Hi everyone,
This picture is Raymond just after "SURPRISE". :-)
Everyone except Travis and Chantel were hiding in the Carr playroom and hallway. Travis and Chantel were in the Living Room like they normally would be.

I decided that it would be fun to throw Raymond a surprise birthday party the day before his birthday. I talked to Chantel and we decided that we should have it at her house since Raymond and I usually go over to their house for dinner on friday night. He wouldn't suspect a thing :-).
I arranged with Mac and Liz to get off a couple of hours early on friday to go help with the decorations and things. While at work that morning Raymond said he was going to get off early and would probably get a ride down to the Funeral Chapel and pick up the truck. Uh oh..... I raced out to the truck to get everything out of the truck box. Presents, decorations, food stuff etc., realizing as I went that I would probably have to walk to Chantel's and then walk back before Raymond came and got me when I was supposed to be off. As I was going back inside Liz came out and said that Chantel had called and Raymond just went home. Wheeew.
Anyway..... I was able to run over and help with the decorations. I ran home picked up Raymond and went to the store like we normally do before dinner at Chantel's, picked up things supposedly for dinner that night but most of it was for saturday night. Sneaky huh?????
We walked in and around the corner where everyone yelled "Surprise".

Present time. Raymond opening his skill saw.

We had hamburgers, hotdogs and all the trimmings for a cookout.
Raymond's mom made the cake and it was so yummmmy.
Raymonds parents, brother's and sister's walked to the party so Raymond wouldn't see extra cars.
We had a lot of fun. Everyone started saying that I was getting good at Lieing. I said I wasn't Lieing, just fibbing for Raymond's own good and his surprise :-). Am I rationalizing too much
He He.
I want to say thank you to everyone for all the help. Wouldn't have happened without everyone. Working with Collette, Chantel, Chaunte and Candy was a lot of fun. We got to know each other even better. It was great having Mac and Liz in on the surprise. Raymond was surpised and everyone had a blast.
Diana

Happy Birthday Raymond!!!!

This is the decorations at Chantel's House

The Cake table......

This was my surprise.
I was completely blown away. I thought she was setting up something on Saturday, but to my shock it was on Friday. I did some things to make it hard, but she got me. It was wonderful. We then spent Saturday playing games, and it was a very nice way to celebrate the day, and it was a great weekend.
I want to say thanks to everyone that called and for the cards. It was great, and just to let you know Brianne, I loved the card.

Raymond

Howdy Ya'll

Welcome. To the beauty of creation!

We have spent the anniversary of our meeting in Portland by looking back over that week, and the time we have spent together. It is hard to believe it has only been two years. So much has changed and so much has improved it is still amazing us that it has only been two years. Wow...... but we wouldn't change a thing. We toured around the area here and wanted to share some of the sites.

We wanted to go to a waterfall like we did that first weekend, so we headed to Soda Creek Falls. They are in a park about 20 miles up the Cascades from our house, we have been to the park before but never went up to the falls. It is a 3/4 of a mile hike up the mountain and it was a beautiful day, not hot and not cold, sunny and a nice breeze, so off we went. With camera in hand we headed up, made it about half way when Raymond screamed like a girl and looked down at his left hand to see the biggest, badest, scariest,( I am serious, this thing had tatoo's, was flashing gang signs, and I think it had a gun!) wasp we had ever seen, stinging the daylights out of his finger. It was the one that when people ask which one you hurt, you have to be careful showing them so they don't get the wrong idea...... got the hint?.....Ok. Diana asked what had happened and Raymond showed her and then she screamed... ok it wasn't really a scream, just a loud Ouch! That litter bugger was sitting on her hand stinging her thumb. As I said, that was one bad bee...... Needless to say, the hike was over, and we moved fast down the hill. Incase you all didn't know.... the Meyers family is known for being allergic to bees, and as I said before this was a HUGE BEE! We made it back to parking area and headed for the bathroom. Diana was still feeling pain, Raymond wasn't feeling anything by now....... We each went in and used cold water to clean and try to keep the swelling down. We headed down the Mountain. Raymond wasn't feeling any pain, but the stinging had left a good scratch on Diana. Since Raymond didn't pass out or anything we decided to swing over to Green Peter Dam/Lake and that is where this picture is from. Amazing enough, Raymond hasn't had any reaction..... Maybe all the reptile and spider bites from working at PETCO seems to have built up the defenses.

We then drove around Green Peter for a while and checked out all the camp sites. Nice, lots of trees, but a bit out of the touch of the world. The part that brought this home were the strange people we saw. Then we stopped in at Foster Lake to see why everyone was saying it was so low. It was. We were able to walk out into the lake, and found a foundation for a house that was floaded when they built the dam in the 50's. Cool. We will post the pictures for you to see later.

Hope all is well
Raymond & Diana