Summer at home

Now that we are mostly moved in and settled, we are enjoying having a home and being close to family and old friends.    Shannon and Christian moved right after we did so we had fun with Isabelle while they painted and moved.    In between we spent time with Sue, Gary, Darcy, Trina, Ken, Arnie, Jean, Kate, Melina, Erik, Jenn, and Kelly.

We had been in one place too long, so it was time to be on the move again.   So we headed to Seattle where our friend Brenda from Texas was visiting with her twins M & M.   We hadn't seen her in more than 10 years.    Brenda, Annemarie, Cindy and I had a great time catching up.   We even made it to the Wheel at the Seattle Waterfront.    

While I was there, John found us a great spot at Fort Worden State Park for a week.   Brenda drove me to meet John and we stopped at Fat Smittys for burgers.   Brenda got the big one....

 We spent a little time with Ben and several great evenings with LeAnne after work.  One night LeAnne and Craig picked us up in a 1950 Willeys Overland convertible.   We drove to dinner with the top down but were wimps and had to put the top up to come home. Cold but fun.   On the way back to Ridgefield, we stopped in Shelton to visit with Tom, Chris, Madonna, and Matt.     John and Tom had a project to work on and Matt helped while Chris and Madonna and I had wine on the deck.   Not a bad deal.    Thanks guys!

Well we settled in for a few days before heading out again.    Brenda and kids were coming to Portland to pick up husband Hank so we were lucky enough to have them over for dinner.   Annie was here from Pittsburgh and was the hostess with the mostess.

Ryan and Annie, grandkids from Pittsburgh came for their annual summer visit.   In years past, we would travel in the motor home but this year we decided to rent a house at Sunriver so everyone had a bit more room.   Now that Annie is 5 ' 9 " and Ryan is 6' 2" they don't fit very well in the fold down dining area and the hidabed.    Sunriver has great amenities especially for these sports loving kids.   There are 30 miles of bike trails, basketball, soccer, regular swimming pools and a huge new water park.   Best of all there are lots of teenage kids to hang out with.   If that wasn't enough we had several adventures.    We took a ranger tour of a lava tube cave that was a mile long.   We hiked the obsidian fields at Newberry Volcanic National Monument, Paulina falls, rafted the Deschutes river and drove to the top of Lava Butte to walk around the crater.   The kids did a mountain bike and natural water slide all day adventure called the Paulina Plunge and left the old folks behind.    

Today is the last day of the Sunriver week.   We head back to Ridgefield to meet Mom Chris and Aunt LeAnne.   Our next adventure?    We will be spending 5 days with Isabelle while Mom and Dad celebrate their anniversary in Ashland.    A good time will be had by all.  

Moving moving moving

We did get the second condo that I mentioned in my last post and are deliriously happy there.   Since my last update two months ago we have been busy busy busy.   We closed on a 2100 square foot condo in the Whipple Creek II complex in Ridgefield Washington, just north of Vancouver.    It has high ceilings, tons of windows, a semi private deck, and a couple football sized green belts behind us.  It even has a 'secret' hiding room under the stairs for Isabelle.   We are very happy but Mimi is still deciding.   I think after 3 plus years in a motor home, the openness is a little scary for her. 

Before the big move we took a mini-vacation to Leavenworth.    We stayed at Kirsten and Cline's while they were camping up the Icicle.   We had a fun hike with Kirsten, dinner with both of them and a last night campfire with Werner, Claudia, Kirsten, Cline and us.   Just what we needed before the craziness of moving.

The move was interesting to say the least.    One day we moved the things stored at the kids house and the new furniture that we bought locally.   Then we took the train to Edmonds and had a fun evening with Bill and Kathy.    The next morning they dropped us off at U Haul and we picked up trucks to move the things in storage.   We hired some big strong YOUNG guys to load the truck and then headed to Ridgefield.    The next day we hired some more young guys to unload the truck.   The next few days we got enough put away so we could live there.    Since then we have been slowly unpacking the tons of boxes and doing projects like hanging pictures, etc.    We are almost ready to have an open house.   

Lots of work but worth it!