grandkids – Page 2 – ToadMama.com

April 21, 2016

Whirlwind of Activity

Holy cow it’s been a crazy week. But GOOD crazy. Fabulous crazy, really.

A couple of posts ago, I said, “More adventures are on the horizon. Could it involve family, friends, a road trip, airplane rides, surprise visitor(s) , a voyage to another country, a boat ride? Or maybe all of the above? One never knows. I do know, however, that exciting times are definitely ahead.”

In my anniversary post, I meant to enlighten y’all a bit and reveal that we are in Washington, which is where that handsome, pancake-cooking grandson lives. But I forgot. Sorry!

I’m guessing if you follow my Instagram feed, you know — or have been guessing! — where I am. We are in Washington State. Our daughter, Amy, lives outside of Seattle with her husband, TJ, and three kids. Our daughter Shannon and her boyfriend, Chris, flew up from San Diego for the weekend. So we were just a son and daughter-in-law short of having a full house for our anniversary.

It was awesome having everyone together for the weekend.

PT_Trip — We drove this route counterclockwise.

Shannon and Chris left on Sunday evening. On Monday, while the kids were in school, Amy and I set off on a little road trip adventure, choosing to take the scenic route to Port Townsend (PT), a historic seaport town on the eastern side of the Olympic Peninsula.

I gave Amy the option of a fast, medium, or slow, scenic ride, with me driving, of course. I was very happy when she chose the scenic route, which involved two ferries and a quick visit to Whidbey Island, one of my favorite locations in the state.

It was really, really nice spending the day with Amy. I don’t get to see her much, since we live on opposite sides of the country and all. 🙁

While we were off on our girls adventure, TJ and Hubby went to the Lemay car museum in Tacoma. Then they went to the Army base to see TJ’s boat (he’s a boat captain). The guys seem to have enjoyed their day as much as us girls did.

I’ll share pics and tell you more about PT later. But first, there’s some other excitement.

Amy and TJ had to go away for a few days, so we are in charge of the kids. Which means we need to be here to chauffeur them around to various activities, make sure they eat, bathe, go to bed on time, don’t kill each other, etc. Hubby and I are both working remotely from here, unless something else comes up.

Most evenings are pretty busy. Wednesday (yesterday) was one of the few days only one kid had any place to be (Brianna had lacrosse practice), so I decided to escape for an adventure.

I drove into Seattle and took the Victoria Clipper (a passenger-only ferry) up to Victoria, British Columbia, Canada for the day.

Victoria is a beautiful city. I took LOTS of pics. But want to know what the highlight of my day was?

Happy hour!

Not just because it was happy hour, but because of who I got to enjoy happy hour with!

Darlene, aka Princess Scooterpie! We’ve been following each other’s blogs for a few years now. I’d been to Victoria previously, but was traveling with friends so wasn’t able to squeeze in a visit. This time, I was very determined to meet this cool lady in the flesh.

She’s every bit as awesome as I knew she would be. Our time together FLEW by. Hopefully, next time we’ll get a couple of days together, instead of two, too-short hours.

I took a ton of pictures in Victoria. It really IS a beautiful city. I’ll share more when I get back home.

But guess what? Tomorrow — Friday — Hubby and I get to meet some more moto-blogger buddies. I really shouldn’t wish my time away, but I have been looking forward to this for quite some time.

I’ll leave you with this for now…

IMG_0388 (2) — Sunset over the Olympic Peninsula

I captured that pic from the back of the ferry as we headed back to Seattle. It was a beautiful end to a fabulous day.

April 17, 2016

A Very Special Day

Twenty-three years ago today, I married the love of my life. It’s been a long road, filled with ups and downs, joy and sorrow, happiness and pain. But it’s been a fabulous ride. Hopefully we’ll have many more years together.

us_in_1992 — Mike and Me, Christmas 1992

Look how young we looked. That picture was taken in 1992, about four months before we tied the knot.

We didn’t make any children together, but together we raised three fabulous kids.

