A Day On the Farm

I don't waste time on Pinterest :). I learn self-reliance and save money :). Haha... That's my excuse anyway ;). And I even have proof! Below are pictures of my growing celery. I just chopped off the bottom of store-bought celery, put it in water for a week (which helped produce 2 roots) and just potted it on Friday. It's grown even more since then, but I didn't take anymore pictures. Either way, I'm totally excited. It's the nerd in me coming out :).  I'm also growing a green onion from the root part too now.  Before long, our table will be covered with plants.  I'm still excited about it though. 

This next one is from today, while the other were from 2 or 3 weeks ago.  You can see the green onions also in the picture below.  Pretty awesome stuff!  Oh yeah, today is actually August 31.  You can ignore the date this blog says it was posted...  That's when I started it.  I don't know where the time has gone.

So earlier this month Jeremy and I took all the kids out to Jeremy's parents' farm.  Mostly it was to get the kids out of the city and let them run around.  Experience new things.  See what it is to do a little work and reap the rewards.  And wander around up creeks and explore.  I think they had a blast.  It was a full day.  The pictures below kind of tell their own story, but I'll narrate a little bit :).

Here are the kids trying to get close to the cow.  The cow wasn't very trusting of them and kept running away.  It was a minefield of manure, but the kids didn't seem to mind.  Haha...

We had them pick raspberries so they could enjoy them on ice cream later on.  The goal was for them to do a little bit of work and help out.  Here are Desiree and Autumn.

And here's Emily showing me one of hers.

We took a picnic lunch of peanut butter and jam with some veggies and fruit and cookies.  And Jeremy's mom made them some waffle cookies, which they all loved.

We also collected chicken eggs, but I didn't take any pictures of that.  Angie did, but I never asked for them...  They learned that eggs are dirty fresh from the chicken.  You have to make sure you clean them and your hands!  And Samuel, please don't rub the warm egg on your cheek!  Ick!  Haha...

Then we took them on an adventure to a nearby creek.  Autumn spent a lot of her time collecting water bugs.  Saria, Benjamin, and Desiree explored further up-river with Uncle Jeremy (well, after this part where we went under the bridge).  Samuel was not interested in posing for pictures (you will see).  And Emily just tried to keep up.  Sometimes it's hard being 3.  But she is small, so she could go under fallen limbs and trunks better than most (and most especially better than Aunt Hila, who was trying to keep up!)

Desiree wanted to pose in the water.

Sam's thrilled to take pictures.

Once back on the farm, the kids got to jump on the trampoline for a bit.  Then they got to feed the cow.  So here are copious cow-feeding pictures.

Emily is our little poser.

Angie fed the cow too.

And once she was being fed, the cow was happy to let the kids pet her, if they approached her calmly and slowly and one at a time.

We took another picture after this one...  Neither one was very good.  I posted the one I thought I looked slightly improved in.  Ugh.

And Autumn celebrated her 9th birthday a few days later.

 

As for the rest of life...  Still house-hunting.  Not finding much these days.  I applied for another job.  We'll see if I get it :).  I'll keep ya posted!  And I'm looking forward to a lovely 4-day weekend (well, 3 left now).  I will be canning some peaches with my mother-in-law at some point :).  Happy Labor Day!

A Belated Honeymoon

Well, if you're going to have a belated wedding celebration, you might as well have a belated honeymoon too, right ;)?  That's what we did, at least!  After our fun little party on Saturday, we had a regular Sunday.  Then Monday we packed up and headed to Oregon.

My husband's idea of a vacation is being home and being allowed to be lazy.

My idea of a vacation is being out of town.  Otherwise, if I'm home, I feel like I have to do stuff around the house.  Like wash dishes.

