what I did last weekend

I spent the long holiday weekend visiting family and friends in eastern wa. despite my cold, I had a wonderful time all weekend.

saturday:
the day started with coffee with abby and alex and "kitty" at starbucks. alex ordered the standard kids hot chocolate but abby surprised me with her request for a caramel latte (decaf says mom) which she sucked right down. it appears she is to defy me with her love of coffee, just like her mom. as a special treat, the girls and I went to blockbuster to pick out movies for them to watch later. alex picked a dora episode and abby chose "the grinch." I dropped the girls at home but stayed and visited awhile with angie and jeff. angie and I went to high school together and also were roommates our sophmore year in college. we go way back and I love her and her family. thank you for sharing your girls with me!

abby's self portrait.

"aunt jenny, this is just in case you forget what mcdonald's looks like." good point abby, thanks for the reminder.

my mom and I spend the remainder of the afternoon shopping antique malls and having some good time together. I bought a beautiful antique coverlet for my bed that is the palest yellow on white. (photos of that will come later when I have the new look for my bedroom figured out.)

my sister recently moved to hermiston for her job and saturday night was spent celebrating her birthday at a new mexican restaurant near her apartment. angie and chandra came with me and us girls had a great time. just so happens that dairy queen is next door to the mexican restaurant. it was calling to us. I got a cherry dipped cone, katie got hit on by a 16 year old. she was thrilled, we were irritated. what are we, chopped liver?

sunday:
started with church where many great changes are happening. my parents are a bit hesitant but they know change isn't always easy. their pastor is a visionary and thinks outside the box. I so admire that. mom and I had lunch at arby's (don't try the loaded potato bites, yuck) and then back to the house to hang.

my great aunt is living with my parents so there was much time spent chatting with her as well as working out in my dad's workshop with him. I love weekends were time goes fast but there always seems to be enough time to do all the things you want to do.

I drove back to hermiston to spend some more time with katie. she was working so I dropped by the hospital so she could give me a tour (and the key to her apartment). I went and started dinner while she finished her shift. we spent the evening making fun nametags for her work locker, printing photos, watching "princess diaries" on tv, eating WAY too much, talking about her new boyfriend nathan (more to come on this later I'm sure), and just having some much needed sister time. we have such a good time together, it's hard to live so many hours and totally different work schedules away.

sunset on my way to hermiston.

couldn't resist showing you little lucas. had to spend some time giving him lots of love too. big sister emma wasn't feeling good which makes for a poor photo subject. lucas and emma are the children of neighborhood friends. they were spending time at grandma and grandpa's house which is right across the street from my parent's house. pretty convenient for me for sure.

this is a shot of all the snow and sun in the pass on my way home monday. the photo is poor because I took it with my phone as I was driving (don't tell my dad) but the sun's rays and the snow were a nice complement I thought. the weather in seattle was almost 60 and full sunshine when I got back into town. thank you jesus!

my parent's will be here this weekend to attend the northwest flower and garden show. I'm sure we'll have stories and photos to share. hailey and hunter's 5th birthday party is also this weekend so stay tuned for that!

sidenote: today would have been my grandma kitty's 88th birthday. happy birthday grandma! it's also lucas's grandpa dennis' birthday...happy birthday dennis!

*updated to add: just heard what my parents got for dennis' birthday last night, it made me laugh so I though it might do the same for you. it was the big 5-0 for dennis so my parents got him a few of his favorite things...50 cans of mountain dew, 50 bags (small) of peanut m&ms and 50 bags of his favorite microwave popcorn! what a great idea (and useful my friend mandy reminded me!). I LOVE IT!