Category Archives: Summer

Feis Day Two

Day Two of the Feis was Deirdre Haran Abeid Day.

The Haran School of Irish Dance was founded in Kettle Falls by Deirdre Abeid over 45 years ago. Her daughters Caitlin Trusler and Claire Worley have continued in her footsteps, running the Kettle Falls and Spokane branches of Haran for the past 25 years.

All signed in and ready to dance

 

There are breaks between the soft shoe dances and hard shoe dances.

Both Addy and JJ appreciated Uncle and Auntie being at the Feis on Sunday. I appreciated it, too, as Laura could get up close and take photos and videos that I was not able to.

Soft shoe, hard shoe and then it was time for another soft shoe competition.

There is a trick to lacing the soft shoes!

When all the traditional jigs and reels and treble and Hornpipe were completed it was time for the creative water/sea dance. The dancers who wanted to participate in this dance had to come up with their own costume and dance.

This is the outfit conception that Addy came up with thinking about water, ‘under the sea’. Here was the completed outfit Addy and her Mom created.

It is so good to have the support team of mom and dad in the dancers corner.

Waiting for their solo performances. I wish I could share the video Auntie Lolo took of Addy’s dance but I’m unable to on my blog. It was a wonderful performance and we found out while we were out to lunch that Addy had received a 1st place for her outfit and dance!

We gathered for lunch before taking Uncle and Auntie back to the airport for their flight home.

After lunch on their way home Dan and Jamie stopped by the convention center to pick up Addy’s prize for her creative under the sea dance and costume.

Her 1st place trophy!

After getting home Addy donned all her awards from her first Feis!

Well done, Addy. Your hard work was rewarded. Hmmm, I wonder if she’ll want to sign up for another Feis?

Thanks for coming along and for all your kind comments.

Adieu to Summer Hodgepodge

A summer sea scape dinner party to celebrate the end of summer from our deck in our former home. This is also a nod to Addy’s creative under the sea outfit at the Feis. (End of post)

It’s time for Wednesday Hodgepodge and Joyce has a fresh batch of questions to prove it.

Dinner parties were mentioned in one of our questions so here are a collection of dinner parties from the past with the Mennonite Girls Can Cook in Canada.

1.  Are you more life of the party or more party pooper? If your answer is somewhere in the middle which side of the middle do you lean towards more? 

I think I’m a little above middle, more toward life than pooper. 🙂 I might be one of the first ones to say goodnight these days.

Birthday party, beach party, cocktail party, dinner party, charity fundraiser, surprise party, costume party, garden party, Christmas party, reunion...what’s your favorite kind of party? 

Dinner party and Christmas Party are my favorites!

2. Cheese, wine, and balsamic vinegar all improve with age. What would you personally add to the list? 

Personally I believe human beings, relationships, marriage, and friendships should all improve with age. Most importantly, my faith and trust in Christ should improve with age and I should be more like Christ each new year. This is challenging and humbling and something I’d never attain to without the Holy Spirit, our Helper.

3. How do you feel about your birthday? How do you want to be celebrated? Or don’t you? 

I enjoy my birthday regardless of fanfare. I do enjoy having special meals with loved ones to celebrate my birthday. I’m past needing or wanting gifts other than good times with family and friends. A card or note or text is gift enough.

4. What remarkable feat, interesting piece of trivia, or historical event occurred on your birth day and month? Not necessarily your same birth year, just the same date/month. 

March 14th: It is Pi (π) day, 3.14.

In 1942 Anne Miller became the first American patient to be treated with Penicillin on this day.

5. Share two good things about your life right now. 

Right now my health is good (I do have some typical old lady aches and pains) and my life in the country is good. I’m where I’m supposed to be. It is so good to be in the same town as our grandchildren.

6. Insert your own random thought here. 

On Friday I’ll share more about Addy’s first Irish Feis!

This outfit isn’t representative of an Irish Feis but it played a special role in a creative dance challenge (Water, Under the Sea) at the end of the festival (feis).

The First Feis

A Feis (pronounced ‘fesh’) is an Irish dancing competition. The Word “Feis” is Irish Gaelic for “Festival.” Throughout the year there are many feiseanna (plural of feis) that dancers can compete in. Dancers are always encouraged to feis, but are never required to. Feising will help dancers set goals and gain confidence. They will learn how to win and lose gracefully while meeting new friends and cheering on other dancers.

This experience was a first for all of us, Addy, her parents, grandparents and Auntie and Uncle. None of us knew exactly what to expect. The event was at the convention center in Spokane conveniently located on the same property as our hotel. We walked over on Saturday morning wondering what the morning would be like.