We’ve had lots of fun over the years. And together have shared many adventures, big and small.

10906130_10204674338811476_4187689243506203197_n — Christmas 2014

We’ve enjoyed lots of travel together, too.

525112_4224059833137_61735845_n — Mike and I at the not-so-famous Treviso Fountain.

mike_and_me — Me and Mike upon his completion of his ride around the US.

We are both lucky to have each other. Not only have we been blessed with three children, we have three grandchildren, too.

One of those, Joseph, age 8, made use a special anniversary breakfast this morning.

Chocolate chip pancakes. My favorite.

I am a lucky, lucky lady. I have a beautiful family and a wonderful husband who loves me. I love him right back.

Here’s to many more very happy years. And a whole lot more laughter.

July 20, 2015July 20, 2015

Fun with Family

I’ve been MIA from the blogosphere again. July has been an eventful month…

Y’all know my family is quite scattered, right? That’s why you don’t see many family photos here.

Shannon (our eldest) is in San Diego. Amy (middle child) lives near Seattle with her husband, TJ, and our grand kids. Eric (youngest) and his wife, Kelsey, are currently in Spain where Eric, a budding culinary artist, is doing a summer internship at a resort in Seville.

On July, 1, Amy and TJ, arrived at our house for a visit. Our family has developed an affinity for silly selfies.

Hubby started it. He took my selfie stick along on his Four Corners Tour, and, upon reaching a different family member’s location, he’d send a group selfie via text to announce his arrival.

This next pic isn’t a good one, technically, but it makes me laugh.

When not everyone is “into” (or remotely prepared for) a group photo.

We all usually laugh a lot when we’re together. 🙂

If you’re wondering about the grand kids, they were with another set of grandparents. Until Friday, July 17.

Seated L-R, Gaige, Brianna, Mike, and Joey.

They were only here for the weekend. After a whirlwind of activity with that other branch of their family (on TJ’s side), I think they enjoyed the less-active weekend at our place.

We all just sorta hung out on Friday afternoon/evening.

This next picture, taken when I came downstairs at the end of my work day, makes me laugh.

There’s a floor full of Legos. The kids are watching a movie. Joey is enjoying the “little sofa” (aka dog bed) I made. And K is looking for a place to sit, since her sofa is occupied.

Later, after I had walked the dogs, I suggested we all walk down to the caboose (at the Warrenton Branch Greenway) so I could get a more-recent photo of the kids in that spot.

They’ll usually pose nicely for me, because I always let them follow the “nice pics” with silly ones.

Hubby thought it would be a good idea to put the dogs in the pic, too. After about 15 takes, this is the only one that came remotely close to having both dogs look toward the camera.

Remember the caboose I mentioned?

After that, we all walked on the trail for a bit. Joey was “walking” Belle while Gaige was in charge of K.

running_of_the_dogs — Enjoying their run.

The girls don’t get to run much, so they were having a blast. Can you see Belle, in front, smiling? I’m pretty sure she was thinking, “I wish I had a little boy!” Meanwhile, Joey was thinking, “I wish I could take Belle home with me.”

Afterward, we all hung out in our back yard. All that peaceful togetherness lasted about three minutes.

Saturday, which is when the lasted heat wave really kicked into high gear, was quite a bit less eventful.

We did go see the Minions movie in 3D. Everyone was rather underwhelmed. The 3D part was cool, but the movie itself just wasn’t very good.

We walked around town a little bit, but spent most of the remainder of the day in the air-conditioned house. Oh, and Hubby smoked some baby back ribs for dinner. They were his best yet!

Here’s a pic of Brianna posing with an outdoor thermometer. See why we chose to stay indoors? And that was during a cooler part of the day.

We had to come up with something interesting and indoors to do with the kids on Sunday. Hubby suggested visiting a cave. I immediately thought of Shenandoah Caverns, which is where I saw this cool frog statue (great family photo op!) and the American Celebration on Parade.

Sadly, the frog statue was being renovated. But the cavern was open for business.

