Family and flowers

As we try to work around Dick's new schedule of 4 - 8 pm, we decided that since Dick had off on Tuesday it was a good day to drive to Lancaster County to see some very important people that we miss. 

 Actually, I did not mention that while I was in Idaho the Stauffer family had their annual Sunday gathering, and Dick went to that.  Here are a few pictures.  I was really sad to miss it. 

Now, getting back to our Tuesday trip.  We first of all went to Pleasant View Communities to visit Dick's stepmother Arlene.  

We had a fun, but short visit.  Arlene had a previously scheduled visit from a "Pleasant View at Home" worker, and we left when she arrived.  

We were hungry after that visit, so we went to the restaurant that is on the campus, Hearth and Harrow.  We had a delicious lunch.

 

From there we went to Bjorn and Jess's place.  He was still at work, but we had the greatest time with Jess and the kids.  We had not seen that baby girl since the day after she was born on April 25!  What a CUTIE!!!

She looks so much like Bjorn!!  She's so alert and expressive.  I had so much fun "chatting" with her.  I could have just eaten her up, she was so yummy!!

Charlie is so gentle with her.

He and Great grandpa were having fun together.  Grandpa even sat on his lap, haha!

I still have it!!  She went to sleep in my arms.

Bjorn came home from work, and we stayed a bit longer to have time with him.  

Louie was very much there!  But I didn't get one picture of him!  He is a little cyclone!  So that you can see a picture of him, here's one that Jess posted in June.

After we left their place we stopped in at Mary Ellen's place for a very short visit, then we went to see Elizer at his daddy and grandpa's house.  I was SO happy to see him.  He was a comedian, as usual!!

We were trying to figure out when it would work for him to come to our place for a few days, but it's not as easy to meet because of Dick's new work schedule.  I wish I were more confident with long distance, possibly after-dark driving like I used to be.  

On the way back home we contacted Sammy and Bianca.  They were at Sam and Steph's house and said we should stop in.  So we did and had a really fun visit as we always do.  I didn't think of taking any pictures except when Bianca modeled her flag football jersey.  Her team is sponsored by the Cowboys!!  

Of course I need to share some more flower pictures before I go.  Here's a picture of the back of our house.  Dick did such a good job power washing it earlier this summer.  

Have a good weekend!

Filling my soul with grandchildren and flowers!

I returned from my Idaho trip just in time for some HEAT!!  Highs in the 90's.  Of course, I was not complaining one tiny bit!  I can easily have our thermostat set at 78.  But when Dick's in the house I usually turn it down a degree or two.

On Friday afternoon and evening Hunter came  for a game night.

We were recently introduced to a new game called (I'M SORRY about its name!) Smart Ass. It's actually a very educational game, and I knew Hunter would love it, so I got it.  There are three piles of cards - What Am I?  Who Am I? and Where Am I?  There are hints on each card, and when a group is playing, whoever gets the answer first goes next.  Hunter knew a lot of them, which I knew he would.  

We also played LIFE.  Hunter was very happy to end up the richest!

Our last game was Grounded for Life.  By then it had cooled off a little bit, and we went out to the porch to play.  After a while Grandpa came home from work and we took him to meet Lori half way.

Here are a couple of pictures from Destiny.  Ketsi with pink barretts in her hair!  

How precious are they???

And these pictures from Portland. Last week Brennan went to horse camp!! What a handsome rider!!  And a sweet horse.

There he goes!

And now the flower show!  This has been a good summer for my flowers so far.   They just give me so much joy!!

We had horrendous storms and storm damage in Pennsylvania over the weekend.  Thankfully right here we were spared.  Many, many big trees came down in various places and caused enormous damage.  If those kinds of winds came through here, I'm afraid our house and those around us would be blown apart.  Such a scary thought!

We did not go to see the big fireworks in State College on Saturday evening because of that, but as I was getting ready for bed I could hear them, so I guess the storms stopped long enough for them to have the show.  I felt sad to have missed them. 