I learned that we need to compromise in the future.  Because I'm a little bit of a vacation over-achiever -- if you will.  Or, as my dad likes to call me, a dictator.  I try to cram as much into a little amount of time as possible.  And so I planned for us to go to Tillamook, OR (because Jeremy and I both love cheese and he hadn't been there) and to Crater Lake, because neither of us had been there and I have had it on my list for many years.  And, based on Google maps, I thought it seemed do-able in 3 days.  And that's where I'm a bit of an over-achiever.  (I did this before when I planned a trip to Seattle when I lived in Alabama.  In my mind, travel time does not account for much ;)).  So anyway, in the end, highway 101, while quite scenic and pretty, was not "only 8 minutes longer" like Google maps suggested.  And it's way windy and curvy and uphill a lot.  And by the time we reached Roseburg on Tuesday, we knew we wouldn't be doing Crater Lake.  Because that alone was another 2 to 3 hour drive one way.  And since we took Jeremy's car -- and it's a stick -- he drove all of it.  I can drive a stick.  But I'm not well-skilled anymore.  It probably wouldn't have gone well on all those Oregonian hills ;).

So we went to Tillamook and Roseburg.  And it was still pretty lovely a time.  And here's the run-down!

We got into Tillamook Monday evening and checked into the same motel where my mom and I stayed 2 years ago.  I like that motel. It's roomy and clean, and I really have no complaints.  We went and bought Subway for dinner, and returned to the room to eat.  Then we relaxed for the evening and enjoyed a good night's rest.  We took our time getting ready in the morning and checked out close to 11 (which was check-out time).  Of course, we took advantage of the continental breakfast -- and vacation food is allowed to be unhealthy :).  We headed to Tillamook Cheese Factory and took our first picture.  Can you tell the sun is in our faces?

We got inside and found our next great photo op.  The VW baby loaf!  Prior to us climbing in there, it was populated by a bunch of kids.  But hey...  You have to do these types of things!  Much thanks to the kind gentleman who took our picture for us :).  And just in case you can't tell, I was even wearing my Tillamook shirt that declares "Life is Cheesy, eat it up."  Love that shirt.

So we took the tour.  Jeremy thoroughly enjoyed watching the plant process of cutting and packaging the cheese.  I think it's the engineer in him.  It really is quite cool, and you would not believe the amount of cheese that comes out of there...  It's a cheese-lover's dream.  And I'm a cheese-lover :).  So, the last thing I would expect while I'm at the cheese factory in Oregon is for my name to be called out by anyone other than my husband, who was with me and by my side.  But, that's what happened!  Someone from here was down for a family reunion and we managed to both be at the same place at the same time!  It's weird to have that happen, let me tell you! 

After we meandered around looking into the factory windows, we headed downstairs to the cheese samples.  Very important part of the tour.  We enjoyed cheese curds (squeaky cheese), medium cheddar, white cheddar, pepper jack, colby, and -- our favorite -- garlic white cheddar.  That stuff is awesome.  We proceeded into the store part, where we purchased some chili pepper garlic slices.  And some mint fudge.  And then it was on to the fabulous cafe.  Where, of course, we had to get some grilled cheese sandwiches!  But Jeremy likes food.  And he can afford it!  So we got a plate of macaroni and cheese as well :).  We shared the mac & cheese.  It was all delicious!  See :). 

I couldn't eat much of the mac and cheese, because I wanted to save room for ice cream.  We each got a scoop before leaving.  I got Tillamook Mudslide (which has a thick ribbon of chocolate in chocolate ice cream... Oh my is it good!) and Jeremy got a scoop of Udderly Chocolate, which has white and regular chocolate mixed, with flakes of chocolate.  And some guy, who was waiting for his wife to shop in the gift store, struck up conversation with us.  He told Jeremy not to eat too much of that, or he'd end up like this guy did...  We learned he was a retired state trooper who worked in California and Washington.  We also learned he was willing to give people 6 miles over the speed limit and that he only pulled people over for doing stupid things (which didn't include not using a turn signal to switch lanes).  Funny what you learn while eating ice cream at Tillamook.

And then we were on the road.  Headed South.  We opted to take the 101, because Jeremy like the beach and wanted to stop by the beach for a bit.  And we found a great spot to do so!  As we walked out onto the beach, we rounded a corner and saw this little island sitting right in the middle of the vista.  It was beautiful!  And chilly, with the wind.  Which is why you will see I was wearing Jeremy's sweater.

After a few failed attempts, I finally managed to get a decent picture of us with a pretty background.

