Date Night

A night without kids is rare for us. We always have one, and sometimes both of them with us. This week was our week. Sean is on vacation with his dad, and Lilly is spending the week with her mom.
I'll cut right to the good stuff, but I'll leave something to the imagination.

Wednesday was our only night free of obligations and work, so I suggested that we go out to eat someplace nice and also go see a movie that we wouldn't take the kids to see.

After working all day here moving things around, at around 3 p.m. we started painting a room. We had one wall left when I asked what time it was, and it was 5:30. We left that last wall, which was going to be a different color anyway, and I checked for movies and show times.

There weren't as many choices as I had hoped. I wasn't really in the mood for something serious, but we considered "Buck," a documentary showing at The Grand. I looked at the local theater listing and came up empty. We both wanted a comedy.

There are plenty of restaurants we haven't tried yet. A Thai restaurant, some Chinese, and I had heard good things about a local Japanese restaurant. We chose the Japanese and were not disappointed.

Our tea cups were filled with warm green tea. Mmm.

I had teriyaki salmon and chicken with rice, and Chuck had tempora vegetables and shrimp with salmon.
We used chop sticks for as long as possible, but resorted to the forks eventually.

Our Thursday morning was going to start really early, because we were attending a Chamber breakfast at 7:30 a.m., but we wanted to continue our date with the movie. We chose "Bridesmaids." I had heard good things about it. Parts of it were hilarious. It was kind of predictable in some places, but we had a good time.

We're enjoying the quiet. Last night we had a quiet dinner at home after a day of work and meetings. The tranquility will turn to chaos next week when the kids return. It will be a full week of running around and work deadlines. We love them, and really love having a family, but it sure is nice to have some time to bond and grow together.

Abloom

The flowers are in bloom, and I love to fill the house with pretty bouquets of whatever is available from the yard. Here are a few pics for your viewing pleasure.

I love the puffy, full blooms of these roses. I filled this little vase

as full as I could, and the pink one in the middle is open now.

Don't you just love fresh flowers in the bathroom? 

And the kitchen.

And of course on the dining table.

Don't Look Down

We're pretty proud of our two bridge spans around here. The bridge we take to Tacoma has a toll, but we don't have to pay on the one that brings us home. I especially like the fact that the state takes care of them. We see workers painting and checking them often. I saw these guys out recently and thought I'd share.

Those guys are brave. They work to keep the old
bridge sound and looking nice. 

This looks scary enough, but you should see the drop below.
Puget Sound churns underneath. Some of the largest
ocotpodes in the world live there.

Back in the day, when we only had the one bridge, we used to have to plan carefully if we were going  to Tacoma. Both going and coming home could be snarly and add a lot of time, stress and distress to the day. I remember getting a bug to go somewhere, but I'd look at the clock and realize it was a really bad idea. There were times we would spend a couple of hours just trying to make it over the bridge and home in the evening traffic. A trip to Tacoma was usually an all-day event.

The commute is easy peasy now.  I still have to plan for some traffic at peak times, but I've found that during the time of day I have to use either bridge the traffic moves pretty quickly.

In the beginning it was weird to drive on the old one because they opened up all of the lanes to go one direction. When it was our only bridge, there were two lanes in each direction. I found it difficult to use those left lanes for fear of a head-on collision the first few times I drove in them.

Having the new bridge is great, but it's an added expense we didn't have before, especially because I make a lot of trips over those bridges each week. We've adjusted. Oh, and you don't want to get a ticket. If you're not paying attention and slip through those cameras without that Good to Go transponder sticker on your windshield you'll get a little piece of mail with a picture of your car and license plate and a hefty bill for $52.

Raising the toll is a constant topic. With high gas prices and few jobs it is a serious concern for a lot of people who live on this side. Our cars have transponders, which makes our toll price $2.75. Those without a transponder pay $4.
There's a lot more (bad news) I'm not telling you, but if you're interested you can always Google it. Lots of unhappy people when the new contractor took over. New transponders not working, etc.

And if you want a bit of history about the bridge you can read about that here.

Desert feet

Lilly's Pug and a glimpse of my pedi.

I'm not trying to freak anyone out, or make anyone sick, but my heels were so dry from being in the desert air that I was picking at them. Nasty, I know.

Just having one of my heels brush against my inner thigh was like being poked with a thorn. My feet were so dry it was changing the way I was doing everything. I couldn't sit the way I wanted in the car, and in all situations I tried to make sure my feet didn't come in contact with any part of Chuck's body.

