Still Here - What We've Been Up To

Hi everyone,

It's been a while. Our family is in the process of healing and we're doing okay. We appreciate your continued prayers.

We've had a very busy summer. I turned 65 in June. The girls got me a record album... with songs from different decades of my life, and songs that remind them of me. It's amazing! I've been playing records since I was in the 5th grade, and now I have my own. 💖 I love it!

Chuck and I celebrated our 44th Anniversary in August. We walked onto the ferry and rode it from Edmonds to Kingston, and spent some time at the small park there. Then we rode it back again. It only takes an hour or so but it's a nice relaxing trip. 

Beth bought some new bowling shoes. The bowling alley she goes to every week has a little pro shop and she loves to go in there. The bowling ball she's had for a while is getting too heavy for her. She's getting older! Her elbow was getting sore so we went to the doctor and turns out she has tennis elbow, so now she's looking at getting a new one.

This summer I went to a dahlia show at our local nursery to get some pictures for my greeting cards. I have some small orange dahlias in the backyard but I had no idea there were so many varieties! 

 

We also went to San Diego for Chuck's 50th high school reunion. Here's a picture to give you an idea of the evening. Chuck is in the dark blue shirt.

I also got to see my sister again while we were down there. In fact, Beth stayed with her while we were at the reunion. They wanted nachos for dinner, then they played Yahtzee and watched TV. 

Plus I got to see a couple friends from high school. (Chuck and I went to different schools.) There are five of us that met our freshman year and we're still close today. They're the only two that stayed in San Diego though. It had been a few years since we'd seen each other but it was like no time had passed at all. The older we get the more we cherish these friendships.

Well, it's taken me four days to write this so I'll close and get it posted. We've got a busy October with two birthdays, and a vacation planned. 

How are you doing with fall here now? Can you believe it's October already?

One Last Visit, Then Home

 We left Colorado then headed west to Northern California. 

Stopped for gas and some hot chocolate. Beth gets hot chocolate every Sunday at church so she was very happy to get some this Sunday too!

We ended up driving by the Great Salt Lake and the salt flats. We're the blue dot at the bottom of this pic. That's where we were when I took these pictures.  

Chuck and I are on ancestry.com and about 15 years ago a lady named Joan emailed me and asked about her aunts picture on our page. Her aunt is my great grandmother. She was putting together a book of the history of our family and mentioned that back in 1928 my grandfather and his cousin, went with an aunt and uncle on a road trip from Massachusetts to San Diego, up to Seattle and home again. She had letters that her aunt wrote to her cousin (mom and daughter) during the trip. What she didn't know was that I had all the photos of that trip. We've been writing back and forth all these years, and finally got to meet.

We crossed Donner Pass, the same road they took on that 1928 trip.

This a post card of a snow shed up on Donner pass.

Here they are visiting the giant redwoods in northern California -

My grandpa Robert on the left, with Uncle Henry and Aunt Lou.

We met Joan and Don for lunch and talked for almost 2 hours. But we wish we'd had more time. It was so good to meet them.

We stayed overnight in Redding, then had breakfast at Black Bear Diner in the morning. The food was so good. And they're known for their biscuits.

Mount Shasta

Drove through Oregon, then into Washington, and home to Seattle.

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Right now we're going through some things at home so I may not be on here for a while. Please keep our family in your prayers.

The Middle of Nowhere

We left Crazy Horse in South Dakota and drove down into Denver. There were a lot of storms in that area, but none directly over us. We were very grateful! 

Got to Denver in the early evening and just spent that night relaxing in the hotel. This was a nice sized room, and the hotel had an indoor pool. We definitely took advantage of that!

Beth and I hadn't seen Chuck's sister in a few years. She had a major stroke 25 years ago, and another one two years ago. She's been in rehab ever since that last stroke and she's not sure she'll ever be able to go home again.

We'd bring her lunch every day and sit out in the lounge for a few hours talking and reminiscing. It was really good to see her again.

After a few days we continued south to the bustling metropolis of Walsenburg, Colorado. Population 3,000. The Aspen Acres fire was burning in that area of the state and we could see it as we drove.

We were getting alerts on our phones about evacuations. Thankfully the town of Walsenburg never needed to evacuate, neither did my brother-in-law. But we certainly kept an eye on the fire and the alerts.

 

On July 3rd, we checked into the motel, then headed out to Ken's. He and my sister Kathy bought 40 acres and were building a house when she suddenly and unexpectedly passed away.

We were out there in October of 2020, and it was the last time I ever saw her. These two pics are from that visit -  

Ken's in his 70's and lives in the 5th-wheel on the property but he keeps working on the house. And it's 22 miles from Walsenburg, in the middle of nowhere. Yep, this is the road to his house. 

Still going - 

There it is! He's done so much work on it since Kathy died.

We sat out on the porch to catch up and talk about life.

My niece and her boyfriend were there as well, staying a week to help her dad with the house. As we started back to the motel that afternoon the fire really picked up.

We went back out to the house on the 4th and right around dusk the wind really picked up so he didn't shoot off fireworks this year. We were okay with that, Beth and I were still festive! He barbecued some amazing steaks, and we had salad, and cookies for dessert.

Then we sat outside 'til it got dark, talking and watching the storms roll by in the distance.

My niece took this one - 

It was kind of cute, Beth had a little crush on my niece's boyfriend. Here she is teasing him, then getting embarrassed and hiding behind her phone. He was sweet, and they teased each other the entire time we were there. It was fun to watch them!

I know these posts are long, but there's so much I want to remember about this trip. If you've made it this far, thank you for reading! Just a couple more post I think. Well, maybe three. 😊