We are in that time of year where our world is predominately brown and green with a little white here and there. We live in the evergreen state so we expect to see green all year round.
We call it our muddy season.
Our grands are blessed to have parents that aren’t afraid of a little mud.
Soon enough lots of pretty color will be added to our world.
Adieu to February. Looking forward to March.
We had a sunny day on Wednesday. It was a good day to venture out and enjoy some vitamin D! Temperatures were going to reach 40 degrees on this day which was a treat from the below freezing temps we’ve been experiencing. Our daughter in law sent us the photo above via text on Wednesday.
After working in the shop and running some errands we decided to drive to Chewelah which is 27.5 miles south of us. A beautiful day for the drive and worth the gas and time to get to our favorite Mexican Restaurant this side of the Cascade mountain range. It’s been three and a half months since we were able to sit down and enjoy a meal here. Some restrictions were lifted as of Monday and they could open at 25% capacity. We gave our favorite server a hug and had our own mini celebration.
Do you have a favorite restaurant that you miss being able to enjoy a meal in?
We are supposed to get another inch or two of snow Thursday evening into Friday morning here.
It’s been a relatively quiet start to the month of February at our Country Bungalow. The biggest excitement was this delivery we had from Home Depot on Thursday.
We would have had to make two trips to Spokane to be able to haul this material and we were thankful we could have it delivered for a $79 delivery fee. Forty sheets of drywall, some 2×4’s, primer, paint, drywall compound, tape, screws and nails! It would have cost Dear around $100 dollars in gasoline to do that trip to Spokane twice in his truck, not to mention loading and unloading. 2100 pounds of stuff. Dear’s truck is rated for 1500 pounds.
And…he doesn’t have a nifty forklift to unload all that drywall! We are so thankful for this delivery service and what it saved us in time and labor. The driver managed to set that stack of drywall inside the new shop with a little maneuvering. It was below freezing here for this delivery.
Earlier in the week we had a warmer than freezing day and we got this photo via text. So thankful to get texts with photos from our Daughter-in-law!
Today in Colville we are suppose to get up to 47 degrees!! Quite a change from the 20’s and 30’s we have been experiencing. As you can see from the photos most all of our snow has melted. Today is definitely a day to spend outdoors before the next snow pattern comes our way. While Dear takes advantage of not having his fingers frozen while working in the shop I need to come up with an outdoor activity to enjoy the warm 40’s and sunshine!
What’s new in your corner of the world?
For our family archives I’m adding the rest of the photos I have from our time in Arizona from January 13th to the 19th of 2021. Jaymison’s first ride down the slide with his daddy.
Daddy made sure JJ stayed above the water!
Addy became quite a pro on coming down the slide all by herself!
I shared about the epic birthday party for our two sons on Saturday the 16th but our daughter-in-law Jamie had a birthday, too, on Friday the 15th. For her day we watched the grands while Dan and Jamie enjoyed brunch out all by themselves and also enjoyed shopping at Target after brunch without their kids in tow. On Friday night we went out to Texas Roadhouse for dinner and that photo of Dan, Jamie, Jaymison and Addyson was taken by Laura while we waited for our table.
Our grands are blessed beyond measure with aunts and uncles that love them and are attentive to them.
Instead of grass in Arizona people have rock or faux grass in their yards.
While the ladies had a shopping outing without the grands the guys took them to a couple parks.
Uncle Andrew and JJ.
Daddy and JJ.
Most everyone contributed some time in putting our Arizona Jigsaw puzzle together.
On Monday night the 18th of January we had another meal out at Amigos Restaurant. Dear tried a new to all of us dish called Molcajete Cielo Mary Tierra, mouth watering steak, grilled chicken, shrimp, chorizo, grilled green onions, grilled nopales, jalapenos, in a molcajete stone. Served with sides of rice, beans, tortillas, guacamole and pica de gallo. I should have shared this dish with Dear.
Such special times with our grands and all our kids.
Our trip to Arizona was the first airplane trip we’ve taken since the Covid restrictions on wearing masks were mandated on airplanes. I found out early in our flight that this cute mask that came From ‘Russia with Love’ was quite painful on my ears and I had to use my MacGyver skills to attach the mask to my glasses instead of my ears. On one of our shopping trips to Old Navy in Arizona we all bought 4paks of masks and they were so much more comfortable and adjustable. Hooray. I might try and replace the ear pieces on this mask to make it more comfortable.