As I was riding, looking at the scenery from the passenger window, I would pick at my heels. I caught myself a couple of times and decided the pedicure had to be scheduled asap upon our return home.

Lilly likes all things girly, and I figured a pedicure would be a nice thing for us to do together.
We went to a place in Gig Harbor called Julep last weekend. It was great. A bit pricey, but it's all non-toxic, eco and green and all of that, and we felt like it was very clean and we got a great pedicure. The most important thing for me was smoothing all the rough edges, but I'm enjoying the nice color on my toes.

We got the full treatment.

Lilly's new toes.

Ah, it sure is nice to have smooth feet. I'm sure Chuck appreciates it.

June vacation 2011

View from Colleen and Steve's.

(Warning: This is a long post with lots of pictures of our vacation. It's really meant for me to catalog our trip and photos. If you hate slide shows you might not like this post.)
A few months ago Chuck invited us to ride with him to his family reunion in Nevada, so we were excited about visiting a place we had never been.
Chuck suggested we camp each night on the way down and back, something else we've never done. Sean and I have camped for a couple of nights at the ocean, but we've never camped on a big trip.
We packed the Jetta tight, and even had a rack on top that held a cooler, a tent kit, and our camp site cooking bins full of utensils, towels, plates, cups, etc.

Every bit of trunk space was crammed, as well as the inside of the car. My car is a bit bigger, but was in the shop for some work. We managed the cramped quarters really well. Chuck was creative with packing the trunk each morning as we headed for a new destination.

 We'd stop for lunch and Chuck would
dig around in the cooler for what we needed. After lunch
 he'd strap it all back on and off we'd go.

Our first stop was Idaho. Chuck wanted to give the kids a full day of fun at Silverwood Theme Park.

Chuck and Sean had a lot of fun on this ride. It's
also where Lilly had an encounter with a "cute" boy
who was trying to dodge the squirting water.

We got to Farragut State Park in Idaho on a Monday night and camped. It was a very nice park with great campgrounds and showers.

Our favorite state park camping experience.
There was a lot to see at this one. Nice facilities, and
the park office had a great exhibit inside.

Chuck has a friend, Mike, who lives near there and offered to find a good spot for us. He phoned several times while we were on our way to let us know it was pouring down rain. He offered to let us stay at his house if it was too much for us to handle.

Our map showed the turnoff for the campground before Silverwood, but it was actually past Silverwood. We had ventured off on a road we thought would take us there, and got the call from Mike that we should have continued on a bit. (The rain had stopped, so we arrived just at the right time.) He met us at an intersection and we followed him in to the campsite.  Mike and his wife and their daughter already had a fire going for us.  They stuck around and helped us put up the two tents in the dark, and we sat around the fire for a little while.

We got up the next day and made breakfast at the campsite before going to Silverwood. It was a clear and beautiful day, but a little cool for the water park. Of course the kids insisted we should try it, but it was quite miserable. Maybe later in the summer we can go back and enjoy it more.

The water park is awesome, and this was just one of the
water park fun areas. Sean didn't get very far into the water. Lilly and I gave the
meandering tubes a try. So cold. The sun kept going behind the clouds.

The park was great. We went on quite a few rides, and we all agreed the log flume was our favorite. Sean and I ventured over to the smaller kids area and went on a couple of rides there. He had a great time, but we couldn't ride with him on most of them. We were all too tall. He was just tall enough to go on the big rides.

Our only splurge at the park was a couple of huckleberry funnel cakes. Mmm. That was deeelish.

We had lunch from our own cooler in the parking lot, but splurged
on dessert at the funnel cake stand.

 We had packed so much food in the cooler we went out to the car for lunch. (We still had a lot of food left when we arrived in Nevada.) It's great because they stamp your hand at Silverwood so you can go out of the park and come back when you're ready.

After a fun, full day we made our way back to the campsite and Mike and his family came back to socialize while we all had some hotdogs and S'mores. We stayed one more night at the camp and took off the next day for Nevada.

Since we were already in Idaho, Chuck chose a route through Idaho and tried to make our stop that night in Boise. I needed to get to a computer store for a part, and the only one was in Boise. There was no way to make it before the store closed, so we camped across the border in Oregon at Farewell Bend State Park, and made our way to Boise the next morning. (Farewell Bend is pretty nice, but was a little noisy and the showers weren't as nice as Farragut.)

