Eric and I headed to Ellensburg today. We go every year about this time as Julie and I have a tradition of going to the scrapbook convention in Bellevue every year. We stopped at Eric’s parents first. Neither Bob nor Julie were home so we just left Baylee there while we went to Greg and Hollie’s to see them and the kids. The last time we saw them all was Father’s day weekend in June when they’d just bought the house and showed it to us.

We timed it just right as Beth was just awake and it wasn’t long until Miles had woken up. Those two kids are SO cute and I can’t believe how big they’re getting. Eric and I were stilling in the living room chatting with Greg when Miles came down the stairs turned and headed towards us. Hollie said something like, “Look it’s auntie and uncle” and Miles smiled from ear to ear and came running toward us. Of course it was big hugs all the way around. We sat there and chatted with Greg and played with the kids while Hollie was messing around in the kitchen. Beth is so super cute with her big brown eyes. Beth is so young and we haven’t spent the time with her like we have Miles because Greg and Hollie moved a little less than a year ago so I’m really not sure if she even knows who we are yet. It was a lot of fun though to play with the kids and catch up with Greg and Hollie.

It wasn’t long and Miles asked if we wanted to go upstairs and play video games. Originally he’d ask me if I wanted to play but I asked if Eric could play with him because Eric likes video games and with my tendinitis the repeated thumb usage isn’t good for me. We all headed upstairs to the landing where the kids have this great little play space to play video games and trains. It’s such a fun little place. Miles played a couple of games for a bit while Beth, Greg, Eric and I watched. Then, Eric and Miles were playing. Beth had a blast cruising around upstairs checking things out, jumping on the bed and playing with Miles clothes. Greg was multi-tasking by watching his laptop and hanging out with us while Hollie was downstairs. I had a lot of fun keeping Beth happy while the boys played video games. She’s VERY ticklish so of course I tickled her like crazy. One of the most precious moments was when Greg was on the floor with Beth and tickled her. He had Beth in his arms with her back to him while he hugged her with one hand and tickled her with the other. The best part was their facial expressions. I wished at that moment I had the camera because you could see the love Greg has for Beth and the love she has for her daddy. It was a very precious moment! It is those moments with the kids that mean so much. I want to have a close relationship with both Miles and Beth.

After we’d spent a few hours at Greg and Hollie’s we headed back to Bob and Julie’s to spend a little time, have a cocktail and chill before we all met at the local pasta restaurant for dinner with Greg, Hollie and the kids. I had a great night. I mean, it was so nice to sit with Bob and Julie at home, have a little to drink and catch up on things going on with all of us. It makes me appreciate the “slow times” where you really get the opportunity to talk with each other. Later on we headed to dinner and met up with Greg, Hollie and the kids. It was a great dinner; the kids were so good, better than I think I was at that age. It was nice to sit as a family and have dinner together and catch up. I really love moments like that, gathering together, spending time, chatting about all sorts of things and just appreciating each other. What a great night.

It’s 1:10p, Wednesday and I’m sitting here at work trying hard to deny the fact that I really am here at work and I need to do something and the iPod and “surfing” isn’t doing it, so what should I do? Well, I realized that I have yet to post about this last weekend and Father’s day. So here goes…..

So Friday Eric and I got to Ellensburg for the weekend. Jim, Eric’s grandpa, was there too and the plan for the weekend was that “the guys” would be golfing sometime on Saturday while Julie, my mother and I hang out and did, “woman things”. OK, so we get there on Friday and of course it was but a millisecond that Eric sat down with his grandpa and watched golf or some other sport. I had wanted to go around and take pictures of places I remembered from my childhood. Julie and I decided we’d drive around and do that since neither of us wanted to be subjected to sports. So we jumped in the car and headed out. Here’s the pictures:

1) This was my childhood home, just off Tamarack street and down the street from the park. Man, I loved that house and living there. I have many a story about that place and the adventures there, but I’ll save it for my “Book of Me” scrapbooking I’m determined to work on.

Ellensburg House,

2) The “Castle House”, this was the coolest ever place when I was a kid. My parents used to drive by that place every day on the way to the sitters or school and I’d dream about the place and wonder…. What if..

Castle House,

3) Mt. Stewart Elementary School
I went to kindergarten and first grade at that school. My best friend was Barbara Mann. He dad was a cop in town, if I remember. It was there that I had my first crush, Jeff Rainey, wonder what ever happened to him.

Mt. Stewart,

4) Mrs. Shore’s house. Mrs. Shore was my babysitter. She lived just about a block from school. I had a blast there. I have such fond memories.

Mrs. Shore’s,

5) CWU indoor pool, the first one. It was here that I learned how to swim. Mrs. Purser was my teacher and man was she mean. I mean she’d throw us kids in the water and tell us to “swim”. Oh the stories. The best though was when she’d make us go off the high dive then jump in (she was LARGE) after us. When you hit the water you really swimming for your life!

CWU Pool,

Saturday the guys went golfing in Mattawa. Julie and I met my mom there and took off for Othello and “hanging out”. It was a nice day, especially the authentic Mexican food in “little Mexico”.

Sunday was the best day. Greg, Hollie and the kids came over for brunch and we all hung out for a while. Here are some great pictures of the day. It was so nice to spend some times with the whole family. After brunch we got to go to see Greg and Hollie’s new house. It’s super cool and bigger, which is a great plus for them. I can’t wait to see it when they’re all in and it feels like them. What an exciting time for them.

