December 4, 2012

Since it is almost the end of the year... and it has been a year that we have spent here on the boat, I figured I had better up-date the Blue Oasis Blog. So in review...

We were able to go home back in September for Mom's Surprise 75th Birthday party. We had SO MUCH FUN! Mom was so surprised! Karey rented the Grange hall in Rathdrum and all the kids, Karey, Ben, Marla, Barb and Dee went in early and decorated the hall. Karey made the cake (It was so beautiful!). Karey had told Mon that they were going to the Grange to listen to a folk singer that Karey thought Mon would like... When she walked through the door we all started signing happy birthday to her, it was awesome. There were friends and relatives from near and far, folks she had not seen for awhile. It was a wonderful day, and I think she was truly surprised! After the party in Post Falls Ben and I drove to Kamiah to see my brother and his family. It had been almost a year since I had seem them, I miss them so much.

We spent the weekend at the cabin, there were fires all around us and it was so smokey! We went on a jeep run up to Waldy Lookout with a group of friends, it was an awesome trip, but once we got up to the top of the mountain you couldn't see a THING! It was so great to see the kids, they grow up so fast. It's hard to believe that Bradley will be in High School next year.... Where has the time gone. ** sigh***   I also got to visit with my Aunt Donna Knight whom I had not seen in years!. It was nice to talk to someone who actually remembered my mom, and reminisce about 'the good ol' days'. As I get older there are so few people left , besides my brothers, who remember her! It was so wonderful to be home again, and it was awful to leave knowing it would be a long time before I could return! My birthday came and went in October, Ben took me out to dinner with Nikki and her family to Red Lobster, (We had a couple gift certificates from Carson...Thanks Dude), and Lani sent me a Birthday bouquet! She had it delivered which was tricky
as we live in a 'gated' marina... She called me and told me to go to the gate when the delivery truck arrived. How she coordinated it, I will never know... Thanks Lani! I Love ya Gal! By the end of October we had finally moved out to the 'common cover', no more living in a garage, aka Boat House! I am finally outta the cave of Darkness. LOL. I like it so much better out here, I can actually SEE out the windows, AND we don't have to pay the extra $250 a month in boat house rent. We get the storms now, the boat really gets to rockin and a rollin! But I can see the traffic across the inlet, and we are right across from the Navel Base and the BIG ships and it is cool to see them come and go. The common cover houses about20 boats, there are 2 other boats with 'live-aboards', and BOY is it a LONG walk to the club house and the shower and toilet. (Ya REALLY have to plan ahead if you know what I mean!) But If I want to take Chloe out for a little walk we can walk around under the common cover and NOT get wet. That's nice for a change. Thanksgiving I went to Lani's and Ben went to Dave and Donna Pritz's, some friends we meet here at the Yacht Club. The day after Thanksgiving we Both had leftovers at Dave and Donna's, then the following Sunday we drove to Nicole's for a wonderful ham dinner. Now Christmas is approaching and it looks like we will not be able to afford to go home for the holiday. I'm not sure this is quite what I signed up for. Now that we live under common cover we only have so much power coming into the boat, so we keep the hot water heater turned off... except when we turn it on once a day to do dishes, we have to turn off all the heaters and the freezer to use the water heater or we blow the breakers. I miss having hot water, being able to just wash my hands or rinse out a wash cloth. I miss having a toilet. I miss having a shower and a washer and dryer. I don't like going to a laundry mat, I hate being so broke all the time, but I guess that's just little things. I suppose it is the holidays that have me so down, being so far from family and friends. I see the kids and Grandkids posts on facebook and it makes me cry, I talk to friends on the phone and it makes me cry, I guess I just need to put on my big girl panties and 'buck up'. I have been trying to keep busy, I am now the Port Orchard Yacht Club House Chairman, that means I am in charge of ALL the events and rentals of the clubhouse. It keeps me busy. I just finished decorating the clubhouse for Christmas, and Ben and I are going to decorate our boat for the lighted boat parade on the 15th. This will be the 2nd. time since we moved our boat

