more to come . . .

Let me just say that this is FRUSTRATING me so much --- my computer has a virus and I need to carve out some quiet time to be on the phone with Apple Care to walk me through fixing it.  In the mean time, its nearly impossible to post anything on my blog with all the interruptions and pop-ups and all the super annoying things that come with viruses.

And I have all these Disney memories to share!

But until then, please enjoy this photo from Splash Mountain, mainly because ABBY'S FACE!



I think these girls had fun, and Keith loved every single minute of it.

disneyland

Just popping in real quick here to share a few pics from my phone of our trip to Disneyland last week with the granddaughters!

Two things:

1.  On our last Disney trip, Luke announced to the family that he wanted to come back to Disneyland for his 37th birthday.  We couldn't guarantee to Luke that that was going to happen, so as time went by, he didn't talk about that birthday wish so much. He turned 37 on his birthday on November 3 this year.   He didn't know that behind the scenes, we were planning and we managed to keep it a secret from him until the morning we left!

2.  The granddaughters are the PERFECT age to go right now.  Claire has never been (other than when their family made a stop at Walt Disney World at the end of their east coast RV trip this summer).  The older girls are the perfect age to go on all the thrill rides and Claire is at that age to experience all the characters and classic rides.



We left Thursday at noon, so the girls only missed a day and a half of school (Friday was a half day). It was so fun that they got invited to see the cockpit and meet the pilot and co-pilot.







It was a typical rainy November day here in Seattle, but sooo beautiful and sunny in California when we arrived.



Voila!  Here we are!



I'll share more after Thanksgiving, but one thing that we are so thankful for was this wonderful experience we got to have with these lovely girls.  Luke is so thankful that his birthday dream came true!

Happy Thanksgiving!!

life lately

I've been slow to post on my blog, but that doesn't mean that life is slow for us.  On the contrary, we've been so busy, but with mundane stuff.  Here are a few things keeping us busy, but not enough to blog about individually.  If you follow me on Instagram, you've probably already seen these.  Some are from my phone, some are from my camera.

1.  If you follow Keith on facebook, you'll know he got a freeze dryer this summer.  Not to be confused with a food dehydrator.  Totally different.  Think of foods like the strawberries in Special K with red berries, NOT things like raisins, dried apricots, etc.  Anyway, so far, he has freeze dried bananas, blackberries, blueberries, strawberries, raspberries, nectarines, peaches, pears, green beans, zucchini (chips), corn, roma tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, apples, and tater tots.  Yes, tater tots.  Currently he's preparing some winter squash (hubbard) to freeze dry.  We store them in mylar bags we seal ourselves.  Actually, its all very cool.  Our favorites so far are the raspberries, and peaches.

So these cherry tomatoes are the finished product . . . the fruit or vegetables keep their shapes and all the liquid is taken out of them.  The white stuff you see on some of the red tomatoes is sugar that has extracted out.  They're feather light and crunchy.  You can eat them as is, or rehydrate and use in recipes.  We've preserved more of our garden by freeze drying than any other way before.





2. The property border between us and the neighbors we share our driveway with is lined with leyland cypress trees.  We did not plant them, our former neighbor did.  They are the worst.  The roots are huge and invasive and our driveway is buckled from them, not to mention they are sooooo messy. I don't know if you call the things they drop "needles" (by the billions, literally), but as soon as you sweep or blow them off, a breeze or wind will come along and dump new ones all over again.  We'd love to cut them all down, but for now, we cut down the ones towards the back.  Keith took out four trees himself, and the remaining ones we hired someone to take them out.

The first picture is before---but not truly "before", since Keith had already cut down four trees and limbed up the rest.  It opened it up to so much sunshine.  Its kind of hard to tell from the pictures, but it has made a huge difference.



And after the rest of the cypresses were taken out.  The other trees are on the neighbor's property.



See just a fraction of the needles that drop?



3. Gutter cleaning and repairing.  I am SO glad our roof pitch isn't so steep, because it makes me nervous when Keith is up there working.  I should add that he's got the shop vac up there with him, vacuuming out stuff from the gutters (don't laugh, it works great!)





