You Have To Look Closely

We went up to Leavenworth Saturday night. We've wanted to do a little stargazing and heard Lake Wenatchee was a great place to view the Milky Way. So we stopped at Leavenworth to have dinner and do a little shopping.

 

The drive there is so beautiful. I love road trips! Even if they are only 2.5 hours long!

 

She knew I was taking her picture 😁

 

The Baren Haus. They have a variety of food but we wanted to have something authentic so Beth and I tried the Schnitzel, have you ever had it? We really liked it!

We walked around a little before heading to the lake. Leavenworth is so pretty at night!

We got lost on the way to the lake, made a u-turn on a residential street, then went into the wrong entrance to the park... finally found the turn off and drove through a campground to get to the water. It was about 10:30 by now and the sky was spectacular! It blows me away that we can see the Milky Way with the naked eye. This is the picture I took -

 

 

I think you can see 5 stars!! 😂 Peter got some great shots, the rest of us just kept looking up. I took a picture off the internet and this is pretty close to what we saw, except for us it was directly overhead.

It's spectacular! Took my breath away and reminded me of God's creative power. We serve such a great and mighty God!

Bandages, Shopping Malls, and New Smells

I finally got Beth into the Department of Licensing to renew her state ID! It expired in 2019 and I just never got it done. I got her the REAL ID so she doesn't have to bring her passport with her every time we fly. The guy was so kind and even showed us all her previous photos with the different headbands, pink, blue, purple...! He complimented her on her signature and said it looked like a beautiful drawing. We left there and stopped for lunch before going to the mall. 

 

 

Chuck and I are going to a Seattle Mariners game in a few weeks so I'm looking for a new team shirt. We parked at the opposite side of the mall from our usual place and found out the team store isn't there anymore! I needed up walking the full length of the mall to find another one. She didn't want to make the trek so she found a seat and settled in with her phone. Course I prayed as I walked away, "Lord protect her. If anyone even thinks about harming her let them see your ministering angels...! Sure enough, she was right there when I got back. 😄

 

Then we went to DSW to get some new shoes. Chuck and I got some new arch supports a few weeks ago and I've needed some new walking shoes, and Beth needed some too.

 

She also went to the doctor a few days ago for a blood draw to check on medicine levels. She takes thyroid medicine and every 6 months she's got to get checked. She holds her arm out and straight like this for a long time. I have to convince her that it's okay to use her arm, even with the bandage.

 

 

Chuck, Sharaya, Diana, Poppy and I went for a walk at a local park. It's about a half mile from our house, so we walk there and then walk the loop a few times before heading back. It's right on the edge of a forest area and it's always so cool and pretty. Poppy loved all the new smells!

 

 

Thank you for stopping by. I hope you have a wonderful weekend!

Various Updates

 I realize I haven't kept you updated on things going on around here.

First of all, Chuck's MRI came out clean. He's still cancer free!

 

Thank you for the ideas on the card game. Pokeno was the only one I recognized but after googling the games, I didn't remember the rules of any of them! The way Ally and I play it is a lot like Pokeno though. 

 

The email subscriptions: I've started adding everyone to my blog list but it might take a while to get all of you on it. Please forgive me if I haven't commented on your posts in a while.

 

I've been enjoying these quiet summer months. Work is about to get super busy so I'm taking Fridays off while I can and I'm loving having two days off in a row! It makes a huge difference!

 

Beth overslept on Monday and missed her bus to All Aboard. I think she set her alarm for PM instead of AM. She texted me at work about the time her bus was supposed to arrive. She's usually really good about being upstairs and ready so I expect the driver waited the required 5 minutes then left. That's not the first time that's ever happened to a driver! 

 

Sharaya and Ally will be moving soon. They found a place about 10-15 minutes from here, a two story, two bedroom condo. Ally was showing me some pictures and it's really cute. It has a fireplace, a small backyard, it looks perfect for them. 