to Port Orchard that we have ACTUALLY been out on our boat! (price of fuel) So I am looking forward to that, Ben has been working on getting the boat decorated.  Ben has been having quite a time this fall. His shoulder he fell on may need surgery and he has been going to physical therapy 3 times a week for his knees. He is in alot of pain, but I can only nag him so much to CALL his DR.'s. His Dr's are all through the VA and they WILL NOT do anything unless you hound them. Ben keeps waiting for them to call him, I tell him that isn't going to happen that HE needs to get on them.... But ya-know, Men.... what ya gonna do! Don't know what we are doing for Christmas but I will be sending all my love to those back home. I love and miss you all.

Friday August 17, 2012

We have finally completed ALL the repairs on the Blue Oasis. The decks are all painted and coated, the bright work is all done, the headliners are in both the master stateroom AND the main salon. New carpet throughout, new diesel tanks (no more smell.. Yahoo), and she looks AWESOME! WOW what a difference! We worked our butts off on this project. Now I wanna go boating. We haven't had her out of the boat house since last October. I wanna go cruisin' somewhere and enjoy some of my hard work.

I think a boat trip to the San Juan's would be a nice reward for the last year of working on this ol' gal. Now the next step is to put her up for sale. Yep, we are gonna sell her and buy a motor home. I am tired of living so far from home and family. I'm homesick. And I already told Ben, NONE of this fixer upper shit! When we get the motor home it will already be in excellent shape. NO FIXER_UPPERS!!!! If the curtains are worn out then I guess we ain't buyin' that one!

Sun. July 8, 2012

Today we put down the primer for the non-skid decking. FINALLY, progress! The primer is a 2 part epoxy that seals the surface and preps the area for the "Gorilla Grip" non-skid. It was easy to put down and only took a few hours to tape the deck and paint it on. Now we wait 24 hrs and then put down the 1st coat of non-skid... Then wait another 24 hrs and put down the final coat and the fly bridge and Aft deck will be done.

The coating is like a rubber, kinda cool. The non-skid will be a little darker blue, I can't wait to see it. Finally we are starting to see some results from all our hard work. Ben is sealing the rubber non-skid to the edge of the wood that surrounds the aft deck, hopefully that will help seal the deck from anymore water damage. Boy that blue primer sure brightened things up... WOW

Sat July 7, 2012

Today was Dustin and Lani's anniversary so they decided to spend the day on their boat and invited us to tag along. The sun was shining, we had a gallon of Margarita mix, a dozen doughnuts and a cooler full of beer... Life is Good! It was nice to take a break from working on our boat and finally go boating for a change. So the plan was to meet them in Kingston at noon. They keep their 26 footer moored in Everett and Dustin figured it would take an hour to get to Kingston..... Wrong. Ben and I got to Kingston around 11:30 and waited. and waited, and waited..... Apparently it takes about 2 1/2 hrs to go from Everett marina to Kingston. Who knew? So FINALLY around 2:30 they showed up and we spent the rest of the day just wandering around the bay, picking up driftwood (Is that illegal???) and just lounging and having a great time.

We saw several harbor seals and about 7 cruise ships heading out to open water. Holland America, Norwegian, Princess Cruise Lines. I tried to get Dustin to cruise close enough for me to throw a gaff hook so I could stow-away but he wouldn't do it. It was kinda weird seeing them all lined up one after the other all heading out.... Without me. Ben ended up taking a nap, Dustin refused sun screen and got BURNED like a boiled lobster, I drank so much Margarita I ended up with a touch of alcohol induced sun sickness.... Lani did just fine. Bitch! We got home around 8pm. Tired and sun burned. What a great day.

