Category Archives: Addyson May

Summer Escape

We crossed the great divide (The Cascade Mountain Range) and will be spending a few days with our Eastern Washington kids.

It’s hard to come empty handed. Or better put, it’s easy to come with some gifts packed in the car.

I found this little workbench at Goodwill and with my “special discount” it cost me under $6.00.

Rayna is trying to prod me into petting her by putting her paw on my foot. “Come on lady, you’re just sitting there”.

It’s nice to get caught up with this little ones new skills. I’ll be running all weekend and I hope to get some stills of Addy but she’s always on the go. I’ll be one tired Baba at the end of each day.

Happy Weekend and last day of June to you all. Happy Canada Day weekend to our friends in the North!

May the friendship between our two countries last forever.

Summer Company

Our first summer visitors arrived in Western Washington on Tuesday June 19th. I know it wasn’t technically summer yet but they are all on summer vacation from school year responsibilities. I’m Great Auntie to Jack and Avery.

Our kids love their cousins. Our niece, Michelle, is my eldest sister’s firstborn daughter.

The girls broke away from the backyard to a local nail salon to get a fresh pedicure. It’s hard to see Avery’s glittery nails.

Time to stoke the fire and warm up the toes.

After our time at Josh and Laura’s on Wednesday, Laura took the Southern California crew for a few hour tour of Whidbey Island on Thursday. That tour ended in a ferry ride back to the mainland and we all met up at our local Mexican restaurant for dinner and a stop at our home. Avery was very sad that we are selling this old house. She’s made memories here over the years.

Before they visited us they made a stop at Dan, Jamie, and Addy’s home for a night. Addy enjoyed their visit.

Meanwhile in Eastern Washington, Addy has finally decided she enjoys spaghetti. Today is Addy’s mommy and daddy’s 3 year wedding anniversary. Happy Anniversary Dan and Jamie. So glad God brought you together.

We have made our flight arrangements to Southern California for our Pop/Dzeda’s funeral which we postponed to July 19th and 20th so that all the out of towners could get reasonable prices for our trips. Our pop will be buried next to our mom at Rose Hills Cemetery in Whittier, California. On Thursday evening, July 19th, we will have a viewing and on Friday July 20th at 11:00 am we will have the funeral at Rose Hills followed by a lunch/reception at Brea Baptist Church in Brea, California.

Hello Summer Hodgepodge

1. Summer is upon us this week in the Northern hemisphere. Tell us three things on your summer bucket list.

No real bucket list type items but things that we need to have happen this summer…

1. Sell our house. 2. Buy a new house. 3. Complete our move to the new house. In the midst of all of that, spend time with our growing granddaughter, family and friends.

2. Something fun you used to do as a kid in the summertime?

In the 50’s we would go camping in the mountains close to Los Angeles. Big Bear was one of our favorites. As a child this was a fun experience. I’m the one with the buster brown haircut. The other thing we would do was spend time at the beach with our cousins and usually we’d choose Newport Beach in Southern California. Besides dodging waves and digging for sand crabs, the kids would walk around and collect empty soda bottles to take into the little convenience store to redeem the deposits. With the money we’d get by doing this we’d buy a popsicle or candy bar. So thrilling for us young ones! What wasn’t fun about the beach was coming home with horrible sunburns and having to have cold rags dipped in vinegar put on our backs to ease the pain and heat. Ouch. My dear mom was the one who would minister to us.

3. Rooftop or backyard? Why?

I’ve never really lived in an environment where I have to rely on a rooftop to be outside. A yard is still important to me. More importantly a covered deck is my preference with a view of greenery all around and some privacy. If you have a rooftop space you could invite me over to experience something different!

4. Do you read food labels? Place importance on them? Make an effort to find out/care about where your food comes from?

My label reading life has evolved over the years. Growing up we were part of a religion/cult where pork products were taboo so we made sure the salami and hot dogs we bought were an “all beef” product. My family left this group in my later teens and I am free to enjoy bacon and other pork products. MSG was the next item in an ingredients list that we avoided and still do. We avoid anything with aspartame and saccharin or any fake sugar. No diet soft drinks at my house. I can only hope the food I buy at the local grocer is okay…another good reason to pray over the meal you are about to consume.

5. A song you’ll have on repeat this summer?Philip Philip

Summer, Fall, Winter and Spring the songs I mostly have on repeat are Christian worship songs and hymns but here’s one that is somewhat appropriate for our move…

6. Insert your own random thought here.

Our son is threatening to get our little grand girlie a huge hamster ball so they don’t have to deal with this scenario. Yikes, she climbed up on that bar stool and hoisted herself up on the counter. She’s a strong daredevil.

Here she is with her Uncle. This looks a lot safer!

Linking up with Jo From This Side of the Pond for Wednesday Hodgepodge. She asks the questions and we answer…

Before the End…

…of our Son in law’s tedious years of studying and writing and creating and presenting for his degree in Aeronautical Engineering tomorrow, I thought I would do a quick post recapping our time last weekend with lots of photos.

Uncle Josh and Addy at the zoo. Our kids and our friend’s kids went to the zoo on Saturday.

Uncle and Addy on the carousel.

Auntie and  Addy at our kid’s home. Addy and her parents stayed with our oldest and our dear DIL for this trip since our house is in another period of chaos.

