South for a Week

Last week, I caught a ride to southern Idaho with Marie to see friends and family and attend her wedding at the end of the week.  I started in Pocatello, spending some quality time with my dear friend Tara.  We worked, shopped, painted, enjoyed good food, and chitchatted for hours as friends do!  It was a wonderful two days, and I unfortunately took zero photos...
I arrived back in Burley on Thursday, in time to do the massive grocery-shopping trip for the wedding reception and get busy making the food, under the direction of Chef Suzie.  And, boy did we ever make enough to feed an army!

Andy and Beth arrived Thursday evening, and we spent much of Friday at my parents' house, helping irrigate and seeing all the changes on the farm since we were there last. 

Also finally got to meet my newest niece!  Such an adorable and very mellow kiddo...

Friday night, Marie's female friends and family gathered 'round to celebrate her last night of single life.

There were gifts and root beer floats...

...and a fun "How Well Do You Know Marie" game, with some challenging questions.

Then, it was time to focus on the big event!

We decorated,

 Occupied the kiddos,

Put finishing touches on the cake,

Formed an assembly line to build sandwiches for the soon-to-arrive guests,

and celebrated with the newly-wed couple.

Then, when the kids were wired...

And the chef was tired...

We sent the bride and groom on their merry way,

Cleaned up the show,

And called it a day.

Well...not quite.  Once kiddos were put to bed, we played the hilarious board game, Quelf.  A few hours of laughing at each other was an even better way to end the day!

Dogwood10

Backtracking a little here, the car show season started at the end of April with a trip down to the Dogwood Festival at the beautiful LCSC campus.  We arrived with some of the car club plus a couple of new friends from the Valley, and our little group of hot rods parked side-by-side was a happy sight!

 We had a terrific time, and how could you not when you're in the company of fellows like these?

 After the show, a few of us went to the McKeehan's shop to see their race cars and their newest toy - a motorized bar stool.

Aaron took it for a spin first, with the invincible Bubble Helmet in place.

 Then, I was talked into taking a couple of laps myself!  The first was very cautious, and once I survived that the second lap was much more fun.

 Here's to many more miles in these fun little hot rods!

"The blessing it is to have a friend to whom one can speak fearless on any subject; with whom one's deepest as well as one's most foolish thoughts come out simply and safely. Oh, the comfort - the inexpressible comfort of feeling safe with a person - having neither to weigh thoughts nor measure words, but pouring them all right out, just as they are, chaff and grain together; certain that a faithful hand will take and sift them, keep what is worth keeping, and then with the breath of kindness blow the rest away."
-Dinah Maria Mulock Craik

A Good Day's Work

Evening thunderstorms, warm sunny days, flowers budding and blooming, and those sheep out back are about to have little lambs...  Yes indeed, Springtime is definitely here now!  This is absolutely my favorite time of year.  It's so full of promise and little happy things like a warm breeze, the smell of lilacs, waking up to the sunlight instead of the alarm.  The season also brings a lot of work to be done - the kind that gives you a reason to spend your entire Saturday outside in the sunshine!

 All the dead things of winter must go to make room for all the green lively stuff!

This year, our lawn needed that spring cleaning treatment.  So, we rented a thatcher and bribed friends Katie and Roman to help tackle the job.  One person to mow, one to de-thatch, and two to rake up the loose stuff and cart it away.  We had a great system going!

 We were done in no time, and decided to finish up that flower bed we tore out weeks ago.

It's properly draining away from the shop now, and weeding it will no longer be a nightmare.  Whoohoo!

After Katie and Roman went home, we still had some daylight, so we started on the garden.  We doctored up the soil in two beds and planted potatoes, carrots, lettuce and peas.  

And, this time we cat-proofed it right away!