Friday July 6, 2012

Well, we ARE making progress. Ben has the entire back deck stripped, filled with Bondo and sanded. It looks like today we will be doing some touch up with the white paint on the fly bridge and Ben has to fabricate the aft hatch cover.... THEN tomorrow we should be ready to lay down the first coat of primer for the blue non-skid. GOD what a job this has been! Now that we have a few days of nice weather it would be nice to be able to actually take the boat out in the water. Oh well... Maybe next month the boat will be ready.

EVERYTHING is covered with dust from all the sanding. I have the upper decks vacuumed and wiped down and ready for the paint. I will be glad when all this sanding and painting is down! It will also be nice to see the finished product.... It seems like we work and work and all we have to show for it is more dust! Once the upper decks are done, I will again head to Lani's so Ben can do the main deck WITHOUT Chloe walking through the seal coat.

Tomorrow is Dustin and Lani's anniversary, I think we are going to go out in their boat and spend the day..... At least I will get to do a little boating. LOL

Wed. July 4th. 2012

We had a nice 4th of July. The day started out cloudy but soon turned to blue skies and temps in the low 70's. WHOOO-HOOOO. We took a break from sanding the boat, we were both so sore and tired from working we really needed a day off! Ben and I watched the fireworks from a friend's boat moored at the Port Orchard Marina. We just left our car parked here at the Yacht Club and walked downtown... Parking was horrible and it was just easier to walk than try to find a parking spot. We did have a good time, a nice BBQ on-board with some cocktails. The park and marina was PACKED with boats and people. The fireworks started around 10:30 so it was after midnight when we finally dragged ourselves home. Not quite the same as spending the 4th with family..... but I had a nice time.

Saturday May 26, 2012

Ben's Birthday. Today was just the BEST day EVER! We saw a great ball game, Ben got an awesome surprise and I got a little drunk..... it just couldn't get any better.  Crystal, Ben's daughter, got him Mariners tickets fro his birthday. What Ben didn't know is that Crystal had contacted Uncle Mike and Aunt Karey, Ben's sister and brother-in-law, and they conspired to get 4 seats together at the game. The idea was that Mike and Karey would come over and get a hotel for the weekend then surprise Ben by showing up on the ferrie or at the game and see how long it took him to notice his sister was sitting beside him. LOL. WE had quite a plan. But as they say the best laid plans ..... that morning Karey and I were texting back and forth like mad. First they were gonna meet us when we walked off the Seattle side of the ferrie... then they were gonna walk on the 3:00 ferrie with us on the Bremerton side, then they texted and said they would make the 1:20 ferrie, then they said NO they wouldn't make the ferrie! In the mean time I am telling Ben lets take the later ferrie, don't wanna get there to early... No, lets leave early so we can walk around the stadium, no let's stop on our WAY TO the ferrie.. He is looking at me like he wishes I would make up my FRIKKIN mind.

As we are driving up to the terminal Mike and Karey pull up in their car beside us... Ben glances over, does a double take.... "Is that Karen?" "What are they doing here? Are they going to the game?" I told him Happy Birthday and that this was his present. Once he figured out they had seats next to ours he was so surprised! We all MISSED the ferrie, we just walked across to Seattle and Quest stadium,  which was cool because it gave us a chance to hug and laugh and cry and down about a dozen beers. AWESOME. Seafair is gong on Memorial weekend in Port Orchard and Bremerton and we had time to have a few cocktails with the Seafair Pirates in Bremerton... Ben got a free beer AND a kiss from the Pirate wench. The boys REALLY liked that Wench..... The weather was great, as a matter of fact about half way through the game we all bailed outta our seats which were in the sun and headed to the shady side of the stadium. The Mariners lost but we had so much fun. Karey and I spent more time running around the stadium than watching the game.

It was still warm and the sun was still up when we walked back to the ferrie. We had all had enough beer and sunshine,   and STAIRS.... that we were ready to head home and to bed. LOL. It was an awesome birthday for Ben. He teared up when he first hugged his sister, he couldn't believe that Crystal had gone to the trouble of setting it all up and that Mike and Karey had driven all the way to spend time with us. Thanks guys... Best Birthday ever!

