Family, Garage Sales & BBQs

We spent time with Keith's brother and his wife this weekend up in Puyallup. We don't get to see them much since they drive truck so we enjoy every minute we get! We had beautiful (hot to us) weather this weekend. Mt. Rainier was visible in all its beauty. This is pretty much the view that Keith's other brother has from their home in Edgewood. Great, isn't it!?!

Aunt Jolene was trying out the binoculars that Jaeden purchased at a garage sale on Friday. Great things can be found for so cheap sometimes!
Jordan earning some cash by washing AND waxing Uncle Fred and Aunt Jolene's truck. It took most of the day for him. He's standing on the engine to reach some of the higher spots and wash the windshield.
Keith helping Jaeden roller blade. It didn't help that part of the driveway is all downhill - yikes! Mom insisted we use a helmet after taking this picture. Another awesome find - almost brand new skates for only $10. We figured we could eBay them if nobody used them. Their cousin bought almost the same ones for $90 new - so it was quite a deal!
We decided to have a small barbecue on Saturday at Priest Point Park in Olympia, WA. Jolene's parents, sister and nephew met us there. We spent time with them on our cruise back in April so it was fun to get to see them again!

Uncle Fred, Jaeden, and Brooklyn enjoying some time in the salt water.

Hard to believe that it's already the end of June! Our nephew Chris (Fred & Jolene's oldest) is getting married to his girlfriend Krista in August. We're very excited about that and hope to be able to go! We'll see - especially with fuel prices now.

Hugs,

Dog Days of Summer

Saturday's warm weather was perfect for giving Miss Maddie a bath, and the wheelbarrow was just the right size.

Class of 2008

Congratulations Jenny!

We're so proud of your accomplishments!

Grandparents
Cousins
4 Hansen grand kids down and 4 to go!
It was crazy to be bundled up like this in the middle of June - felt like winter again!

Jenny & her parents -
Whoohoo!
Jenny accepting her diploma - sorry, I missed her name being announced.

Kickoff to Summer

We decided to pull out some packages of water balloons that Nana gave us a couple of years ago and usher in summer break with a water balloon fight. Okay, it was just Dad and two of the kids, but they still enjoyed it. Mom's excuse for not getting wet was that she had the camera in hand. Good enough, right?

It looks like Dad was taking advantage of things a bit...
The kids still managed to soak him a few times.

Happy summer to everyone!

May yours be full of BB Q's, water fights, camp outs, swimming, Popsicles, lightning bug catching, star gazing, laughter, and just lots of plain old-fashioned fun!

XOXO,

Last Day of School

Yup, it's the last day of school for all three kids and what am I doing? Blogging...hmmm, seems I ought to be taking better advantage of these last couple of hours of "free" time.

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Here is that must-see video clip of what we call our little Houdini. We've put off building a nice fence till we see how she does staying in this one. We discovered within minutes that she'd climb the parts of the fence that were squares so we put up slick plastic over the lower parts. Then we found out she'd jump to the top of that and use it as a stepping stool to get over the top. So we moved the slick plastic to the tops of the fence. She figured out how to jump right over it. Then we decided to move the slick plastic 12 inches or so above the fence line. So that kept her in a couple of days worth. Then she discovered the raised part in front of the wooden gate where she could just jump right over. So I put something on top of that and that kept her in. Well, most recently she figured out how to climb this part of the fence with the tall rectangles. Ugh! What to do, what to do. So now that is currently covered with slick plastic. It's only a matter of hours before she figures out she can dig underneath or some such thing. And we've only had her two weeks! You can see her stand back and just evaluate everything to see what the next way of escape is to be. Hence the name Houdini - if there's a way to get out, she'll be the first to find it. We need at least a 6 foot slick fence! No places for footholds. Anyway, we see some humor in it, but it is starting to drive us batty...



Yes, she did make it OVER the fence as she has multiple other times!

Back in Business

We're back after an almost two week break - one week of 'camera gone missing', and the other week with the computer taken down to refinish our office and kitchen floors.

So first off, we now present last weekend's project:

(edited to add: I found the BEFORE BEFORE pics and just had to show you this is what the floors really looked like when we moved in 16 months ago - ugly linoleum and all. We also decided multi-colored walls just weren't our style either as you'll note in the new floor pic. Oh, and only refinishing the original wood floors was last weekend's project - we'd already done the other stuff including removing several layers of linoleum shortly after moving in.)