The finished product:

We Went, We Saw, We Did

We just returned from our annual trip to the Portland Swap Meet.  This meet is huge! - easily the biggest in the region.  It lasts for 4 days, and tens of thousands of people walk through the booths, looking for something they can't go home without.  Andy found tires for the '49, headers for the '49, cool headlights that might end up replacing the ones on the Dodge (unless I talk him out of them for the Model A...), a toolbox for the '92 truck, and some random smaller stuff.  I found a pair of old roller skates with road wheels...

We (Forrest, Andy, and I) spent the evenings/nights with Suzie, and she was an awesome hostess.  Not only did she take care of breakfasts and two dinners, she also packed lunches for us!  We tested out some sandwiches for Marie's reception (they're very yummy), and cleaned her house right out of cookies.  On Saturday night, Margaret and Greg came up from Independence to have dinner with us.  Suzie cooked up some delicious Thai goodness - trying all the recipes for the first time - and ohhh my it was good!  We had coconut shrimp soup, spring rolls, and salad.  Margaret and Greg brought a raspberry dessert to top it off.

So...I didn't take a single picture, but we had a great time mingling with car people and catching up with family.  When we came home, our daffodils had bloomed!  That's a sure sign that winter is gone, right?

Halfway up that Hill

I've made it halfway up that great age hill, and the climb's been pretty grand!  Birthdays have always been good for getting mail and eating whatever I want, and this year did not disappoint.  In fact, there was so much more to it than that this year...

The big day was on a weekday, so off to work I went.  At noon, Marie and Beth showed up to kidnap me for lunch at the Breakfast Club - best place in town for breakfast even at lunchtime!  I was hoping to spend time with them the coming weekend using the birthday as an excuse, but they told me they weren't available.  Bummer there!

After work, Andy obliged my wish to go strolling in the arboretum to enjoy some of the beautiful day before it was gone.

They've just put in a new pergola, and the forsythia was blooming...'twas a lovely scene.

One of the willow trees was budding out like some spectacular underwater creature.

And, a local veteran was out flying his 3/4 scale replica of a WWI (or WWII?) airplane!  It was really amazing to watch.  When he went to turn around, the plane would actually hover in one spot and the engine got really quiet while he spun on a dime, in slow motion.

After we'd walked up an appetite, we went out for sushi at the Thai House.  It's so nice to be able to get this wonderfully fresh and artful food in our city....I love the stuff!  The owner of the restaurant was our sushi chef, and Andy enjoyed talking business with her.  They're thinking of opening another sushi place in Lewiston since there isn't anyplace to eat it there.  Not a bad idea!

Back home, I opened birthday cards, and found this wonderful surprise in the one from Andy:

I've been a big fan of Jon Schmidt for more than 6 years now - listening to his CDs or trying to play out of his piano books - and this was my first chance to see him in concert (that next Monday).  Sooo exciting!

In lieu of birthday cake, I requested a huckleberry milkshake.  Andy knows how to make it best!

 Besides looking forward to the Monday concert, I figured the birthday treatment was over 'til the next time.  But, when we arrived home from work on Friday, there was a covered dutch oven waiting by the back door!  Inside was this beautifully golden cake:

Andy told me the good stuff was on the bottom, so I flipped it over, and he was right!  Dutch oven pineapple upside-down cake - one my favorites!  Marc, car club buddy, remembered this from a conversation we had months ago, so he baked it for me and delivered it!  That was one delicious surprise...

Now it was time to plan a weekend full of yardwork!  The forecast predicted perfect weather for that on Saturday, so we headed right into town that morning with a list of things to price and/or buy to get our garden up to par and figure out a plan for our unruly flower bed.  When we pulled off the highway, coming back home, we met up with Nick and Jennifer heading out!  I guessed they'd been up in the area and decided to stop by before heading home, so was glad we got home just in time to not miss them!  We pulled in the driveway, and my friend Monika had just pulled up too.  I was blown away that we were so popular to visit this beautiful Saturday.  Monika said she wanted to see my garden since she'd only been to our house in the dark before, so I took her out back and showed off the empty beds and raspberries.  Andy said I needed to show her the house too, and I explained to him that she'd already seen it except the new paint colors in the living room.  So we walked back toward the house, and right as I got near the porch, I caught a flash of red fur in the sliding glass door!  I said..."Wait a second!" and ran the rest of the way to the house.  Suzie had come to visit too, I realized!  This would be perfect.  Beth had told me she couldn't come help with yardwork, but I'd invited my friend Katie to come out and play in the dirt and she'd told me on the phone a few minutes ago that she'd come out today.  Now Suzie and Katie could help!