Miles,

Today is what you call a cluster… you know what. Actually it was a super fun day. Eric and I are at his parents in Ellensburg in Washington. Today we went to the jewelry store in town so I could get my engagement ring which is a family ring from my mother-in-law Julie’s mother. It’s been passed down from generation to generation. Anyway, I went to have the prongs checked and found out that emeralds are so delicate that they can’t really re-prong without taking all the stones out. The jeweler recommended a new setting so I asked if him if he could make a similar setting as my wedding rings for the stones. I was so happy when he said he could do that. SO now when Bob and Julie come down in May they’ll bring my engagement ring but set in a new setting. SO exciting. I can’t even wait…

Once we were done we headed to Yakima on the hunt for a new plasma TV for Bob. It’s sort of funny. Bob is a lot like me in that when he really wants something he gets tunnel vision and doesn’t stop until he gets what he’s looking for. Today we started in Costco, then to Best Buy, then some no name place in the Valley mall then to Sears. We finally found what he was looking for at Sears and bought it. It was sort of cool because Eric and I were able to save him a few hundred dollars with our “no tax” Oregon thing. The funny thing is that we were so sure we could get it in the car but it would get in so we all piled back in the Lexus and headed back to Ellensburg. Once we got back Julie and I headed to lunch/early dinner while Eric and Bob jumped in the truck and headed back to get the TV.

The guys came home and we thought everything was ready to go and all good. The guys were so excited they wanted to rip the box open, plug the TV in and check it out. Unfortunately it was a little more effort than that to get the TV out of the box. We got the old TV moved and the new one put in its place when Bob and Eric realized that they needed something for the TV to sit on. Of course Julie and I offered to go to Fred Meyer to get it so they could have a drink. Julie and I went to Fred Meyer for the 4th time in one day. I have to say my thought as we drove up was something like, “Oh, God, we’re here AGAIN!” After a few cell phone calls we finally decided which table to get for the space. We bought it and were out the door. Once we got home the guys started putting the table together. It was so funny because Eric opened the box, found the directions and then noticed they were like Ikea directions, no words, just pictures. Eric just sort of looked at the directions and had the helpless, “I don’t want to do this” look on his face. Bob took the initiative and started putting it together. It wasn’t long until we had the table thing together and put it in the space where the TV used to be. Now the guys are sitting here playing a golf game with sounds of; “oh” “ah”, “check this out, you can see the rough!”, “Look at the people walking in the back!” So now Julie and I sit here, watching a little video game playing and listen to the boys get all excited about their game.

ah….. technology how easily entertained are the boys! Like father, like son!

Mom was supposed to join us today for Jazz in the Valley but she wasn’t feeling very good and couldn’t make it. It think it was related to the bee sting she got a week or so ago. She still hasn’t bounced back from that 100%. Today started with Julie, Kathy and myself heading off to the farmer’s market to see what they had for produce and things. We cruised the whole market and really didn’t get much but Julie got some bread and Kathy got this cool rock with a dragon sandblasted into it.

Later in the day we all came back down town for the Jazz and Wine festival. It was a great time. We started out listening to some jazz but it wasn’t long until Eric and I decided to walk across the street and sample some wines. We bought our wine glass with our scripts and were off. Eric and I did it a little different this year. For the most part I sampled the whites and dessert wines and he did the reds. We’d share with each other so we could really decide what we liked. It was a lot of fun.

It was a little crazy too because I ended up running into people I knew there too. I think I ended up knowing three people. I ran into Julie T who lives down here in Portland and used to work in my same group at Intel. I ran into another Julie, this one from Connell, WA. I taught two (Eric & Emily) of her kids too. The other person I don’t know as well as they knew me. They came up, asked me if I was from Othello and then told me they’d had my mother as a teacher and they now owned the video store by the Othello Outlook newspaper. Crazy!

Eric, myself, Julie, Kathy, Bob and Bruce did the bouncing from listening to jazz to wine tasting for most of the afternoon. We all had a lot of fun. We’d each try something and either suggest everyone else try it or tell everyone to stay away. There were some really great wines in Gallery One and most of the wines at Climer were not so good. In fact most, if not all at Climer were pretty bad.

As usual we all went to the restaurant Pearls on Perl. It’s the very best restaurant in Ellensburg. I love it. Whenever we come for a visit I like to go there one night. The food is fantastic and ambiance is great too. They’ve usually got some singer in the place doing a great job providing background music. The owner and waiters/waitresses are fantastic. We ate a great and wonderful meal and headed home.

What a great day!

I’m exhausted, but in a good way. This past week I had been taking care of Ethan and that wiped me out pretty good. This week I made it back to work for four days and then off again to my favorite time of year. Jazz in the Valley.

Eric and I left Portland Thursday night with both my car and Josh’s car. Eric had volunteered to drive Josh’s car. Keep in mind it’s hot outside and Josh’s car has no AC. I followed him all the way to Washington. I felt bad for him, especially when we hit Boardman since the temperature registering in my car claimed that it was 108 degrees outside. We got to my mom’s house in Othello and just hung out for a while. Josh, as usual, was mesmerized in front of the TV in his room playing some PS2 on line game. I forget the name of it but he’s been addicted since I don’t remember when. Eventually we headed to the Brunzwick, the local dive bar with good food, for dinner. It was nice to hang out there and remember times at the Brunz. I think Eric was just dumbfounded by the dead deer/elk hanging from the wall and the general ambiance of the place.

On the way to the Brunz I had noticed my car having serious problems. These problems were evident when driving back to my mom’s. I’d push the gas and the RPMs would shoot up and the car would go about 10-15-20 miles an hour. Something was very wrong with my car. After finally getting home I decided the next day I’d take it down to Tri-cities and have the dealer look at it.. I wasn’t worried since I’d gotten the extended warranty when I bought the car.