Quality Time Together…

Last Thursday Dear and I loaded up the car and headed East to enjoy some quality time with our kids. Our son-in-law Andrew wasn’t given time off of work to be able to join us and we missed him dearly.

On Friday (Halloween) we had a great hike on and above our son Dan’s property.

Our sons, Dan and Josh.

A Selfie from Josh and Laura.

Our daughter Katie and daughter-in-love, Laura.

Laura took this photo of Katie on our hike with her phone.

We had some great views and enjoyed lots of fall color.

My son shared some apples from his trees with the deer.

We enjoyed hiking, shooting, shopping, eating, and playing games together. We marvel at the world God created for us to enjoy and the people He has put in our lives to love and encourage us on our journey.

Dear and I stayed at a farmhouse close to our son’s home so the kids could enjoy staying up late and sleeping in while Dear and I tucked in earlier and woke up early each day. On Saturday morning all the kids came over to the farmhouse to enjoy a meal that Dear and I prepared for them. We bought some local made sausages and Dear made his fabulous Swedish pancakes and we added eggs to round off the meal.

Later on Saturday Dan and Jamie made us their famous fish tacos with their home made cabbage salsa. Dinner was so delicious. I’ll share the salsa recipe soon on Mennonite Girls Can cook. I’m so sad I didn’t take one photo of all the good eats we had.

We enjoyed three sunsets in Eastern Washington.

Dan and his girlfriend, Jamie.

Before we headed back over the Cascades to Western Washington we enjoyed brunch together.

We consider any time we are able to spend with our kids quality time.

I’m linking this post to ABC Wednesday for the letter Q. Thank you to Denise Nesbitt and the ABC crew.

Q is for Quality time spent together with family.

The Barn Collective

We just returned home from Eastern Washington where we saw some great barns. This wasn’t the kind of road trip where I could yell “STOP” around every corner to take a photo. We were headed over the mountains to spend quality time with our adult kids. Here’s the little barn that is on our son’s property.

I’m catching up at home as we just arrived back yesterday at five in the afternoon, in the dark, in rain showers. The time change always throws me for a loop and soon it will be getting dark at 4:30 in the afternoon. That always takes some getting used to. Hope you all had a good weekend. I’ll get my post from our time in Eastern Washington ready to go tomorrow.

Joining in with Amy at Rose Street Reflections for The Barn Collective. Click on over to see some great barns from around our world.

InSPIREd Sunday…

St. Mary of the Rosary on Main Street in Chewelah, Washington. The first two photos were taken on Halloween and the third photo down was taken on a trip we took to Eastern Washington in the summer of 2012.

Linking up to InSPIREd Sundays hosted by Beth and Sally.

I might not be able to visit until I get back to Western Washington and I have a more consistent Internet connection. Happy November everyone!

November Photo Challenge…

Oh boy here we are in November already! Kati has a November photo challenge that I hope to participate in from time to time. Today’s prompt is my name starts with…

My name starts with E and when I saw my name in lights I couldn’t resist taking a few photographs. This is an old theater in downtown Bozeman, Montana. My daughter Katie and I were headed east from Washington across the country in May when she spotted this theater.

If you click on the badge at the top of this post you can see the daily prompts for this challenge. Thanks Kati!

Internet has been iffy on this trip of ours and especially at the Farmhouse where we are staying so I’ve not been able to visit much. Hope to see you all soon. Happy November to you!

Horsin Around…

We’re having a good time in Eastern Washington and I’ll share all about it when we get home again, home again, jiggety jig. Beautiful colors, wonderful family and lots of good eats!

These photos are from our Halloween Hike where we saw some scary evidence of bears in the vicinity. Hope your Halloween isn’t too scary! We’re ready to welcome the wonderful month of November…

Signs from England

We saw some great signs when we were in England. Pubs and Inns have some great unique signs.

This one really cracked me up…how fresh can Lobster be from Canada to Windsor, England? I suppose it can be flown in the same day but the sign still had me smiling.

Some signs around this old house are that the weather is turning on us. Today we filled a yard waste bin with leaves and it’s really just the beginning of the raking season. We are looking forward to a few more soccer games with the Seattle Sounders and since we came in 1st place overall for our MLS season we are really hoping to be able to be in the final game for the MLS championships. If that’s the case that game will be here in Seattle on December 7th! It would be pretty sweet to celebrate our Seattle Sounders 40th Anniversary year and my 40th wedding anniversary with a MLS championship on the same weekend. Hope you were able to follow that.