We found some seats together and soon realized that if we wanted to see we’d have to be standing on the edges of the room. The judges table along with their water bottles placed strategically to block (just kidding) your view. Other hazards for good views and photos included the speakers podium and people. Parents and dancers hopping up out of their seats to check-in for their competition and parents moving about the cabin to watch their loved ones dance.

The dance music live! That was amazing to me. Four hours of continuous playing with short breaks in between each age grouping and type of dance, Slip Jig, Light Jig, Reel, Single Jig, Treble, Hurnpipe, etc. Yep…I have no clue what all those are but maybe in a few years, if Addy continues dancing, I will learn.

Each dancer ready for their time to dance.

First day complete and Addy placed in several of her dances, a first, third and fourth and then to cap things off an overall win with a plate to commemorate.

Addy, you performed well. Your cool and calm readiness and alertness was a pleasure to watch.

Addy’s first day of competition was done by noon and she and all her cheerleaders were ready for a nice lunch.

This years Feis had some heart tugs attached to it.

All of the Haran School of Irish Dance participants had this patch attached to their dance outfits.

Lucas was a gifted dancer and competitor with the Haran School of Dance in Kettle Falls. He had won many competitions. He passed away in a swimming accident this summer and it hit the whole dance and Stevens County community very hard. Not only was he a gifted dancer but an amazing piano player, too. He was deaf with cochlear implants. He loved His Lord and Savior and represented Jesus well with a wonderful attitude. We draw comfort knowing Lucas is with his Savior.

With Saturday’s competition complete we looked forward to Josh and Laura flying into Spokane to be with us for the Sunday morning competition line-up. I’ll save Sunday’s photos and commentary for another day this week.

9/11 Spirit of America

We are heartbroken that Charlie Kirk was assassinated on a college campus in Utah yesterday. Such a fine young man who loved free speech and loved his God, family and country. So senseless and evil. May God comfort and hold his wife, children and family.  Praying this senseless act causes change in the political rhetoric of hate. I don’t know what else to say.

 

“All death can do to a believer is deliver him to Jesus.” ~ John MacArthur

Today is 9/11 and one of the most moving memorials we’ve seen was in Cashmere, Washington and I wanted to share it again on this anniversary.

God Bless America, Land that I love, Stand beside her and guide her thru the night with a light from above.

From the mountains, to the prairies, to the oceans white with foam. God bless America, My home, sweet home.

This to date has been the most elaborate memorial we have seen in remembrance of all the lives lost on that tragic day in 2001, a day we all remember as 9/11. The Official County of Chelan Memorial of 9/11 called 9/11 Spirit of America Memorial and The Cashmere Veterans War Memorial are both on this site.

–

“We Must Never Forget”

The Road We Traveled

Our route for this one day road trip took us along Hwy 395 north across the Columbia River and then along the Kettle River to Boulder Creek Road. It was about 25 miles to Boulder Creek Road from home and then another 22 miles on Boulder Creek before we dropped into Curlew at Hwy 21. The Boulder Creek part of our trip took us over the Kettle River Range. In Curlew we crossed the highway and continued on Kettle Road along the Kettle River north to Customs Road crossing the Kettle river and continuing north to the Midway Border Crossing. This was another 16 miles.

There were warning signs along the road about range animals.

Approaching the highest elevation of our journey we met up with a slow full cement truck but luckily he pulled off a little after the pass and we were on the road alone again.

This section of the range was devastated by a fire in the recent past.

Back in lower elevations we dropped into Curlew.

We drove through the historical section of the little town.

It was very sleepy with no one about and few businesses still in operation.

Back along the Kettle River we continued up to the Border crossing.

We got to the tiny border crossing way too early so we circled back to try to find some spot that might include some restrooms.

Hooray for Beal Park and their humble offering.

The reflected views on the Kettle river were nice.

The Kettle River begins its journey to the Columbia River at Holmes Lake in British Columbia. It first enters the U.S. at Midway in Ferry County, Washington. It then loops down, south east, to Curlew, WA.; then heads north east to Danville, where it crosses back into Canada. The Kettle River then re-enters the U.S. at Laurier in Stevens County, where it proceeds south to join with the Columbia River, near Boyds, Washington. 

Back to the Border and we were the first crossing of the day. I wonder just how many crossings they encounter?

We enjoyed seven and a half hours with our friends at a campground about 1.4 Kilometers from the border crossing (that is under a mile) before we turned around and reversed our route home. (I shared our time with more photos here)  Those hours seemed to pass quickly. The campground was situated along the Kettle River. This road trip seemed centered on the Kettle River.

Our border crossings coming and going were both pleasant exchanges with the agents.

We saw more of the fire damage on our way home.

We were across the border by 4:30 pm and home by 6pm. It was a good full day.