On Tuesday the 19th we said our goodbyes to our temporary home in the sun.
Until the next time we treasure these memories.
We are back here in Colville for well over a week now and we had a few inches of snow overnight from Wednesday until Thursday. Thursday was a very nonproductive day at our country bungalow. We made good progress on putting together our latest jigsaw puzzle while enjoying the snow views out our windows.
This is a 1000 piece puzzle and the pieces are oversized so it is larger than most 1000 piece puzzles. We only have about 100 pieces left on this puzzle and it will be done on Friday for sure.
Hope January ends well for all of you with a lovely weekend! I’ve put up a few Valentine Day Decorations already. Do you have Valentine Day decor that you put up?
The Wildlife Zoo called this ride their Carousel. Addy chose this horse to ride and JJ chose the dog.
Carousels and Merry-Go-Rounds, whatever you call them, kids of all ages enjoy them. I think this was JJ’s first ride on one.
Addy was cold and her coat was in the car so she borrowed Auntie Katie’s sweatshirt.
Our family of 10 were in Arizona from January 13th until January 19th. Our trip to the Wildlife park was on Thursday January 14th. I enjoy the desert in winter, how about you? Escaping a snowy winter with freezing temps to a desert winter in the 60’s and 70’s is a treat.
Back here in Colville we have had sunshine but our temps have been in the teens. We are promised some new snow showers on Sunday.
When our family of ten were in Arizona we enjoyed our time at the Wildlife World Zoo and Aquarium.
Not a problem for our time at the park.
Addy did not appreciate some of the animal odors.
Posting all our Arizona adventures for our family archives.
On Thursday we drove south to Spokane to buy a new toilet for our Master Bath. Besides the Home Depot we shopped at Hobby Lobby, Total Wine and Costco. On our trip south we listened to a sermon from Grace Community Church by John MacArthur. 2020 Clarity. We found it encouraging. We returned home and our new toilet was installed before 6 PM! Thank you Dear!! Friday evening and Saturday morning Dear and I are attending a marriage seminar at our church here in Colville.
Hope you all have a great weekend.
Busy, busy, chasing these two! I’ll be back to normal living on Wednesday. Hope y’all are doing well.
We’ve been enjoying lots of family time in the home our son is part owner of here in Arizona. A nice large space with a pool for us all to enjoy! Each couple has their own room, too, along with a room for Addy. An amazing property. Two birthday celebrations down with one more to go!
I’ll be visiting blogs again later this week!
We were gifted a professional photo shoot of our family from our kids Christmas of 2019. We were going to try to schedule the shoot in the Spring but then COVID19 struck and it didn’t work. We finally got a date on the books during our annual Family Hunting Weekend in October. What we didn’t count on was snow on that weekend and temperatures in the 20’s!
I think we did a great job at not looking like we were freezing! This was the photo we sent with our Christmas card and letter this year.
Gramps, Addyson, Baba, and Jaymison.
Oh how we love these two little grands!
Our firstborn son and his love.
Our second born son and his love.
Their beloved family.
Our youngest and our only daughter and her love.
The original three who married three exceptional human beings that we love dearly.
God has been good to us despite ourselves! We are grateful and thankful to Him.
For the benefit of our family and my memory bank I’m posting several more photos of our family time over Christmas. Some of these are out of order and some repeats in collages…
Thank you to Laura for all the photos!!
On the day of our Coast kids’ departure we gathered for more last minute fun at Dan and Jamie’s with a great lunch of leftover Rib Roast, creamed corn, salads and other goodies. A great clean out the fridge meal!
Such great uncles and aunties.
The day after our Coast Kids journeyed home we had seven more inches of snow at our country bungalow (Wednesday December 30th). In the next several days the temps will be above freezing and we have some rain in the forecast so the snow will become a sloppy mess with puddles everywhere.
Here’s the latest puzzle we are working on and hope to get done before Russian Christmas which is January 7th! Perfect weather for puzzle time.
The Happy Wonderer ~ ellen b. 