Saturday Stuff and Catch Up Time!

GGood morning Friends!

What a beautiful day here in the Pacific NW.  Woke up to sunshine and super blue skies.  A great day to attend a football game ~ we are going to Lummi High School this afternoon to see our friends, Norm & Kristy Smith and their family. Their son, Zeke is playing in his first playoff game of the season ~ Good Luck Zeke!

Motor home update ~ the fire was caused by the same thing that happened last year.  An oil hose burst and dropped oil on the manifold catching the engine on fire.  Fortunately is not nearly as bad as last year.  It should only be about $3000 to fix the motor home (this time they are putting in a metal hose instead of rubber) and we should get it back next Friday if all goes well.  

Where we are ~ we are staying in Birch Bay at our friend's Jim & Mei's condo.  We are in the upstairs unit that has a tremendous view of the bay.  We are so grateful for dear friends + a great insurance agent.

View from the condo!  We just love this area and can't wait to get in some walks while we are here.

 How long we will be here in the Blaine/Birch Bay area ~ we will be in the area till the 21st or 22nd of November.  If you want to get together give us a shout via phone or email.  We would love to see as many friends and family as possible while here.


Meeting new friends ~ Thursday afternoon we were able to get together with John & Judy who are from Michigan and live and travel in their motor home. 

Sorry the picture is so dark...not sure how to lighten it up.

Thanks FroggiDonna for lightening us up.  Can't wait to try that other program out.

 We met through reading each other's blogs.  When we found out they were in Anacortes and we were going to be back in Whatcom County we made plans to meet for lunch at Applebees.  As we were pulling into the parking lot Ron asked me "how would we know them."  I laughed and said I didn't know.  I had forgotten to check their blog to refresh my mind what they looked like.  Ron then asked, "where are they from?"  "I don't know" was my reply while laughing some more.  He asked were they from South Dakota?  "I don't know,."  So we pulled into the parking spot and as we got out this guy in the Explorer next to us got out and said "Hi Ron" - it was John and Judy!  We had a lot of fun getting to know them, sharing about our families, our love for the Lord.  It's funny how we had never met but we just started talking like we had seen each other just yesterday.  The wonders of blog writing/posting lets us know each other so we are able to renew our friendships from right where we are.  Safe travels John & Judy and hope to see you again down the road.

Renewing old friendships ~ in the evening we were able to visit with Jim & Mary (boy do we know a lot of Jim's).  We laughed and shared about our time with the carnival, some thoughts about plans for the future, lots of stories of our time with the grandson's and eating apple crisp and drinking some tea.  Sorry we stayed so late Mary & Jim...hope it wasn't too hard getting up early Friday morning.  Looking forward to seeing you both again real soon.

Friday we  got the instrument panel fixed in the truck.  It had gone out right before we left last March to go join the carnival.  But since it was in storage for the summer we saw no need to get it fixed till now.  We sold our truck to Brandon & Danalyn so thought it should be fixed before they take possession of it.  We were pleasantly surprised when it was only $330 to get it fixed and not the $525 we had been quoted.  Brandon will be flying up here this coming Friday and staying till Sunday morning.  It will be fun to have him visit for a couple of days.


Prayer & Praise ~


~ for my friend Lynda and her family.  Her dad was just recently diagnosed with cancer and Lynda is flying to Alabama to be with him and other members of the family.  Please pray for safety as Lynda travels and for her dad to not be in much pain.


~ we are excited to have a job to go to in a few weeks.  We will be selling Christmas trees for Noel's Christmas trees somewhere between Federal Way and Everett, WA.  Thank you Lord for employment, doing something that Ron wanted to try.


~ as we seek employment for next Spring/Summer.  We have not yet decided if we are going back to the carnival next year.  We are trusting the Lord to give us clear direction where he wants us to be.


Guess that's all for now.  The laundry is calling my name and we need to get ready to go to some football.


Will write more in the next day or two.

Crescent Bar to Leavenworth ~ 10/26/10

We left Crescent Bar about 10:30 on Tuesday morning.  We had about 75 miles to go to reach Leavenworth.

We had a pretty uneventful trip.  Hope you enjoy our scenic drive.

We stopped at Smallwood's Fruitstand and walked around there grounds.  This is the cow train and scarecrow keeping watch over the cow cars.

How about an upside down scarecrow?

What about these two horse tire swings.  Wish the grands had been with us ~ we are sure they would have had fun!

One of their chickens.

The winery up behind the fruitstand.

Ron checking out the maze.

Isn't he the handsome one?  Love how his beard is growing back.  He will definitely be Santa material by December.

The Egg Factory

I really wanted a picture of the pig but Ron said I had to be in there too!

Ron checking out the tractor. 

"Don't I look cute?  I want one, no I need one!"

A chicken but not sure what type.

Aren't these the handsome ones?

Chickens doing their job.  Look at all the boxes for laying eggs.

A pumpkin shooter.  Bet they go far!

Ron getting ready to try his hand at lasooing.

 

Here is Ron doing his cowboy thing!

This is for Christopher!

White pumpkins, orange pumpkins and the ghosts watching over them.

Some more scarecrows on duty.

This is who greets you when you first arrive at Smallwoods.

Pretty good use of old pieces of machinery.

Heading into the fruitstand itself.

Thought these were interesting ~ don't know if they are edible or not.

Gateway to the petting zoo.  We did not go inside, cost $1 and thought we have seen baby animals before.  Now if the grands were with us that would have been another story.

Giant sunflowers minus the seeds.

This guy tells a story, but alas I could not get the video to transfer over.

This is a Turban Squash.  The guy there said they are edible so we bought one.  Now to find a recipe and cook the darn thing.

A neat looking farm on the way to the campground.

An old barn.

Ron checking in at the ranger station at Leavenworth TT.

Getting directions to where the best site was to set up the satellite dish.  We parked where he told us and we had TV in less than 10 minutes!

The view out the side door of the motor home.

The only other people camping in the park and they are right out our front window.

The view to the left of us.

The sign to Mt. Springs Lodge

One of the many lodges at Mt. Spring.

Look who's greeting you when you go in the door.

Saw this sign on the way into Leavenworth.  Almost stopped to see if she was a nice Granny or not.  But Ron said no.

Mural at entrance to Icicle Inn

Ron enjoying a mug of brew at Icicle Inn.  We stopped there for appetizers.

The murals in the dining room/lounge.

Us!

Us again...we keep trying to get a good shot of us together.  Next time I guess we had better ask the waitress/waiter to help us out.

Appetizers: cheese and crackers with a brew for Ron and a glass of Reisling for Alice.

Mural in the dining room/lounge.

Close up of murals.

Heading into the town square.

Raspberry turnover = scrumptious.  Pretzel = not so good.

Hope you enjoyed traveling with us today.  We had a good time but are starting to get anxious about being home in Whatcom County.

See you all again soon.