BEFORE

AFTER

I love the contrast of the darker flooring against the white walls. Don't know if we would've normally chosen the reddish stain, but it ties in with the existing woodwork in the rest of the house. I adore the "new" floor now. Much easier to clean than the dirty (no matter how much I tried cleaning it), unfinished floor.

The process we used: lightly sanded, applied a pre-stain, applied a single coat of stain, and applied 4 coats of water-based polyurethane waiting proper amounts of time in between each coat.

A close-up of the character of the wood floor.
Oh, and don't you like our beautiful peonies? I had to cut some because they're so heavy, they lay right over on the ground and with our recent rains, they were weighed down even more.

We're excited because tonight's the night we get to put the furniture and fridge back into the kitchen/dining room. We wanted to make sure the floor cured properly. It also means no more eating out - yay! To tell the truth, we get sick of eating out. Although it makes for less housework...

We'll post more pictures shortly. Especially a video clip of our little Houdini.

Post Vacation

Looks like I won't be able to post (new pics) until Friday or Saturday. My camera decided to take a vacation and hitch a van ride and then a ferry ride yesterday to Friday Harbor and will be touring around the state till the end of the week. Bummer, 'cause I had some fun pics I really wanted to post from this last weekend, but you'll just have to wait on the edges of your seats. Meanwhile, try not to chew your fingernails off in anticipation...

Time with Family

This was the moment we'd all been waiting for! Together again... We took two vehicles and picked up the Brown's and Wieweck's at SeaTac Airport on Saturday morning. The lucky ones got to ride with me and get a second tour of the airport since I missed the turn and had to drive the loop again (Ha! Bet they wish they'd chosen the other driver). There was a limo in front of them at the curb and as we drove up, it drove away. I told them that I'd hired it to pick them up, but he wanted more money and so wouldn't stick around.

The weather on Saturday couldn't have been nicer. The kids had a great time playing outdoors.

Whitni swingin'

Brynne & Maddie
Maddie & Whitni - they were great pals!
Grandpa Hansen had to get out the little train he made when our kids were smaller.

Torey seemed happy to be the little caboose.

All the kids loved it! Well, except Whitni - she wasn't sure about climbing on.

Just hanging out and catching up.

Whitni sharing her M&M's with Mommy...
and Grandpa Wieweck.
Kids working in Grandpa Hansen's shop.

Sunday morning -
And I thought taking pictures of 3 kids was difficult!
The Brown Family
We told Jordan he was one of the cousins/kids and therefore a part of the picture.

He was happy to oblige. Aren't they a ca-yute bunch?!? You too, Jordan!

A huge SHOUT out to Jerry & Sue for hosting us and letting us use the Hansen Hotel for a night as well as Mom & Dad Hansen.

Thank you!!

Aunt Marge making sure she has her paperwork, etc together for their cruise.

Getting some last-minute quality time together before departure.

Silly Morgan!

We made it to the Seattle waterfront all in one piece and with all the luggage (we hope).
The baggage handler (?) was great with the kids and let them help put tags on.

We sure wish we were going to Alaska with you!

Love this picture of Momma and her chicks!

Bye everyone!!! Wait a minute - Aunt Marge, Mark & Uncle Lee -- aren't you supposed to be going, too?? You mean you're gonna let Laurie take the kids all by herself? Don't worry, we made sure everybody went! We hope everyone has great fun! Send a postcard...or call (ulp! at $5 a minute - I don't think so). We were so glad to have them for a quick weekend. Can't wait till they get back so we can hear all about their trip to Alaska!

Memorial Day

Thank you to all the men & women who have served and are serving our country...


We're just doing yard work and planting more in the garden today. This picture is of our front picket fence facing the road. The planter Keith made for me a couple of Christmas' ago when we were living in AZ and he was in WA. We'll post pictures later of our weekend with family. Hugs!

Family's Coming!

We're looking forward to my aunt, uncle, cousin and her husband and 4 kiddos coming to town tomorrow morning from AZ! Will take LOTS of pics and catch up with you Sunday or Monday. And we don't envy them because they have to leave their house probably around 4 AM or so - imagine that with 4 kids. Yuck! But they'll have lots of time to rest before having to catch their cruise Sunday afternoon in Seattle. Can't wait to see them!!! Part of the excitement comes from this being the first time in about 7 years that we've had any of MY family here besides my parents. And the fact that all of our kids have a great time together. It's been over a year since we've last seen them. Too long, in our opinion! Wish we could talk them into moving here - wouldn't that be fun???