Wow! Here we are January 2011. Stockings were hung and taken down. Gene and Carol visited then went home, Karin has gone back to work, Avery and Makenna have gone back to school, Matt is still in Alaska which leaves me, Max and Sienna at home all alone to sit and ponder the year 2010.
It was a fun year full of excitement, lots of laughing, crying and stretching in the Lord.
In January Makenna's birthday is always the first event of each New Year. By then we have all had time to rest up, diet down from "holiday joy" and welcome the "excuse" to dip into the sweetness of ice cream and cake. This year Makenna wore a cute little sparkly cupcake pattern dress I made for her with fabric Juanita had given her for Christmas. She had her party at home with her signature colors being blush and bashful, that is to say pink, pink and more pink. Her cake had pink frosting, there were pink streamers, pink table cloth and even pink cheeks on all of the many friends who came over to help her celebrate. Oh! and yes, she did blow out all the candles in one breath : )
In February, Matt and I took Avery and Makenna up to Vancouver, Canada to join in the fun of the Winter Olympics. We drove up to just across the boarder then rode a train in to Olympic Village, joining thousands of tourists wandering through the town making our way to where the Olympic Torch was burning, making sure to snap lots of pictures along the way.
In March we traveled back up to Canada with the girls, this time visiting the Capilano Suspension Bridge. In a word ... AWESOME! The day was a rainy one but that did not stop us from having a very, very fun time. The bridge is planked and stretches 450 ft. long across a canyon, 230 ft. above the river. Once across there are trails and a tree top experience offering, as they say, " a squirrel's eye view."
April brings us Avery's birththday and baseball! Since Avery's birth on Opening Day 2002 we have traditionally gone to the Mariner's Home Opener in part of her birthday celebration. It makes no difference how poorly the team did the year before; we go with high expectations for a great up and coming year. Each year we arrive in plenty of time to have a before the game hot dog, gather our kettle corn and licorice rope go down to infield practice in hopes of getting another signed baseball, and have our picture taken before settling into our seats. Fun times! This year brought the passing of long time Mariner voice Dave Niehouse. My! Oh my!, but he will be missed!
May would have been Grandma Opal's 97th birthday, just weeks earlier she also went to be with the Lord. Friends and family gathered from all across the states to bid her a final goodbye. I will miss her stories of her days in Chicago, moving to California and meeting Grandpa, her custard pie and visiting 9646 Craiglee St. I will always miss her. I love you Grandma.
In June Carol and I embarked on a trip across the United States to Gatlinburg, Tennessee in quest of fireflies. I had with me Avery and Makenna leaving from Seattle with a connecting flight in Dallas, Texas. When we changed planes Makenna was to sit in the seat in front of me with instructions not to talk to the "stranger" that would be sitting next to her. Little did she know that that woman trying to crowd her out of her seat was her very own Grandma Carol. Laughs exploded all around when she politely tried to avoid the woman then realized what was going on. Very fun way to start off an incredibly fun weekend. Gatlinburg was a funky tourist town with lots of fun things to do, but the most amazing part of the trip was seeing the magical fireflies. Crossed that one off my bucket list.
July is probably my very favorite month of the year. The 4th of July is my favorite holiday and it is always a weekend affair. I love the parade, Matt has made it possible for the girls to ride on the fire truck each year since Avery was 2ish, allowing them both to take aim and fire away into the crowd with candy, I also love the ice cream eating contest, the duck blowing the dash whistle, Oxygene, fireworks and jello cake and "skewered" chicken, not especially in that order. This year Craig, Kari, Elise, Savannah, Javin, Carol, Gene, Brad and his three kiddos Ethan, Brieleigh and Natalie all came up to join in the fun. Wow! It was a great time to be had by all.
July also found me falling 12-15 feet off a hay truck to the hardpan ground breaking the calcaneus bone in my right foot and severely spraining my left. Needless to say I was sidelined for the rest of the summer. Gene very graciously came up and took care of me and the farm all summer while Matt had to be in Alaska working. Thank you Gene ...
In August I spent a lot of time catching up on my reading as there was not a whole lot else I could do. I learned a lot that month. My biggest lesson was when you slow down you can more clearly hear the voice of God.