To Canada!

On Friday the 29th of August we left early for a little road trip to Canada to meet up with a couple of the Mennonite Girls and their husbands who were camping close to the border in Midway, B.C. We traveled new roads to us.

Instead of deer, we were on the lookout for cattle along Boulder Creek Road.

Today I’ll share the destination and the time with our friends and tomorrow I’ll show more of the sites along the way.

Our route was well marked. In the near future, I’ll share what we learned about Ranald MacDonald, too.

We knew this small border crossing closed at 5pm but we didn’t realize it didn’t even open until 9am. We were early so we tracked back to the little town of Curlew and we were pleased to see this sani-can!

Thank you, Beal Park, for your facilities.

We were back at the border crossing at 9am and were welcomed into Canada with a tip that we should be back to the crossing at 4:45pm to insure that the border wouldn’t be closed.

We found Lovella and Judy’s campsite which was about 3 minutes from the border and it was so good to see our friends face to face.

The table was set for our breakfast together.

Judy and Lovella served us a feast!

After our delicious breakfast we played a few rounds of Skyjo!

We had a good catch up time and we might have solved some world problems.

We had another fabulous meal together that we called linner before we said our goodbyes and headed for the border!

Our Linner even came with dessert, fruit filled perishky!

It was such a nice time together but it was time to wave goodbye and head to the border.

Thank you, friends, for your hospitality at your home away from home.

We crossed the border after a nice chat with the border agent and made it home by 6pm.

Saturday was a stay at home and relax day. Sunday we were in church and afterwards stayed inside because of smoke from a few fires burning in our area.

We can’t see our beautiful mountains.

These fires are about 12 miles north of us.

This photo above is from our county fire agency. The fire is in rugged areas that are hard to get to. We are hoping all the agencies and volunteers fighting these fires make progress today. Such hard intense work.

Another photo from Northeast Washington Fire Information Group. This was the caption for this mornings briefing;

Crown Creek – Blackhawk Mtn Fires
Good morning from Fire Camp in Colville and 0600 morning briefing. About 550 crews have arrived to help engage and manage the fire, with more crews arriving throughout the day. 550? That is about 10% growth for the city of Colville.
What an amazing turnout!

Today is Labor Day here in the USA and Canada and we also welcome September! School in our area will start tomorrow and Awana starts on Wednesday.

Hope all is well in your corner of the world.

One Day At a Time

Three days of nonstop fun here in Colville. I’ll cover one day at a time. On Thursday morning, Addy, JJ and a friend had the great experience of the local escape room. They managed to escape in 42 minutes. They had to find clues, crack codes, solve puzzles with a time limit. Addy felt she could have cut that time down if she was alone.

Jamie was able to watch them via a computer screen while they worked in the room to escape.

On Thursday evening we met at the fields for Addy and JJ’s soccer games. As per usual, Dan was called on to referee JJ’s game. Josh and Laura had rolled in from the other side of the mountains in time to be able to enjoy seeing both JJ and Addy play and to have other fun at the fields, too. What fun to see all ‘our boys’ on the same field!

JJ was ready to protect the goal.

Addy’s team played their game on a field just beyond JJ’s field and it made it easy to switch between the games at half time. Addy’s game started late because of a referee snafu so we were all able to be on the same field for a good portion of her game.

What a special treat to have Uncle Joshie and Auntie LoLo at the games.

Jimbo’s Ice Cream truck knows just where to come for nonstop business. We ended the evening with ice cream treats.

That was Thursday August 21st. We still had a few more days to fill with fun while Uncle and Auntie were visiting. Those posts will appear later this week.

Here we are in the last week of August. For summer lovers it’s a hard pill to swallow. Hope whoever you are you can take each new day and all it has to offer you in stride and in peace.

Ecclesiastes 3:1-8

 For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven:

2 a time to be born, and a time to die;
a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted;
3 a time to kill, and a time to heal;
a time to break down, and a time to build up;
4 a time to weep, and a time to laugh;
a time to mourn, and a time to dance;
5 a time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together;
a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;
6 a time to seek, and a time to lose;
a time to keep, and a time to cast away;
7 a time to tear, and a time to sew;
a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;
8 a time to love, and a time to hate;
a time for war, and a time for peace.

Twenty Four Years!

Today is Josh and Laura’s 24th wedding anniversary . Their wedding was on a Saturday. I’ve gathered the photos I have available to remember the events around the wedding.

Friends and family flew in or drove up to witness this grand event. On Friday evening we had the rehearsal dinner at our home in Kenmore.

All hands on deck to prepare all the spaces for the rehearsal dinner! We had some great help for the preparations of the meal.

