A Fun Week

Carl, Devin, and Hayden arrived on the 23rd of May.



Carl could only stay through the Monday Memorial Day but Devin and Hayden got to stay till Sunday the 31st.



We had a great time having them here.



Hayden was a perfect little angel according to her Grandpa and Grandma.

Grandma got to give her baths every night.

It was wonderful to have a baby (excuse me toddler) in the house again.



We ate and ate and ate some more.

We had barbecue ribs,



roasted veggies, baked beans and corn on Memorial Day.



All cooked on Dewey's new Barbecue grill.



We had a barbecue chicken dinner at another meal. We also had Thai food, pizza, and Chinese food during the week. Dewey took Devin to the movies ("17 Again") and to lunch one day. They ate at a Vietnamese PHO restaurant. We had all kinds of snacks and of course cookies. Devin made peanut butter cup cookies. Delicious. We tried it another day and added Heath pieces to the dough but they didn't turn out as good that time. Hayden eats all kinds of things. She loved the yogurt covered raisins and she couldn't get enough grapes.

Hayden was quite fascinated with Kitty. She even learned to sound like Kitty. At one point I couldn't tell if it was Kitty or Hayden meowing. Buddy didn't feel neglected because he found Devin and Buddy LOVES Devin. I suppose Ella helped because Hayden is so use to her that Buddy was just "Ella" to her. Kitty didn't run from Hayden but she stayed out of her way. Kitty loves Devin too because Devin brushed her. Kitty thinks that is the best thing that ever happens to her besides eating.



I was so happy that Hayden was especially nice to Buddy and Buddy didn't have any episodes with Hayden. Not even a growl. Hayden has learned to sound like many animals. My personal favorite is her tiger sound.

Hayden had a few firsts with us. She had her first visit to the zoo.



The Point Defiance Zoo.



It is a little zoo but has some good animals.

I think Devin had more fun than Hayden and Hayden had a pretty good time.



We had a beautiful day. A Macaw took a dollar out of Hayden's hand. It was a donation to the zoo. I even made it the whole three and a half hours that we walked around viewing the animals. Yea for bionic knees and my daily walks with Buddy.

Hayden had her first, all by herself, ice cream cone at Baskin Robbins. We love ice cream.

Hayden also had her first ferry ride. That is a story in itself.



On Friday the 29th Dewey took the day off and we headed to Forks, Washington for a day road trip.



We got to the Hood Canal Bridge and discovered it was closed.

It was the only way to Forks from where we were,



so our plans changed and instead of going to Forks we ended up in Port Gamble. Later we caught the Kingston Ferry to Edmunds.



Port Gamble is a pretty little place. We took the walking tour and then on to the ferry.



We wanted to go to Forks because we love Twilight and it would have been fun to go just to be there.



We know Edward and Bella and Jacob wouldn't be around but at some point they passed through and that's good enough for us (meaning Devin and myself).



We played and walked at some of our favorite parks: Bradley Lake Park,Clark's Creek South Park and DeCoursey Park.

Hayden loved playing in the back yard and she had her own little pool.





Devin and I went to church on Saturday night to fill 72 hour kits. I had purchased 5 of them and Devin was going to take them home but her luggage filled up fast so I guess Dewey and I will eventually have to take a road trip to Utah.

And we went to the Puyallup Farmer's Market.

I'm sure I left out things but we had a great time.

Come back soon Carl and Devin and Hayden.



We love you and miss you!

It's May, it's May the lovely month of May

We celebrate May with lots of things but the first of the month we celebrate Flora's birthday.She is a lovely daughter in law and we hope her birthday was GREAT.

We had May Day--I don't think we did much for that day except go for a walk which is always nice when I have my trusty companion Buddy by my side.

He loves our walks. He especially loves barking at all the cars and anything goes by us with wheels and anyone who walks, jogs or runs faster than us.

The Puyallup Farmer's Market began on May 2nd. We were there--rain and all. Dewey bought me a beautiful bouquet of flowers.

Buddy loves the farmer's market. There are always different breeds there roaming around with their pack leader.

And today is Cinco de Mayo. We had our second annual Cinco de Mayo celebration.

We had Mole sauce for our tamales,

We had homemade enchiladas,

homemade Mexican rice,

homemade tamales,

homemade pico de gallo,

and homemade chocolate sheet cake.

Everything homemade from scratch.

We turned on The Three Amigos and ate and watched and had fun.

The only thing that would have made it perfect would have been to have our homemade children with us.

A New Stove

Today is the day that we've been looking forward to (especially Dewey). Our new Maytag stove arrived and was installed. It's very nice. I love the fact that during Thanksgiving time I'll be able to cook a turkey in the bottom oven and the side dishes in the top oven--at the same time.