In September I had made plans to drive to California to join the celebration of Dad's 80th birthday, however, I was not fully healed and would not have been able to drive the trip by myself. Carol was aware of how important this was to me and decided it would be a fun idea to fly to Seattle drive me down to Southern California, then drive me back up to Seattle then fly back home to Southern California, which she did. cRaZy! Right??! But very appreciated! On our adventure we got to visit the Whitney Portals where a real Black bear nearly ran smack dab into us. We got to visit Mammoth Lakes, CA. and saw many an amazing scenery on the entire trip. Carol and Gene both went to Dad's party with me and several other family members on board a yacht that formerly belonged to none other than John Wayne, which departed out of Newport Beach and served an incredibly delicious meal. The entire trip was a very special time for me in my life. Thank you Carol ...
In October Matt and I took the girls to a Sand Sculpting exhibit. It is more than just a little interesting what one can do with a lump of sand, water, patience and WAY too much time. Having said that, the work we found there was brilliant. I am very thankful we were able to view the entire exhibit without Avery, Makenna or Max ruining one : )
In November we got our first snow of the year or should I say season. Matt was gone for Thanksgiving and Rich had to work. Karin, the girls and myself planned to break tradition and go out to eat at the restaurant where Rich would be working, however the roads were awful and the ammount of snow still to fall was in question so we decided instead to purchase an "already made" dinner from Safeway. It wasn't nearly as good as the dinners Karin cooks but we all enjoyed it just the same.
In December Makenna and I got to go to Santa Barbara to see family and friends. I was so blessed to see Elise, Savannah and Javin in a Christmas performance put on at their church in the morning, then in the afternoon we got to see Savannah dance her way across the stage while performing in the Nutcracker. In the evening then we all met up to help Elise celebrate her 8th birthday at a pizza restaurant. Very fun! Believe it or not it rained relentlessly the entire two and a half days we were there while I hear it was bright and sunny in Washington. Go figure : )
Gene and Carol then came up for Christmas. Karin made us a spectacular prime rib dinner while we watched Makenna ride her new bike and listened to Avery play her new set of electric drums. It was very nice to be able to have Matt home this year to share Christmas day and all the memories. He did have to leave before New Years, though, leaving Gene, Carol and myself at home warm and comfy wishing him a Happy New Year from afar while watching the fireworks go off from on top the Space Needle on the television.
All in all 2010 was an amazing year.
It was a fun year full of excitement, lots of laughing, crying and stretching in the Lord.
In January Makenna's birthday is always the first event of each New Year. By then we have all had time to rest up, diet down from "holiday joy" and welcome the "excuse" to dip into the sweetness of ice cream and cake. This year Makenna wore a cute little sparkly cupcake pattern dress I made for her with fabric Juanita had given her for Christmas. She had her party at home with her signature colors being blush and bashful, that is to say pink, pink and more pink. Her cake had pink frosting, there were pink streamers, pink table cloth and even pink cheeks on all of the many friends who came over to help her celebrate. Oh! and yes, she did blow out all the candles in one breath : )
In February, Matt and I took Avery and Makenna up to Vancouver, Canada to join in the fun of the Winter Olympics. We drove up to just across the boarder then rode a train in to Olympic Village, joining thousands of tourists wandering through the town making our way to where the Olympic Torch was burning, making sure to snap lots of pictures along the way.
In March we traveled back up to Canada with the girls, this time visiting the Capilano Suspension Bridge. In a word ... AWESOME! The day was a rainy one but that did not stop us from having a very, very fun time. The bridge is planked and stretches 450 ft. long across a canyon, 230 ft. above the river. Once across there are trails and a tree top experience offering, as they say, " a squirrel's eye view."
April brings us Avery's birththday and baseball! Since Avery's birth on Opening Day 2002 we have traditionally gone to the Mariner's Home Opener in part of her birthday celebration. It makes no difference how poorly the team did the year before; we go with high expectations for a great up and coming year. Each year we arrive in plenty of time to have a before the game hot dog, gather our kettle corn and licorice rope go down to infield practice in hopes of getting another signed baseball, and have our picture taken before settling into our seats. Fun times! This year brought the passing of long time Mariner voice Dave Niehouse. My! Oh my!, but he will be missed!
May would have been Grandma Opal's 97th birthday, just weeks earlier she also went to be with the Lord. Friends and family gathered from all across the states to bid her a final goodbye. I will miss her stories of her days in Chicago, moving to California and meeting Grandpa, her custard pie and visiting 9646 Craiglee St. I will always miss her. I love you Grandma.
