Smith Excavation and Labor, LLC

For whatever reason, we have zero photo's of our driveway prior to the windstorm, so I can't show you what things looked like with these three trees standing. On top of that, when we moved in, the area to the left was not gravel and a shed, but mud and blackberry bushes. To date we've removed probably 8 to 10 old stumps in this area, by digging around them and towing them out. The digging is horrible, the towing is pretty fun! Last year we brought in 48 yards of gravel (68 tons) and raised the left area by about two feet. We'll probably have to bring in another 12 to 24 yards to fill in the hole where these trees were. It does open up the driveway though...

First Storm:

Second storm:

Cleanup (so far...):

The Day After...

Christmas Eve was spent with the Posenjak's, post church service (starring Ryan as pagaent narrator, and Jake as soloist). We watched the Seahawks lose, had great food, and a nice family evening. Brad and Lindsey spent the night.




Christmas Day we had breakfast with Brad, Lindsey, Elliott, and Wesley, who then headed for home. We had a fun morning of gifts and playtime, and then the traditional post-present letdown time of grumpyness.


At Three, we headed for Nana and Grampy's where almost every single Uncle, Aunt, and Cousin were gathered for food and a photo-shoot.



Jaxon even made his big debut. What a hit! Smithy has nicknamed him "Jaxon 5" since he is the fifth grandchild of Mimi and Smithy.

We had another fun gathering later at our house with Mimi, Smithy, and TT.

Today was spent doing chores in the morning, some more post-storm cleanup, and then another visit with Mimi and Smithy, including some very special reading time with Mimi.

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas to all, love the Smith Family.

Post Post Storm Post

Hate to bump Jaxon, but we just had two more trees fall - this time across our cars in the front of the house (frown).

At this point, I bet the van will be totalled. The truck is probably fine. Here are some pictures:





(12/26 update): Truck has a cracked windshield, Van has a few dents in the roof and a broken window. Neither are covered by insurance so unless FEMA kicks in, we're on our own. That said, the damage was significantly less than it looked like it would be.

The icing on the cake was Christmas Eve when as we were passing out presents, our Christmas tree tipped over on everyone. SHEESH!

Jaxon Mead Guyser

Macaulay & Jason's son arrived at 4:00 am this morning, weighing 8 lbs 4 oz and is 21” long. I went to Evergreen today at two for a quick visit - didn't get to hold him because of a little cold (frown).

He is very cute, and has thick dark hair, especially on the top, just like JJ.

When I got home I showed the pictues to everyone but Jake, he was very jealous that I went by myself and he said "I don't want to see pictures, I want be surprised by him in real life".

Congratulations to Dolly and Jason!

Post Storm Post

Having been out of power from Thursday at 9pm to Monday at 2:18am, we are getting back to a somewhat normal routine. We lost four trees of our own, and two trees from our neighbors were 'added' to our propery. No damage to the house or cars, or shed. One passing neighbor looked down the driveway and told me "I guess there is something to be said for clean living!"

Family visits over the weekend were great, Aunt Gail arrived safely, and our lunchtime Posenjak party went well even without power.

Ryan, Jake, and Emma were able to go see The Nutcracker with Mimi and Smithy on Sunday afternoon, followed by an overnight at the Guyser's, and an action packed Monday as well - they slept sound last night!

Speaking of sleep, here is a very cute video of Wesley Posenjak trying his hardest not to wake up from a nap at Great-Grandma's house:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U4P0ndgTVSA