in Battle Ground, WA. Small town. Anyway, it was a three day fair and a fill in fair. A fill in fair is when we don't have anything one weekend, so we look up small fairs near our next fair location and we have it fill in until the next fair comes.
So, a "fill-in" fair. Hopefully that makes sense.
The fair was okay. We didn't do too well. The weather was terrible and our location was even worse. It was rainy, gloomy, overcast, humid, and more. We were behind the carnival, next to vendor parking, and had a huge RV parked next to the wall. You couldn't see us at all! I jumped a couple girls and one of them said, "I didn't know you guys were here this year until I was at the top of the ferris wheel!" Yeah the ferris wheel was right next to the wall, can't compete on height with that!



Anyway, the first two days we did okay, it sprinkled a little, but it just wasn't 'July Fair' weather. Hardly anyone came to the fair. Every one of the vendors were struggling. Then sunday came along, and it just poured! It rained saturday night and sunday. And it didn't stop raining, until, guess when?! When the fair closes. Yup, when the fair closed the rain stopped. Josh and I packed up and left after a few hours of being open. We were not about to stay in the rain and get sick. No one had any business and didn't stay to see if they would. It was crazy.

Now, we have about a week and a half off. It's just going to be random fun! Grandpa has family near by and is going to spend some time with them. Josh and I have been running and playing basketball. This is such a great place to go running. Just green all around you and then being able to see the sunset go down; it's just amazing. There is also raspberry and blackberry fields everywhere. You bet Josh and I stopped and grabbed a couple to eat! They are soo good too! We also took a trip into Portland to go grocery shopping and fix a few things for the rock wall. We also went to the movies and a couple different malls. It's something to take time away. Lots of fun too!

We went to a rigging shop to replace a few cables on the 

rock wall and when we went inside we saw this huge turnbuckle!! It was so big!! 

I should have laid next to it so you could actually see how big it is, but I didn't want to get dirty! 

(I'm dirty on the weekends, and on my days off I can shower and look decent.)  

I also got my hair cut! Thought I could use a little change. 

My ends were dead anyway so I needed to fix that.
Well, like I said earlier, we have about a week and a half off so I'll be blogging about
those adventures too! Thanks for reading!! I miss you all!

Chewelah Chataqua

Another one down! This fair was more stressing just because I was on my own and I sent my brother and Grandpa somewhere else to work. If you've been reading these blogs, my Grandpa and brother, Josh went to Salem, OR to work the Bubbles. So I was completely by myself for a weekend. 

I wasn't nervous, just stressed.

After I had my whole tire/axel/meltdown incident I continued the drive to Chewelah, WA. I arrived and set the Rock wall up all on my own. It wasn't too hard to do, but it was time consuming. The Rock Wall spot is right next to a creek. It is literally five to six feet away from the creek. It was a little tough pulling it in with the RV and placing it, but c'mon, do you know who I am?! Just kidding. I did do it though and did it like a champ! It's cool when you find out new things about yourself, like being able to drive something sixty-feet long! Anyway, after I set the wall up, I went to bed early, just because I was mentally and physically exhausted!

Setting up and taking down the Rock Wall is dirty work!

The next day, Thursday, I started work. I only needed one worker to come in on Thursday so I told my other worker to just come in and check in and I'd explain some things. I had two workers, Brittney and Blaze. They were skiddish at first, but of course, over a day of working you get the hang of it pretty quick. Blaze was a great worker! He was continually working. Such as, if he was done jumping kids he would come out front with me and help put harnesses on or take money, anything. He was very helpful. He is 19 years old, so he wasn't the most mature, but he worked out great. Brittney did well. She jumped kids all day and did a fine job at it. It was funny because she didn't do it like I normally do it; constantly standing with the kid, talking/entertaining, just working super hard. She would jump the kid and then sit down and talk to them or just let them jump themselves. Blaze did it a few times too, he was tired by the end of jumping a hundred-plus kids. Brittney jumped the little kids and Blaze jumped the bigger kids/adults. I took there spots a few times, but I mainly stayed out front taking money and helping kids climb. Overall they both did a great job. As much as I was stressing, they turned out to be hard workers.

 Here is a picture of Brittney and Blaze jumping kids.

Friday and Saturday were decent days for work. The fair started around 10 a.m. So Brittney, Blaze, and I got there around 1030 or 11. I'd come in early on a couple days to do some extra fixing or setting up. It was a lot of fun. The weather was fantastic the whole weekend! Not super hot and not cold or rainy. The cool thing was it had flooded the days before the fair and then it was great weather during the fair weekend and when the fair ended it is suppose to storm all week. I got lucky on weather that time. This fair went by fast. For me, I think the only downside would have to be the humidity. The humidity and being right next to the creek brought so many bugs and mosquitos. So I have bug bites all over. I have a bunch around my ankles, a couple on the back of my legs, my wrists, arms, and a couple on my neck! And they itch, so bad!! 

You cant tell how big this is,
but this is a bug that flew on me!

Another neat thing about this fair is every age group is involved. There were kids jumping and climbing from 2 years old to adults who were 80 years old. I always get excited when adults come to jump. It just explains to the world, that no matter your age you can still have fun and feel young, even when your body may go against it. I jumped a lady that was 62 years old. She had breast cancer and now has recurrent and metastatic breast cancer. She was a champ!! She got on the bungee jump and went pretty high. She even did a couple back flips!! It was great! I jumped another man who was 60 years old. And he was telling me that he has lost over a hundred pounds in the last year. He said, "Yeah, all I did was walked my dog for a few miles every morning and cut down on the calorie intake and lost it all. Still losing too!" He was a fun man. He was doing back flips galore too! And again, it's always neat to get "older" adults up on the bungee. Proves to everyone that age number doesn't matter. You can be as young or old as you want to be. Everyone deserves a bit of fun every now and then. 

Here is the 62 year old lady that I bungee jumped! 

And below is the 60 year old man that I bungee jumped! How cool?!?!

 

 The Chewelah Chataqua was a lot of fun. Being by myself for a weekend was nice, little scary at times, but overall it was nice. Josh and Grandpa had a great time in Salem, OR. The fair was decent for them as well. They had a worker named Brendan, according to Josh, he did well. 

Below is a pic of Grandpa and Brendan with the Bubbles in Salem, OR.

They enjoyed their time over in Salem. They worked really hard and when I say really hard, I mean Josh picked up like four girls phone numbers! He was thrilled about it! He even got a picture with a couple of them. Now, he is just working on the, "Can I take you on a date?!" Yeah Bro! She still has to be approved by me though, so I'll be joining them on the date! Just kidding. Anyway, Grandpa seemed to enjoy it over there. He didn't get any phone numbers, but that's probably a good thing! They enjoyed the traveling and even the traveling after the fair ended. Brendan went back home and Josh and Grandpa went to the coast. They hit up the beach and messed around. Josh caught a lot of crabs and starfish. The crabs were pretty easy for him to catch, it was the starfish that are hard. The starfish just chill there on a rock until something touches them then their suction turns on! The starfish are fast, but Josh was slightly faster! It was pretty easy for Josh to catch them. And yes, of course, he put them back.

After we were all done playing and getting things done we travelled to our next destination. The next fair is called, Harvest Days. It's in a little town called, BattleGround, WA. Very small fair. This will be a fill in fair, something to take up time. It's only three days and then we can have more fun play time! 

We are about an hour from Seattle and less than an hour from Portland. So, we are surrounded by some fun places and historical sights. These next couple of weeks should be fun. 

We've accomplished three fairs so far! Only twelve more weekend fairs to go!

Let me know how this blog is going or if you want more information, stories, anything! Thanks!