Anthony and Lori bought a huge carton of sparklers and fireworks at Sam's Club and invited us to come over Sunday evening.  However it rained hard and stormed for hours on Sunday.  When it looked like there might be a break in the storms they said they were going to go ahead a try to set some off because Hunter and Austin really were looking forward to it.  When we left our house at 8:45 pm it was POURING!!!  We had to drive slowly through rising water a few places.  I couldn't believe we were actually doing this.

But when we got over to their place (other side of State College) it had really slowed down, and then actually stopped raining altogether!!  We sat on our lawn chairs in front of the garage and the boys put on a wonderful show!!!  It was fantastic!  

That's it for this time!  

Sister Trip to Idaho, part five. The LOOOOONG day!!

 Another wonderful trip was coming to an end - but not quite as soon as we had planned, for some of us!

We were up at the crack of dawn, cleaned up, packed up, said our goodbyes to John, loaded up, and hit the road for the two-hour trip to the airport in Boise.  The views along the way were incredible!

And then it was time to say our goodbyes and heartfelt thank-you's to Barb.  What precious memories we had made being in her world and with her precious family!  

FIVE of us were going to be taking the first leg of our journey together!  I had told Barb when we all were booking our flights that she should book a round trip flight to Dallas so all six of us could be together in a plane.  Crazy idea of course! 

We had plenty of time for some Starbucks before it was time to board. 

On our flight to Dallas there was a big family sitting in front of us, and their little girl, maybe four years old, had the cutest voice.  I think she talked non-stop from Boise to Dallas.  I thought, "No wonder the mom wears ear plugs!"  Lol!!

When we were waiting our turn to de-board we chatted with them.  I think they were impressed that Doris has six children, Rose has six children, I have seven children, haha!

We had a long layover and decided that since Betty's flight to Boston would leave first we would all go to her gate to wait with her.  Before we got there we stopped for a yummy Mexican lunch.

Just when we decided that we'd better get to Betty's gate, she got a notice that her gate had been changed.  The new gate was quite a bit further, so we got our rears in gear and walked as fast as we could to the new gate.  Dallas airport uses a sky train to connect the different terminals.  I think we had to go on that to get to Betty's new gate.  We got there just in time for her to get in line with her boarding group 8.  More hugs and goodbyes.

Then there were four of us.  

We started getting notifications about gate changes and delays.  We got more Starbucks.  We were still kind of having fun.  

We changed gates, still not too far apart from Rose's gate.  But then she was notified of a gate change that was in a different terminal.  So more hugs and goodbyes.  She would be going home to Charleston.  But not right away.  We kept in touch, and finally she was boarding around 9 PM and was in the air by 9:45.  

Doris, Mary Ellen, and I were in for the time of our lives.   And this is how I was feeling about that.  

At least twice we were lining up to board, then told to go to a different gate.  One time they had already boarded all the way up to group 6.  (We would be group 8.)  Then we got notifications that we would be changing to a different gate!  We walked up to the guy that was scanning boarding passes and told him of the notification we had gotten.  Others were saying the same thing.  He wasn't deterred.  He assured us that we were boarding.  Then another airport employee came running to tell him that he needed to get everyone off the place because we would be leaving from a different gate.  People were like, "Are you KIDDING??"  

So away we all went.  This time it was a longer walk.  I stopped to buy some snacks.  Mary Ellen bought some actual food.  After we got back to our new gate and were sitting for a while we got notified that American Airlines was so sorry for our inconvenience, and they were sending everyone a voucher for a dinner.  We started hearing other people around us talk about it, and some were saying, "It's just $12!"  That would not buy much of a meal in an airport! 

By now we were feeling like this!!

We heard from Betty at 10:24 that she had just landed in Boston and from Rose at 11:45 that she had landed in Charleston.  Later she found out that her luggage had not.  

When we were finally boarding, the person in charge was barking at everyone.  I guess she was tired too.  Of all times my phone had issues scanning our boarding passes.  Every way I tried did not work.  She was barking at me, and I'm embarrassed to say that I barked back.  I said, "I've been scanning passes this whole trip and didn't have any problems before."  She grabbed my phone from my hand and did it herself.  I'm afraid I was too irritated when I took my phone from her hand, and as I was walking toward the boarding door she said, "Don't be grabbing your phone from me!"  I felt ashamed of my behavior and kept walking.  Not one of my finer moments for sure.  

