Category Archives: Family

Pretty as a…

Picture Lake!

On Tuesday when we reached Picture Lake there was a breeze that made ripples on the surface of the water so the reflections were not as clear as they could be. The lake has a very nice 1/2 mile trail all around it. Picture Lake is at 4100 feet with a postcard view of Mt. Shuksan, elev. 9,131 ft.

You don’t even have to hike in to enjoy this spot. We parked right on the road next to the lake.

The weather was just right for us this day with no need for a jacket. Our next stop and my next post from our time on the Mt. Baker Scenic highway will be from Artist Point.

Meanwhile back at this old house Dear continues on some home improvement projects. We have new closet doors in our Master bedroom. I’m hoping to sort through my clothes before I put them back into the closet and face reality on which I’ll never wear again. In the last 7 days our water leak got fixed, the shingles on 3 peaks of our house have fresh stain on them, our overhangs are sanded and repainted and we have new closet doors. I’m thankful for my hard working husband.

Our kids from eastern Washington are on the Oregon coast far away from their smoky skies and heat. They sent us this photo of the three of them at the Oregon Coast Aquarium. Now they have to beat all the solar eclipse traffic to get home.

Love these three and praying that their long trip home goes well for all of them.

What’s going on at your house?

Cruising on Lake Union

On Tuesday after a hike to the bottom of Snoqualmie Falls in the morning our kids decided a 2 hour cruise on Lake Union in an Electric Boat would be a nice thing to do with our company from Southern California. Our niece Debbee and her husband Lenny were with us for 2 days before heading north to spend time with friends in Surrey, British Columbia.

These Electric Boats hold up to 10 people. Josh started the journey as our skipper and soon we were wondering how to avoid the float planes landing and taking off over, beside and in front of us!

We headed to calmer water. The sights we saw were varied. The Space Needle was shrouded in smoky skies as was Gas Works Park. The floating hot tub had us laughing. There are floating home all along the shores of Lake Union including the home used in Sleepless in Seattle. I didn’t get a photo of it.

We were warned that after five we’d probably be dodging sailboats. They have the right of way.

Soon Lenny took over as the skipper. What are you trying to hide Skipper?

We went under several bridges that we normally only drive on. The blue and orange bridge is the Fremont Bridge and it’s a drawbridge. The larger bridge is the Aurora Bridge.

Behind Dear and me is the University Bridge.

We headed toward the Montlake Cut but the Electric Boats aren’t allowed through the cut. The Montlake Bridge is also a drawbridge.

As we headed back to port Laura tried her hand at steering the boat and decided Lenny could take over again. Two hours went by quickly and our time on the water was refreshing even with the smoky haze that has settled on the Pacific Northwest.

On their way back to our house the cousins stopped at Brooks for Debbee to get some running gear. Debbee is a marathoner. She has run the Boston Marathon twice. You know you can’t just sign up for the Boston Marathon you have to have a documented qualifying running time from another marathon to qualify to run in the Boston Marathon. The picture on the right of the collage is her during the Boston Marathon in April of this year. She’s a high school math teacher and she also coaches track and cross country at her high school.

We had a nice two days with Debbee and Lenny.

Another summer weekend is upon us. Dear is scrapping and painting overhang and freshening up the shingles on 3 areas of our house. I try to do a few chores in the cool of the morning and am waiting for more serious household projects next week when we are promised cooler days and cooler nights. Happy Friday and Happy Weekend to you.

From California With Love…

For the last 5 days we have been enjoying visitors from California at our house. My oldest sister and her daughter Michelle along with Michelle’s hubby and two kids have been staying with us. On Sunday we gathered at Josh and Laura’s for a birthday celebration for their Aunt Lana, my sister. Three out of the four original sisters were able to enjoy this time together. Our oldest sister, Kathy, on the left was born in Iran. Lana and I were born in California. Kathy and her family have been caring for our dear old pop. He’s getting a little lonely since she’s been gone but Kathy’s husband and her other daughter are keeping a close eye on him. I hope it’s a nice break for Kathy.

Sisters, Aunts, Mothers, Nieces, Daughters…

The current batch of Californians visiting and celebrating with most of the Washingtonians.

The weather was just right for an outdoor event.

During the visit Pandemics were halted and the world was saved by different groups of players in different locations. There were fairy worlds to discover by others.

