Pretty in Pink

I bought a new camera and was itching to try it out.  I had an evening to myself and it quit raining so I headed out to the Fort Vancouver National Site to get some exercise and take photos.  I took a lot more photos but I especially wanted to capture how beautiful the trees are this time of year.  The tulip and plum trees were done flowering by this time but the cherry and apple blossoms were just right.

Easter Memories

I started a new type of album this year.  Those in the digital scrapbooking world call them various things-Project Life is the most common term used for it.  I have never done one before.  I have never thought I could come up with enough ideas for photos and what to say about my everyday life that would be all that interesting to keep up a year long project.  I saw a fellow scrapbooker had started an album using journaling prompts for each day.  After I saw that, I got the itch to start my own album using the same idea.  I have a couple of different journal prompt lists to refer to if I don't know what I want to write about for a particular day and so far I am keeping up pretty well and looking forward to what I can create and write about next.  I don't share a lot of these pages as some of them are pretty personal.

The week before Easter, I decided I wanted to do a week about Holy Week.  I did some research and found out some things that I never knew before.  It was fun trying to incorporate my Holy Week findings in my album.

I also try to slip in an Art Journaling page each month.  I took this photo while I was visiting a mission in Fremont, California a few weeks ago and thought it would be the perfect art journaling photo for this month.

Christopher came home for Easter weekend.  We haven't seen him for two months so we were excited to have him home.  We went to sunrise service at Columbia Presbyterian.  While we sat there, I thought a lot about Beverly and how much she loved this congregation and insisted we go to the store and buy flowers to put on her grave before we went home.  I wanted the three of us to go together as a family to her grave.  Afterward, it was a beautiful day so we went to Salmon Creek Park to go for a walk.  I enjoyed seeing some herons and osprey as well as a lot of other birds.  Fun way to spend a few hours in nature.  We went off our diet for the night.  We had rack of lamb, roasted vegetables and a yogurt/fruit parfait so we weren't too far off program-just the meat.

Another sample of my journaling project.  Since there were some Easter memories in it, figured it would fit here for posting.

Hoping everyone had a wonderful Easter as we did.

California Vacation

Bill wanted to go to a conference in San Jose so he invited me to go along with him so I could enjoy some California weather and visit Chuck and Suzanne.  Other than a really crappy 24 hour layover in San Francisco a couple of years ago, I don't think I have been to visit Chuck and Suzanne in the Bay Area for at least 15 years.  Chuck always came up here to see Beverly and us so there wasn't really ever a need to go down there.

I didn't really have any big agenda for my trip but made some tentative plans for places that I wanted to visit and photograph.  Going to see Mission San Jose in Fremont was one of them.  I was surprised that the original chapel had been destroyed in an earthquake and that this one had been reconstructed in the 1980's.

There was a museum in some of the old adobe buildings near the chapel, a cemetery where people are still buried in even today and a pleasant courtyard.  I was expecting to see a lot of Spanish names in the cemetery but was surprised to see how many Irish immigrants were buried there.

The next day I dropped Bill off at the conference and headed down to spend the day in Santa Cruz.  It was a beautiful day so it was quite enjoyable.

I enjoyed seeing the lighthouses, watching the surfers and looking at the beautiful coastline there.

I did a lot of walking and ended up having lunch at Woody's on the old historic wharf before I headed back to San Jose.

The rest of the weekend was spent having lunch in Palo Alto with Maddy's Aunt Maia and spending time with Chuck and Suzanne going to a German restaurant in Alameda and wine tasting and having lunch at a Greek restaurant in Livermore.  Murrieta's Well was a really pleasant winery to just sit on the patio and enjoy the wines.

I've started a new journaling album concept this year.  So this is some of what I journaled about my time in California including some photos from our wine tasting and lunch excursion into Livermore.

We had a great view of Crater Lake on the way home so I was able to take a photo of that.

We had a great little getaway.  We were happy to get home but not necessarily to go back to work today.  Anxious to go on our next adventure now.

Getting Our Style On

Colleen's birthday is this week so it was time to plan our birthday celebration for her.  She introduced me to The Difference eighteen years ago and loves to go there.  I haven't taken her since her birthday last year so she was really excited to go.  We had a great time trying on clothes and she got her makeup updated.  Afterward, we went to the Cheesecake Factory for dinner and cheesecake.  Good to see her and I am thinking about trying to spend more time with her.  She wants to make some scrapbooks so going to see what I can do to help her figure it out.

Madigan Memories

I took advantage of having a free weekend to see if I could go to Puyallup to visit Suzi.  Suzi, Terry and I have been friends since we met on Madigan's Ward 13 in 1984.  I think Suzi last took me onto Ft. Lewis about 20 years ago to see our old stomping grounds so I have been itching to go again for awhile.  As luck would have it, it stopped raining in the afternoon and we decided to go.  We had such a good time driving around Main Post, North Fort, American Lake and Madigan areas.  Some things have stayed the same and other things have changed a lot.  It is always kind of surreal when you go somewhere after that much time has passed.  There is just enough to make things seem familiar but just enough different that makes you doubt where you are going and what used to be in certain places.

They built the new Madigan 25 years ago and have torn much of the old Madigan down but Ward 13 where we met is still standing as well as the OR that I worked in.  Years later, Suzi worked in what used to be the OR when she taught in the 91C School.  We miscounted the buildings when we took our pictures but all the building look the same so that was an easy mistake to make.

We stopped by Main Post Chapel where Bill and I had our church/family wedding so we made sure I got some pictures there as well.

I felt like a young girl again exploring with my best friend, taking selfies and remembering old times.  I can't just decide I want to go there without going through the hassle of getting through base security and having a good reason to be on post so I really appreciated Suzi taking me for my little tour and trip down memory lane.

Goings on in Kansas

I wish so much that would could figure out a good time to go see Tom and Maddy in Kansas.  I do love getting a glimpse into their live via Facebook though.  Here are some photos from the past couple of months.

 This photo of Maddy and Sadie in the car just cracked me up.  I had to scrap it.

 So much excitement hoping that the Packers could win and go to the Super Bowl.  Love when Tom and Maddy dress Ariel and Sadie up in their Packer duds.

 It was time to get Maddy a new car.

Maddy loves-and I mean really, really loves-penguins.  She has gotten into yoga recently and had an opportunity to go to a Yoga and Wine night at a wildlife park in Goddard.  She got to pet a baby penguin and was in heaven.

Happy Valentine's Day

 

Valentine's Day was a little different this year. We normally go out for a nice dinner. Almost never on Valentine's Day because of the crowds and wait but usually within a few days of the holiday. Bill and I have started a new diet so the food part of the day was definitely out. But I did get a beautiful bouquet of roses. Feeling loved!