After we got to Boise for my computer part, we were back on the road headed down 51. The scenery was beautiful. I had never spent time in Idaho. The road was not a main highway, and was windy and two lanes, but so worth the extra effort. We stayed off main highways on this trip, so we didn't see a lot of cars and our path was winding and scenic.

The scenery was incredible along our route through Idaho.

Lots of hills, water and rocks.

As we crossed into Nevada and got into the desert I could feel my throat getting dry, no kidding. I think I drank more water than I ever have before. We were on a stretch of road that was really kind of spooky. Nothing at all for miles except sage brush, cacti and desert. We encountered many ghost towns. The map showed towns, but when we arrived there was nothing but a couple of buildings with CLOSED signs in the windows, or nothing at all-- just boarded up old structures.

I think I took this picture because there were TREES.
We didn't see a lot of those in Nevada. Oh, and you can
see snow on the tops of the mountains in the back.

We didn't camp in Nevada. I was glad we didn't have to. We saw a couple of campgrounds along the way, but I wouldn't really go so far as to call them campgrounds. There was nothing there.

We made it to Chuck's sister's by Friday evening. On our way we stopped in a town called Tonopah and visited a great candy store. The night before we had made a pit stop at a Burger King and some nice women there told us about the candy.
They had a little bit of everything at the candy store, and the kids loved it. Chuck found peanut butter malted balls. Wow. Soooo good.

Candy. Everywhere there was candy.

Our time at Colleen and Steve's was so nice and relaxing. They have a beautiful home on 10 acres, complete with a volleyball court, a stage where their teenaged son and his band perform, and so many great things for the kids to do. Steve and Colleen love animals, and they have a couple of goats, some doves, dogs and toads.

Steve and Colleen have a beautiful home on 10 acres. 

We stayed in their casita and spent the days poolside. 

This was our home for a couple of days, just out the back door of the main house.

Sean loved handling the doves in the bird cage. It's large, with bird
houses on posts for them to perch, and has a
little pond in the middle.

They have two goats, Heidi and Rascal.

This toad was hopping around on the back patio one night. Sean loved it.

Father's Day was a big celebration with about 50 people and a lot of games. We had dune buggy racing, dodge ball, golf, and lots of other games.

Chuck took me on a wild ride around the dune buggy track. 

It was great to meet Chuck's sisters Colleen and Carla, and I met a lot of other people too. Such a nice bunch. We had a great time.

Since we could, we took a different route home. Instead of Idaho, we went through Oregon. Again, so pretty.

On our way out of Nevada we stopped at the Candy Store and loaded up again, and when we got to Hawthorne we needed gas. We saw a museum and decided to swing in and take a look. Hawthorne was a big military area at one time.

This nice man enjoyed telling us about
some of the exhibits, and demonstrated this weapon
for all of us.

I had to snap a shot of the fire memorabilia.

And I couldn't resist these Sac Bee clippings.
I'm a former hive dweller.

We crossed into California and tried to find a campground, but they were all for RVs. We gave up and stayed in the Sierra Motel.

It was nice, and we got free breakfast at Nicole's Cafe the next morning. It was GREAT! If you ever get to Tulelake, Calif. definitely check out Nicole's cooked-to-order breakfast. And we went back after a stop at the grocery so we could get a couple of smoothies. I can't remember what they were called but they were made with green tea and fruit, and they were so good.

It wasn't long and we were in Oregon. Our first night in Oregon we stayed at a KOA campground in Klamath Falls. We decided to make an early stop for the night and let the kids unwind. Instead of pitching the tents, Chuck rented one of the small cabins.  It had bunk beds, which the kids loved. It was warm in Klamath Falls, and we took advantage of the pool.
Lilly and Sean decided this was even better than sleeping in a tent.

Neat bunk beds, and we all enjoyed the cabin at the KOA.

The next morning the kids wanted to go out for breakfast at Denny's, then we were on our way to the central part of Oregon.
Our destination: fossil beds. Chuck and I were pretty excited about this stop. He loves rocks, and we took a lot of pictures of rocks on this trip. We are all interested in history and fossils and that kind of stuff, so I was hoping we could spend the better part of a day exploring the fossil beds.

This is so random.
There are lots of shoes, and a couple of bras in this tree.
Pretty sure this was in Oregon, the day we were going
to see the Fossil Beds.

(Chuck is so great. I saw this tree and he knew I would like to get a picture. He turned around and went back so I could get this shot.)

