Saturday, September 10, 2011

Our Visit Home Part 1

r
Seattle Space Needle

View of Olympic Mt's

A Beautiful opportunity to see the Olympic Mt's in the evening

Puget Sound

Dylan & Dusty base of Space needle

Dylan & Char at base of Space Needle that Grandpa built

Puget Sound

Dylan on top of the Needle

View of Seattle from the Space Needle

Dylan & Grandpa

Beautiful view from atop the Space Needle

You must try to visit Seattle
Well since I am writing this weeks after it happened and with Internet connection not very good here on Bethel Island, CA where we will be working for the winter I will be putting Part 1-2-etc so you will know it all goes with our 10 days in Puyallup, WA.  As you seen on the previous blog our first evening in Puyallup was spent at Dusty's Aunt & Cousin's...it actually is his cousin's Sherry house.  The next day was Sunday Aug.20 & Dylan and I spent most of it at Urgent Care.  Fun..fun.  We got home in time to get him some crackers and a video game, change clothes and go to Tacoma, WA to meet our niece's new boyfriend Greg.  This was a treat for us and he has a beautiful home with views of the Olympic Mt's.  Now I know it is not fair to those of you who have never been in the Pacific Northwest but for those of you who have you will appreciate that there was such a view.  I have only 1 niece and 1 nephew on my side of the family and Dusty's sister has step-children that we never see so we are very close to our niece and nephew.  Jennifer has two sons..Conner & Logan...and our nephew Paul has a son Gavin.  So it was nice to have a quiet dinner with Greg & Jen before all the family began to arrive.  Whoops..I'm sorry did I say quiet..no way do you get quiet with me & Jen....talk..talk..talk....poor Greg he had no idea what he was getting into!!!  Your a good sport Greg...anyway..Oh Happy 40th Birthday Jennifer...love you...we went out onto the deck to have dinner (so nice of it not to rain) and Greg asked a question he never should have and I never finished my dinner!!  He asked such an open ended question on some of my "beliefs" and was so interested in what I had to say that we talked the rest of the evening away and when they come to visit us this Nov. I know we will continue our talk...
Monday was a catch up day around the motor-home, cleaning and laundry and I met Jenn in Tacoma and went out to my sister's house to get some family albums and begin to pull out some pictures for mom & dad's 50th Wedding Anniversary.  This was why we had made our trip to WA state to celebrate that day with them.  My dad has lung cancer and my mom is seriously ill from her diabetes so their wish was that all the children, grandchildren & great-grandson's be there.  Now this doesn't sound like a big deal but you must realize even though there aren't that many of us we are spread all over and we all hadn't been together since our daughter Sarah graduated from Mills College in Oakland, CA in May 2000.  But we were going to be able to put it all together even tho some spouses weren't able to make it.  So we spent the evening laughing more at how we looked years ago or how cute our kids were when they were little then putting together pictures for the slide show but Jan, Jen Larry, Sarah & Eric did a great job with it in the end!!
On Tuesday Dusty & I spent the afternoon with my mom & dad and then went looking for a gift for them.  We had to leave Dylan at home since we weren't sure at this time what he had.
On Wed. we went to the Space Needle.  Dylan still felt terrible and yet since he had missed seeing so many things he wanted to try going to the Space Needle.  Now we have family history with the Space needle as my grandfather was a riveter on it and use to to tease me that it was safe to go up in because he had put it together. Now I know it is hard for you younger people to realize but in 1962 when the Space Needle opened during the 1962 Seattle World's Fair it was the tallest building west of the Mississippi River. I attended that World's Fair and was the good age of 12. What a thrill it was to go and explore all the things of the future..especially to see a machine that could cook a hot dog in 20 sec...yes the micro-wave was a thing of the future at that time.  I think Dylan enjoyed his time up at the top of the Space Needle..I was just happy it wasn't raining(notice a theme here)...but the thing that made him feel better while up there wasn't the Sprite he had oh no...he takes after his cousin Paul..he enjoyed looking into the hotel rooms with the telescopes up there and spying on people on the ground.....Hey if you ever get a room in Seattle and you can see the Space Needle from it be sure and close your curtains when you are in the room..LOL.
We took him briefly to Pike Place Market as that was something Dusty wanted to show him and the waterfront...he took as much as he could and then asked to go home.  But at least another generation shared in a moment together as I have taken all my children and grandchildren to the top of the space Needle and tell them how Grandpa was right it is still safe to go up in because he put it together!!
Together on top of the Space Needle