Shenandoah Caverns is supposedly the only cavern in VA (there are quite a few) that has an elevator. The temperature is a constant 54 degrees (that’s about 12 Celsius), which I thoroughly enjoyed.

Nearby Luray Caverns is famous for a couple of formations that look like sunny-side-up eggs. Knowing this, I found it amusing that Shenandoah Caverns is famous for its bacon formations.

I’ll save most of the cavern pics for a potential future post, but wanted to share this one. I kept seeing faces and other images in the rocks.

After the cavern tour, we went to see the parade exhibits at American Celebration on Parade.

I think that place is fun.

The kids weren’t impressed. All the boys wanted to do was run around and see stuff that made NOISE (some of the floats move, but don’t include music). Brianna just thought it was stupid (and probably childish since she’ll be 15 in December).

They were only pretending to be miserable.

The kids know that TJ, their Dad, likes sending me silly pics, which I love receiving. So they were more than happy to find a spot to pose for a pic for me to send their Dad.

I think they chose pretty well. Since the kids were less than impressed, and we were all hungry, we decided to skip the final building and head toward home.

All in all, it was a fun visit. I wish we’d been able to do more outdoors, though, because they’re all very active kids.

Hopefully, we’ll be able to go to Washington State next year for some fun in their neck of the woods.

June 10, 2015

Home Again, Home Again, Jiggety-jig

I am quite happy to report that my dear Hubby made it home safely from his “little” ride around the USA.

Complete Loop — Just a little loop around the USA.

It seemed like he was gone for a really long time. Unfortunately, between the extra-busy load at work and a rather long to-do list of chores, I didn’t have much time to kick back, relax, and enjoy the single life. Not that I would prefer being alone all of the time, but brief intervals of being able to do what I want to do, or not do, according to my own schedule and/or preferences does have its perks.

Anyhoo… I was a happy girl when Mike pulled into the garage on Sunday.

Mike in Madawaska, Maine (the fourth corner)

In all, he rode 10,116 miles (16,280 km) in 14 days. He was gone for 17 days, but spent a day in San Diego with Shannon (our eldest) and her boyfriend, Chris. Then, after making his way north to Washington, he spent a couple of days with Amy (middle kid), her husband, TJ, and the grand kids. (Riding to Spain to visit Eric (our youngest) and his wife, Kelsey, is not an option.)

lloyds — Gaige, Amy, TJ, Brianna, Mike, and Joey

He didn’t take nearly as many pics as I would have. But he did capture some especially for me.

Look closely and you’ll see his motorcycle in front of that sign.

bigfish2 — Big Fish Selfie in Ashland, Wisconsin

Then, a couple days later, he shared this pic of him with the Babe he found in Rumford, Maine.

Ok, it was some other guy’s Babe.

Those selfies made my day, of course.

He and I stayed in touch via text messages and phone calls, and we entertained each other with random pics during his trip. Like the next one.

He could’ve just said, “It’s raining. Again.” But pics are more fun.

It pretty much rained on him, more on than off, from around Wallace, Idaho (near the Montana border) to Madawaska, Maine. It was cold, too. He wasn’t a happy traveler. But he persevered. He didn’t really have a choice, though, did he?

At least it wasn’t like the torrential rain he drove through in East Texas. Or the tornado-spawning thunderstorm he sat out in the wee morning hours on May 25 in Del Rio, Texas.

He knew, but didn’t tell me at the time, that that tornado hit about six miles (9.65 km) from his hotel.

Thick fog in Duluth, Minnesota. — Thick, Superior fog in Duluth, Minnesota.

That fog was courtesy of Lake Superior. He says it looked much thicker in person.

He did come home with a pretty interesting tan.

And here he is with me, shortly after his arrival back at the Virginia homestead.

Now we can get back to relative normalcy.

I wonder what’ll be next?

If you enjoyed following along and wondered how the tracking was accomplished, here’s the scoop.

He used the SWConnect for iOS phone app and the SpotWalla personal location manager. You can learn more on the SpotWalla site.

