Category Archives: Grandchildren

Swords Into Plowshares

On our walks in Magnuson Park with our daughter we have visited this sculpture area called The Fin Project.

The Fin Project: From Swords Into Plowshares 1998 by John T. Young, Artist, Max Gurvich, Producer

“They shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks: nation shall not lift up a sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore…” Old Testament, Micah, Chapter 4:3.

This artwork is made using diving plane fins from decommissioned U.S. Navy nuclear submarines built in the 1960s. It is about peace, turning weapons into Art, recycling, and honoring the men and women who served our country during the Cold War. It also may remind the viewer of dorsal fins of a pod of Orca whales or a school of salmon.

I’m adding some more photos from our recent walk at Magnuson Park.

Magnuson Park is a 350 acres park on Sand Point at Pontiac Bay, Lake Washington, in the Sand Point neighborhood of Seattle, Washington. The park is the second largest in Seattle, after 534 acres Discovery Park in Magnolia.

Established in 1900 (military use 1922-1975).

And now for some favorites that we received via text earlier this week and this morning.

Sweet little Addy is discovering her hands and fists! Soon we’ll be seeing little Addy and her parents in person again. Here’s Addy on her first Mother’s Day.

Seriously? I love this face! This little one had a nice Mother’s Day with her mom, daddy and Granny Linda and Granny Florence, and great uncle Scott and great aunt Rhonda. I had a very nice Mother’s Day with our firstborn Josh and Laura, who treated us to brunch. Phone calls came in from Addy’s Daddy and from our daughter Katie and my dear old Pop, too. I’m blessed.

I’ll be linking up to Mosaic Monday with Maggie at Normandy Life.

Skagit Valley Barns

These photos were all taken on our way to Roozengaarde Garden on May 2nd to see the tulips.

I’m linking up to The Barn Collective with Tom the Backroads Traveler.

Dear pressure washed the deck and part of the drive and put up our patio covers on Friday. Now we are ready to bring the patio furniture down from the loft in the garage. That will happen once we have a dry spell again. We continue our quest to go through boxes of records to sort and shred. Our major Spring project is to let go of a lot of stuff! Our kids will reap the benefit of not having to do it for us! If you are a mother and are visiting here I hope you have a very grateful and peaceful Mother’s Day!

This is a side by side of our daughter-in-law when she was a baby and our granddaughter a couple weeks ago. Addy’s mommy will be celebrating her first Mother’s Day tomorrow. Happy Mother’s Day Jamie! You are a great mommy for little Addy!

Tulips in Borders

We were happy that we had a nice window of sunshine on May 2nd to enjoy this years tulip display even though it was in it’s very last days. The tulip festival usually runs the month of April. This year there was a late start to the blooms because of our winter weather so they extended the festival through the first week of May. So much beauty in living color.

We had a crazy weather day yesterday. The day started with beautiful sunshine and the temps climbed up to 78 and then just before 4pm the skies darkened and we had a thunderstorm event across our region with lots of lightning. One of the lightning strikes was right over our home and it was so loud! The rains came down in buckets and some trees and power lines came down, too. We have power but a good amount of folks lost power. The news called the event “the biggest severe weather day in decades”. Things are a lot milder today. Spring is unpredictable.

Our weekend looks to be quiet again which is a good thing because the end of the month will be busy with travel for both Dear and me. Got this sweet collage texted to us from our daughter-in-law with Miss Addy enjoying the sunshine on their porch. These photos were taken on May 4th.

Oh how we love this little girl. What a blessing she is from God to our whole family. Have a good Cinco de Mayo and first weekend in May everyone!

So Thankful for May!

Addy May that is! Our little triple Y! She’s Y we want to head east and Y we are willing to drive across the pass over the Cascades anytime whatever the weather. She’s Y we bought a car that can manage those driving conditions better, too. Those driving conditions include the driveway to our kids home. All these photos have been shared with us via smartphone texts.