And we waded in the ocean a bit.  It was really cold at first (but what do you expect for Oregon coastline?).  The tide started coming in as we were out wading.

But what a cutie ;).  He loved this.

On the island thingy, there was this little tunnel.  I managed to rock-climb (with Jeremy's help) up to the tunnel thing.  I told him, after that harrowing experience (I have tender feet and I'm sorta wimpy...), I was getting a picture to prove I'd survived!  So here are a couple.

Behind us is the other way out.  Which looked a lot less treacherous to me.  So I told him we were leaving by that route.  The problem with that route?  Well, it went straight into the water (whether the river or the ocean, didn't matter).  And it was deep.  We tried to find a way around that would prevent us (especially me) from getting wet above our knees.  'Twas an impossibility.  And I finally just said. "Let's just go."  And I crossed -- with cell phone held safely above my head -- in upper-thigh-deep water.  See?  And, of course, my feet got caked with sand -- now that they were really wet.  And my pants came un-rolled and started picking up sand as well.  And I said to Jeremy, "I hate sand.  You know that, right?"  Haha.  That is love, people.  That is love ;).

And here I am trying to get all the sand off me in the fresh water, before going back to the car.  Jeremy was safe-guarding my camera at the time, and I had no idea he was taking these pictures...

Well, until now.

Anyway, it was really pretty.  And I was able to change clothes so I was dry for the remainder of our drive.  And we made great memories.  And life's about that :).  As the day wore on, the driving got old.  We missed a turn in the crummy town of Reedsport, where they do not use "traditional" road signage.  We had to turn around and drive around the Southern edge of the city, looking for our way east.  Thankfully we found it.  Now, I'd had pictures of our hotel in Roseburg.  And I'm a city girl, so it looked on the up-and-up to me.  We had google mapped that as well, based on the address they had sent me in my hotel reservation confirmation.  We were prepared!  And so we went driving into the back roads of Oregon -- where there weren't any gas stations.  (Thankfully that never was an issue for us, but I'm just trying to paint a picture for you :)).  We found our roads.  We were excited.  We turned onto our last road, which we only had to take for .6 miles.  And let me tell you, I was getting a little worried.  As we drove down that road -- slowly, I said to Jeremy, "Aren't you getting a little worried?  I mean, I expected it to look a little less rural."  Because we were in farm country.  Seriously.  People were feeding their horses and cows (and probably wondering who the heck was driving down their one-lane country road).  Jeremy laughed and said, "What is there to worry about?  This is America's Best Value!"  (We were staying in America's Best Value hotel).  He thinks he's so funny.  We went more than .6 miles -- and the scenery didn't change.  It was about that time we decided that we had something wrong.  And I called the hotel.  (Thank goodness we had cell phone reception!).  Well, it turned out the hotel didn't even have their address right when they sent me that confirmation.  There's a big difference between "road" and "blvd."  Road is rural.  Blvd is not.  We got back on the main road, and it did dump us into Roseburg proper.  And the city girl in my heaved a huge sigh of relief :).  Of course, we went from one extreme to the other, because we were right on the interstate.  We heard the traffic all night long.  Oh well.  So we decided, upon getting in at 8 that night, that we didn't want to drive another 4 to 6 hours the next day plus however long a drive it would be from the hotel to my Aunt Sue's house.  Because, since we were down that way, we figured we should stop by to visit.  So instead, we slept a lot on Wednesday and then headed out to my Aunt's around 2.  Ironically enough, we had passed her road on the way in.  Haha...  And she lives way out in a log cabin.  So we got there and visited for about 5 hours.  It was really nice and she cooked us a delicious tri-tip on the grill with twice-baked potatoes and fresh garden peas.  And apple pie for dessert :).  It was relaxing, and I managed to get some sun while sitting out on their deck and visiting :).  And we made sure to take a picture before we left.  We left about 8:20 -- got kicked out by Aunt Sue and Uncle Ernie, because driving in the back country where the deer and elk play is not ideal around twilight.  They like to come down to the river -- which was on our right side the entire way almost.  So we headed back to the hotel and wound down for the night. 