 

We all went over to Diana and Peter's for lunch a couple weeks ago. They took us out to their garden. They share it with their neighbors, one side for them and the other for the neighbors. They have zucchini, bell peppers, tomatoes cucumbers, pumpkins, various spices... and we've loved reaping the benefits of their hard work!

 

 

 Just some of their harvest

 

 The bunnies sure have been multiplying lately. There are so many in the backyard now, I'm wondering if we should be doing something to control them. I saw these three out last night: it's hard to see but there's a tiny one just in front of mom's nose.

 

 

Then this other little guy hopped closer to me

 

Mom was checking on the rabbit hole.

I don't know if there's more in there!

 

I know there were some living under a bush in a different part of the yard, I don't know if it's the same bunnies or a whole new family. I'm starting to get a little concerned. Do they eventually move on? Are they here for the long term? Have you encountered bunnies in your yard?
 

Forty

August 14, 1982 we said "I do." 

 

It's crazy how much things have changed since that day. This was taken in 1986 -

 

 This was at Diana and Peter's wedding last year -

 

 Last night we had dinner at Ruth's Chris Steak House. It was the first time we'd ever been there and it was delicious! After we ate we walked about a block to the Paramount Theater and got to see Hamilton! It was incredible to watch it live. Their voices were phenomenal; the costumes and sets were captivating ... the entire room was electric! As soon as the lights went down everyone began to clap and cheer! It was so much fun!

 

 Heading into the city

 

 

 

 Our seats were in the 12th row!

 

 

The view from our seats

 

 During the Intermission we went down front to see if one of the attendants could take a picture of us. At first he said no because then EVERYONE would want him to take their picture but after he saw us trying it ourselves, he had pity on us and very quickly took one. 😂

 

 We went back to our seats and tried again. I wanted to get a picture with the full stage behind us but we just couldn't make it happen. This was our second or third try -

 

 

While we were trying, Chuck got a Facebook notification. It was a friend who was also at the show! She had been watching us and sent us this:

 

 We hadn't seen her in years so we got to talk for a few minutes. It was so good to catch up. 

 

We had such a good night! We stayed up until 2:00am talking.

 

The Lord has poured His blessings on us the last 40+ years. We've been able to experience so many good things in this life. I hope it continues for another forty!   

Help! I Want You Back!

I've just learned that Feedburner is no longer allowing email subscriptions. I thought I saw something about this a long time ago but nothing ever changed. I'm not tech savvy enough to understand what exactly was going to happen... and now I'm not getting many of your blogs in my email anymore! It's been a couple of weeks and I've been trying to figure out what happened. Now I know.

I've tried going to some of your blogs to follow there but that doesn't always work. Bloglovin' says the page isn't available; some blogs don't show a way to follow... does anyone have any ideas for getting blog notifications? I miss you guys!! 😟

Super Mini Vacation

Chuck had today off (Wednesday) so we decided to go over to Poulsbo, a Nordic style town not from us. There's a 30 minute ferry ride then just a 15 minute drive. 

 

The weather was sunny when we left our side of Puget Sound and still cool and cloudy when we got to the other side, but it cleared up quickly and turned out to be a beautiful day! On the ferry you're able to get out of your car and go up one flight to the Sun Deck. It's a beautiful view and gets windy pretty fast.

 

 We wandered around, ate lunch at the Green Light Cafe, did some shopping, and bought some chocolate for when we got home. 

 

 

I just realized I never got any pictures of me and Chuck! Sigh. We sat at a beautiful park and watched the boats come and go from the marina.

 

 

We were there for a few hours, then got in line to catch the next ferry

 

 

You can see Mount Baker to the right of the ferry

 

Pulling back into the Edmonds Ferry Dock

As we pulled onto our street, it was like we had been gone for a week! We hadn't driven onto the ferry in quite a while, the different scenery, new shops, a fun restaurant... It was exactly what we needed!