Thursday May 24, 2012

Good Lord will this boat project EVER be done???? The more we scrape and sand the more places we find that have to be replaced due to rot and water damage. The arthritis in my hips is killing me, and my hands and arms just ACHE! Looks like this is gonna be a bigger job than we thought. Oh well... with each repair we are one step closer to getting the boat done and on the market. While Ben tore apart the back deck I finished the hand sanding around the windows and deck rails.

Once every thing is sanded down we will start on varnishing the wood and putting down the new non-skid deck coating..... IF we ever get to that point. It feels overwhelming because there is so much to do. I think once I actually start to see the finished product it will feel like we are accomplishing something. I am sooooo looking forward to this weekend. I can hardly hold it in... not telling Ben his sister and brother-in-law will be joining us for the Mariners game. Is it Saturday yet????

Guess I better get started on today's chores..... I keep hoping I will wake up one morning and all the work will be done......  *sigh*

Monday May 21, 2012

Rain, Rain, Rain........ We have had such a run of great weather I had almost forgotten we lived in the rainy northwest! Oh well, can't have blue Sky's everyday.... We had a great weekend. aka.. no working on the boat. LOL. My big brother Bob and his wife Lee drove up Saturday afternoon and spent the night on the boat with us. We enjoyed a great BBQ on the deck, a few beers and great company. I don't think Lee knew what she was getting into when she agreed to spend the night on the boat. We have two double beds in the aft cabin, both are partially under the outer walkway so you kinda have to sleep under a shelf, poor Lee is like me, a little claustrophobic.... so Bob had to sleep under the 'ledge'. Then there is the wonderful smell of the diesel.... and the oder of the toilet.... I LOVE having company but I am embarrassed by the shape/smell of our boat. Lee and Bob were troopers. They survived the night and after a breakfast of biscuits and gravy (of course), they headed back home. Thanks for visiting, I love you both and admire your courage!
Saturday is Ben's birthday, daughter Crystal sent him Mariners tickets for the Saturday game. He doesn't know it but his sister Karey and brother-in-law Mike are driving over from Idaho to go to the game with us. I am so excited! I can't wait to see them. I know nothing about baseball but I'm so excited about going to the game. Thanks Crystal, what a great gift! And thanks Mike and Karey for spending your Memorial Day with us, it will be a wonderful surprise for Ben and I am so excited to see you both!
Today we begin AGAIN working on the boat, all the scraping is done on the wood, we just have to do the finish sanding and then the varnish. I think today we are going to start working on the decks, remove the old cracked paint and get it ready for a new coat of non-skid. Ben wants to wait until the weather turns again before we start tearing apart the bedroom and remove that DAMN diesel tank and replacing the floor. I just keep thinking that with every day of work we are getting closer to putting the boat on the market and selling it. At the very least.... even if it doesn't sell right away I will have a CLEAN, boat to live in... one that I can actually go BOATING IN!

Thursday May 17, 2012

Every month I attend a WIC, (Woman's Interclub Council) meeting at a different Yacht Club. This month the WIC luncheon was held at Olympia Yacht Club and the 'theme' was Alice through the looking glass, a Mad Hatter Tea Party. All the guests were encouraged to make a hat for the occasion. My hat won a prize (a pretty little cup & saucer) for Best Hat! I am a creative genius! Now why can't I make any money doing what I love!..... HUH!... WHY!... I guess that would just be to easy.  ** sigh**