Thursday dawned, and we ate breakfast (continental, but not nearly as good as the one in Tillamook) and then packed up.  We spent the next 5 hours on the road, headed to Jeremy's brother's house.  We stayed with his brother and family Thursday night and it was really enjoyable.  It was fun to get to know them better and to sit and visit and share opinions and thoughts :).  And it was relaxing.  Well, except for the part where Jeremy was trying to prove he could eat a hamburger in one bite -- and he started choking.  That wasn't so relaxing (read: scared me to nearly to death).  His sister-in-law made some yummy zucchini bread for breakfast.  We were up at 6 in the morning for some unknown reason, but we were able to see his brother off to work and visit a lot with his sister-in-law before all the kids got up.  So we laughed and joked and had fun.  And then went to a garage sale looking for a food processor (unsuccessful).  And by about 11:40 we were back on the road headed home.  We stopped off at his parents' house and visited with them for a couple hours.  That was nice too.  We got home and took a much needed nap after we unloaded the car.  Then we got ready to go out to eat.  (Who wants to cook when you come back from vacation?).  We went to this place we love, only this time, instead of getting pizza, we got pasta.  It was good.  We really like that place.  We came home and basically turned in for the night.  We were exhausted!  You know the saying:  need a vacation from the vacation!  And so next time, I will probably provide for that and have us leave earlier for vacation so we have a couple days to recuperate on the return end...

Because today has been trying to get ready for Monday.  Blah.  Laundry and fixing bikes and noticing my back tire is low -- have to fix that, and shopping for food and...  You get the picture.  YUCK.  But at least we made some memories :).

And okay, so I promised another sample question from our questionnaire.  Here goes.  You can feel free to leave your answer in the comments!

What is the ideal amount of time Hila should bake a bun in the oven?

Happy guessing!

Surprises Are so Much Fun!

I guess my family does like surprises. Someone said that to me once when I told them about how I surprised my family in February when I came up here for 2 days. It's true. There's just something about surprising the ones you love and seeing their face light up when they realize it :).

So, a few weeks back, my mom came and told me that the ladies at her job wanted to throw a baby shower for Christina at the funeral home (where my mom works). They wanted it to be a surprise. Oh so many things are factors in things like this! First of all, we had to know Christina's schedule in advance, since it changes from week to week. Well, that's nearly impossible. So, we decided to go the route of telling Christina to request to be off the evening of the baby shower. We waited until the kind people with whom my mom works to pick a date. They picked Tuesday, November 11. So we had to come up with an excuse to get Christina to request that time off. Tarylyn came up with the idea to say that we were going to go out for her birthday, which was the next day (today). That was a great idea! So, I told Christina. She said she'd ask that, if she is scheduled to work, to schedule her for the morning hours so she could participate in the birthday celebration for Tarylyn. Yay! Well, after all that, it turned out that Christina wasn't even scheduled to work the 11th at all! It worked so perfectly! And, we were still keeping it hush hush!!

Meanwhile, I felt it was unfair to not celebrate Tarylyn's birthday. Especially after we were making it look like we were. So, I began concocting a plan to suprise her as well! And so I had to get Brad in on it. I asked him if it would be okay for all of us to show up at his house after the baby shower for some cake and ice cream to celebrate Tarylyn's birthday, but that it had to be a surprise. He agreed. On Halloween, Tarylyn mentioned liking Rainbow Brite as a kid. I immediately thought that making the Rainbow Brite cake (from the pan Kira gave me) would be a great idea! However, as time ticked by... That was going to be way involved and I feel the need to have my own kitchen for something like that. Which I don't have. So, I came up with a new idea! I printed out a picture of Rainbow Brite from the computer. We used Christina's Betty Crocker bake-n-fill, and we used Rainbow Chip frosting and Rainbow candles! Christina came up with the idea of using the bake-n-fill when I told her I didn't think it would be easy to do the Rainbow Brite cake. (This will be done one day, fear not. I just really need my own place for something like that). And Christina helped me find rainbow candles at the store, and we filled a milk chocolate cake with cherry filling!

