DASH POINT

We went to a pretty beach along Puget Sound.

The sky and water are beautifully reflecting each other instead of grey of the last week!

We had a slow leisurely walk looking for beach glass.

And lots more rocks very much the ones we could find along the creek!

There were driftwood, stones and sand in abundance--we all found treasures!

I found a lot of sea glass and Bill even found a sand dollar!

This guy is a trooper and dozed and talked most of the walk.

There were housing and marinas all along the roads...

And amidst the steel scrap yards and dock yards there were pretty parks tucked in for the calm among the busy--very refreshing!

We ended our walk with a visit to this ice cream store where we all enjoyed a treat.

This guy was duly impressed with some ice cream!

After a quick flurry of texts with my parents-we got the address to the first home I was brought to and this park, Wright Park,  which was only a few blocks away where I enjoyed buggy rides.  It was nice to see the lions were cared for after all of these years!

And this was my first home--my Dad was in the army so they rented the upstairs here.  It is undergoing a bit of renovation which is encouraging because just a year ago it had a row of tents in front of the houses on this street.  Tacoma has done well to disperse the 'homeless' that squatted in every nook and cranny of this city bringing filth and crime to the area.  It was nice to see so much improved along those lines!

 

A CAR MUSEUM!

Since we were all getting a bit cabin fevered, Jared took us to a car museum just a few minutes from their home.  The girls weren't sure they were going to like it but they sure did-we had a wonderful time!

Krystle 'lined' me up with the steering wheel so I could look like I was resting my arm on the car even though it wasn't 'allowed'.  

I'd never heard of this-a 1946 Tucker....

and it had 3 headlights!  Can you imagine him driving at you?!

There were lots of interactive areas--I did manage to get everyone in this picture--and for the record, Bill's car won!

The girls (and grown-ups) loved sitting in this one cuz when you pushed the dash buttons, there were sound effects--great fun!

This one is for Dee--it was pretty ornate!

And I hope you can see the info on it, too!

I would love one of these--they are all the rage around here--of course, there are a lot of people who are reliving the 70's in their 70's! lol

Look at this boat--just what a car should still be like in my opinion! 1970 Olds, if I remember right.

And this was the view out the entrance--I love the arch!

 

A HOLIDAY SHARED

Oldest son and family!  

Three generation of men!

Since it was pouring out, we had an inside egg hunt!

Checking the stash together!

Sampling the goods!

The guys retired to the golf game

 and the ladies to do some Dotz!

We thoroughly enjoyed a wonderful day together!

RESURRECTION SUNDAY!

 

After church we are gathering for an old fashioned Sunday dinner and then a birthday celebration for Noah, who turns 1 next weekend but we will be home by then,

 so he gets to celebrate it one week early!  

JOY UPON JOY

After a morning of watching Noah while dil had to go to doctor's, we took advantage of the little bit of sunshine and headed to the creek.  Since there had been two days of drizzle, the creek was flowing a lot more this time-we all ended up with wet feet!

Some of the rocks are boulder size...

while most are football sized.  We look at the center where the smaller rocks are because lugging around large ones isn't as much fun as a bunch of pretty SMALLER ones! lol  One of the science lessons that get discussed during our rock hounding!

This is a beauty but I couldn't barely pick it up so I just petted it and left it behind!  It really is a deep green!

There are also lots of large red jasper

 but green is the dominant color!

Some of the areas we have to transverse look like this! 

 Yup, under, over and through is our motto!

And when we are tired, thristy and wet we still have to climb the 300' bank to home-which you can see at the very top of this picture.  After the rain, the bank is slippery and hard to get a good foot hold--there are a lot of sliding back down when you hardly have any oomph left!  I did a lot of sitting and resting but was determined to climb it all the way myself! 

 I'm slow but definitely determined!

It's fun to unwind for a bit before dinner and then savor the joy of bathing this guy....he has a tub of toys and what does he want to do?  Figure out the faucet and shower button! lol 

 The men in our family are all mechanically inclined 

and Noah is well on his way to 'figuring it out!'

 

SLOW DAY FUN

Since we bought a new phone plan and IPhones now, I needed to paint a new insert for a new phone case!  I haven't played with watercolors in a long time and it was wonderful.

I added another page to my Landscapes journal from Kim--I have another layer to add but ran out of time since we needed the table to eat!  It rained today and kept us indoors but we played at Dotz, games and enjoyed the slower pace together.

Breakfast with this guy is a trip--just keep the food coming! lol

 

BLISS

First snuggles after a very hard day of travel...helped to melt away the stress.  (I'm showing them pics from our flight-from beaches to snowy mts!

Grandpa enjoyed playing with Noah, newest grandchild (#9) who will soon be one-it's been a hard year to schedule a visit 

but we are making up for it now!

Noah is busy and curious about all gadgets and how things work.  

Yesterday morning, we enjoyed crafting Dotz after breakfast.  

We woke up to 34* temps which are a bit of a jolt but is not going to deter us!  This is the view from the big picture window 

just to the left of the dining room table!

When you see trees like this,

 you understand that this area is a rain forest!

At noontime, it had warmed up into the 50's so we ventured down the hill to the creek bed below to rock hound!

  What a blissfull few hours we enjoyed! Some of the creek was open and enjoyable to walk and then in other areas, we had to duck up and over branches which was quite a work-out!

Through the tough terrain, the girls were very helpful

 and we shared a ton of laughter!

We are sitting on a ledge here swinging our feet out 

so you can see the drop! lol

We haven't yet cleaned all the rocks we hauled up to the house but so far, this one is my favorite!

  It is a large piece of green jasper--there's tons of it here!  

 

TUMBLING AND TRAVEL

The latest batch of rocks-this is blue quartz.

These are my favorite cuz they are Amazonite!

The second batch is nearing the end of their tumbling-only one more week for polishing but...

We are going to interrupt things for a bit and take a flight to Seattle to visit oldest son and family 

AND 

to meet our youngest grandson, finally!

 

GROWTH

I love going out every morning and puttering with the garden beds.  Bill hooked up an automatic sprinkler system so we can take a trip and not worry about the beds drying out!

I love seeing how much the little plants follow the sun

 and lean into it!

I finished up a toddler hat--it is sky blue and dark grey-reading her as light grey instead of the blue and looks brown for the lining instead of dk grey!  Gotta love monitors!

We have turned to the dark side and left our Android devices and switched to XFinity as a phone carrier and even with new IPhones, we are saving over $40 a month.  Nothing to sneeze at but let me tell you, it has been a learning curve! lol  (Hence the unedited photo above that I couldn't correct!)  I think I will be glad for the switch soon enough but it was a long day figuring out all of the ways technology has complicated  made our life easier!

 

DIVIDE FOR ARMHOLES!

It feels like I am flying around the body of the sweater now that I have placed the sleeve stitches on holders!  And I needed the calm of just knitting around and around because we did our taxes yesterday and it was long and arduous! lol 

 We did celebrate by going out to dinner;  there was a light at the end of the tunnel! And that's no joke!