Early Birthday Celebrations

Seems like we never get to celebrate Kristin's birthday. Mike's sometimes slides by too because it is on Halloween. This year I wanted to make sure we celebrated the day God brought them into this world. So an early birthday celebration was in order! I planned to run up to Kristin's and get Layne so we could spend the day together getting ready for the celebration. Layne found a huge card for Grandpa Mike. She is getting so grown up. She drew hearts and flowers on the card and signed her name and Lucy's. After we got all the cards taken care of we made some apple crisp. She really did help!!
She said cleaning up was fun. I told her when she gets older it might not be as much fun so enjoy it now!
Grandpa Mike came home and the two of them raided the garden. Layne loves veggies! She ate that green pepper and wanted more!
Then it was the pumpkin carving. I left that to Mike this year. Yes, we are early with the carving but I wasn't sure when we could do it so we carved away. If you read my blog much you might remember that last year Layne made icky soup out of the guts of the pumpkin. She loved it because Grandpa Mike ate some of her icky soup. She was expecting the same this year and she wasn't disappointed.


Here it is! Icky soup. Mike took a taste and told Layne that if she tasted it he would taste more. That ended the tasting of the icky soup!


Two artists at work!

Here it is glowing in the darkness! The finished product.
Lucy, Kristin and Justin came over later for dinner! A nice fall dinner! Chili, corn bread, apple crisp with vanilla ice cream.


As I was posting these pictures I noticed I didn't get any pictures of the birthday girl Kristin! Sorry Kristin! We sang, opened cards and presents! Fun family times are the best. Happy Birthday Mike and Kristin! You are loved! Thanks for all your help Layne!

Date Night at the Fair

Mike and I hadn't had a night out in a while so we decided Saturday was our day/night. About 2:30 we headed out to THE FAIR! We hadn't visited the fair in many years so we decided to see what was new and different. First event was a log sawing contest. Chain saw vs. hand saw! Guess what! The hand saw won! Somehow I knew that would happen!

We took these picture for Finn. He loves trucks, tractors, or any kind of machine! Thought he might like to see Grandpa Mike and the tractors!

Every fair has to have a bucking bronco! We just spectated on this one but I am pretty sure I could have hung on! :-)
Yum! My favorite fair treat. Salt water taffy. I watched them making it and walked away. I didn't buy any! Well, at least not then. I couldn't stand it and had to go back on our way out of the fair and buy a small bag. Just a small one! It was just as good as I remembered!
Sights of the fair!


Here we are sitting in the pig racing arena. Really??? I thought we would just pass this by but Mike climbed up into the stands. I am game! I will watch it! We weren't the only ones that wanted to see the pigs race. The stands were full. Funny!
Ready, set, go!
Kicking up the sawdust. These little pigs are fast. No big bad wolf could catch them!!!
Ahhh! Sort of like petting a little puppy. Not really!
To my delight I saw a lot of former students at the fair. It couldn't believe it really there were so many there! Here are two wonderful girls that were in my class!

Mike loves to learn new things and always asks lots of questions. I think he might be knitting me a sweater for Christmas because he spent a lot of time learning about spinning wool. I will act surprised.

I can't decide if these look fun or scary. Mike had a good point about breathing. I am sure they are not air tight but it has to be stuffy and icky in there! I guess when you are 10 years old you don't care.

We always have a food picture don't we. Worlds largest turkey leg! I had a burrito with chicken and veggies.
The local country western band was playing some nice background music while we ate.
It was fun to spend time together just hanging out seeing the sights at the fair. Not much has changed since we last visited. It is a nice hometown fair! We will come for a visit again after a few more years pass!

Spokefest 2010

So here we are a year has passed and it is Spokefest time. Last year I set a goal to complete all 21 miles of Spokefest because I did not do all 21 miles last year. Some of my friends mention the word cheater when referring to last year. What! I say it wasn't cheating. Family friendly ride with no timing or anything and I took a short cut. I knew the hills were going to get me so I turned right when I was supposed to go straight and cut off a few miles. So here we are! Doing Spokefest again. Will I accomplish the goal I set? I was apprehensive about the hills but not the distance. I have been biking a lot but not doing a lot of hills. I happened to see Cindy, eating her breakfast in the car, on the way to the ride. I followed her to a close parking place!
We met in front of Red Robin again this year. There were some new faces with us! Fun to meet everyone!
I think my friends are used to this picture taking thing and then sometimes I look at their faces and wonder if they are thinking...I wish she would get this over with! :-)
What a beautiful fall day for a ride. Blue skies, cool temperatures, and lots of cyclists!
Hi Deanna...the camera is out again!

Deanna had the good idea of stopping at every water stop to re-group. No way we could stay together in the crowd. Our first stop!

Most of ride went along the Spokane River. What a great place to live and play!
Lots of cyclists for sure. I think Spokefest is getting bigger each year. This is year #3! Year number 2 for me!
The group! We can always count on Cindy to bring food and she is sharing here! Thanks Cindy!
Stop number two had lots of cookies, energy bars, fruit, water and even a band! So fun!
Here we go taking off from the food stop! Re-grouped and ready to ride!
Hills! I was very happy with how I handled the hills. I was able to ride up all but one hill even with the crowd. There were some pretty good hills for sure. Lots of them too! This one is the only one that got me. I had to walk it. It was about 18 miles into the ride and about a mile long. In Spokane we call it Doomsday Hill. It is the big hill in the Bloomsday running race! At Bloomsday a vulture waits for you at the top!
We had gorillas waiting for us as we crested the hill.
This is our last stop. Deanna and her friends all were able to pedal up Doomsday hill. Great job ladies!

Ride complete and of course we have to make a coffee run! We added food too! We all went to Deanna's sister restaurant downtown. Madelines. Hope I got the right Deanna! We laughed and talked like girls do! Always fun to hang out with the girls.

So what is the goal for next year??? I accomplished the goal I made last year after Spokefest. This is it! Doomsday Hill! No walking only pedaling! I better get practicing on hills!!!! Praise God for a wonderful Sunday morning.