Longest post ever

 I figured out the process I will need to go through to download my pictures to this blog until I can get some help from Scott. So I will catch up on what's been going on since July 25, 2022.

This is a photo capturing our County Fair experience. It was a stinkin hot day. We went to listen to a cover band for Phil Collins. We grabbed some delicious hot dogs (haha). Luckily there was a tent with tables to sit at. Next we walked over to the Muttin Bustin event and stayed about 20 minutes. I couldn't hack the heat. I actually get sick when I am exposed too long in the dead heat. We walked throught the exhibition hall and then went home. Fred wanted to go to the Tractor Pull that evening, but a sudden rainstorm hit and made a mess so they cancelled it. Pretty much a bummer experience.

This is Fred working out in the garage building a pulley system to hoist our E Bikes over the cars to keep them out of the way. I'm amazed at what he can do. How does he figure out stuff like this?

Mine is the green bike. 

This shows the garage we share with Shannon and Brian. 

I tagged along with Shannon and the kids to Elitch Gardens for the day. Another hot day of course, but we found a bench. We didn't do the water slide portion of the Garden. Kids went on a few rides and we all went on the boat things that basically is a roller coaster into a big water area that splashes you soaking wet. It was fun though. Cooled us right off. It started to thunder and lightening so the park basically closed down all the rides and water park. What's with the rainstorms around here closing down stuff???

These three photos are pretty random. This has been our crayon box since Corinne was a toddler. We have had it all these years and I decided I am done with it. I posted these pictures on our family messenger group to see if it was okay with the kids for me to get rid of it. Shannon said she wanted it. Now it's their crayon box.

After I made M her blanket, I wanted to sew something for Clara. I loved this fabric and the pattern was sure cute, but I think it turned out like a MooMoo. Oh well. 

I read ALL OF THE TIME. I have had a little triangular pillow to rest my Tablet on, but it is a little too low. I found this on Amazon. It's better, but not perfect. 

I decided to take the linen type stuff out of this hall closet and fill it with games. It made me feel really at home. Just like our Washington City home.

Next is our trip to Leavenworth and Bremerton. 

Fred likes to take this old IPod traveling to listen to music in the car or on the plane.

We took this picture of all these charging stations for Scott.

Here is a driving picture of Fred in our Toro Camry rental. 

This was an attempt to take a picture of our rental car. 

We drove to Safeway to buy stuff to eat in the hotel room instead of going out. You know, save calories and money. Leavenworth buildings are all pretty cute.

Here is our luxurious dinner surroundings and menu items. 

Toffee Cream Oreos are not very good. Don't bother.

We went for a short walk that evening. 

Here are some pictures of the downtown tourist area. We went on a voice map tour Friday morning before we left town. 

Overall, Leavenworth is for drinking beer and shopping.

We felt we needed to eat in Leavenworth at least once. We went here for breakfast and I had strawberry Belgian waffle and Fred had the usual egg, bacon, hashbrown breakfast. It was good. 

This is the hotel we stayed at. It was a cute room, but nothing luxurious for the amount of money we paid. That's our Toro rental in the first parking spot.

Fred's Leavenworth souvenir. Another hat. My only souvenir was COVID.

It was so overwhelming all the beauty of the trees, water and mountains. It is so gorgeous!

Tacoma Bridge. 

Our VRBO rental was so darling. It was perfect although a little more out of town in the woods, but that's how people do it there. Build their homes out in the forrest. 

Breakfast time at the VRBO rental. 

We wanted to walk along the Poulsbo waterfront, but there was an art fair going on. There was NO PARKING anywhere. We ended up stopping at Central Market to buy kleenex. Exciting!

Another important stop was a burger at Noah's Ark.

Went had tickets to go to the Tacoma Rainiers Game. The weather was perfect! 

A beautiful night. It was a good game even though they lost.

On Monday before we left town we stopped by Olympic High School. All three kids graduated from there and I worked there as a Counseling Secretary for 10 years. This is the remodeled school It was amazing. My co-worker took us around the building. Sure wish it had been that nice when we were all there. 

Another important stop is Taco Time. We miss their food. The Taco Time in St George was horrible. 

This was opening day at the new WinCo that took over the old Sears space in the Kitsap Mall. We bought cinnamon bears for Brian. 