Oh wait... I'm getting ahead of myself. So anyway, it was all in the works, and both Tarylyn and Christina were still in the dark about their respective celebrations :). Mom and I made oreo truffles on Monday for the baby shower. Plus I got all the ingredients together for the Bacon-Cheese Mini Appetizers that everyone seems to love so much (thanks Jeni for this recipe! It is always a hit! The oreo truffles, too, coincidentally...). Tuesday morning arrived. I knew it would be a busy day. But, I generally thrive on days like this, as long as they aren't really stressful :). I like having a lot to do! I gathered everything for the day and headed out. I went by to purchase the gift for the shower on behalf of my mom. Then I took everything up to the funeral home and dropped it off so it was there. I called Tarylyn to find out if she likes cherry pie (for Thanksgiving...) in order to find out if she likes cherry so we could fill her cake with cherry. Then ran by the store and bought some. I got to Christina's around noon and we started baking the cake. Okay, so I learned an important lesson when using the bake-n-fill. You have to lock the top pan into place. So, Tarylyn, your cake was slightly misshapen. And it's my fault. Ugh. Once the cake was cooked and cooling, Christina, Desiree, and I ran to the store to get the frosting and the candles and the ice cream. We got back to the apartment and had lunch and worked on the cake. We had a crisis... I didn't think ahead about putting paper on frosting. It'd soak through. So, I thought of wax paper. Christina didn't have any. So she called Brad to ask if he had some. They did. But, how to get to it and put it on the cake so it'd all be ready for when Tarylyn finally saw it? So, finally it was decided Brad would have to put the finishing touches on the cake. See... I was picking up Tarylyn for the shower, so I was going to leave the cake and ice cream and everything in his truck for him to get out when we left. We also had to make sure his truck was unlocked. So Christina has him on the phone and says, "Okay Brad, is your truck unlocked, just answer yes or no." And he says, in his incredulous and confused voice, "Is my truck unlocked?" You big dummy. Hahaha... He'd forgotten about the surprise for Tarylyn and the set up for it. Men. Anyway, he was able to play it off and tell Tarylyn that Christina was talking to Desiree. By the time he got on the phone with me, he was laughing and saying he forgot. And so this is why I made the following diagram for him to follow when he was decorating the cake for us:


Hey... I'm telling you. You have to take precautions :). I had something in my mind, so I detailed it for him :). I even told Christina, while I was making the diagram, that Brad would laugh at my "anal-ness" for drawing the diagram in addition to writing the instructions. Yes, I know. But let me just say, Brad did a great job! See:

When he got it out of his truck, it was just frosted. So, thanks Brad for putting the finishing touches on it! And for doing all the stuff to help keep it a surprise!

Meanwhile, back at Christina's... I convince her that she should get dressed up and put on some make-up. Because when does she ever get to go out without her little girl and spend time with the gals? (Remember, she still thinks this is for Tarylyn's birthday). So, she does it. Really, I did this because I knew there'd be pictures taken and I didn't want her to say later, "Why didn't you tell me? I look terrible in the pictures!" Tarylyn called me and asked me how we were working this. I mean, how to do you continue a ploy such as this all the way to the end? And what possible reason is there for detouring to a funeral home? Well, this is it:

All the girls are going to go out and celebrate Tarylyn. But we all know how Mom likes to work late (and this is no lie). So, we're going to go to the funeral home to make sure Mom leaves work and joins us. And we're going to let Tarylyn decide where we're going to go eat once we're all together. And once we get to the funeral home, I'm going to run in and check to see if Mom's ready while Tarylyn and Christina are in the car waiting. And then I'll come back to the car and say that Mom's not quite ready and she said to come inside.

So there you have it. The story :). And it worked! We got her all the way down the stairs and into the reception hall at the funeral home. And you see, by the look on her face, that she was trying to figure it out (I believe this is the same face she made when I showed up on her doorstep in February).


The shower was wonderful. Much thanks to the fabulous people who work with my mom. What a sweet thing to do for my sister. And I'm so grateful they also included us :). Christina got a lot of great stuff. I'm sure she'll blog it eventually. I didn't take any pictures of the gift opening, since I was writing who brought what. But Tarylyn took pictures with Christina's camera (which I'd surreptitiously slipped into my purse so it'd be there :)). But, I did take pictures of the food. Aren't you so glad I did, Dad?