After what seemed like a really long drive we arrived at the Fossil Beds. It was BLAZING hot. So hot we couldn't stand the thought of hiking on the trial to explore the fossils. I don't think we had enough water with us to go any distance on that trail. We all agreed it was too much for us. Chuck and I went a short distance just to see what the trail was like and we took a couple of pictures of some fossils.
A nice park ranger gave us a pamphlet and Chuck suggested we return later in the year when it won't be so hot.

These are the palisades, and boulders have tumbled from these
and landed at the bottom. There are fossils in them.

Like this one. It was the first boulder we came across, so I took
a couple of photos of this, we explored some of the signs
located on that trail, then gave up because of the heat.

I love dragonflies, and when we got to the car we found
these two guys on my seat. They hung around for a while,
flitting in and out of the car.

On the way out of there we stumbled onto a little ghost town called Shaniko that has been preserved. We had to take a road that would connect us to 97, and as we came to the stop sign I saw an old Texaco sign. I wanted a picture of it, but when I looked over to my right, Chuck and I both said, "Oh, wow, there's the town."

It's well preserved, but it didn't seem to be open for business.

The hotel is for sale, and we peeked inside and it's beautiful.

There were a lot of things like this in the town.

It was so neat, and Chuck found a 1918 Le France fire engine in the museum, which was really just an old barn with a lot of old cars and horse buggies inside. We plan to visit this place again later in the summer.

We made it to the Columbia River Gorge and had our eye on a campground there. But the kids really wanted another KOA experience. We found a KOA with even bigger cabins.

This was a nice cabin, but the train track was very close.
I expected to be up all night, but it stopped running at around 10 p.m.

The kids both got a top bunk, and Chuck and I had a separate room. No pool, but nice place and we met some people there. Sean enjoyed playing with the kids and even got a couple of pen pals to write to.

I expected Sean and Lilly to be sick of each other after that many days cramped in the back seat, and spending so much time together. It was really opposite. It seemed the more days went by, the better they were getting along. When we got home they seemed happy to be back, but were having more fun together than when we left on the trip. I think they finally got to know each other. They had a few moments that were trying our patience, but we all made it work.

A lot of people told us this would be the test for our relationship. We passed. We can't wait to go on our next adventure.

A tiny scrapbook of our vacation

Another free scrapbook design by Smilebox

Family Weekend

Our weekend was focused on family.

Friday afternoon we had a cookout so Chuck's family could say hello and goodbye to his son Alex. Alex was heading back to San Diego after spending a couple of weeks here. It was the first time I had met him. He is in the Coast Guard and stationed in San Diego.  Chuck's father was also in town, so we had a little get together on Friday evening. It was my first time meeting him as well.

I picked Sean up from school and we spent the evening at Chuck's. His sister Cindy and her family came over, and his aunt Gerry and uncle Jerry. Of course Lilly was there also. It was great to meet new people and spend some time with his family.

Chuck had to work a 24-hour shift on Saturday, and we did our Fire Station Open House visit on Saturday. (See previous post.) That evening I took the kids to see a movie, and Sean and I stayed Saturday night.

Sunday I got up early and was not expecting Chuck to be back before I had to leave for church. He surprised me and was home in time for breakfast.

Sean was milling around doing his usual thing, but he also found a cardboard box and got inspired to make a costume. I think Chuck cut the rope, but the rest was Sean's creation.

He has become a fan of the movie "Predator."

That evening we herded the cats (kids) into the car and went to see a play at Seattle Children's Theatre. "Jackie and Me." It was good, but not my favorite. Maybe I just wasn't in the mood for it. We got there a little late, it was sold out so seating was tight. We had to sit at the back and not all of us could sit in the same row. Sean got restless, and I was distracted.

After the play we went to explore Seattle Center. Unfortunately I left my camera in the car and didn't get any pictures of the really huge fountain that sprays on some kind of repeated pattern. Sean and Chuck went down to try their luck at running to touch the center of it before it started to spray again.

We were getting hungry, so we left to find a place to eat dinner. We found a pizza place close to the theatre. It was good, but the kids were both being difficult. My stomach had been iffy all day, and I just wasn't in the best mood, either.

But I did get a nice picture of this pretty flower on the table.

After dinner we dropped Lilly off at her mom's. It had been a very full day, so we came home and collapsed.

Sean snapped this pic of Lilly's Pug in the car on
the way to drop her off at her mom's.