Dewey was so tired of the burners not working correctly that I think he was about to never cook again. That would be a bad thing because he makes delicious dishes.

Buddy wasn't sure what these strange men (the guys installing the stove) were doing and so after he had his usual barking to protect me period I held him the rest of the time so he could watch. He was very interested and didn't make a sound.


The Mariners are playing amazing baseball so far and it is so much fun to watch. Really different from last year at this time.



The past few days have been beautiful. Buddy and I are still walking a mile to a mile and a half everyday.

We had a good Easter.





Made a roast. That's a little different from the ham we usually have.

We are headed off to an Eagle Court of Honor.



Two of the young men in our ward are being honored tonight.

It's suppose to rain tomorrow. We'll see. The other day we had so much hail and sleet it looked like snow was covering the ground. We have had an interesting winter and spring so far.

Bye for now.

Snow

It's March 29 and it snowed last night. It is still on the ground and cars but is melting quickly. I am just thankful that Buddy likes the snow and will go out in it anytime. It hasn't snowed this many times in one season since we moved here. I like it. I like it a lot. Here's a picture of snow at Mt Rainier this past weekend--what a beautiful and grand mountain right in our backyard.

Spencer had a great visit with the CEO of Dryers. All went smoothly. He has a big weight lifted from his shoulders. Little Spencer has to do a panorama of the desert. He's creative so I 'm sure it will be great.

Devin, Carl and Hayden leave for their week in Hawaii. They will come back with a great tan.

Brain is really into golf. He even watches it on TV. How come golf wasn't one of our things in high school? It seemed like everything else was. Maybe the grand kids will take it up. Brian will have to teach them.

Time to work on Primary music. I have the entire sharing time today. Bye for now.

Happy Birthday Brian and Happy St. Patrick's Day,Too

Today is Brian's birthday. We were the first ones to call this morning to wish him a happy birthday (not including Flora who was the very first one, of course). We hope this birthday has been great. Wish we could be there to help you celebrate. We did put out our Happy Birthday Flag. Brian's is the first birthday to have it hanging on our porch.

I received it (thank you very much Dewey and Amazon) a couple days after my birthday and it will hang on our porch on every family member's birthday. Yay--kinda like confetti in the cards--flag flying on the porch--I know that doesn't make sense but I just want my children to know we have ways of celebrating their birthdays even if they are far away. A signature thing.

We wore our green today. Dewey made a delicious fake corned beef and cabbage Irish meal. It was delicious. We had beef instead of corned beef and lots of different spices and it tasted great. Dewey is trying to help me stay on program (WW) and within my points. He knows I would eat way to much of the "real" stuff and I would swell up like a balloon. We also had Irish Soda bread. Wow, it was more of a dessert than a bread. YUM YUM YUM!!!!

Buddy had his St. Patrick's Day bandanna on.

Today was beautification day and he looked spiffy. We made a visit to a nursing home to visit a dear friend. I believe she likes having Buddy come to see her.

Speaking of the bandannas we were out at a new PetSmart last week and found a package that had 5 holiday bandannas--on sale--got them--now he is set for St. Pat's Day, Easter, 4th of July, Halloween and Christmas.


Speaking of Buddy and his grooming days, next week he is going short. I wanted to wait another couple of weeks but he was having a hard time cooperating when Marilyn was trying to get the knots out and it will just be easier to go short next week instead of waiting and then having to be shaved (because there are so many knots). He is usually really good there but I guess there is just too much combing when the hair is so long and it's getting pretty long.

On Sunday morning it started snowing. The flakes were very big and the snow accumulated and was beautiful. I decided to watch it fall so Buddy, Kitty and I snuggled up (actually they were at the foot of the bed and I was under the covers) put on a Tony Bennett Christmas album (thank you Dewey for having every Christmas album we own and then some on the Zune sitting on our bed's headboard) and listened to the whole album. Lots of Christmas snow songs on the one I picked, and I even chose it at random. Unfortunately by the time we left for church the rain had been falling for awhile and all the snow was melted. Dewey was at his Stake meetings during the snow or else he would have been cuddled up right beside me.

We have had lots more snow than usual this year. I like it.

Hayden is walking. She is still scared of the Spiderman doll we gave her when it sings.

Twilight is out on DVD on the 21st at 12:01am. No we are not going to be there to get it at that time, but Dewey says we will get it on Blue Ray.

Dewey's cataract surgery went well, my mouth is healing from my surgery, and Dewey's new crown was installed today. Thank you microwave popcorn for having too many kernels NOT popped and cracking his tooth.

Happy Birthday Brian! We love you.

Happy Saint Patrick's Day to all.