I drove to Olympia ALL BY MYSELF, my first trip on I-5 alone and driving through Tacoma... I was very brave and only took the wrong off ramp once and was able to get back on the freeway with out freaking out TOO bad! LOL. When I got home Ben was slaving away on the boat. We are in the process of completely re-doing the boat. Not only is Ben going to repair that FREAKING leaking Diesel tank but we are stripping ALL the wood trim (and DAMN there is alot of wood) so we can put a new coat of varnish on the trim. Once the trim is all scraped and sanded we will put around5 or 6 coats of varnish on all the outside wooden trim. THEN Ben will pull the diesel tank and repair or replace it. After that it's time to touch up the exterior white paint.... and it's a BIG boat, then we will put down the light blue non-skid coating on all the horizontal decks. Once THAT is done... holy crap I'm tired already.... We are putting new material in the interior cabin ceiling, and the final step is new carpet throughout. THEN..... wait for it........

We are gonna put the boat on the market and SELL IT! Then????? Well, I guess we will have to see. We have been working our asses off and every time I get tired and my arms ache... I just thing of how nice it will be to get outta this boat!

Saturday May 12, 2012 Weekend at Nicole's

Spent the weekend at Nicole's working on the Jeep. Ben spent ALL day Saturday and Sunday under the hood. At one point he tried to align the steering wheel so it was 'straight' and I don't know what he did... but every time we turned left the horn went off. I laughed so hard... it was hilarious! I spent the weekend playing with Chloe in the yard, it was such an awesome day. We BBQ'ed some chicken and Nikki and I just hung out with Kale. Ben finally got the horn to stop going off... although the steering wheel is still crooked! BaHaHa... Monday it's back to the boat and more scraping and getting her ready to replace the diesel tanks. YUCK! What a job. Of all the things my hubby has brought home for us to fix-up.... The old motor home, the camper trailer, the pick-up camper... This is defiantly the WORST! The next time he finds a 'fixer-upper' I'm outta here! Next time I want something that is READY to move into!

Friday May 11, 2012 Bug Museum

Bremerton Bug Museum.  Today the Explores club.... yes all 2 of us. Headed to the Bug Museum. I think it is designed mostly for kids... So of course Yoli and I had a GREAT time! We got to see some of the weirdest and coolest bugs. We explored bizarre bugs under the microscope, looked through glasses that let us see like a bug, and even watched busy ants in the giant 8 foot long Ant Farm! They have the weirdest and most interesting bugs on display.

We spent several hours exploring the bugs and having fun in the gift shop. I found some great gifts that I want to get for family and friends. They have really cool butterfly feeders and butterfly houses. The also have every kind of critter container you can imagine. Ant farms for the kids, kits to raise your OWN butterfly, frog houses and other very cool gifts and learning toys for the kids. We really had a fun time! After the bugs we headed to the Port of Bremerton and the Navy Yard to tour the Turner Joy.

This is the first war ship tour I have ever been on and it was very cool! The tour is un-guided so you get to climb all over the thing, you can walk through the whole ship, go down in the crew quarters, the engine room, the boiler room, up to the bridge, into the gun towers, etc. Amazing how they built those ships back then (the USS Turner Joy is from 1957 and decommissioned in 1982), long before CAD systems and all the tools we have today. USS TURNER JOY was the last ship in the FORREST SHERMAN - class of destroyers and the first ship in the Navy to bear the name. Her keel was laid down on September 30, 1957 in Seattle, Washington and she was launched on May 5, 1958.

Turner Joy's distinctive service included a double-duty role as flagship for Destroyer Squadron 13 and Destroyer Division 131 with several tours in the Pacific. She also stood air-sea rescue duty near the Marianas Islands for President Dwight D. Eisenhower's visit to several Asian nations. In terms of history, this vessel is most remembered for her participation in the Gulf of Tonkin. It was incredible to walk through. To visit the buck where the crew slept.... (Man they musta been skinny, those bunks were stacked 3 high with about 2 ft clearance between the bunks. I, of course, had to climb into a bunk... RACK, excuse me... to see if a human could actually FIT... and I did, but just barley. LOL.)  We toured the galley and imagined how it must have been when men lived and worked in these cramped spaces. It was so very interesting. I would love to go back!