I think I’ll try it out on my next adventure. 🙂

May 29, 2015

Forgotten LOVE

No one ever really forgets love, do they? Not permanently, anyway.

Like when you eat a hot fudge sundae perched atop a freshly made funnel cake and LOVE it. How can you forget that?

funnel_cake_sundae — Funnel Cake Sundaes

Or, that time you not only enjoyed a moment with a special someone, but also managed to capture it perfectly on camera without really even trying.

Gaige is our middle grand child. During our visit to Washington in February 2014, we walked together to this little park called Sunset Point, hoping to see a sunset. What a LOVEly memory.

And what about faces? Who ever really forgets the faces of loved ones?

LOVE those expressions!

Or the excitement when your loved one, young or old, finally gets a toy they’ve been wanting for the longest time?

Hubby, shortly after arriving home with his brand-new Victory.

Why am I always taking pictures? Because capturing special moments is priceless. No matter how mundane those moments may seem to someone else.

I didn’t really forget this LOVE, either.

DuCard Vineyards' LOVEwork — DuCard Vineyards’ LOVEwork

I captured that one during our Mothers’ Day ride with Aunt Bertha. It’s at DuCard Vineyards in Etlan, Virginia.

Interesting and artsy, but not a favorite.

The DuCard LOVEwork is artfully crafted, I’ll give it that. But it needs a stronger background. It sorta blends in. I’ll bet it looks awesome in Winter under a fresh blanket of clean, white snow.

I didn’t want it to get lost in the ride post. But then, I realized I don’t love it enough to give it a post of its own.

What I loved more was the vineyard’s location. Talk about stunning scenery on a gorgeous Spring day.

The few wineries we’ve visited in Virginia really are in gorgeous locations. Even if you’re not an oenophile — yes, I had to Google “someone who loves wine” — some Virginia vineyards are worth a visit.

Of course, there’s a LOVE I’ll never forget. My Hubby. 🙂

Look what arrived yesterday.

He is still having a fabulous time. 🙂

February 25, 2014March 24, 2014

Pacific Northwest – Installment 16

As I said in my last post, after delivering us to Amy’s house, Annelies and Yves left. Their plan was to spend a day in Seattle before flying to Philadelphia to visit some other friends.

Friday morning, the grand kids headed off to school, and we got to hang out with Amy, TJ, and Shannon. We opted to visit Sumner, a neighboring town, that Amy had told me about.

It was a pleasant morning spent visiting as we perused the various shops lining Sumner’s Main Street. One of the shops is an Annie Sloan Chalk Paint stockist. Amy is interested in learning to paint furniture and stuff. In fact, since then, we visited again and I was able to give her a lesson. If you missed the painting post, it’s here.

Sumner is a nice little town. There were quite a few funky little shops that piqued our interest and gave us something to do for a few hours. We’d tossed around the idea of going into Seattle to see the public market, but Hubby and I were quite tired of touristy pursuits by that time, so we decided to postpone that until our next visit. We really just wanted to spend time with the kids.

Temperatures were mild that day (60s?), but the skies were quite gray. Here are a few images I captured in Sumner…

We had lunch then returned to the house for more visiting.

The next day, Saturday, was all about football. Joey and Gaige both had games that day. Joey was quite tickled to have us all there watching.

8_IMG_7830 — Checking to make sure we were watching.

Click on any image to see a larger view.

10_IMG_7847 — Joey (far left) is the smallest kid on the team.

11_IMG_7862 — Checking to make sure we were still watching.

12_takedown — The Big Take-down (don’t let his petite size fool you)

Temps that day were in the low to mid 50s, I think. By the end of Joey’s game, we were all quite chilly. Especially Shannon, who had ended her two-month tour of Central America before flying to Washington to visit with us. But we still had Gaige’s game to see…

15_IMG_7916 — Gaige was not happy that he didn’t get much playing time.

Unfortunately, Brianna was under the weather, so we didn’t get to see much of her. She’d stayed home rather than suffering through two coldish football games.