Labor Day Traditions

Historically the long Labor Day weekend is spent at the beach with the whole FamDamnLy. We walk, talk, eat, drink and be merry. We take time to be lazy and lay around (or is it lie around?) and we put effort into finishing up the fun projects and must-do maintenance that should be completed before winter.

I don't have a good digital photo library before 2011 (that is a personal winter project of mine) but here are some random Labor Day photos I have:

From 2007

That little bear on the stump has lived in all sorts of nooks and crannies at the beach. Currently he is on top of the old wood stove - he was inside but he scared Henry too much so Grandma moved him on top. Grandma loves all animals :)

Always put together and looking good!

Love the hair - wish it were mine!!

The two most photogenic people in the family.

Ha ha ha ha ha ha. What can I say but funny :)

Look at all the changes in this picture! I can find 4 right off the bat. How many can you find?

Some things never change - here we see papa and grandpa enjoying a beer, some late afternoon sunshine and I'm sure a lie or two :) 
Take note of where the chairs are located!

Have you ever eaten dinner at this table without candles or flowers. Nope. Never!

The clock is telling a true story. 10 or even 11 (!) was our normal, every single night dinner time. We've moved it closer to 8:00 and we are even trying to get closer to 7:00. Who ever would have thought :)

From 2008
(Slim pickings. Only these two from Labor Day weekend)

Grandma and Grandpa at their happy place

Grandma trying on my glasses. They looked waaaaaaay better on her than me. I detested those glasses :)

From 2009
Holy Moly. Not one pic from Labor Day.

I have tons of photos but they are all from July and August. So here are a couple from just before Labor Day in 2009 :)

Family Photo July 2009 (only missing Shannon)

Walking to Wilson Creek August 2009

Our Favorite Aunt Jody visiting in August of 2009

Grandpa relaxing in his favorite chair August 2009

Grandma making breakfast August 2009

From 2010

Grandma's Moon Over Vashon

Grandma and Grandpa - once again - at their happy place! 

Looks like a cold September night so the girls huddled around the fire for warmth!

Looking at the tide table to plan the morning walk

I think Shannon has spent more birthdays at the beach than not. It is also her happy place so all is good - plus she could get Aunt Glenna's famous ice cream cake - everybody's favorite! I see we are having salmon for dinner - any chance one of us caught it? Not :)

Labor Day weekend 2010 is when the wood stove fell apart. We couldn't have a fire so Shannon lined what was left of the wood stove with foil and filled it with candles to make us fell toasty warm...even if we really weren't warm the ambiance was perfect.

Please note what Grandpa is doing in this photo. He really wanted to watch the news this particular night. We had WiFi access courtesy of our neighbors (gosh, I miss that a LOT) so Shannon set Grandpa up with a nightly news program on her laptop along with her earphones. He enjoyed a couple hours of TV and we all chuckled at how far we had come since the days of rabbit ears and 4 channels! 

From 2011

This Labor Day was different from past years. The usual attendees were not there - but some new ones took their place. Grandma, Grandpa, Aunt Jody, Glenna, Tyler, Jocelyn, Hailey, John, me - and of course Henry and Drake (the Bowen dogs) enjoyed 5 days of fabulous food, fun and games, family time, camp fire time and lots of ongoing projects.

The biggest difference this year was in the focus. It wasn't so much about preparing the place for the winter to come - but more about living in the moment, enjoying the company and glorious sunshine, and making time to visit, talk and listen.

I'll tell that story (with lots of great pictures!) in my next post.

That is HOT

Shannon sent this to me yesterday. Waaaaaaaaaay too hot for wimpy me!

Driftwood Update

Grandpa was adamant (bordering on wag his finger insistent!) that Ben's driftwood was not allowed to float out to sea. He said it was certain to cause a boating accident of the worst kind.

It is completely water logged and will not float; it is questionable whether it will even float off the bottom of the sea. But Grandpa is correct, should it be a deadhead it is extremely dangerous to boaters. So John began Phase IV of the driftwood saga.

For a pictorial review of the phases click on these links: Phase I = driftwood falling off the bulkhead and landing next to a dock piling; okay, so it didn't actually fall, it had pushing help from foolish people. Phase II = John using a pry bar to shove it away from the piling. Phase III = Grandma and me shoving it further out and away from the piling.

Now onto Phase IV...