Saturday ay 5, 2012 New Puppy

After looking high and low... going through Craig's list and scanning the local shelters we finally found a new member for our family. Little Chloe. She is part Dachshund part ??????? She weighs about 20lbs, is 1 1/2 yrs old and is sooooo cute! The first few days she was very scared and timid, probably looking for her 'temporary' parents. But after I explained that WE are her forever parents... she seemed to feel a little more comfortable. We found her an Craig's List, they said she has lived on a farm and they just couldn't keep her any more. She doesn't lick, and we have yet to hear her bark... AND she doesn't even know what people food is. Gonna try to keep it that way if I can get Ben to not feed her Ice Cream! LOL. I can't wait to find out what her personality is like after she gets used to us. She is so sweet. I wanted to name her Ruby, but Ben won out (Surprise, Surprise) and we named her Chloe. When we got her they called her Isabella, Ben didn't like the name. She has sooo much energy compared to Zoe. When I take her for a walk I actually have to trot to keep up. LOL, that should get me in shape!


Saturday April 28, 2012 Tuff Truck

Port Townsend Tuff Truck Competition

Nicole and Anthony invited us up for the weekend to join them for the Tuff Truck competition. Anthony spent most of the morning trying to get his poor beat up Toyota running.... then it was time to load up and head for Port Townsend. The event is kinda low-key... there were a few exhibitor booths, some selling the usual jewelry and just, another booth sold those stickers everyo9ne wants on their rig,,, like 'This is NOT my husbands JEEP' or 'JEEPS are for Girls' LOL. There was a bull ride for anyone who was feeling adventures. Anthony rode the bull with Kale, although I don't think he enjoyed it much. LOL

There was a fishing hole stocked with trout for the kids, Kale tried but didn't catch any when we were there, although I heard after we left they went back and caught a BUNCH. The Tuff Truck competition was kinda just a free-for-all. A dirt track where everyone drove like crazy. I understand that at this event every year Anthony rolls his truck... didn't get to witness that this year. BUMMER. Even Nicole took the wheel and ran the track for best time. (She beat Anthony's time. HA) Wouldn't let Ben take the Jeep through.... After all, It's MY Jeep!!!!



Saturday April 15, 2012 Earth Day Clean-up

QuadraPaws / Tahuya Park Clean-up.

For our second run with the club we headed to the park for a day of trail clean-up. Apparently in Washington you have to PAY to take your garbage to the local dump... so many people decide to just take their garbage to the woods and dump there. We found couches, old speakers, a computer monitor???? and other assorted strange and interesting stuff. The best part was spending the day with friends..


AND as an added bonus we get 'hours' from the DNR that we can use to get next years park pass. For every 16 hours you put in as a forest volunteer you get a free pass. So Ben and I earned 8 hours between the two of us, only 8 more to go and next years pass is FREE. I love being in the park, in the woods. It was another beautiful day, it actually got hot enough that I had to strip down to just a t-shirt and Capri's! (GOD I love summer). Our 4X4 group has 'addopted' the 4X4 trails in the park so we do alot of work on the trail system, adding rocks where needed, blocking off trails we don't want people traveling on, the club is even building a XXX trail for hard core rock climbers!

As an added bonus... Ben sold his 4-wheeler when we got home! YAH... now we have the money to fix this #%&^%$## boat!

All in All a GREAT Day!

Thursday April12, 2012 Glass Museum

Today our 'Explorers Club' (all 2 of us) went to the Tacoma Museum of Glass. It was AWESOME! From the very beginning when you start your adventure I was amazed at the beauty. To get to the museum you first cross this awesome bridge of glass. A partnership between the Museum of Glass, legendary Studio Glass pioneer Dale Chihuly and the city of Tacoma resulted in the Chihuly Bridge of Glass, a 500-foot-long pedestrian overpass links the Museum to downtown Tacoma and its cultural corridor.