Comforted by her daddy while mommy gets some much needed sleep.

On April 28th-30th Uncle Josh and Auntie Laura got to fly over to Spokane and head north to have a few days of cuddles and walks. Our boys, Josh and Dan were born 2 years apart and have been the best of friends for most of their years and I thank God for that. I thank God a lot for that.

Auntie Laura was determined to catch a photo of Addy smiling. In the meantime Addy had a sweet grip on auntie’s finger while cuddling.

Sweet sleeping bliss.

A wee smile of contentment.

Some sweet sleepy cuddles with Uncle Josh.

Be still my heart for this sweet capture of daughter and daddy!

And then a comfortable sleep in uncle’s arms.

Another sweet pick that is my phone wallpaper right now!

Of course Uncle and Auntie had to try on the Sounders hat while listening to the game on Saturday night. She looks concerned but thankfully the team pulled off an amazing comeback to tie the game.

Auntie and Uncle with miss Addy May just before they said their goodbyes till next time.

Thank you Jamie, Dan, Auntie Laura and Uncle Josh for sharing these photos with us! Love them all and all of you!

Dear and I are planning our next trip over the pass and across central Washington to Spokane and then north to see our kids again soon.

Today on Mennonite Girls Can Cook I’m sharing a recipe Rosella shared with me for Lactation Cookies. I made them for Jamie and if you have a new mom in your community group or family they’d be a good choice to add to that meal you take over.

All the Pretty Petals

Seattle has soaked up 44.67 inches of rain since October 1. That makes this October-through-April the wettest such period since record-keeping began in 1895 — and there’s still another week of April left to go. The normal amount of rainfall for the October-through-April period in Seattle is 30.9 inches, according to the service.

When the sun finally shines we race outside to soak it up and if we are bloggers we grab our cameras. Our plants and trees are blooming and blossoming a little later this year than last.

Our apple tree and pear tree are full of blossoms. We don’t have our patio covers up yet. We usually put them up mid-May and then we bring out our patio furniture.

Apple blossoms above and Pear blossoms below.

Our pear tree is in the middle of treatments for Pear Trellis Rust. It’s a great old pear tree and we do not want to let it stop growing healthy.

We left our most precious little flower in Eastern Washington and are planning our next trip back across the mountains to see in person how she has grown.

Precious bundle of cuddles.

I’m linking to ABC Wednesday started by Mrs. Nesbitt and carried on by a great team of administrators with Roger at the helm.

We had a day with lots of sunshine on Monday. Such a nice change. I’m headed across the line on Tuesday and will be late in visiting blogs. Hope Spring is going well in your neck of the woods.

The Celebrations Continue…

We decided it was good to celebrate Easter again while we celebrated our son-in-law Andrew.

Family on the western side of Washington got together this morning for brunch. Dear and I attend our 8am service at church so a brunch at 11:00 works out well for us. We had Eggs Benedict with hashbrowns and fresh fruit.

Andrew’s birthday was on April 12th while we were in Eastern Washington.  Today he got a small slice of coffee cake with a birthday candle in it. We sang and he managed to blow out the candle. He looks pleased with himself.

Dear, Andrew, Katie and I also celebrated on Friday April 21st at a new place close to us called Korachka, a Russian Tavern. We gave Andrew his birthday gift and enjoyed some Russian food…delicious. Friday was a glorious sunny day…all day and into the evening! On the way home from the tavern I took some shots from the moving car of the sunshine on Lake Washington.

And because this is a post of mosaics here’s one from the day we left eastern Washington of the many faces of our dear little 1 month old Addy. These photos of Addy were taken on April 18th in the morning before we said our goodbyes.

Linking up with Maggie at Normandy Life for Mosaic Monday. Thank you Maggie.

One Month…

These photos were taken on Monday April 17th. Addy was born on Monday March 20th.

