Four Days, 864 Miles

We drove to Bothell on Thursday and enjoyed the evening with our West side kids. Laura made a crockpot of chili and some cornbread for us to enjoy together.

On Friday we drove across the border to Abbotsford B.C. to celebrate the 50th Wedding Anniversary of one of the Mennonite Girls. Some of us ‘girls’ joined Lovella at her home. She volunteered to bring finger sandwiches for the open house and we helped her fill them. We transferred all the sandwiches to the party and added them to the dessert spread that Anneliese had prepared.

It was a great celebration of H & Anneliese’s 50th wedding Anniversary.

On Saturday we drove back to Bothell bright and early.

We spent another evening with our kids and enjoyed a meal out.

Early Sunday morning we left for home and were happy to get over the mountain pass and finally see some sunshine through the rain.

Things got brighter and windier the farther we traveled east towards Spokane.

We made it home safely and are thankful for all the good catch-ups we had with our Washington family and with our friends in Canada. Our Border crossings were good both ways.

I’m behind on visiting you, my bloggy friends. Thanks for all your comments on my recent posts! I’ll be catching up little by little…

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.

On the Road Hodgepodge

A few photos from Christmas past.

Thank you, Joyce, for the Wednesday Hodgepodge questions each week.

1. What’s one task you’d like a little Christmas elf to sneak in and take care of tonite?

I would love for a little elf to come in and address all my Christmas cards!

2. What’s your biggest challenge during the holidays?

Writing our Christmas letter is harder some years than others. Once the letter is written, the cards are addressed, and the envelopes are taken to the post office and dropped down the slot I feel a load off!

3. Are you a cookie baker this time of year? If your year had to be summed up in the shape of a cookie cutter what shape would it be?

Cookies are not something that get baked every year. This year I hope to make some cookies for our Children’s play/musical coming up soon. My cookie cutter shape for 2024 would be thistle in honor of our trip to Scotland.

4. Santa likes milk with his cookies. Do you like milk? What kind of milk is on tap in your house? (whole, 2%, skim, almond, oat, etc). What’s the last thing you made that called for milk?

I like milk but I can’t have too much of it as it doesn’t sit well with me. We typically have 2% on hand. Cereal is the last thing I enjoyed with milk, not something I made but something I put together.

5. Share one favorite line from a Christmas carol or holiday tune?

O come to my heart, Lord Jesus, There is room in my heart for Thee.

and

O come. let us adore Him, Christ the Lord!

And there are so many more!

6. Insert your own random thought here.

We are on the road again today, on our way back home from the westside of the Cascades. We were in Canada on Monday and overnight into Tuesday. Lots of time in our vehicle. I will be late in visiting Hodgepodgers. In Canada we enjoyed time with the B.C. Mennonite Girls Can Cook. More photos of our time to come later but here is a preview of some of the food we enjoyed.

Thanksgiving Long Weekend 2023

We had nine at our Thanksgiving table this year before three more family members made the drive on Friday. My sister and her husband traveled from Texas to be with us locals from Colville. I’m happy to announce that we were pleased with cooking the turkey in the convection oven. It took half the time and the results were good. We’ll make a couple tweaks next year…if we remember.

On Friday, later in the afternoon, this carload of three arrived from their six hour drive and we were eleven for a pulled pork dinner. Our daughter’s hubby unfortunately was under the weather and stayed home.

On Saturday our group split up and spent the morning and afternoon with separate adventures.

The older folk ventured across the line into Canada for some fun in Rossland and Trail, B.C. We had good interactions with the Border Agents again.

The sun was out for another glorious squinty day! Rossland is at a higher elevation and known as a skiing destination. The shaded sidewalks were icy. We tried to walk on the sunny side of the street.

We enjoyed the artwork around town and made some purchases before we traveled a bit further to enjoy lunch in Trail.

Persian food is a favorite in our family and we were happy with the quality of food at Kootenay Kabab in Trail.

Our carload made it back across the border to our Country Bungalow in time to watch the second half of the Cross state rivalry between the University of Washington and the Washington State Cougars, known as the Apple Cup. Having three University of Washington alumni in our family we are Husky fans. We are outnumbered on the side of the state that we live in now. Our Huskies waited until the last second of the game to win! With that win they are undefeated this season.

While we were in Canada our kids enjoyed time in Colville on our local kids’ property.

We all gathered together again for dinner and fun on Saturday evening.

Addy enjoyed time with her aunties and great auntie and JJ enjoyed his Uncle JOSH-SHU-WA. This weekend for JJ, Uncle Joshie was Uncle Josh shu wa.

Ember enjoyed the visiting hands that stroked her head. The large Thanksgiving banner was a great project for everyone to contribute their coloring skills to. Mexican Train was the game of the weekend.

We are thankful to be able to spend extended time together any time of the year but it is always a special time at Thanksgiving. So grateful for all who traveled a long way to get here! We don’t take that for granted.

As you can imagine the last several days have been very busy and I’ve had little time on the computer and for visiting. Hopefully I’ll catch up soon before the next grand adventure the end of this week!

Thank you to all for your visits and your comments. I appreciate every one of you!

Nelson Memorial Park

While we were in Nelson B.C. one of our stops was at the Cemetery on the edge of town. It had been a long time since we’d been to an old cemetery like this one.

We were the only ones in the cemetery besides the gardeners.

A grieving wife…

These always make me sad. I can’t imagine the grief of losing a child.

While driving in the Kootenay areas in B.C. we noticed lots of street names in rural areas that were Russian names. I had forgotten about the large Doukhobor settlements in this part of Canada.

We grew up with some Lazeroff’s in Montebello, California.

This was the military section of the cemetery with maple leaves on most of the headstones.

The strangest headstone we saw in this cemetery.