At the approach to the Museum is the Venetian Wall, an eighty-foot installation displaying 109 sculptures from three of Chihuly's series: Venetians, Ikebana, and Putti. Three distinct installations comprise the Bridge of Glass. Furthest from the Museum is the Seaform Pavilion, a ceiling made of 2,364 objects from Chihuly's Seaform and Persian series. Placed on top of a fifty-by-twenty-foot plate-glass ceiling, the forms are suspended in midair and make dramatic use of natural light. As we walked under this pavilion, it was like we were walking in an underwater world of glass shapes and forms a few feet above our heads. The bridge of glass was so beautiful... and we had not even entered the building yet! It was kind of a chilly day so my favorite part of the museum was the Museum’s Hot Shop and watch the visiting artists demonstrate the fascinating process of creating works of art from molten glass. Glassblowing is a mesmerizing and magical process, and it was so nice and cozy.... with the heat coming off the 'hot pots' of molten glass! Yoli and I had a wonderful day. I can't wait till the next Explorers Club outing!

Saturday, April 7, 2012 Newbee Run Tahuya

QuadraPaws 4X4 Club / Tahuya State ORV Park. Ben and I searched the web and found a local 4X4 Jeep Club. We went to a meeting to meet everyone and they invited us to join them on what they call the 'Newbee Run'. The 1st Saturday of every month everyone meets at the Safeway in Bellfair and then heads out for the Tahuya ORV park. What a fun and beautiful park. There are 4X4 trails exclusively for Jeeps and other off road vehicles, 4-runner trails and motorcycle trails. All the trail are desperate so you don't have to worry about coming around a sharp corner and running into a 4-wheeler or motorcycle! The weather was BEAUTIFUL a little cool up on the mountain but it was so nice to be in the woods! I had forgotten how much I loved the smell of trees and earth. The group is composed of young and old, men and even some women drivers... and everyone was so nice. One of our members is a Washington state trooper... so NO drinking on the trails, now THAT'S different from our usual Jeep trips, LOL. As a non-driver, I could have a cocktail when we stopped for lunch... but NO open containers! (Poor Ben). So we have to attend 3 meeting and go on 3 4X4 runs to be eligible to join the jeep club.... so 2 more meeting and 2 more runs. Can't wait!

Saturday, March 25, 2012 Kales Birthday

I have been falling down on my 'blog'. OMG has it really been almost 2 months since I last sat down at the computer and recorded our journey??? So I have decided to 'backtrack' and record some of the events over the past several weeks... ok months....  It's like I have got so far behind in the Blog I don't know where to start???? So I will begin on a happy note, our Grandson Kale's 3rd Birthday.

Ben and I drove up to Port Hadlock to spend the day with our 'little man'. The weather was great, we had the party outside and Kale loved having a party that was ALL ABOUT HIM. He got a new bike from Mom and Dad, complete with training wheels although he thought it was much more fun to have Dad push him than to actually work and 'peddle' on his own. LOL

Kale and Grandma had fun in the Bouncy Castle, although I got my butt kicked when the rest to the kids climbed in.... God I wish I had half the energy these kids have! All in all it was a great day. I ate lot's of "Cars" blue cake... I think I still have blue teeth......

Saturday ~ July 9, 2011

Ben surprised me today with a drive up to the coast. The sun was shining and it was a beautiful day. We drove from Bainbridge Island to Shelton, Aberdeen, then Ocean Shores, Hoquiam, Dinner in Forks, then to Port Angeles and finally home again. WOW. Took us about 11 hours to make the loop of the peninsula. It was wonderful to see the ocean on such a nice day. We walked in the surf, even Zoe seemed to enjoy the day and the beach. NEXT time we go I want to spend the night on the coast so we can spend the WHOLE day exploring....

Forks was kinda disappointing... I am not sure if I expected Vampires and Werewolves.... but at least I thought there would be some tourist shops....