I think we finally got on our plane around midnight.  Finally a reason to smile.

Except there was air blowing on me and we couldn't figure out how to redirect it or turn it off, so for most of the flight I had my hood up and slept fitfully.  I was not feeling friendly.  

Dick was picking me up at the Harrisburg airport, which is two hours from our house.  I had kept him updated as much as I could.  At one point he stopped at a gas station to sleep for a while.  

We landed and were waiting for our luggage at 3:30 AM.  YES!!  Our luggage had made it!   Doris's son was coming for her and Mary Ellen.  When Dick pulled up I said my goodbyes to them. 

We talked on the way home, and by the time we got there it was 5:30 AM and daylight!!!  

What a LONG day!!  I was happy to see my flowers and took this picture before I went inside.

We took our weary souls to bed and slept a few hours.  

The WONDERFUL sister trip to Idaho was officially over.

Sister Trip to Idaho, part four

 Monday was a lovely day from beginning to end!  Sunny and warmer!  

After starting our day relaxing in Barb's comfy living room one last time, Eric and his kids stopped in.  Before long we found ourselves going outside in our pajamas to see his huge tractor!  

Rhett was so proud to show it to us.  I'm pretty sure he already knows how to drive it!

After we got ourselves cleaned up and beautified, we drove to Twin Falls again.  This time we went downtown in search of a store that might have Idaho tee shirts for sale.  We wanted to re-enact the picture we took in 1994 of us sisters wearing the Idaho tee shirts Barb had given us.  But we didn't find anything to our liking.  It was a beautiful day to walk downtown.  

When we saw a cafe we decided to get some coffee.  We were surprised how big it was and how beautiful!!  We felt like we were in NYC!!  

Rose noticed a sign at the bottom of that big stairway about a roof top dining area.  She went up to check it out and knew it would be just what we wanted.  It WAS!!!  They even brought our order of coffee and bagels up to us.  

I think it was our favorite place of the whole weekend.  We stayed and relaxed and talked for a long time.  You would think that maybe we had run out of things to talk about by that time, but no chance of that ever happening!!  

From there we went to the Perrine Memorial Bridge again.  We wanted to see it on a sunny day.  I forgot to mention in my earlier post that this bridge is popular with BASE jumpers.  But due to the windy conditions on the days we were there, we did not see any. 

There was a walkway on the bridge, safely separate from the traffic.  Mary Ellen, Betty, and I decided to walk up there.  It really wasn't scary, but we could definitely feel the bumps and vibrations of the vehicles going by us, especially the big trucks.  

 

I took these pictures from the bridge.  

That huge flag blowing in the wind was so majestic!

We don't want to ever forget that we were here together in this majestic place.

Then Barb drove us down the steep, winding Canyon Springs Road to the waterfront park. Our original plans had been to take a boat ride there on Sunday evening, but it had been too windy.  

The view of the bridge from the waterfront park.

This family had been out on their boat and were loading up to leave. 

Mary Ellen took this picture of us on the dock.

We decided she had to be in the picture too, so another selfie.  Or, as we had been saying all weekend - a "facie."  We will never forget when we were in Charleston last summer and wanting a picture of us all together at The Battery.  There didn't seem to be anyone around us that we could ask.  Then Betty said, "We could take a 'facie!'"  She couldn't think of the word "selfie."  We cracked up, and decided we liked the word "facie" much better, hahahaha!! 

Then we reluctantly left that lovely place and went back one last time to Barb's lovely home.  This time it was my turn to cook, and I made my usual meal of Italian sausages with peppers and onions.  

We sat around that table for hours.  Sometimes we laughed, sometimes we shed tears.  We just love being together.

Later Jill came by to say goodby and took this picture of us.  

We would be leaving the next morning.  Another adventure ahead, lol!  I'll write about that next time.