On the way out we saw this sign. Oops! Glad we didn’t bump into him/her!

We had helpful advice from the Visitors Center who gave us the directions to this cemetery and a map for a self guided history walk of the city. We spent time at the Anglican church viewing their beautiful stained glass windows and enjoyed a snack at Jackson’s Hole and Grill before we headed back to the Border. I’ll be sharing the photos from the Anglican church soon.

Across the Line…

…for our annual Mennonite Girls Can Cook Christmas gathering.

For Christmas 2018, Terry and Lovella hosted us at their warm and inviting bungalow.

The birch tree candle holders were made by Lovella’s beloved after their beautiful birch tree was felled in a storm this year.

Everyone contributed to the meal. Judy and Marg brought and assembled the Charcuterie Board.

Once I sat down at the table my photographing went out the window so I don’t have photos of the delicious Potato Leek Soup that Julie made and brought. The fresh citrusy pomegranate salad was brought and plated with care by Kathy. Bev baked fresh buns. Lovella prepared a stuffed Pork Loin that Terry barbecued to perfection along with sides of noodles, gravy, and broccoli salad.

Before we sat down at the table and while we were enjoying our appetizers the “girls” had their gift exchange. This year we were instructed to bring something that was consumable or used up by Christmas. There were a few varieties of fresh baked cookies, the promise of a hazelnut sponge roll to be delivered, coffee beans, candles, and my choice was a fresh baked razzleberry pie all wrapped up beautifully by Judy.

Two of our husbands were missing, Dear and Kathy’s husband Scot.

Anneliese brought the desserts.

We all got up from the table before dessert and it was the perfect time for me to head back across the line to the U.S.A. before my coach turned back into a pumpkin. At the border crossing I declared my pie and continued south to our kids’ home in Bothell making it there, safe and sound by 10pm. We enjoyed Judy’s pie the next evening for Laura’s birthday dessert and all 6 of us declared it perfect with no soggy bottom!

Hope all is progressing well toward Christmas at your house. We will go out back on our property and find a tree that will work for our Christmas tree this year. We think we spied something that will work well. We were going to get a permit to cut one down on National Forest property but opted for the easier route.

First Christmas Party of 2017

Dear and I traveled to Abbotsford, Canada yesterday to start off the Christmas season with these “girls” and their husbands. Herb and Anneliese opened their festive and warm home to the 16 of us for the evening. We missed our two Manitoba girls and their husbands. I’ll share photos from our evening together soon. Today I’m recuperating from all that good food and the drive to Canada and home again.

Friday the 13th!

So happy I’m not superstitious. I still have to share 5 more hats I’ve worn or am wearing but my creative juices aren’t flowing these days but rather they are dribbling. I’ll get back to those hats at a later Friday. So here are five favorites from this past week.

#1. Mother’s Day brunch with my kids that are on this side of the mountains.

#2. A few hours with these girls on Tuesday in Canada. The tall blond on the left that you probably don’t recognize is a writer who is writing a play about the Mennonite Girls Can Cook that will be staged later this year in Indiana and possibly Ohio.

#3. Lovella opened up her home for our meeting with the writer and cranked up her oven to treat us to coffee and these delicious rhubarb rolls for our morning coffee time. Delicious!

Then Lovella and the B.C. girls that were free to come for lunch offered up these delicious salads and other goodies.

#4. Our new book is in the works and we got a preview on what it is going to look like. I’ll share more about this soon.

#5. Today (Thursday) Dear and I worked outside mowing and weed whacking and then we brought down our deck furniture and set it out for the season.

We are thankfully heading into a quiet weekend. We have been processing lots of emotional things this week in our extended family and quiet is good to look forward to. Of course we know that just because we think it will be quiet doesn’t guarantee it. The other thing we know is that God is in control of everything that is allowed into our lives.

I’m linking up with Five on Friday with Amy at Love Made My Home and with Friday’s Fave Five with Susanne at Living to Tell the Story.

Good Fences…

These photos are from Rosedale in British Columbia from a friend’s home.

Linking up with Good Fences hosted by TexWisGirl #109.

We’re getting ready for a little road trip over the mountains and through the farmlands of Washington state to our Eastern Washington kid’s home to work on some projects. Hoping to see some fun things to take photos of…

Neighbors to the North

We found this monument close to Stanley’s in Stanley Park and I’m glad we took the time to read the inscription.

The monument was erected as a memorial to President Harding’s visit to Canada in 1923.

“What an object lesson of peace is shown today by our two countries by all the world. No grim-faced fortifications mark our frontiers. No huge battleships patrol our dividing waters. No stealthy spies lurk in our tranquil border hamlets. Only a scrap of paper recording hardly more than a simple understanding safeguards lives and property on the Great Lakes, and only humble mile posts mark the inviolable boundary line for thousands of miles through farm and forest.

Our protection is in our fraternity. Our armour is our faith, the tie that binds more firmly year by year. Ever increasing acquaintances and comradeship through interchange of citizens and the contract is not of perishable parchment, but of fair and honorable dealing which God grant shall continue for all time.

Erected by Kiwanis International in memory of a great occasion in the life of two sister nations here on July 26, 1923 Warren Gamaliel Harding twenty ninth president of the United States and first president to visit Canada.” (Erected 9-16-1925)

We were very surprised to read that Harding was the very first president to visit Canada.

Linking to Mrs. Nesbitt’s ABC Wednesday for N is for Neighboring Nations. Thank you Roger and team for administrating the meme.

I’m also linking to Tuesday’s Treasures with Tom the Backroads Traveler with this National treasure.

In the last few years I’ve enjoyed many visits to our neighbor to the North and I’m always thankful that it’s an safe border to cross without fear.

The Happy Wonderer ~ ellen b.

To honor and encourage

Tag Archives: Canada