Leavenworth, Washington

So, if you haven't been there, it is a great little Alpine/Swiss/Bavarian tourist town in the mountains in northern Washington. It was beautiful. Everything is totally in character, the building fronts, restaurants, and all the stores you could think of. They had miniature golf, antiques stores, code of arms stores, and of course jewelery and candy stores too. They happened to be having an art show this weekend.


It was a long drive, we stopped half way in Yakima area to pick up my sister and her family and drove together from there. My kids did so good after being in the car for so long. we did have kids playing musical cars to make it a little easier to tolerate the ride. Of course, I'm not sure how we ended up with rowdy year old boys in our car. Their giggling was hilarious and contagious.

Saturday morning we got up and hit the quaint little town. Parked on one side and did the horseshoe walk of the little town. Of course we had to stop and check EVERYTHING out. We had a blast, I would love to go back, and hopefully Blayne could go. We did buy him some fun gifts that will make up for missing it. When we drove into town we noticed a very large night in shining armour, we found a small one too. Holland and Gavin could hardly control themselves they were so excited!







We had some pretty tired kids by the time the day was over. We had also decided to get up early and drive home through Centralia Washington to visit the outlets they have there. We bought a few things for the kids then headed home! HOME SWEET HOME!!



So, all in all, definitely a worth while trip. The area was beautiful, the weather was good and there is a lot of things to do and they are also in walking distance. Until the next post, TTFN!!!

I thought May was busy, June is looking worse!

When you think life can't get any more hectic, it does. Apparently I forgot to knock on wood somewhere along the way. My Victoria turns 8 on Monday. So not only are we planning a birthday party, we are preparing her for baptism. She has been taking the missionary discussions for the couple months. We have really enjoyed seeing how big she has gotten, some days it seems TOO BIG!

Blayne and Tony took advantage of this last weekend that felt like winter to the rest of us by making one last trip up to go snowboarding. We had our friend Matt in town from Arizona, so they went up and enjoyed every last bit of it. Then of course they spent just a "few" hours on the Xbox. Why is it when that say, "just a few" it means 6-8 hours?

On Sunday we got together as a family to participate in the dedication of my Mom's oldest sisters grave. Judith dies of SIDS at 3 months old. After my Grandma dieing recently mt Grandpa felt very pressed to relocate their little girl, from Arizona to Oregon, to rest beside her Mom. It was a very sweet service and I was so happy I was able to attend and witness the peace it gave my Grandpa. I found it very hard to see such a sweet little casket, regardless if it was over 60 years ago that she passed.

Where did May come from?

All the sudden not only is May here it's almost half way over. Boy has it been busy so far in the Yates house. I would be happy if it would slow down but I don't see that happening anytime soon!
We ended April with a huge work project. We concreted our dog kennel and extended our patio all in one day. We were blessed to have the McNamee boys willing to come help out at the last minute and save our fannies.





We started the month helping Curt and Aimee move, then after me being ambulanced to the ER after passing out and seizing in Target, Blayne took a few days off to take care of me. Then my Mom took over for Friday, she came out and spent the day with me. Saturday was beautiful we took the kids and spent the day at the park.




I had a wonderful Mother's day on Sunday. Breakfast in bed, roses, a card, the whole works! Then we spent the afternoon at Blayne's Grandma's house for a nice BBQ with his side of the family.





Victoria made the day a little more exciting after coming in from the backyard and announcing she had pulled out her own tooth. That's a step up from us having to pay her to let us touch even them, let alone try to pull one out.


Blayne took Monday off of work so he could take the missionaties up to Mt. Hood for thier P-day. G'ma Mary stayed with the kids and I was able to tag along. It was a beautiful day, the snow was falling and the sun was shinning. We took them on a tour of Timberline Lodge.



Later that afternoon my good friend Crystal came into town on Monday and spent 3 days doing hair at my house. This is Emily (McNamee) having a conditioning treatment done.

That's only 12 days into the month! Like I said, no slowing in sight!

Victoria turns 8 on the last day of this month so we are having her take the missionary discussions in preparation for her baptism at the beginning of next month. She is very excited! Of course we are excited for her too! So I realize it's been a while since my last post but it's NOT because I don't have anything going on!