On Monday some of the ladies headed to Snohomish to do some shopping along First Avenue. Since we only managed to hit about 1/16th of what this shopping district had to offer a return trip in the future is on the to do list.

The youngest among us on this family visit enjoyed using the fruit picker to help Great Auntie out by picking a small fraction of our apples.  Our white hydrangea has some huge blooms as you can see with Avery standing next to it.

This extended family photo from our nephew Joe and Hannah’s wedding just popped up on facebook. In this photo from my side of the family there are 11 Washingtonians, 4 Texans and the rest are Californians. This wedding was in January just north of Santa Barbara, California. It’s nice to have visits from our family a fraction at a time. We have another small fraction of family arriving on Monday!

The Pacific Northwest is bracing itself for a heat wave. It’s all the news up here. Hope you are staying cool and comfy where you are.

The Finale, at the Zoo

On Sunday we decided to have a last hoorah with our guests and 8 of us headed to the Woodland Park Zoo. It took a while to find parking spots since it seems several thousand other folk thought it was a good day for the zoo, too.

This heron wasn’t part of the zoo but was watching the penguin feeding area carefully to see if there would be any leftovers.

While walking at the zoo Josh called and made reservations for dinner in the Greenlake area of Seattle, next to the zoo.

Dukes was a great choice and we all enjoyed our choices.

At the zoo promises were made for ice cream and we convinced the 2 littles that they would enjoy the ice cream more after dinner at an ice cream parlor a few doors down from Dukes instead of the choices at the zoo.

The kids were satisfied. Josh was excited to see some dairy free choices, too. Thanks Ben and Jerry’s for making his favorite, Chunky Monkey, dairy free. This was a great way to end our time on Sunday. This was National Ice Cream Day after all.

I’ll be linking to Eileen’s Saturday’s Critters.

We are headed up to Canada on Saturday for a party, it will be groovy and we’ll catch you on the flip-side.

First Time at Gramps’ and Baba’s House

While niece/cousin Jenna visited with two of her kids and with their grandma we had as much family time as possible. Our kids from Eastern Washington traveled the five plus hours with our little Addy to enjoy the time, too. Saturday at Gramps’ and Baba’s house there was lots of activity and Addy was happy to sit with her Auntie or cousins when she was fed and awake.

Games and discussions were enjoyed. Little T-Rex has lots of questions that need to be answered.

When it was time for a little nap Baba’s lap had just the right cushion for comfort and when Addy woke up she had some words and love squeezes for Gramps.

Later in the day after we had yummy taco salad and pica de gallo we started a fire to enjoy S’mores.

Addy expresses herself well without words.

Love this expression with her mommy and daddy and the way she has her hand resting on Sky’s head in the grandparent with grands shot.

More shots with mommy and daddy.

Addy laughed out loud with her cousin once removed, our niece Jenna. The expression in the center photo cracks me up. Mister (T-Rex) was quite proud of being able to walk along our wall and our tree stumps.

Cousins!

These are 3 of the “B” grands all together at our house 2017.

And here’s a flashback to when Dear and I were able to enjoy our first little niece, Jenna, back in the 70’s. So happy that we could get the chance to enjoy her and two of her kids at our house in 2017. We need a proper “B” reunion with all the B’s together soon.

Blest Be…

…the Tie That Binds.

On Friday we all gathered at Josh and Laura’s and enjoyed some bonding time with aunts, uncles, cousins, grandmas and grandpas. Uncle Andrew finally got to meet Addy in person. Our grandniece was at Katie and Andrew’s wedding (a wee babe) but little grandnephew was not born yet. We all were meeting little “Mister” for the first time.

Addy enjoyed watching “Mister”. He was entertaining the adults with his knowledge of States and Capitals. We yelled out a state and he gave us the capital. He’s three and he knows capitals better than us adults.

Sister-in-law, Christina is married to Dear’s only brother and they have 3 daughters. Jenna was their first daughter born and she has two children that we got to know during their 5+ day visit from New York. Jenna is Dear and my first niece and we spent lots of quality time with her in her early years since we all lived in Southern California. It was nice to see her as a mommy.

“Sky” is five and she got a kick out of little Addy. Addy likes to stare at her, too.

Uncle Josh, Addy, and “Mister” with the cool reflections I didn’t know I was capturing in this photo.