And here she sits for now. We need a really high tide to pull her the rest of the way out of the water but she is safe for now. This was a 11.4 tide (I think :))

Happy Birthday Shannon!

Shannon got her package in the mail and had tons of fun opening all the gifts on her birthday. She did text the night before and asked if she could open just one :) Papa told her she would have more fun if she waited and did it all together - so she did. WOW, that was self control!

One package was a 'birthday box' filled with small birthday decorations, birthday glasses, birthday crown, candles and pop tarts (don't judge - cake wouldn't travel well and she loves pop tarts!).

Her birthday was on a Sunday. After services they had a BD party for her with fresh homemade Caesar salad, crusty bread and silky cheese cake. Mmmmmmm. The next day a dear friend took her to lunch and the spa.

Pretty in Pink!

I think she had a GREAT 30th birthday in Cali. I'm grateful for all the friends that took such great care of her. I missed her greatly all weekend but knew she was well taken care of!

The Birthday Girl

We love you Shannon and miss you dearly!

My favorite daughter turns 30 years old on Sunday, September 4! Yes, I know, she's my only daughter; but that's not the point. She's in California. I'm in Washington. It's all sort of weird. That's the point.

I leave for the beach first thing in the morning and will be without Internet access until I return next Tuesday - so today I'm posting an Irish blessing for her:

These things, I warmly wish for you -

Someone to love, some work to do,

A bit of o' sun, a bit o' cheer,

And a guardian angel always near.

Christmas in Kentucky 2009

Batterey Charger

All summer long Grandpa has been fussing and fuming over his missing battery charger at the beach (one of his grand kids borrowed it) because he wants to charge the batteries for the electric motor and he wants someone to use the motor to go fishing.

He's done a lot of talking about what a great sport fishing is and he laments mightily than none of his grandchildren appear to agree with him! After regaling us with some of his best fishing stories he decided he will take out the metal rowboat with the electric motor and fish one more time just for fun.

Last weekend he was done waiting for the battery charger to be returned; so a new one was purchased! You know what was the best part of his new toy? It took him a full day of reading the directions just to figure out the new-fangled fancy thing and then the better part of the next day to make sure he figured it out right.

It has been the best "project" he's worked on all summer - it took lots of time, he could do most of it sitting down and it brought complete satisfaction when the batteries charged! Of course the test will be if they are still charged when we get back out there this weekend :)

More tales on this saga next week...and hopefully no pictures of Grandpa swimming in the sound as his boat motors away. Yikes!

Beach Bound Dogs

Lenny and Dakota just got back from the groomer and they are ready for all the end-of-summer trips to the beach we have planned.

Lenny shaved like a Lab.

Dakota brushed out, bathed and pink-bowed. Why would they do that?

They are turning into some awesome beach dogs. OK. Maybe awesome is too strong of a word but they sure are happy and comfortable out there!

At the Beach with Jody

The beach fun continues!
The highlight of last weekend was lots of time with Jody...and lots of time listening to Jody and Grandpa reminisce about growing up together, their parents, life out of the house, other family members and more. Special times. Special times indeed.

Yes the clock really does say 8:15...and we are eating dinner!

We woke up to a bright foggy morning which transformed into an enjoyable 80' day.

We sang happy birthday to Papa...I think Jody is asking him if he feels old now :)

Lots of projects were going on...

Table repair project of Glenna's.
It is going to be so cool when she finishes because we will have a table that can seat 6-16 people with ease!

Plumbing on Saturday.
That's why it was successful!

Grandma and I saved the dock!
Well, maybe that is a bit dramatic but Ben's driftwood was bashing against a piling...so we saved the piling :)

A big dent was made in the fishing cabin repairs.

Grandpa and Papa cogitating on how to deal with the latest challenge that has been uncovered.

Saw Central

The two front rooms are done. Work now begins on the back room.

Installing new door. Way easier than replacing the bug infested wood and repairing some other person's repair job. 

Backyard Bleakness

We have dogs. Because of that, improving the backyard gets put on the back burner. It really is a lovely space...well, potentially lovely space...but for the moment it is a barren puppy play yard. I'm okay with barren but I'm not okay with ugly. Right now the grass and fences are ugly.

The grass is full of pot holes, weeds and dead brown scruff -- which is probably how it will stay as long as we have dogs running side to side at full speed, chasing each other in circles and of course using it as the inevitable potty-place.

The fence boards are cracked, scratched, peeling and falling off. Fence posts are rotted and broken. Support boards are definitely not supporting.

