Bremerton Visit

It has been three years almost to the day since we have been back to Bremerton.

I have honestly been afraid to go back. I have pretty much had such a longing for my life there that I was afraid I would truly not want to come back here. 

I can pretty much tell you that not a single Sunday has gone by that I have not sat in church and wished I was still in Silverdale First ward where everyone knows me and I know them and when I open my mouth I felt safe to speak and that people appreciated my input. 

Every Sunday is a reminder of what I had and what I was and what I am no longer.

I'm not completely ashamed to admit that I realize I got my self worth and value from the callings that I served in and that I felt needed. 

So that pretty much sums up my emotional dependence on Bremerton. 

I definitely miss my church life. 

Now back to the visit.

I expected to feel an overwhelming feeling of coming home the minute we arrived at the airport. 

I have felt that way before. 

Not an iota.

This is what welcomed us.

Between the clouds and rain and trees, everything felt small and enclosing.

Not that that's is bad, but it is the COMPLETE opposite of what we have been living in.

Everything was familiar, but it felt like an out of body experience.

I have never felt so strange. Still can't identify the feeling.

I didn't take many pictures. It was like I was ready to close that book.

We did drive by the kid's elementary school. It was closed before we moved, but they actually demolished the main building. That was strange.  

 Definitely an improvement rather than looking at a deserted boarded up building.

 We really only had one particular place we wanted to go eat at and that was Noah's Ark. 

Fred thinks their hamburgers are pretty special. The other place we ate at was Taco Time.

I know lame, but Taco Time in Utah is disgusting. It's not the same product. The food is awful and the restaurants are kind of grimy. So I so enjoyed my chicken taco salad. 

 I really wanted to go to the Mall and see the changes, but time really did go by quickly. Shopping in St. George is pretty awful. We did, however, drive around this new mall out in Silverdale. It looks promising.

What happened for me with this visit was liberating. All my fears have been put to rest. It is all good. 

I don't mean anything negative by what I am saying. I so needed to be let free of my longing to go back and feeling like moving to St. George was a mistake. I have honestly felt that way. 

Coming back for this visit was just what I needed. I don't exactly know what happened, but I really didn't feel anything. Of course, seeing everyone was so wonderful. Felt like I haven't skipped a beat with anyone. But I was so ready to come home. Yes I could actually say come home. 

I think the timing of everything was just right. Now that my Dad is here living with us, it feels right to close that chapter in my life. 

When I was sitting in church this Sunday, it was the first time I didn't go to that place in my head where I was wishing I was in my ward "back home". My other hang up is in Relief Society. Always feeling like I need to make an earth shattering comment to change someone's life. Like I used to have that kind of influence (I know, me and my big girl pants) anyway, Sunday as I sat there I didn't have that urgent feeling anymore. I thought to myself it's okay to just be here. I don't have to call attention to myself. To be someone, to prove myself. Just be. 

It's hard to explain. But it's different. It's good.

Greatest Moment Ever

Memorial Day May 31, 2016

My Dad was asked by the Mariner's to throw out the first pitch.

He has been very involved with the Puget Sound Honor Flight Organization and that is how this all came about. The veterans in this organization were honored at the field that day.

On our walk to the ferry this cute brunette came up to Dad and put her arm around him and thanked him for his service. They had a little chat. Then she came and found him on the ferry and asked to have her picture taken with him again.

A little while later this young sailor came up to Dad to talk. It was pretty special. He is from Saipan and that is where my Dad served in the Navy. This sailor left Saipan four years ago so they were able to talk about locations and a little Navy lingo type stuff. I don't know if it like this everywhere, but in the Pacific Northwest the people are so patriotic. It is really fabulous.

We walked to the official check in point.

We found the best place we could to record the big moment. First they rolled out a big red carpet for the veterans to walk out on. There were about 20 Veterans lining the 3rd and 1st base line. 

 Each Veteran was introduced by name, their military branch and rank. Each Veteran was projected on the big screen in the stadium. I didn't realize that at first. I just saw the tv screen where we were standing so I decided to take a picture of that screen. Here is my Dad during his big moment. He was doing a signal. He was a signalman in the Navy. He was a ham of course.

After the National Anthem, the Veterans were escorted from the field and Dad trotted out to the mound.