After the zoo we all met up at Jamie, Sarly, Rae and David’s house for a barbecue dinner and fun in their backyard.

The sandbox was a fun discovery for Addy and David enjoyed it alongside his new friend.

Rae was a sweet hostess and took Addy for a ride about the yard.

Addy enjoyed sitting in the driver’s seat.

The dads gave their little ones some fun pushes on the swings.

David and Addy helped out by mowing the lawn and the putting green.

Some use golf clubs to get a hole in one, others take the easy road and just plop the ball into the hole.

The adults took turns helping the younger ones have a good time.

Help down the big slide was appreciated.

More help to zoom about the yard, too.

Loved seeing Katie’s purple hair amongst the purple blooms.

A great time with our dear friends who are family to us.

On Sunday late morning all our kids arrived at Baba and Gramps’ for our traditional family Swedish Pancake breakfast.

Addy got to see her pink kitchen that I bought a Goodwill for $1.79. I’m tucking it away for her to enjoy in the future when she’s older and can appreciate it more.

She enjoyed navigating our home again on very steady feet.

Some fun faces and a discovery of the tupperware lid drawer.

Our girls.

Our guys.

All of us together.

Till next time dear ones! It was a great couple days together.

Looking forward to Andrew’s graduation festivities on Friday and Saturday in the midst of us repainting our colorful walls and our kitchen the last few days. Oye, we are tye tye here at this old house. We are trying the neutral pallet to see if that will help us sell our home. Time will tell. Hope you all have a lovely weekend. I’ll be able to breath a sigh of relaxation come Sunday, Lord willing!

Glee!

We got to spend some time with loved ones Saturday evening and on Sunday morning. I’ll share more soon. A busy weekend. We said our goodbyes to these three a couple hours ago. They are driving over the mountains to return home.

Update: Head over to Mennonite Girls Can Cook to get the recipe for Crockpot Creamy Chicken Tortilla Soup that I posted for today. I know it might be hot where you are but I enjoy soup in any weather and this is a good one to bookmark. I first posted this recipe on the MGCC blog almost 8 years ago! Happy Monday and my kids made it back home safe and sound.

Spokane Lilac Festival

Last Saturday we drove south to Spokane to catch part of the Annual Armed Forces Torchlight Parade. This parade takes place during the Lilac Festival. To get to the parade we parked on the north side of the Spokane river and crossed a pedestrian bridge to get across the river which gave us some great views of the rivers current thundering with spring runoff.

Addy was in awe of all the noise and activity of the parade.

This is the pedestrian bridge we crossed to get to the downtown parade route.

I should have taken a video so you could hear how loud the rush of the river was.

I

This shot above with the mist was looking west

I’m traveling to Southern California on Saturday with Josh and Laura to see my pop who turns 95 tomorrow. He is not doing well and it will be nice to have a face to face visit with him and see some of our other family, too. We fly back home on Monday early afternoon.

Hope you all have a good Memorial Weekend.

First Things First…

Our little fourteen month old grandgirlie kept us on our toes during her waking hours. She is busy and on the move.

Baba had to have a little talk with her to let her know that it made me nervous when she chooses to stand on this toy instead of scooting on it.

It isn’t as easy to get good photos these days. As soon as I pull my big camera out Addy wants to investigate and try to grab the camera from me to play with. Baba and Addy spent lots of time with her building blocks and enjoyed “This Little Piggy”.

We are back home. We are still in the waiting room with our house sale and purchase of a new home. You’ll be the second to know if and when we have success on both these fronts. Can’t have one without the other, though. I’m asking God to give me more trust and peace in this waiting period.

As always on our visits to Colville I like take the current view photo from our kids’ driveway. Here’s our May 21st shot.

Soon I’ll share more photos of the Spokane river and a collage from our time at the Spokane Armed Forces Appreciation Parade that always takes place during the Lilac Festival.

Cheers! I’m getting caught up on the Royal wedding since our kids don’t have cable TV and I dvr’d it.

Weekend Roundup ~ Q

Time for Tom’s Weekend Roundup

1. Starts with “Q.”
2. A Favorite.
3. Quiet.

Queen Victoria

Favorite: Mommy and daughter with baby quilt stitched with love.

Quiet

Parting shot:

Taken yesterday in Edmonds, Washington. One of these things is not like the others. A seagull atop a “sign quilt”.  After several sunshine filled days we are back to rain today. The clouds came in yesterday as you can see in the photo above. Have a good weekend everyone.

Thank you Tom for hosting The Weekend Roundup.

They Bloom…

…as if overnight!

Addy warmed up to Gramps and Baba with no problems. We are always pleased that she remembers us and lifts up her arms for us to pick her up. We were able to see first hand all the new skills that she has mastered.

She moves and entertains in motion.

Eating cheerios while walking.

Scooting on her (what animal is that?) giraffe?

Building…

She has the cutest way of saying she is done eating.

Trying to gather all the numbers from her number puzzle right side up and upside down.

We enjoyed our time again with our kids in northeastern Washington.

Meanwhile Spring is blooming in our western Washington yard!

Lilacs, Pear blossoms and apple blossoms.

What’s blooming in your corner of the world?