In June Carol and I embarked on a trip across the United States to Gatlinburg, Tennessee in quest of fireflies. I had with me Avery and Makenna leaving from Seattle with a connecting flight in Dallas, Texas. When we changed planes Makenna was to sit in the seat in front of me with instructions not to talk to the "stranger" that would be sitting next to her. Little did she know that that woman trying to crowd her out of her seat was her very own Grandma Carol. Laughs exploded all around when she politely tried to avoid the woman then realized what was going on. Very fun way to start off an incredibly fun weekend. Gatlinburg was a funky tourist town with lots of fun things to do, but the most amazing part of the trip was seeing the magical fireflies. Crossed that one off my bucket list.
July is probably my very favorite month of the year. The 4th of July is my favorite holiday and it is always a weekend affair. I love the parade, Matt has made it possible for the girls to ride on the fire truck each year since Avery was 2ish, allowing them both to take aim and fire away into the crowd with candy, I also love the ice cream eating contest, the duck blowing the dash whistle, Oxygene, fireworks and jello cake and "skewered" chicken, not especially in that order. This year Craig, Kari, Elise, Savannah, Javin, Carol, Gene, Brad and his three kiddos Ethan, Brieleigh and Natalie all came up to join in the fun. Wow! It was a great time to be had by all.
July also found me falling 12-15 feet off a hay truck to the hardpan ground breaking the calcaneus bone in my right foot and severely spraining my left. Needless to say I was sidelined for the rest of the summer. Gene very graciously came up and took care of me and the farm all summer while Matt had to be in Alaska working. Thank you Gene ...
In August I spent a lot of time catching up on my reading as there was not a whole lot else I could do. I learned a lot that month. My biggest lesson was when you slow down you can more clearly hear the voice of God.
In September I had made plans to drive to California to join the celebration of Dad's 80th birthday, however, I was not fully healed and would not have been able to drive the trip by myself. Carol was aware of how important this was to me and decided it would be a fun idea to fly to Seattle drive me down to Southern California, then drive me back up to Seattle then fly back home to Southern California, which she did. cRaZy! Right??! But very appreciated! On our adventure we got to visit the Whitney Portals where a real Black bear nearly ran smack dab into us. We got to visit Mammoth Lakes, CA. and saw many an amazing scenery on the entire trip. Carol and Gene both went to Dad's party with me and several other family members on board a yacht that formerly belonged to none other than John Wayne, which departed out of Newport Beach and served an incredibly delicious meal. The entire trip was a very special time for me in my life. Thank you Carol ...
In October Matt and I took the girls to a Sand Sculpting exhibit. It is more than just a little interesting what one can do with a lump of sand, water, patience and WAY too much time. Having said that, the work we found there was brilliant. I am very thankful we were able to view the entire exhibit without Avery, Makenna or Max ruining one : )
In November we got our first snow of the year or should I say season. Matt was gone for Thanksgiving and Rich had to work. Karin, the girls and myself planned to break tradition and go out to eat at the restaurant where Rich would be working, however the roads were awful and the ammount of snow still to fall was in question so we decided instead to purchase an "already made" dinner from Safeway. It wasn't nearly as good as the dinners Karin cooks but we all enjoyed it just the same.
In December Makenna and I got to go to Santa Barbara to see family and friends. I was so blessed to see Elise, Savannah and Javin in a Christmas performance put on at their church in the morning, then in the afternoon we got to see Savannah dance her way across the stage while performing in the Nutcracker. In the evening then we all met up to help Elise celebrate her 8th birthday at a pizza restaurant. Very fun! Believe it or not it rained relentlessly the entire two and a half days we were there while I hear it was bright and sunny in Washington. Go figure : )
Gene and Carol then came up for Christmas. Karin made us a spectacular prime rib dinner while we watched Makenna ride her new bike and listened to Avery play her new set of electric drums. It was very nice to be able to have Matt home this year to share Christmas day and all the memories. He did have to leave before New Years, though, leaving Gene, Carol and myself at home warm and comfy wishing him a Happy New Year from afar while watching the fireworks go off from on top the Space Needle on the television.
All in all 2010 was an amazing year.