We lucked out and caught Cindy and Keith Redd at home. It felt like no time had passed. Such a wonderful visit.

Had to catch a picture of Mount Rainier on our way back to the airport. 

I did a very poor job of taking pictures. Friday night we met Bev and Terry Holbrook at Azteca for dinner. One of the three restaurants we wanted to be sure to eat at. I meet with six of my close friends at Applebees for lunch. Lorraine Butler, Suzie Webb, Rowena Russell, Wendy Allred, Tricia Fisher and Tina San Fillippo. That was so great. Felt like not a day since we were together. We also attended Silverdale First and Brownsville wards for church. We spent Sunday afternoon visiting with Leila Wilkins. She had all kinds of things to talk about. We really had a great time. Felt surreal.....but good.

Outings and fun hobbies

It was a very long process, but we finally got a hitch put on the Subaru so we can haul our e bikes around. They are heavy so we had to buy a heavy duty bike carrier which required a hitch. 

We took the car and bikes for a test drive out on the road to see if the ride was still good.

It passed. Now we need to plan a road trip and use all this new stuff.

My bike is the green one - they call that color celeste, Fred's is the white one. 

I think these were the only two colors in the type of e bike we wanted. 

I don't remember what day this was, but we had a double rainbow one afternoon. 

I don't think I've seen that before. The picture doesn't do it justice.

We went along with the family to a NASCAR race. It was really a good time. It was hot though, but luckily there was shade over the bleachers. Noisy, but a very good time.

I should have taken a picture of the funnel cake that Brian bought for us.

It was soooo good!

The other morning while I was upstairs for my morning check in, M asked me if I would help her make a cake. She has a cute little baking set with this mold. I was surprised how cute it was. I filled it too deep so had to slice off the top. I ate some of that and it was delicious! 

It was a fun project to do together. 

While Fred was away in California meeting his new aunt and cousins and Brian and B were on a hike, we girls went to lunch and a movie. Shannon had an appt after the movie so I offered to take M with me and we seemed to end up at Cold Stone. We both ordered new flavors and they were delicious!

One morning Shannon was telling me about M still sleeping with baby blankets at night. M sleeps in shorts and a short sleeve pajama set at night all year long. She actually doesn't seem to need the warmth, but Shannon was thinking it was time to get her a bigger size blanket. I offered to make her a quilt. First I went to the fabric store not really knowing what I was going to make. I just guessed and picked out three different fabrics and some fleece. I looked on U Tube for block ideas and found this. I decided not to put batting in it. Figured the fleece would make it warm enough and make the project easier for me. I didn't buy enough fabric so I found one remnant in my stash for the blocks. I was going to surprise M with the quilt, but she came downstairs while I was trying to lay it out in some kind of pattern. I asked her if she wanted to lay it out and she took right to it. Relieved my stressing about it. Then I still needed more fabric so we went through Shannon's stash. Marissa picked out this striped flannel. Anyway - I got through it well enough and this is the end result. It is pretty for sure. 

I think she is liked being a part of the process very much. Now I'm going to sew a dress for Clara.

 I do like sewing! I need to come up with more projects.

 

Father's Day and other stuff

 We got to log in and listen to Scott give a talk in his Sacrament meeting. I always love to hear him speak. I don't know if I'm partial because he is our son, but I don't think so. He is such a great speaker.

Fred and I were asked to sub for our friends in their Primary class on Father's Day.

I took this picture of Fred because he was wearing the Father's Day tie that the Primary in Bremerton gave out probably 10 years ago. This is one of his favorite ties.

I hosted Father's Day in our kitchen. I bought a bunch of Seahawk decorations to honor Brian. I asked M to come and help me decorate. She is such a darling girl. I never get tired of her. 

I think Brian appreciated my efforts. I made spaghetti, fruit salad, garlic bread and a Holy Cow cake. 

I took the kids to Urban Air again. They have a year membership so they get to ride everything, get a free slice of pizza and a popcorn each visit. I bought them an ICEE this time. 

For Shannon's birthday they bought tickets for all of us to go to a Colorado Rockies baseball game. It was a good game, but when we parked it was overcast and looked like it was about to rain. Both Fred and I left our hats and sunglasses in the car. Wouldn't you know the sun came out and we were blind. Luckily when the sun went down, it was perfect weather. We won't leave our stuff behind anymore.

It was a beautiful sky that night.