View of Pacific Science Center

Clouds of Seattle


Dusty inside the Space Needle

Clouds over the mountains can be beautiful..you just have to look for beauty

Flowers inside Pike Place market

Grandpa & Dylan walking down the aisle of Pike Place

Outside of Pike Place market, Seattle


Seattle waterfront

Steep hills in Seattle..we were walking up!!!

Sunset on the waterfront of Seattle
Dylan & Grandma play around in a music room in Seattle

Dylan is not impressed by all those guitars behind him

But he did like playing around with music

OK I know I can't sign..you all keep reminding me!!

Friday, September 9, 2011

"MY MOUNTAIN" & HOME

My Mountain as I call  Mt. Rainer, WA

Getting pics of the mountain on my phone...

This is one view I never get tired of seeing and will bring tears to my eyes the first time I see it when returning home..either from the ground or the sky!!


Going over hwy 90 from ID to WA

Beautiful views



Dusty and I grew up in the Valley of this mountain, this was taken as we entered my home town of Puyallup, WA, so you can see why I call it "My Mountain"
"Dylan, Dylan" I yelled "come see "My Mountain"" as I got the first glimpse on a beautiful clear day of Mt. Rainer...he got out of bed (reluctantly) and came in and said "I don't see no mountain" I said "Look over there"...he said "I don't....Oh that is a mountain!!"  He too was impressed...I quickly grabbed the camera and started trying to take pictures..he said "What's the big deal? You can get pictures later"  Ha ha you can tell that boy wasn't raised in WA state..why any good Washingtonian knows that seeing the mountain on a clear day is a real treat because in a few hours clouds could roll in and it will be gone!!
Mt Rainer is one of the things I miss most and we were lucky that we got to see it clear on many of our days while home.  Even our kids were impressed as they all arrived that that it was so clear.  You can go for days, weeks and in the winter sometimes months and never see the mountain because of clouds and rain.  I mean really it can be a clear day and yet there can be clouds surrounding the mountain it is over 14,000 ft high.  If poor Dylan had felt better we were going to take a day and drive up to it since it is only 60 miles from Puyallup, but as you know by now he wasn't well and he does get car sick so no use doing that.  There are many things i wanted to do while home and that was to go to the mountain and take Dylan to Sumner where Dusty and I both graduated from high school and take pictures and we never did.  It seems like once I get home there is always a million things to do with family.
Dusty and his 3 Aunts on his mom's side of the family
Aunt Jimmie, Aunt Dorothy and Aunt Patsy (ps Patsy is the one I was suppose to meet the night I met Dusty..).

Dylan, Char, Dusty, Aunt Jimmie, Aunt Dorothy and Aunt Patsy


Roseberry side of family..L to R
Tom (Traci's husband), Forrest (Sherry's husband), Traci (cousin), Aunt Jimmie, Aunt Dorothy, Dusty, Linda on ground (cousin) Mimi behind her in chair (cousin..hadn't see since 1991)Dylan, Aunt Patsy & Sherry (cousin)

Dylan, Janice (cousin) & Dusty

Get that out of here I hate my picture taken.....she babysat for Dusty and I on our Honeymoon..she babysat for my sister and when I needed a babysitter she recommended her cousin Valerie whose Dusty's sister and and that is how I met Dusty when waiting one evening to met Aunt Patsy!!!

Poor Dyl you can see he feels bad but not too bad to play with Spike, Dyl has a Boston Terrier at home Eve and he really missed her this summer

Grandma you need a dog...NO!!
Of course that was the reason we were here in WA and as soon as we plugged in the motor-home and leveled it ,put out the slides we went directly to Dusty;s cousin's house as we found out that three of his Aunt's wee there and 5 cousins. So it was a perfect time to go and give Dylan a chance to meet some of his family.  We had every intention to go back and as you will see the days just didn't allow it!!