And here's everyone from the family who was there. We left Desiree with Brad and the kids, because Nick was still at work when we left Christina's.


And then we left and headed to take Tarylyn home. Where I almost slipped up twice and let on about the surprise awaiting her :). We got in the door and Saria ran up and said, "We got you a birthday cake!" And Tarylyn, who only heard birthday cake and thought Saria was referring to the restaurant (because they had to tell their kids the story we told Christina so they wouldn't spoil the baby shower surprise) told Saria that we didn't really go out to eat for her birthday. But then Saria pointed to the cake, sitting on the counter. Tarylyn's expression was great. She looked up and said, "Where did that come from?" And then it started to dawn on her. And she smiled and laughed and said, "You guys are sneaky!" And it was great, all the way around. No surprises let out of the bag. Lots of fun. And lots of love.


And these are the moments when I cherish my family most.

Loads of Fun and Family Foreverness

Yes, I know I am in trouble with several of you who have probably been checking for the last 4 hours, at least, to see my update about my trip. I must apologize. But I seriously just woke up about 30 minutes ago. I called in sick today, because although I was hoping it would go away, the sore throat I woke up with yesterday morning (when I was still in WA) was still hanging around, and then was joined by a congested head and achy neck muscles. So, I think it's a cold, but since Grandma had told us she had gotten sick when she got up on Tuesday, I didn't want to chance that it was the flu, so I stayed home and called in. I still have a sore throat and a stuffy nose, my head still feels congested. But I'll live ;). And I probably needed this rest anyway. I slept HARD. Brad called sometime around 8:50 to see if I'd gotten home okay, and I only kind of recall that short conversation. It surprised him that he had woken me up, since he knew I had planned on going to work. So anyway, that explains the lateness of this post. But it also means I can spend my time tweaking it and making it perfect :). So, anticipate a panoply of pictures, because I certainly took my share for a 2-day trip!

So, as you have probably guessed by now, the post title for my Monday post was, in fact, related to my life and not just a random music title that I just threw up there :). But Christina and Brad and Tarylyn had NO idea I was going, and we wanted to keep it a surprise! Going was a last-minute decision I made last Thursday. I knew Brad and Tarylyn and the kids were going to the Temple to be sealed for time and all eternity on Tuesday. I had looked around at tickets that would fly out the weekend before. Everything was expensive. Over $300. And sometimes over $400, depending on the days I chose. I had pretty much given up, but it just kept coming back to my mind that I should check again. So last Thursday, I checked again... Still no dice. Gave up, went back to doing work. Got the feeling I should check again, repeated that whole thing. Then go the feeling I should check again. I kept telling myself that, if I could find a ticket for less than $200, I'd buy it, no matter when it was. So, I finally played with the dates enough and found one! The saddest part was that it had me leaving Monday afternoon and coming back Wednesday afternoon. So short. But any longer, either before or after, and it would have cost me a minimum of $100 more. So, this is how it had to be. So, I threw all caution (and Nillaness) to the wind and bought the ticket. Because, as Heath once pointed out to me, in ten years, will the annual leave I lost to take the trip or the money the ticket cost me really matter? What would I look back on and regret more? The loss of that money or the loss of the memory? And it's really a no-brainer. I have been blessed to have the money and to be in a situation where I can do this. I will still achieve my goal of being credit card debt free when I leave here, so that's what matters as far as money is concerned. And you will see how my going panned out, and how that was what was important as far as anything else matters.

