Grampa rides in a B-17

Grampa Dutch (Dan's Dad) had the opportunity of a lifetime a week ago Monday to take a ride in a B-17 Bomber flying out of Seattle, WA for a touring visit to the Tri Cities. He was one of two vets from our region chosen to take this ride. It was a very special day for this man of 88 years old. He remembers making and clearing runways for 75 bombers who were low on fuel that needed to land on the island he was working on as a SEABEE in the South Pacific during WWII. His crew had to scramble to move each bomber off the runway so that the next one could land. Just one had to land in the water and was rescued by the navy. He was quoted in the paper saying "It just means so much to be able to fly in one of these bombers."

They also brought in a P-51 Fighter and a B-24, below is the fighter jet.

We spent two hours with the babies waiting for Grampa Dutch to land....

P.T. getting ready for the landing...

How about a little ride while we wait Papa Danny?????

I am serious, come on....

You can trust me....

Waiting with Grandma Nellie

da-plane, da plane!

Pudding Toes first news appearance...hmmm she always manages to be in the lime light somehow :)

A peek inside
Meg did a great job taking all the pictures, while I had the hard task of holding miss sweet pea...not :)
Papa Danny let her touch the BIG airplane. P.T. talked about it for days. Grampa Dutch is now a local celebrity at the retirement community. This turned out to be such a boost to every ones spirit there. No matter what your age or position in life this is a story that should remind us all that there is always something new to look forward to...some surprise just around the corner...or a new bend in the road...life doesn't have to stop and stagnate at any age.

Bits and Pieces

It takes a double stroller now to take care of the babies...

Pudding Toes playing tea party with Elmo...so cute!

A walk in the park with P.T. when we met some friends

When the goslings started coming out of the water we just both kind of froze

Some came right up to the stroller while we tossed out a few Cheddar Bunnies for them

It felt a bit like an invasion

Father's day spent in the backyard with family,grand babies, prime rib, and Bocce

Even great grampa Dutch had fun!

Saying goodbye to friends...bye bye Yeager's we will see you in France....

The gal in the middle with her family to the right and right behind her are moving to Lyon, France. We will all miss them so much. We are hoping to make a trip there next spring for a three week tour of the south of France the tip of Spain and finish in Italy. Providing Dan is up to it.

There has been lots of life going on around here, just nothing too spectacular to speak of . Thought I would just checking in with you all. Lots of bits and pieces. Some morning drawing classes on the back patio, cherry picking in a friends orchard, once a week pool day with Meg and babies at a friends house, goodbye parties, barbeque's, gardening, farmers market on Friday...lots of just good old summer time fun!

A Garden Party...how could I resist ;)

Welcome to my garden...I have been wanting to have a party now for about 3 weeks. Won't you come on over and join the tour and don't forgot to link back to where it all began at a Soft Place to Land. I have found that my whole garden is one big on going project since we moved here three summers ago. (regulars I know some of these will be retreads)....sorry I just couldn't resist the party :)

Here we are at the entry to the house which is surrounded by a courtyard.

Now we will head out back via the side yard garden....

These nine foot trellises were put up by my son on either side of our property the first summer we moved in. I know my neighbors were wondering what in the world....now they have weathered a nice silver grey and the roses are starting to really climb up them and are doing their thing. Providing beauty and privacy. Of coarse it helped to get the block wall in last summer.

Now to my back porch and the pillars that allow me to plant even more roses :o)

A final peek goodbye looking out the back of the yard off into the distance

Yikes

I don't know what in the world just happened. I was trying to add a new friend to my blogroll and everybody just dissappeared............whoooosh............good gravey what in the world was that?

Up Date...I have been busy trying to update my blog roll. Blogger is still acting weird for me, maybe it is a good thing they have a scheduled outage on Monday.

A Room with a View!

My bedroom window

A book by E.M. Forster, "A Room With a View" is what comes to mind as I look out my windows. A long time ago when I was studying landscaping books one idea of how to design a garden caught my attention. Using your windows as a picture frame. Design your garden from that perspective, inside out. I remember looking around my house thinking I do not have hardly any windows that even look out into the garden. Years later when I had the chance to build a new home I remembered that piece of advice. We looked for property with a view, nothing spectacular, but just a bit of borrowed scenery. I was adamant to find some plans that had great windows that face the view at the back of the house. It turned out splendidly. I love that as I go from room to room I have a lovely picture to look at out side my windows. (I cannot bear to put a single curtain on them) I designed my gardens with that thought in mind. This year as things have really started to fill in (3 1/2 yrs) I have been noticing my "rooms with a view".

This is the scene out the breakfast nook window.

Front courtyard

Looking out the front room/study windows I see my courtyard in full bloom. Which actually was not planned but a nice accident none the less. You see our lot was so narrow we had to have one of those garages that sticks out like a nose in front of the house. Horrid in my mind. But somewhere along the way of designing and construction I thought of a courtyard. Now what was once a negative, turned out to be one of the highlights of our home. I was able to design a small wall and some well placed plants that provides a private spot out in the front courtyard for my morning coffee. I have a lovely view from the great room too, facing the back. Almost floor to ceiling windows as code would allow plus a nine foot glass door

Looking from the outside in

This is the only picture I have from the inside out that was taken the first summer w/out a garden yet to be planted. Now it is a lush scene for sure. Being an artist that is use to looking at a canvas this was one great way to plan and design my garden .

Was that the weekend that just flew by....phew!

Pat and Chris

I have just been piddling around in a daze here on Monday. When June hits it always seems to hit hard and furious. My weekend officially started last week when I went into "Auntie Christina" mode cleaning. It is a good thing my sis (known in blogland as Knitting Mania) does visit once in awhile. It gives me great motivation for a deep cleaning I would otherwise not perform :/ Not her expectations mind you, just those left over ones from mommy dearest :) Friday night Dan and I celebrated our 33rd wedding anniversary. Oh how the years go by!!!!! We went out to dinner to celebrate joined by Strider and his wife to a very, very nice restaurant. A pretty fancy one where the chef stands around and oversee's every plate that is presented. We all had halibut, except Dan the man who had his bison. Wonderful meal, good music, and great friends.

Somethings never change like chatting with my sis till the late hours of the night, and then yah...somethings do :^)

Dan and I June 5, 1976

Sometime around 2:00pm Saturday afternoon my sister rolls in. We had the wine chilling, the salmon ready to go, and Babies R Us on the way over. Jenna drove over from Seattle for the visit and we all had a great time. I was a little busy being hostess and did not take any pictures, but I think Chris will bless us with some. When all the hoopla settled down we visited till we put the guys to sleep. Then it was just me and sis chatting till 3:oo am. That was doable, but when miss Christina Marie waltzed into my bedroom at 8:30 am with a cup of coffee and a rise and shine. I was...well lets just say...you have got to be kidding me!!! They were leaving at 11:00 am and I had better get up and visit some more. (they were here for 21 hours) Thank goodness Dan took charge of breakfast...have I mentioned I am NOT a morning person. She got a very big kick out of waking me up :) Seriously it was wonderful to see my sister even if it was a whirl.

After Pat and Chris left, we headed out for a graduation lunch. Came home about 3:00 ish, I fell asleep for about an hour. At 4:15 Meg arrived with P.T. and S.P. and we babysat while they attended a wedding. Next on the docked was the Intern graduation, which I forgot (totally still not with it) till I got a text from Pastor Chris. Showed up just in the nick of time to say something sweet to the kids, and eat cake. Anniversaries, graduations, and weddings OH MY.

(and the best part of all, my sis!)