So, I burst through the back door and into the kitchen, and imagine my surprise when I'm greeted with a whole chorus of voices, "Happy Birthday! Surprise!!"

Not only was Suzie there, but Nick and Jennifer had snuck inside and Katie was already there with her husband Roman, and our dear friend Morgan was all smiles, and the little stinker Beth had made it too!  While Andy had me out of the house, buying manure and such, the clan had been cooking up a fabulous springtime lunch for us!

Andy fired up the grill to add to the feast.

We shared stories of how this whole thing came together - How I'd mentioned wanting to do something with friends this year, but gave up the idea when my sisters weren't going to be around and Andy didn't act too excited about wasting a good yardwork day on a party.  In reality, Susan and Beth had helped him plan it while I was in Arizona!  Then, Andy told about how he'd accidentally locked the door when we left, out of habit, and was freaking out that they'd all be on the back deck waiting for us to come back since our hidden spare key had gone missing a year before.  Beth was surprised to hear this, since she found the key right where it always was!  The other guests laughed about thinking there was no party because the first ones to arrive hid their cars down at the post office, and Andy confessed that all those poddy breaks at the hardware store were so he could answer calls and texts from confused guests - not because he wasn't feeling well!

Gotta love a good surprise!!

When the barbeque had wrapped up and most of the guests had left, we decided to take advantage of the good day and still do some yardwork!  Suzie, Beth, Katie and Roman were the troopers who stayed to tackle our landscaping project with us.

The flower bed along the shop has always been a bit of an eyesore.  Since we didn't plant it to begin with, we don't know what's coming up until it's a few inches tall - so weeds and flowers alike get a fair chance to take over.  And, the weeds have been winning!  Also, the soil is built up in a way that drains water toward the shop - not a great idea.  So, the big task was to dig out all the plants I'd flagged as keepers,

dig out all the other random weeds/plants to dispose,

 and shovel out wheelbarrow after wheelbarrow of spare soil to regrade the bed.

All the extra soil was dumped in the corn patch area of the garden to build that up.  Skipping ahead to the next day, Andy, Susan, and I worked to reshape the bed for the new look we're going for.  That involved filling the truck to the limit with sod! 

Then, we laid weed fabric and replanted the keepers.  And, after all the rainfall that night, we had a second pond!  Yippee...

Rewinding again...after the yardworking party, we were all hungry again.  So, we ate leftovers and broke out the birthday cake Chef Suzie made.

Angel food cake with a strawberry cream filling and pure chocolate icing.  Scrumptious!

Susan and Beth stayed for a sleepover...

...and Chef Suzie was at it again the next morning, making all of us a delicious eggs benedict breakfast - homemade hollandaise and everything!  It is never a mistake to let her take over your kitchen :)

Needless to say, the weekend was a perfect extension of the birthday celebration, and it continued on for one more day!  After work on Monday, we hit the road for the Bing Crosby Theater in Spokane.  The line out the door was a block long and we were at the tail end of it, but the theater is small enough that even a back seat isn't too bad. 

Jon started out with his version of Elvis's Can't Help Falling in Love, and then launched into his own compositions - managing to play all of Andy's favorites and most of mine in the next two hours.  He ended with a snippet of Billy Joel's Piano Man, inviting us to sing right along.  He's a great entertainer - keeping the crowd clapping and laughing, and singing their way back to their cars afterward.

What a way to celebrate a milestone birthday!