Blest be the tie that binds
Our hearts in Christian love;
The fellowship of kindred minds
Is like to that above.

Before our Father’s throne
We pour our ardent prayers;
Our fears, our hopes, our aims are one
Our comforts and our cares.

We share each other’s woes,
Our mutual burdens bear;
And often for each other flows
The sympathizing tear.

When we asunder part,
It gives us inward pain;
But we shall still be joined in heart,
And hope to meet again.

This glorious hope revives
Our courage by the way;
While each in expectation lives,
And longs to see the day.

From sorrow, toil and pain,
And sin, we shall be free,
And perfect love and friendship reign
Through all eternity.

Words: John Fawcett, 1782.

This hymn was sung in the 1940 mo­vie Our Town, which was nom­in­at­ed for sev­er­al Acad­e­my Awards.

And here’s Baba reunited with her sweet grandgirlie, Addy.

I’m busy catching up with many of your posts that I’ve missed over the last several days so I’m not joining memes today since I won’t get a chance to visit other participants. Can you believe we are halfway through 2017 already! Praying for some of our blogging friends, bj at Sweet Nothings who just lost her Mr. Sweet, Cuisine Kathleen who lost her dear husband suddenly the end of May, and others who are suffering from long term illnesses. May you be revived by God’s “glorious hope”.

Cousins

These are the cousins on Dear’s side of our family, missing Jenna’s husband and her two sisters. We had 5 full days of fun and it’s time for our niece Jenna and her 2 little ones of the walking and running variety to head back to New York. Our little Addy was very interested in these smaller humans that moved fast and were interested in her, too. I’ll be posting a bunch soon. This Baba/Great Auntie is a little tired but full of joy with the good fellowship we had.

Picking Berries…

…and other things with my grand nephew and grand niece who are visiting with their mom, our very first niece and their grandmother, Dear’s SIL. I will be scarce on the webs these days. See you next week.

She Was A Happy Girl

When our daughter Katie was in fourth grade she was put into a Gifted program which was housed in a different school from our neighborhood school. After a few months in this program we started noticing some troubling patterns and angry outbursts from her. She did not want to go to school and wasn’t interested in doing any homework. She finally opened up to us and told us about her experiences on the playground from the other “gifted” kids. We decided the best thing to do was to pull her out of the program and try to repair the damage by homeschooling her. This was one of our best parenting decisions and moves. When we told her teacher and the administration we were pulling her out they were shocked and told us we were making a mistake. They felt this program was giving Katie some options she wouldn’t get in a regular classroom or at home. We just smiled and walked away. We home schooled for 4th, 5th and 6th grade and then Katie decided she’d like to try public school again entering junior high/7th grade. This is something I wrote in 1996 after hearing how Katie was treated and after watching how she was shunned at the school bus stop.

She Was a Happy Girl

She was gentle and kind
She liked to pretend and giggle and dream
Her dreams became playground games
She pranced and danced and was a tree fairy
Her imagination smiled inside her head
She was a happy girl

Other children on the playground couldn’t figure her out
She wasn’t like them
She was different in their eyes
Because of her uncommon ways they began to taunt her

She became the playground plague
She was called the germ
No one should touch the germ
or play with the germ
because they would become a germ, too.

She was a happy girl
but their thoughts and their actions
turned her into a sad and angry girl
She couldn’t understand and couldn’t change
what the playground had made her

She was a happy girl

I’m happy and thankful to God that Katie thrived being home schooled and when she re-entered the public school system she continued to do well. She enjoyed drama and art and had some great teachers who recognized her talents and abilities. She made some good friendships along the way at school and at church. She had very impressive SAT scores. She also was a National Merit Scholar. She completed college and now is standing by her husband as he completes his college degree in Aeronautical Engineering. He had a late start because of serving as a U.S. Marine. She still doesn’t fit in anyone’s mold. She is uniquely Katie. That’s one of the trees on one of her elementary playgrounds that she pretended she was a fairy in.

The Lord bless you and keep you;
 the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you;
the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.

Numbers 6:24-26

I found this as we sorted through lots and lots of paperwork and decided to put it on my blog as a reminder of how far we have come and how we were carried through by God’s love and grace in difficult times. There are some other things I might share from time to time. Peace be with you and yours.