I went to work on Monday until 11:30. And I have to say I have been so blessed with wonderful friends. April once again was willing to take me to the airport so I wouldn't have to pay to park my car. This meant she would have to pick me up on Wednesday at almost midnight. And she was like, "Not a big deal!" I also had a girl I work with in nursery at church named Emily offer to take me to the airport if I didn't have a ride. And that was really nice of her. I just have been so blessed, and I cannot adequately tell my friends how much they and their kindness means to me. (I did bring April back a dark chocolate Seattle Chocolates truffle bar, but that's not really decent payment for driving to the airport at midnight!). Anyway! So, I got the BHM by 1:00 (thanks again April!) and found out my flight to Chicago had been delayed due to weather, and the flight from Chicago to Seattle had been canceled (a snow storm was going to come through Chicago Monday evening...). So, United Airlines put me on a Continental flight to Houston, and from Houston to Seattle, and I only got in about 10 minutes later than I would have on United Airlines. So all was smooth. Although I was labeled a "secondary female" on my ticket out of Birmingham, so I had to get patted down, and they went through my stuff. I guess maybe it's random. So that was fun. If I had had more time in Houston, I would have taken a picture of me and George Bush Sr. in the Houston airport. They have a huge statue of him. But I had to book it to my connecting flight. My one complaint about my flight to Seattle was that the older couple I sat next to.... Man, the husband really smelled like BO. I'm talking this guy was trying to compete for the "Ooo Stank" award.... Yuck! They were nice, but man, I was sorry every time he reached up to adjust his airflow over his seat or turn on his light or something. Ick. That was a 4.5 hour flight, which felt like a very long time to me. Oh! But they fed us on this flight! Even in Coach! So, I took a picture to prove it, because it was pretty exciting to me! My stomach was starting to gnaw through itself by this point (I try to avoid buying airport food).
Okay, so it wasn't the greatest cheeseburger I've ever had. But it was food, and I was hungry. The flight landed at 8:08 p.m. Seattle time. Which meant I missed the 8:20 airporter by 15 minutes by the time I made it out of the terminal. So, I walked around and waited on the next airporter to take to my mom's. She picked me up, and we headed to Christina's. Keep in mind it's about 11:00 p.m. by this time. Well, my mom had already called Christina and told her she was going to take some stuff over for Desiree. Christina kept telling my mom that it was okay, she could wait, since it was so late. But my mom insisted, saying she'd forget if she didn't. I had also called Christina, telling her I couldn't sleep, so I wanted to chat with her for few seconds. And I got to chat with my munchkin too. Well, so we get there, and I knock on the door with my mom and camera at the ready. I think that picture from yesterday (which is now clickable) just about sums it up :). Christina is so great. She wears her thoughts on her sleeve. I love the raised eyebrows in that picture. I think this picture was taken the second before enlightenment fell on her ;). She was like, "How did you get here?" And I was like, "I flew!" And you know what??? Desiree was smiling and looking at me and I said, "Do you know who I am?" And she nodded her head. I said, "Who am I?" And she said, "Aunt Hoda." Awww. My baby knows me!! And here are a couple more pictures from that first night (oh, I slept at Christina's).

That's Desiree playing with her daddy, Nick. She was turning him into a monster with her "fair godmother wand." She turned me into a cow, and then back into an Aunt Hila. Here's a video of me turning her into different animals (hopefully... if I can figure out how to load up video).



Christina and I didn't go to sleep until about 3 in the morning, because we watched Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. I was exhausted! Oh yeah, and it was so sweet... I do my hair at night (because I really am too lazy to get up early enough to do it in the mornings), so I was doing my hair, Desiree wanted me to "blow-dry" her hair and also spray hairspray in it. So I did. She thought that was the neatest thing.