We share our 28-year old fence line with 4 neighbors. Everyone is interested in replacing the rotting fences. We even have multiple bids to choose from. So tell me, why aren't they replaced? The holdup is due to one neighbor that needs to get an additional bid for replacing the fences that belong to him. We keep asking how that project is going. "Oh ya, I'll get right on that!" is what we hear.

Papa has done multiple repairs to the fence we share with this neighbor (let's call him Lazy Butt). The last time the fence we share with Lazy Butt broke, Papa left it alone hoping this would encourage some forward motion. But alas, weeks later the fence is still broken and Lazy Butt is still "going to get right on it".

Leaping Looney Lenny loves to chase the squirrels that run along this fence. I am thinking it will take one, maybe two more leaps at the fence to knock it into Lazy Butt's backyard. Maybe when Lenny and Dakota are at their backdoor looking for a handout, forward motion will occur :)  

BD Weekend Continues

Papa's plan was to golf on his Birthday weekend and he wanted me to ride along but last week he ended up golfing on Monday, Thursday and Friday; and next week he already has three golf days scheduled...so he decided to take the weekend off. That boy loves his golf!

Now what is a birthday boy to do with this free eightyseven degree Sunday? Plan a family-work-together-in-the-yard day of course - and after that go shopping for a shed (more about shed shopping in a minute).

Groan. At least that was how Daniel and I felt - but we don't handle heat well. We handle heat so poorly that we even toyed with the idea of pooling our money and hiring someone to take our places...but that just didn't seem right...after all, this is what he wanted for his birthday. Groan again.

The yard was desperately in need of attention so I can't fault him for wanting to spruce things up. After the 4 of us spent a few hours weeding, raking, pruning, planting and mowing it did look much improved - we didn't, but the yard did :}

I forgot to take "before" pictures. I blame my heat stroke addled brain for that oversight. Below are some pics from just before we finished. I'm again blaming the heat for the fact there are no actual "after" pictures or interesting shots of the hard working hot gardeners...you can take that any way you want :) but do take my word for it - the place looks great!

As promised, shed shopping explained...

East of the house is a huge wasted desolate space that was designed for RV parking. We block it off so the dogs don't walk the fence line and bark at every passerby - it's been an effective solution. We've decided to put the space to better use and build a large shed for storage. We think it is safe to assume we won't miss having a space to park an RV :)

We found a shed we like at a price we can live with (jeesh these things are expensive). Now I get to get it approved by our HOA - hoping that task is a piece of cake.

This new shed will hold James' stuff, Shannon's stuff, our stuff, beach stuff, garden supplies, tools and/or large equipment. You are probably thinking, "What the heck! How big is this thing going to be?" It is going to be big - but not big enough to house everything in that list. We haven't decided exactly what items will be stored in the shed but once we assign a spot for everything we will be able to reclaim our garage (yeah!) and get rid of the storage unit we are paying way too much for each month. We should have done this a year ago but who knew James was staying and Shannon was going!

You know, I always swore I would never pay for storage. If I had so much junk that I needed to rent a storage unit then I would get rid of some of my junk. That's what I said. And I meant what I said. Don't you just hate it when reality smacks you in the face and you eat your words? :)

BD Party Fun

Today was Papa's birthday. Happy birthday Papa we love you!

We went to Grandma and Grandpa's for dinner. G&G and Jody put together a delicious dinner of BBQ'd steak, fresh corn on the cob and crisp green salad. Along the way we told stories, swapped lies, planned our next beach trip and had a lot of fun.

Grandpa, Papa and Daniel waiting for the okay from Grandma and Jody to put the steaks on the grill

The three amigos (aka Jody, Grandma and Grandpa) supervising the grill chef

James and Grandma in the garden.
Oh, I wish I had a digital picture of James in Grandma's garden eating dirt when he was about 18 months old. He looked about the same - just a lot smaller :)

No 'kids table' at this party. We were a small group so we all sat together. 

Delicious homemade apple pie for dessert. Thanks Grandma!

The party planners relaxing at the end of a good party

John brought his new driver - as in golf driver - to the party (he keeps threatening to bring her to bed too). After dessert Papa gave Grandpa his driver to try out. Grandpa quietly slipped to the side yard to take some practice swings with John's new "girlfriend". After a bit John joined him. I'm not sure who had more fun but I know they both enjoyed the moment immensely.