Here are all the links we have tracked so far:

Original Video from Mariners Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/Mariners/videos/10154248650448979/?pnref=story

Fox Sports Interview in the seats at SafeCo:

http://m.mariners.mlb.com/news/article/181112058/mariners-honor-memorial-day-with-ceremonies

King 5 Interview:

http://www.king5.com/sports/mlb/mariners/92-year-old-throws-out-epic-first-pitch-at-mariners-game/225186702

MLB Coverage:

http://m.mlb.com/video/v756176983

ESPN coverage:

http://espn.go.com/video/clip?id=15849612

Then I realized he was up on the big screen in the stadium so I started taking pictures of that.

Here he is taking the mound.

Waving to the crowd.

All around.

This is the official MLB photo.

Do you see he brought a pen for autographs?

 Dad requested to meet Edgar Martinez. This is them walking to the dug out to get his autograph. 

I decided I better get a selfie before we left the game.

 I really can't put into words the emotions of the day.

It's so fun to be his daughter. I love being able to say "That's my Dad!"

He is a great example to me that we can become better people in our lifetime. 

I'm pretty excited that we get to have him live with us. 

I'm hoping he rubs off on us in all the good ways.

pics from my phone

Since there has been nothing out of the ordinary happening in the last week I decided just to pull some pictures off my cell phone to share.

I think this was Corinne's birthday/Mother's Day celebration. Ben and the boys bought her a chocolate fountain for Mother's Day. Life with boys.

 Corinne and Ben have registered the three oldest boys in baseball this year.

This was taken last night at Richard's first game. 

From their report, the boys are all having a good experience.

I'm glad!

Henry was enjoying the game - lots of clapping!

 My Dad went over to SeaTac to welcome home the Honor Flight. 

They put on a really nice show at the airport.

This is a little lady that Dad would be keeping his eye on if he weren't moving here.

 This is a picture that we had taken in about 1974. I posted it on Facebook a couple weeks ago for Throw Back Thursday.

These are my good friends who were in my Laurel class with me. We had this taken professionally and gave it to our Laurel Teacher. She had it hanging in her family room for years. I wonder it it's still there????

Drew Thomas, Millie Chalk, Me & Dana Thomas (twins).

One of my new "friends" here in St George posted on my facebook post 

"Are you the blonde?"

I was like "what the heck"? Am I really so old, fat or ugly that it isn't obvious which one is me?

I think she was just jealous.  :)

I had to post this picture of Mima & Shannon on my monitors at work.

I just love the look on Mima's face.

 A few Mima pictures that make me smile!

 Little Tootsie!

Zions National Park for Mother's Day

Fred and I drove up to the Springdale entrance to Zions National Park on Saturday.

The first thing we did once we got there was eat lunch.

This isn't a very good picture because it's off the internet. 

Oscar's Cafe. So so good! That's all I can say.

We ate on the patio and it was a little nippy, but they do have heaters hanging from the ceiling. 

We left our car parked here and hopped on the shuttle. 

Took the town shuttle to the shuttle that goes into Zions.

It was cloudy and did rain a little. Most all of my pictures are taken from inside the shuttle.

We have photo contest ongoing at work. I won February of 2015 with a picture from Kolob.

So I was trying to get another one to enter.

There tends to be lots of photos that look like these. The criteria for the contest is scenes and nature from Southern Utah. So you can understand why there are lots of photos of the mountains. 

 The shuttle driver stopped so we could watch these three deer. All three of the pictures I took had the flash reflecting in them. I was bummed.

 Here is our selfie on the shuttle.

 You can get off at any stop and walk/hike the trails. We only got off once. I was carrying my purse.

Lame.

 The shuttle in town and in Zion is free.

Getting in for two of us with no pass was $30.

If you go in with a group, it's still only $30.

Here is Fred taking a picture of me taking his picture.

 We stopped here for ice cream on the way home. 

Now that is some gift shop in there.

They make their own ice cream. It was good.

 We think this will be a good stop with grand kids. 

 Almost back home and we saw this cloud formation. Fred said it looked like an atomic bomb and I thought it looked like a mushroom. It's pretty either way.

It was a very nice day. I haven't wanted to drive to Zions since we moved here because I didn't want to spend my Saturday driving anywhere since I sit at my job all week. I've finally gotten over that. 

I'm glad we went.