4. Here are some pics from after Abby's soccer game from a few weeks ago.  I got Keith and all the grandkids together on the trampoline.















5. We LOVE going to see the grandkids when they have their Primary program.  This was Summer's very last program, since she was turning 12 the next day.  I can't believe she is 12 now, and in Young Womens!





After church, a little reading time with Lee.









So nice to get a picture with everyone looking at the camera!



On halloween night, I began putting away all my pumpkins and fall decor.  That's right, I can't even wait till after Thanksgiving to get my Christmas things out.  Don't worry, its not going to be "instant Christmas" over here.  Just slowly, little by little.  And holiday music in my car?  Of course.  52 days till Christmas.

halloween 2017

Another halloween for the books!  I have to admit, Luke can be hard to find a costume for.  He's 6'2" with long legs, long arms, and broad shoulders.  Those costumes that say "one size fits most"?  He does not fall in the "most" category.  If I had all the time and talents in the world, I would make him the grandiose costumes that he dreams of.  Maybe next year I'll do that!

But this year, the "cool" costumes he wanted were not in his size or in our price range.  And yes, he does have some costumes from halloweens past that he could wear, but today he was going to his adult daycare halloween party which = MESSY.  I did have a sushi chef adult size costume that I got from Pottery Barn Kids years ago (a fantastic after halloween sale!).  He was excited about being a sushi chef and told alllll his friends.

So Monday I dug the sushi chef costume out of the costume box upstairs and brought it down for Luke to try on.  Do you remember that scene in Raiders of the Lost Ark, where Indy sneaks into that German base to try and get the ark back and puts on the soldier's jacket and it doesn't fit?  THAT was what came to mind as I struggled to get that sushi chef jacket on Luke---pulling and pulling to get it to close and no way on earth was it going to fit him.  Now what?????

Suddenly I remembered the Sven antlers that were in the costume box, and a t-shirt of Luke's that would tie it together . . . and voila!  A semi-"Sven" costume.  Luke was loving it, and that's all that counts, right?







He loved having the reindeer nose, but he was over it by the time dinner was over.  Now, I think I'll browse the after halloween costume sales and see what we might come up with for next year.

out on the coast

Last week we took a little two day trip with the trailer over to the Washington coast (Copalis).  Keith had made reservations weeks in advance and the weather report was perfect.  But.  The day we left the weather did a complete flip and it was rainy and cold.  Keith would have said it was a heavy drizzle, but hey.  It was raining.  So that is how it was when we arrived . . . setting up and getting all situated in the rain.  Thank goodness for our trusty fireplace (sorry, pictures later) which warmed us up nice and cozy.

The next morning we woke up to clear skies and warmer temperatures.  Thank goodness!  It would have been a shame to have come all the way out there and not be able to enjoy the scenery.  We went on a drive north and explored any small beach turnoff there was from the main highway.  One thing about Washington beaches that I'll never get used to is driving on them.  We didn't want to get out of the car and get all sandy, so all the beauty you see is from a distance.  This is different from the beaches farther north, like around La Push, where you can get out with all the driftwood and walk.  But that was fine for this trip.  These pictures are mostly from around Copalis and Pacific Beach.









Then we turned inland and drove over to Lake Quinault, in Olympic National Park.  I've never been there (to that side of the park) and I've always wanted to go see the lodge.  I have a thing for old lodges inside national parks, and I was so happy it was such a beautiful afternoon.

A coastal sequoia.



One of the cottages that is part of the lodge.

















































We got back and had dinner, and there was just enough time to drive up the road to catch the sunset.  But we were a little too early for the actual sunset (and kind of tired) so here are some golden views.











And then, back for the night.  This RV park wasn't as scenic as our trip to Belfair, where you opened the door and there was the water.  But it was a nice place to have a home base, where we could unhook and drive around during the day.



We're thinking we'll probably do one more trip before the cold weather sets in, but who knows?  Maybe we'll be spontaneous and go somewhere in the winter.