Quick trip to Boise

Our weekend plans were up in the air when we woke up to snow on Monday-

 It was completely gone by Tuesday. 

We made a road trip to Boise to celebrate niece Nikki's 40th Birthday.  We had a great time visiting with old friends and catching up with Nikki, CiJae and Alyx.  I must of had a really good time because the only pictures I took were in the motel or in the car.  The Boise area is growing quickly and there was lots to do.  We made a trip to the Sierra Trading Post Store and Aunt Judy gave Baylor his first haircut and trimmed up Elle's bangs.  Judy gave all of our kids their first haircuts and was my favorite beautician until distance made it impossible.  The party was great, Bruce even did some singing with the Karaoke machine.  He thought he was safe when he requested an oldies song by the Box Tops from 1967.  To his surprise the song was in the machine so he had to be a good sport and sing along.  Bruce did a great job singing "The Letter"!

 On our drive home Colby found the Seahawks game on the radio - this was the view from the backseat.  The game kept us entertained for part of the 7 hour drive. 

 Pendleton Cattle Drive

We stopped in Pendleton on the way - I bought a new blanket from the Pendleton mill outlet store and some very cool scraps of blanket to craft with.  The Pendleton mill has been in operation since 1909.  Pendleton is also the home of the Pendleton Round-up.  The town is cowboy all the way! The freeway underpass has a great cattle drive display!  In all our travels I believe this is probably one of my favorite group of statues - it is a full cattle drive with cowboys, cows and dogs.  The first time I saw the statues I was startled - the setting is so realistic.  

Fall - Canning - Winter?

 Elle, Baylor and their Mommy came over for a visit while their Daddy was traveling last week.  We did some shopping around town - this is outside of our first stop.  Pretty warm and sunny day.

 Second stop - Real Deals.  We were invited into their Christmas room.  Real Deals never disappoints!

 After shopping we got down to business - canning apple pie filling.  We borrowed an apple peeler, corer and slicer. 

 First batch of apple pie filling!

 I took the kids outside for a break.  Baylor was so excited to explore. 

 Heading out to the dry creek.

 C'mon out and play Elle!  It's not that cold. 

 Warming up with hot cocoa and Poppi.

 Good stuff!

Elle got into the act with the second box of apples. 

One for me - one for the pie. The apple peeler is a must have!

  

 After the pie filling was made Elle, Baylor (dressed as a turtle) and Poppi took the apple skins out to the field for the birds and deer.

 Elle shouted to the deer to come on in and eat. 

 Wasn't long before three pheasants showed up. 

 Baylor checking out his catch.  The kids played outside while we made strawberry jam.  Poppi was in charge of the canner in the garage. 

 Rearranging the wheels I bought this summer. 

 Strawberry jam and apple pie filling. 

 Final count?  No idea - we did use about 50 pounds of sugar, 3 boxes of apples and a 25 pound tub of strawberries. 

We finished just before the snow started to fall.  Very productive weekend.  We had apple crisp for dinner last night - Super good! 

Thorp Community Days - 2nd Annual

 Drove west to Thorp this morning.  This is downtown Thorp. 

Visited the exhibit hall - they only had about 7 vendors this year mostly selling jewelry and some home decorations.  Seems like a great location and lots of customers....  maybe next year will be better.

 The exhibits were another story - lots of corners in the hall had antiques.  My poor old camera did a timer photo - this camera has been troubled all summer.  Sometime it works and sometimes it doesn't. 

 Bruce checked out the old truck. 

 I checked out the scarecrow contest - Bruce was not amused....

 The kids from Thorp school had a coloring contest.

 The pumpkin patch was ready for customers.

 Before leaving town we stopped at the Thorp fruit stand - lots of fresh produce and antiques.  We are having a pretty quiet Saturday. 

We did see a celebrity in town today - Carl Jr was standing outside of McDonald's --- funny stuff! 

Cinnamon Wheel

For breakfast this morning we had a Papa Murphy's Cinnamon Wheel topped with sliced pears.  Super yummy - definitely company worthy! 

Westside trip

On Friday we had the sad task of attending a funeral in Olympia.  Funeral's are always hard, the service was nicely done with wonderful music fitting the occasion. After the funeral we drove around Olympia before getting back on the freeway to Maple Valley.  It's been years since we've actually looked around Olympia.  The first place we ran into was the old St Peter Hospital (first time I've seen the place in 42 years)  It is now an apartment complex.  Marc was born in this hospital.  The new hospital in Lacey opened shortly after his birth so the girls were both born in the "new" hospital (the new one is now 40 years old).  All I really remember about the "old" hospital  -  no phones, no TV, no private rooms, no air-conditioning.  It was very hot in August back in 1970!

 Our state capital.  The smoke from the Mason county fire made for a hazy day. 

 Some stuff you don't see on the Eastside of the state very often - logging trucks

 Stewart's Meat Trucks - the side says Yelm but they are really in McKenna.

 People standing on the top of overpasses.  Didn't look safe to me. 

 Especially with the traffic - good grief this is 2:30 in the afternoon!

After we finally got on the freeway - we found our luck had changed as we followed this van.  Notice how much room he has around him? 

We spent the night in Maple Valley.  I told Baylor to get his shoes so we could go and visit Kimmie's neighbors and see their very cool Halloween decorations.  Looks like Poppi's shoes are still a little big! 

Elle and Baylor loved the lighted pumpkins - Elle asked if she could go to the door and say Trick or Treat.  Not yet Elle.... The evening was warm and we had a nice time.  Drove home this morning after a shopping trip to Costco.  It is still smoky in our valley but the fires are almost done. 

Oergel Grandkid Visit

It's good to live on the road to everywhere!  Marc, Tracie and the kids went fishing this weekend with Raymond.  Raymond lives about 1 hour west of Ellensburg right off I-90.  On their way home today they stopped for a visit. 

 

The girls worked on making necklaces and drawing pretty girls.  Olivia wore her necklace all afternoon - pretty creative, she didn't even need any tape! 

Marcus showed me his battle wound from last night.  Lots of stitches in the chin from a fall going up the stairs at Raymond's.  The new Urgent Care in North Bend gets a two thumbs up for their gentle treatment of a 4 year old.  I took this picture so Marcus could actually see the wound.  It's pretty hard to see a cut under your own chin. 

Marc changed the bandage and put some cream on the stitches.  Marc actually has quite a bit of experience with bandaging wounds - he started with stitches when he was about Marcus's age.  The experience didn't slow Marcus down one little bit, he was riding the big wheel and running around outside all afternoon. 



Almost as good as new!  The nice doctors suggested they come back to North Bend fishing next weekend so they could take the stitches out and visit with Marcus again.  Marcus is quite a character!  After dinner everyone loaded up and headed down the road to Colbert - school, work and play tomorrow.