We get to spend some quality time with our adult kids this weekend and we’re really looking forward to that. If I’m scarce on the internet you will know why. We will be busy eating fish tacos, tomato rice soup, Swedish Pancakes, my mom’s roolyet and besides eating together we will be shooting at pumpkins and other things…

What are your plans for the weekend?

I’m linking up with Lesley for her Signs, Signs; a weekly meme of interesting, funny, ridiculous and unexplainable signs. In the future I hope to post more unique signs.

P is for Pumpkin Cookies!

These cookies are perfect for this pumpkin time of year. The recipe for these Pumpkin Spice Cookies is located on the Mennonite Girls Can Cook blog. Click and you’ll be taken straight to the recipe.

The first time I made them was for a wedding shower for our daughter Katie.

I’m linking up to ABC Wednesday that was originally started by Mrs. Nesbitt and now hosted by a few faithful followers!

Book of Grace and Book of Glory ~ Hymn

Book of Grace and Book of Glory

Book of grace and book of glory,
Gift of God to age and youth,
Wondrous is thy sacred story,
Bright, bright with truth;
Wondrous is thy sacred story,
Bright, bright with truth.

Book of love in accents tender,
Speaking unto such as we;
May it lead us, Lord, to render
All, all to Thee;
May it lead us, Lord, to render
All, all to Thee.

Book of hope! the spirit, sighing,
Sweetest comfort finds in thee,
As it hears the Savior crying,
Come, come to Me!
As it hears the Savior crying,
Come, come to Me!

Book of life! when we reposing,
Bid farewell to friends we love,
Give us, for the life then closing,
Life, life above;
Give us, for the life then closing,
Life, life above.

Words: Thomas MacKellar, 1843.

Closer to Home

…and what’s been going on here at this old house. I’ll start with the latest and work back.

We switched out our old fireplace insert for a new one with no brass and a larger window, quieter fan and more efficiency. We are happy with our choice. While the installers were at my house on Wednesday I scrubbed down all my kitchen cabinets and scrubbed my hardwood floors.

No I don’t have my Christmas Tree yet, but can you believe all the Christmas merchandise in the stores already? I digress…

I posted this photo to show you the 3 bookshelves full of books that on Thursday while I waited for the Inspector to sign off on the fireplace insert I dusted. Yep, each and every book and all the shelves. My wrists and arms and knees are calling for a couple days off now! And speaking of Christmas our mystery tree this year is going in a new spot and I’ll show you that in December!

I received a package from bj (Sweet Nothings) in Texas because my name was drawn on her giveaway. She has such a good sense of humor and I enjoy visiting her blog.

A few Saturdays ago Katie and I met some friends at the Seattle Center for the Northwest Tea Festival. We enjoyed sipping tea samples and then we all went out for lunch at a Thai Restaurant close to the center.

These girls have been friends since elementary school.

My new getting out and exercising plan is continuing nicely. Some views from my walking trail…

On a overcast morning I thought this boat and it’s reflection was very cool and look at these great looking mushrooms!

The following week these same mushrooms had spread out to a huge flat top and I didn’t have my camera with me. Epic fail…

After exercise class this morning Katie and I are headed to University Village for W Day in honor of the University of Washington homecoming. We’ll be wearing some vintage sweatshirts from when Dear was in Pharmacy School at the University of Washington. There are special offers and discounts available from merchants if you are wearing purple or UW-licensed apparel.

Katie and I look a little different now but we’ll both be wearing a sweatshirt like the one I’m wearing here at Disneyland back when the University of Washington went to the Rose Bowl and played Michigan on January 1, 1992. Dear was able to get tickets for the Rose Bowl game and we decided to take a family trip to California and enjoy a day at Disneyland with the kids and time with family for Christmas. Fun memories…

Hope you all have a good weekend!

We Whispered a Fond Adieu…

It’s no secret around this Old House and my blog that Dear and I are very fond of traveling to Great Britain. This is my fond farewell post of our latest travels back in July.

Our final two days were spent just outside of Windsor. On our final full day we spent some time on a boat trip on the Thames, a walk across the bridge to Eton and shopping on High Street in Windsor. Here are some photos to show our adventure.