It really is amazing how much these little munchkins grow in their first year. We hope to be back to take Addy’s 2 month photos! Addy’s mommy and I have a little secret about these 1 month photos we can chuckle about.  Remember to ask your mommy and me about that secret dear Addy.

 

Oh Deer…

This foursome of deer like to graze on our son’s land.

They spotted me looking at them and were snorting at me.

Some more photos of Auntie Katie’s time with her niece Addy. These photos were taken on Monday April 10th.

Peace to you and to yours…

Excited to say the sun is shining right now as I finish up this post. Hope it continues through tomorrow.

Timber!

Dear and Dan had a great time completing several projects at the home on the mountain. Tree felling was added to the list of things to accomplish while Dan had a helper. The first tree the guys felled was close to the house. Jamie, Addy and I could watch from the nursery window. The tree was dead and the rain had paused so it was a good time to fell it and cut it into rounds to dry until next winter.

The weather on Easter was so wonderful with no rain all day and beautiful sunshine. After our Easter Brunch company left we changed into work clothes and headed out for a hike on the property to find more dead trees. Addy was snug as a bug with mommy.

This tree that was leaning on another was the tree chosen to untangle and chop down. This time they used an ax.

We supervised from a distance.

We headed back to the house while the guys found a creative way to bring the felled tree back up to the house to cut into rounds.

A wonderful dreamy first Easter for Addy.

Here are some photos from the Southern California gathering with part of my side of the family. My niece Melissa shared this next one of my dear old pop coloring Easter Eggs with her in Southern California.

My older sisters, Kathy and Vera, baked the Russian Easter Bread (Kulich/Paska) for the Easter gathering. Quite a nice batch. Good job sisters! On Easter day they gathered at Debbee and Lenny’s home to celebrate Jesus together. My little grandniece Ellie had her first Easter egg hunt. Look at her bunny purse for her egg gathering, so cute.  Grandnephew Jack and Grandniece Avery got quite a haul. My nieces Melissa, Michelle and Debbee prepared the strawberries to go with the Easter bread and Seernaya Paska.

My Pop (one month shy of 94) with some of his grandchildren and great grandchildren who all live in Southern California. The Texas crew and Washington crew are missing plus some of the California grands, too.

Dear and I traveled home again on Tuesday April 18th. Being conditioned to take the morning Addy shift, I woke up at 4 am today ready to go. It will take a few days to extend my sleep to a more normal pattern. We were gone for 13 days so the lawn needs mowing and some weeds need pulling. As soon as we get a good dry day we’ll whip things into shape. The rain has been relentless. It was tough to say goodbye…

Thank you for visiting and the time you take to leave a comment. It is always appreciated. Hope to visit y’all soon. Blessings.

Addy’s First Easter

We celebrated Easter with our Eastern Washington kids on their mountain that they’ve marked with a B. All through the morning texts flew back and forth from Texas, Southern California and Western Washington with our Easter greeting to each other, Christos Voskress! Voistinu Voskress! We always give each other the Easter greeting, Christ is Risen, He is risen indeed in Russian. And we say it back and forth three times.

This year we had brunch with some of Jamie’s family and a friend of the family.

We had an egg casserole that cooked in the slow cooker. I forgot to take a photo of it. Granny’s deviled eggs had some extras in them that made me want more than one or two. We had the traditional Seernaya Paska to spread on our Easter Bread.

The Grannies on Jamie’s side got in some good cuddle time. Dear read the resurrection passage from Matthew 28 and prayed a blessing on our gathering and then we all dug in.

Brian’s birthday was the day before Easter so we sang happy birthday and ate some pie made in his honor.

More cuddle time for Jamie’s mom, Addy’s Granny.

Addy decided sleep was a good thing for Easter.

The sunshine was so welcome. We were all so grateful for the the warmer temperatures. Addy slept a lot on her first Easter. Wish we had Easter Monday here in the U.S. so our son could have one more day at home but it’s off to work today for him after a nice stretch of paternity leave.

I love Easter. Hope yours was filled with joy!