Thursday, September 8, 2011

AND THE SAGA OF CHAR & DUSTY CONTINUES!!!

Dusty feels the water temp of the Clark Fork River in Idaho for me...nope not too cold!

It is so beautiful here...what a campsite for tenter's.

Now I call this getting a little close to the tree with the slide out!!!

Yes the mountains are calling me and I must go.



The saga of Char and Dusty continues with a big gap from August 18th and for that I am sorry.  But there is no way I can update you with everything that we have done in one sitting..I mean I can only get away with staying in bed drinking coffee for so long.....So I will make updates each day to get you caught up to where we are now.  Our trip across Hwy 94 was a good choice as it was much cooler then the southern route would have been..I mean just look at poor Texas this summer!  We had beautiful weather and it was cool enough to enjoy the trip, other then poor Dylan..he was sick the whole way.  I will say here and it is not pleasant news that once we got to Washington State I took him to Urgent Care and after many tests it was determined that he had parasites from unclean water with fecal matter in it....now this is a warning to everyone at Indian Springs..we need to demand that they clean up the water and the doctors say that the geese are probably a way the parasites got in and that not everyone knows they have them.  Some people get ill, like Dylan, and some not.  His symptom's were just not feeling well, ran a high fever and had chills and sweats for 1 night and then his stomach began to hurt then he started being queasy and then vomiting and diarreah...for three days he couldn't keep water down and just when I was going to take him to the ER he began to keep that and crackers down.  So be on the look out and start a demand to clean up the water there!!
River's Edge RV park only $30 a night!

The view was beautiful and peaceful



Clark Fork River, ID
After our stop in Montana we spent the next night at the River's Edge Resort and let me tell you if you are on the Montana/Idaho border on Hwy 90 this is a must stop!!  It is a beautiful place and they have a saying there "The Mountains are calling and I must go!" And if you have ever travelled western Montana, Idaho and Washington State you know how true that is.  Being from the West coast we love the mountains as much as we love the ocean and when we win the lottery we will have a log home in the mountains and a beach house!!  Yep you are all invited to come visit!! And at this RV park they had a most wonderful restaurant..even if you can't stop for the night at least stop for a meal..you will be pleasantly surprised on how good it is...



The next day we drove on into Post Falls, ID and were able to only get one night stay as there was a Wooden Boat Show and if we had known in advance we would have made reservations as Dusty's sister Val and husband Les are very active in Wooden Boats having had at one time over a dozen!!  He still has many "project's" projects we would all love to have!!  Just take a look..

Dylan pretend you are riding it.....

Oh this is why Dylan was being cautious about touching...see he can read and obey,"You touch, you die!"

GTO
Les's custom bike..great job Les!  ps You are now Dylan's favorite Uncle...LOL
So which one are you saying I can have Uncle Les????
We had a nice visit with Dusty's family and it was a shame we were on a schedule and they were busy.  The Coeur d' Alene area is beautiful and Les and Val have a beautiful log home on a mountaintop over looking Spokane Valley, where Dusty's Aunt Dorothy and Uncle George live.  We had intended to stop by there as Uncle George has had a liver transplant and his health has not been the best in the last few years but Aunt Dorothy was in WA so we caught up with her there and missed seeing his Uncle.
View from Val & Les's deck

Valerie, Dusty and Dylan in front of the guest cabin that was built in the 1800's and I would move in to it in a minute ,it was so quaint and cozy!! (That is if it is OK with you Val?)

Really Char says..that is Aunt Dorothy's back yard???

The Garman Gang

Inside the log home

Dylan tries to help Laura with her phone

Laura (Dusty's dad's girlfriend) and Dusty's dad Bert
We will end today's chapter here and move on to our time in Washington tomorrow...just an update Dusty's dad was just in the hospital with blood clot's in his lungs so was a good thing we stopped by- he is doing better and should be home resting now...see one never knows what tomorrow will bring...and if you have known us long you will know that is so true!!  But I do know that tomorrow will take us to our new home for the next six months at Sugar Barge Resort and Marina on Bethel Island, CA..if you are in the area stop by and say HI...