If I remember correctly, Uncle Nick grilled the flank steak, Babushka made the rice with raisins, Beth Dickinson made Caesar salad. I think we enjoyed our mom’s (Babushka’s) Roolyet for dessert.

My Pop giving Josh and Laura a blessing and praying for our meal with parents and grandparents beside the soon to be married couple.

Cousins, aunts, uncles and close friends filled all the spaces created in our yard.

Me and my sisters with our dear Pop photo bombing!

The wedding party started gathering on Saturday morning at the church.

The church was full for the afternoon wedding.

Our son Dan walking me down the aisle.

Laura and her dad.

Husband and Wife!

Our extended family. Laura’s family were there in full force, too, but I don’t have those photos to share.

Laura’s parents.

Josh and Laura with their siblings, Dan, Scott (Laura’s brother), and Katie.

The Bayles’ side of the family.

Dan and Shavonne gave wedding toasts.

Father of the Bride dance.

Mother of the groom dance.

And off they go to their honeymoon.

Our friends were gracious to offer a meal for all my family and friends later that evening at their beautiful home on Puget Sound.

What a blessing that was!

Dave and Beth let us use their amazing Hood Canal home for an adventure with family, too.

My niece Michelle and Ryan were married 2 weeks before Josh and Laura and while they were at our home Ryan’s wedding ring fell through the cracks in the porch. He had to crawl under to retrieve it.

We filled the days that our family remained with us with meals and fun.

The newlyweds in their very first quirky apartment!

And now 24 years later we were able to have a small celebration while Josh and Laura were here on our side of the mountains.

We used some exploding confetti candles for each of their cakes. If you look closely you can see the confetti that flew out of the candles!

Chocolate cake for Josh and Lemon for Laura.

Happy Anniversary, Josh and Laura. God has blessed the two of you together and individually. We love how you compliment each other and support one another. Thank you so much for the love you share with all of us, too. May God give you many more years of faithfulness to Him and each other! We love you, we love you, we love you!

Flashback Friday~Butchart Gardens

In August of 2009 Greg, Katie and I managed a one day journey from Washington State to Butchart Gardens. When I had a glitch with Photobucket all my photos from early days with my blog were deleted. It’s quite a task to revive those posts. My photos have been recently recovered and I’ll share the photos I have from  our one day epic trip in 2009 here.

On Tuesday (August 4, 2009) we left our house at 6:00 am and headed north to Anacortes to catch the 8:15 ferry to Sydney, Vancouver Island, B.C. Our ferry ride through the San Juan Islands was very foggy and misty for most of the way. At first it was hard to make out the islands till you got very close. Towards the end of the trip the skies lightened up. Vancouver Island was nice and sunny. We made it to Butchart Gardens after stopping for breakfast along the way.

First things first before touring the Gardens… Katie learned that she needs sunblock or else she’ll burn like a marshmallow in a campfire.

Katie was really intrigued by the Chilean Rhubarb that grows 6-10 feet tall. I zoomed way in to try to capture it. Katie is sure you could float down a river on one of the leaves! :0)

A little blue from Butchart Gardens. It always makes me smile to see blue flowers. The stained glass window was from the Blue Poppy Restaurant in the gardens.

From the Ferry in Sydney on our way to Butchart Gardens we stopped at a restaurant called The Roost which had great freshly made food. I opted for their sandwich special with Beet Borsch on the side. The sandwich was a chicken, cheese, basil, tomato, red onion and Portobello mushroom. Dear had the same sandwich but with a Roasted Yam and cilantro soup. Katie ordered the 3 cheese quiche with a garden salad. We would go back to this spot if we ever ferry across from Anacortes to Sydney again. After we walked about Butchart Gardens and on our way into Victoria we stopped in Oak Bay and were happy to stumble upon the Penny Farthing where we enjoyed some traditional Fish & Chips and Lamb Stew.

It’s too bad we had to be in the ferry line for 90 minutes prior to our trip back to the states or we could have fit in one more good meal on the Island!

We traveled on the Black Ball ferry out of Victoria to Port Angeles to get home. From Port Angeles we had to make it to Kingston, Washington before the last ferry set sail at 11:10 pm. We were so thankful to make it on time and to be in our beds by 12:30 am!

It’s incredible to me that we managed this trip in one day back in 2009. We were still living in Camarillo, California during this time and we enjoyed coming back to our home in Washington and spending as much time as we could with our adult children.

This and That

We have had some rainfall that gave me a break from watering.

The little toddler quail are hard to see but are so much fun to watch. We are inundated with quail, babies, toddlers, and teens. They grow fast.

If they didn’t blend in so nicely with their environment they’d be easier for predators like this next one who flew in on Monday.

Today is mowing day. What’s up where you live?