Weekend Trip to Grammys House

We're on our way to Grammys house today. You can follow our progress here:

Map removed until the next trip

Late Winter

Do you have spring fever? If it is too soon to blame restlessness on spring, then it must be snow melt malady. Getting out of doors is the cure, regardless. A recent walk ago, I took my camera with hope of seeing the eagle in the tree who I had noticed the previous week. The eagle was not around, but the views were so graceful, I was glad I could take pictures.

Booth Construction and Spring Break

Pa and I are working on a booth for the kitchen, something we have wanted to build for a long time. He has finished his part of the project, now my job is to make the cushions.

In other news, we are planning to take the little papoose trailer for it's maiden voyage with us during the week of March 20 - 28 or thereabouts. We will be going down to Oregon and visiting family. We hope to do some camping during the week of the 22 - 26. I checked into Tugman State Park and see that there are lots of yurts available for reservation that week. I would like to know who would like to join us, and if so what days do you think would be best for camping? I would like to make the reservations -

ASAP!!

We will go to see Grammy either before or after we camp as well.

Here's a - link to the park

Caleb the ...

Here's Caleb the Lion

Caleb the Cowardly Lion

and Last but not least, Caleb the Big Brother

A few more pictures just for fun...

unfinished pet

meow

Slobber Glimmering Circus Pets written by Ben in the 5th or 6th grade

As a young child, my experiences with pet rodents were very shocking. When I was about eight years old, pet rodents were the things to have. Everything they did was great, except the messes. Over the period of about one year, my brother, sister and I lost around five or six rodents to a bigger species or the great outdoors. The story I'm going to tell you about now includes two of my favorite gerbils, Blackie and Smoky.

It all started in the summer of ninety-two. My brother, sister and I had saved up around fifty-five dollars for our life long dream, pet gerbils. The most difficult part in the process of possessing the rodents was convincing our parents into letting us buy a couple. Of course, we used the original method of saying, "we'll feed them everyday and be very responsible". They finally gave in to our plans ans we were off to the pet store.

At the pet store there were animals everywhere going crazy trying to get out of their cages. When we got over to the rodent section of the store, we looked for rodents with our favorite characteristic, which would be the ones that were the most active.

That was when we first saw the best gerbils to buy, Blackie and Smoky. They were tumbling about in the glass cage very playfully. We bought everything you need to make your gerbils happy at the pet store that day. The final bill came to fifty dollars, but boy did we think it was worth it at the time.

There's one very important character I haven't introduced you to yet. It's our black lab, Shirley. She's dark as night, but as jolly as Santa. She always has to be the center of attention. But upstairs near the gerbils was off limits to her for now.

About two weeks passed. We went to see them everyday after school as promised. Well, Shirley wanted to see what all the fuss was about up in our room. So one day after we had finished playing maze with the gerbils, she slipped upstairs as we were watching television. Shirley saw the two rodents having so much fun inside the cage that she wanted to join them. This however, was impossible because obviously she couldn't fit in the cage. Shirley is a smart dog and it didn't take her long to figure out that if she couldn't play in the cage, they could play out of it. So she pushed off the metal top and put her paws in the cage. Smoky climbed up one paw and Blackie went up the other. Shirley was so excited because she was the first pet in the neighborhood to have her own pets. Smoky and Blackie kept running around the room and every time they got far out of her range, she would swooop them up in her mouth and plop them down right back in the center of the room, sometimes injuring their tiny necks (not funny guys). Soon the gerbils had had enough abuse and they finally croaked and lay flat as boards. Shirley soon got bored with the dead gerbils and pranced right back down the stairs.

That's when it hit us, Shirley had been near the gerbils. We stood in thought for a second on what could have happened to our small circus! Then in no time at all we bolted up the stairs. We entered the room and ran over to the cage but they were nowhere to be seen. We were in such a hurrry to find them then that we didn't look down on the floor. Soon we gave up looking, but right as I stepped out the door I looked down and there they were - slobber glimmering circus pets.

mamas on a misty day

How blessed it is to have good friends that come into our lives in unexpected ways. Jen and Andrew are two (that will soon be three!) for whom I am so thankful. Today, our trek up the Mad River Trail fulfilled that need we all have to connect with Mother Nature. I think there is a desire to be even more close to the earth when you feel life inside of you growing as our little Jen does now. I pray and wish for her the most happy, healthy and comfortable of times while little baby Lyons grows big enough to meet the world. This lucky baby will have so much fun exploring the world with best buddies mommy and daddy. I hope that I can go along on some of those adventure hikes. Who could ask for more?


This little turtle wonders if he can go too?

Recent photo of Néli

More Babies Please!

I am going through baby withdrawal. I fear that the next time I see a picture of Caleb or Neli they are going to be all grown up! Help relieve my agony!

Update - you got it:

Cammy bakes his own birthday dinner!

And Angela baked the cupcakes! It is so much fun to celebrate with Cammy and friends! We are very lucky!!

An Invitation

Happy Birthday Cam!

Happy Birthday to the best Butternut Squash Lasagne and Molasses Ginger Cookie Cook in the land (among other wonderful things) ! We all love you and hope that you have a very nice day! Watch the mail for a few goodies coming your way in the next couple of days.. Have a great time in February in New Orleans with Ruthie and then on to Sweden!

Snow in Provence

Jimmy and Lynda are stuck in Provence... not a bad place to be stuck if you ask me! Here is a quote from her email to me:
"Hi Esther and Gary,
Yes, we are definitely stuck. Jim has changed his reservations to come home three times and we're hoping we'll get him out on Thursday. We are expecting more snow on Tuesday and Wednesday, however. Thankfully, we have not yet lost electricity as many residents of Provence have. I am scheduled to go on Saturday and even that is "iffy."
The kids don't have sleds here. We saw one or two trying to make sleds out of pieces of plastic and one of our friends was trying to shovel with a plastic lawn chair. We do have a gardening shovel, but not a flat snow shovel. Jim shoveled a path from our front door to the laundry room, but last night a sheet of ice formed over the path so we stopped shoveling paths!
Lynda "

The photos below are: their front door, the patio, and the road to their house.

Happy Birthday Grammy!!!!

Here's a Happy Birthday Toast to the cutest Grammy in the world! We all love you very much and hope that your day is Lucky! You will soon meet your new little friend who very much wants to come to see you. He is Very little, but very nice.

Wool Pets! and more snow

There were two surprises yesterday - a "Wool Pets" book from Ruthie and lots more snow!! The snow is mushy an melting, but the book has given me a new Granny Craft to master! Thank you Ruthie! Soon we will have a menagerie.

Entiat Winter 2010

Pa and I have taken a few walks in the snow, hiking familiar roads that are now soft winter paths. We will test the Mad River Road as our next cross country ski destination. When we walked along it yesterday, the snow had been packed down by snowmobilers, but we saw noone on the trail. It is so close and so beautiful.

Cute!

Christmas at the Coast

Happy New Year to all! It is so good to see everyone's pictures, and hear stories about your holidays. Grammy and Aunt Chris, thank you for these beautiful pictures. I love the one of Grammy at Shore Acres. Thank you also for the delicious Wolferman's and Trader Joe treats! We're still snacking our way through them little by little.

Tomorrow I will post some pictures of our New Year's snow. Pa and I took a walk along the river early this morning. Did anyone make it to midnight last night?? I was almost in bed by 7:00. But I woke up before 5:00!