The next morning I woke up at 8:30 to start getting ready to go. My mom got there at about 9:00, so we hugged and kissed Desiree and hugged Christina, told them we'd see them that night, and headed out to meet Brad and Tarylyn and the kids. We met them in a bank parking lot, so they could get on the ferry right behind us, since they didn't know how to get to the Temple. So, we pull up by their van in the parking lot and just sit there. Both Brad and Tarylyn look over at the car and they are smiling. But there's no real huge reaction about me. Tarylyn looks right at me, smiles, looks down to her lap... And then you can literally watch as it dawns on her... She jerks her head back up and look at me with her mouth gaping open. It was great. And I didn't see Brad's facial expression, but my mom said that she watched his reaction. She said he was smiling as he looked at her, and then he looked in the backseat (Grandpa was riding up front with my mom), saw me, and she said his face lit up. And you know, seeing Christina's face and Tarylyn's face, knowing that Brad's face lit up.... That makes all the lack of sleep, the whirlwind trip, the money, all of it worthwhile. I walked over to the van to speak with them for a second. Brad rolled down his window and said, "I knew you were here, because I could smell you." Haha. Brad is such a dork. I guess I smell all the time, not just at midnight. (Brad, for whatever reason, tends to tell me, when I call him and he answers the phone, he tends to answer it by saying, "You smell.") Anyway, I laughed. Brad cracks me up :). So, we headed over to the ferry (Brad's work stuff was in the van, so there weren't any extra seats for me, so I rode the whole way with my mom). Once we drove onto the ferry and got out of the cars, Saria came running over to me, calling out, "Aunt Hila!" Oh I love these babies! Samuel still remembers me too. So, here are ferry pictures with me and the kids, and me and Brad.
Samuel calls Mt. Rainier "Fudge Mountain." Other lessons from Samuel? Apparently pirates don't eat dirt.... unless they are dead. I don't know. He's Brad's kid, what can I say? And Saria has become such a great reader! I'm so very proud of her! Samuel talks a lot! And he laughs a lot too. He really is just like Brad. The Temple was awesome. Getting to see them all sealed as a family was so neat, and I am so glad I got to be there. Afterwards, we took lots and lots of pictures. So here are several:And this picture is one my mom snapped when we weren't ready. I happen to like it, because I think it captures the essence of the relationship Brad and I have. I run my mouth... he laughs :).
So, we left the Temple and headed back to Grandma and Grandpa's house. I wanted to make sure to see Grandma at least a little bit. She wasn't feeling well, but I still got to see her for a few minutes. Then we all headed over to Brad and Tarylyn's so I could see their house. The kids were super-excited to show me their room. Then we met up with Christina at a restaurant called Shari's. It was really good. And as soon as we came in, Desiree (she and Christina got there before us) ran up and hugged Saria. Isn't this so sweet???
We all had the greatest time. I will admit, I did take a picture of my food. However, I think I will not post it :). It's not that important :). But I did get a group picture of all of us, courtesy of our waitress. I think we look like a happy bunch :).
After dinner, I went back to Christina's. I took a picture with Nick, since I don't have any.I also took this picture of Desiree and me after my shower and before she fell asleep. She's a sweetie.And here's a video of Benjamin and Samuel. Saria had already left for school at this point. But these boys are funny. And you can hear Brad and Tarylyn talking about Samuel's comments on pirates eating dirt in the background. So hilarious.



This was on Wednesday. I flew out at 3:27 on Wednesday, so I had to catch the airporter by 12:30. So Mom took me over to Ben's house (he works nights, so that's why they weren't able to be at dinner). Michelle was at school, so I missed her. But I got to see their oldest son, Sean. The other two (Tony and Royce) were at school also. I have to post this video so you can all laugh at me :). And then are the pictures of me and Ben and then me and Sean.




Mom took me to Safeway (a grocery store) and I bought some Chinese food from their deli (it was very good, actually). This way I didn't have to eat airport food. Mom cried when I left, which I knew she would. I love my mommy. Getting through security was a chore, there were so many people. The flights back were amazingly smooth and totally not crowded. I was still ready to be done with them by the time I landed. On the way back, I went through Denver, CO. Oh, and just for the record, for all of you who say you won't move to Washington because it's "too cold" (Dad), it was beautiful in Washington while I was there. And it was FREEZING, literally, in Alabama when I landed here. It was about 20 to 30 degrees colder in Alabama than in Seattle! And thanks again to April who braved the freeze and picked me up! And then I drove an hour home. So, I got home at about 1:10 this morning, got a shower, and fully intended to go to work today. But I really woke up feeling crappy. And I still feel pretty crappy, at least in my head. I feel congested and like my head is heavy. Ugh. It needs to get better by tomorrow, because I have an interview for my summer internship!

Well, so that's the story of my surprise visit to Washington. I miss my family so much. I can't wait to live close to them! And I'm so thankful I was able to do this!

*And Tarylyn guessed the movie quote!*