Say it isn't so Joe

Yesterday was a sad day in the Marth household.

After nearly 3 years of daily faithful service our best friend Mr. Keurig went to the great appliance heaven in the sky. I tried to perform CPR. John tried his hand at surgery but alas, it wasn't to be. Appropriate services were held with each family member saying heartfelt words over the remains.

There we sat on a Saturday morning without coffee. There sat a drawerfull of K-cups and nowhere to brew them. It was then that we realized we didn't own a tea kettle or have any regular coffee grounds in the house.

So we did what every normal household would do...we boiled water in the microwave, opened a K-cup, dumped the contents into our old single-serve drip cup and made coffee the old fashioned way.

Man, we miss our Keurig. Talk about being spoiled by easy, instant gratification!

Beach time. Sister time.

Glenna, Lenny, Dakota and I went to the beach for a couple of nights. It was a very quiet weekend. The Gard's weren't even there. Lots of drizzling rain kept us inside for the most part but it wasn't too cold so all was comfortable...as long as you weren't Grandpa, Shannon, Tess or Kristin :)

We brought homemade chili and baked potatoes for the first dinner and homemade pea soup with crusty bread for the second dinner. Tuna on crackers and tuna on salad made two delicious (and healthful) lunches. Doesn't get much easier or tastier than that.

Who knew my sister could compete with Rachael Ray in style and presentation :)

We had a To Do list that I'm pleased to say we completed...except for the things we decided didn't really need to get done LoL!

One thing on our To Do list was cleaning out the junk closet so we could fit sleeping bags in there. We have been looking for a convenient storage solution for the bags for a while now - just got tired of moving them from bed to bed to bed to bathroom depending on who was there when. We love the end result.

OK. What's up with the self cleaning oven instructions?

Something oily, greasy, sticky, nasty got spilled in the oven so there was a lot of smoking going on when we fired her up to bake the potatoes. The next day we decided to turn on the self-clean function so we didn't smoke ourselves out again when we heated the crusty bread.

The instructions told us to completely clean up all spills as well as wipe down the sides and oven door before starting the cleaning cycle or the extraordinarily high temperatures could cause this debris to catch on fire. So we did all of that (and by we, I mean she as you can see in the snapshot :)) and once that was done there was no need for the cleaning cycle.

Really? Clean completely before you clean? What is the point of a cleaning cycle?

We spent plenty of time sleeping, playing games and reading our good books. We stayed up till 4:00 in the morning the first night and the dogs were kind enough to let us sleep until nearly 10:00 AM! Having old dogs can be a real advantage over young pups on sleepy mornings like that.

You can just see Glenna's head peaking out of the bag. Neither of them budged an inch when I snapped this shot.

And she didn't want to keep score. Pshaw.
If I had listened to her I wouldn't be able to show you that I finally won a game!

This is another Christmas book from David. I am loving this author.

These bad boys gave Ben's futon mattress the rest test. It passed with flying colors. But don't tell Ben. For some crazy reason he thinks we are putting this awesomely comfortable, supper thick and soft mattress up in the sleeping cabin for him.
Silly Ben. Remember, shhhhhhhh.

The birds spent tons of time hanging out on all the buoys in the bay. Crazy to watch them balance on a round bobbing object. This guy dried his arm pits for hours.

As it always is, all good things must come to an end. Tired tuckered out dogs were loaded into the car and we headed home. Not sure when we will get out next so it was extra special having this great weekend with my favorite sister. Love her bunches!

Pretty Painted Toes

Aunt Jody wanted to look pretty when she arrived back in the desert on Wednesday so off we went to a local nail salon. Not a salon worth visiting again...but at least our toes got some color.

Who's Who?

Labor Day Weekend

This was a picture poor weekend. So sad. You'll just have to believe me when I say it was another great time together!

Pictures may have been scarce but good news was not...Ben and Kristin are getting married! He called his mom to share the good news; we couldn't stop talking about it the rest of the weekend. So, so, so, so happy for them! Her sweet, gentle, confident nature is the perfect compliment to bigger than life Ben. You can see and feel their closeness and compatibly when they visit; makes me smile every time I look at them :)

Sounds like November 2013 I'll be traveling to Kansas. Last time I was there Shannon was about 3 years old; it was hot and humid and the ground was covered with locust that went crunch under our feet when we crossed the parking lot. Eeeww it was gross! I am looking forward to a completely different experience this time!

Love this photo of them.
Thanks to someone (?) for sharing it with me!

What a beautiful ring. Wow.
Thanks goes to Glenna for sharing this snapshot.

Grandma, Grandpa, Favorite Aunt Jody, Glenna, Papa, Lenny, Dakota, Morris and I arrived Friday. Jocelyn, Tyler and Drake joined us on Saturday and so did James and Tess. Yana (Tess' sister) and Tanja (Tess' mom) came on Sunday. Tanja was there for an afternoon visit but Yana stayed the night.

Worked on a few projects: Papa chopped wood for the winter; Joc and Tyler swept the roof of the little cabin; Tess and Yana swept the roof of the big cabin; Papa, James, Tyler and Joc hauled a bunch more dirt out from behind the little cabin and dumped it on the south side of Aunt Dorothy's (just like Ben wanted :)); more ivy got cut; rooms, closets, cupboards, shelves, nooks and crannies (inside and out) got deep cleaned and a big load went to the dump.

Mostly we spent lots of time visiting, reading and playing games. James won all 3 games we played of Catan Expansion; but I came this | | close to winning on the last one :) Days were hot and sunny, nights were chilly; James' big roaring campfires were most welcome before and after dinner.

Speaking of dinner - we tried hard to eat dinner around 7:00. I totally agree with the concept in theory but it is terribly hard to accomplish in reality. We came close most nights :)

One more of the many ways we put duct tape to use in our lives. This keeps the leaves from popping up when someone leans on the edge of the table. Yup, it really does work!

Lenny looking longingly at the point for that deer he just chased around the corner. Think he has found a deer to chase down the beach every weekend this summer; sure am glad the deer are lots faster than Lenny!

Our Favorite Aunt Jody is such a big kid at heart!

It was Shannon's 31st BD. Since her birthday usually falls on Labor Day weekend I think she has celebrated more birthdays at the beach than anywhere else - so it only seemed right that we should celebrate in her honor. She posted tons of great birthday photos to Instagram so I shared with everyone. There were lots of laughs, smiles and reminiscing over past birthdays. Glenna even brought a cake to bake!

Grandma ooohed and aaahed over the spectacular moon rise. I must say, they were breathtaking. Pictures never do it justice (at least my silly camera doesn't).

First night...

Second night...

Two BIG crabs were caught and bushels of blackberries were picked.

All in all a successful weekend in the beautiful Pacific Northwest! Even Mt. Rainier seemed to be saying goodbye to another great summer as we traveled home on the ferry.

Captn' Jody

Captain Jody and Scallywag James take a spin on the water powered by the infamous Ted Williams.

And she survived to tell the tale!