ReCap of the Week

Searching for treasure along the Wenatchee River.

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 Each evening I head out to my garden.  There is no room at our house so a friend who lives up one of the many canyons shares her garden with me.  Believe it or not, it is very dry over here.  We have to water every morning and every evening.  I think I watered once a day and sometimes every other day in North Carolina.  The humidity and thunderstorms helped to keep the ground moist there.  However, over here we get very little rain. 

 So far I have picked about ten zucchinis, four cucumbers, and two bucketfuls of green beans.  My tomatoes are starting to turn yellow and the corn is over my head (which isn't saying much.  lol).

Thursday the family headed up to Camas Meadows Bible Camp to visit Bryce who had been at camp all week.  Our kids love going to Camas and look forward to it every summer.  They don't care if any of their friends are going.  They figure they will make new friends and love the counselors.   This year Bryce had Locksley as his counselor.  On Family night the camp has a cookout in the meadow with all of the campers, counselors, and their families.  Then we all head back up to the lodge where each cabin puts on a skit that emphasizes the Biblical lessons that they are learning during the week.  Bryce's cabin put on a skit about Daniel in the lion's den.  Bryce was Daniel.  Todd and I didn't get to stay for this skits this year.  The camp was running an hour behind schedule and we had to do some other errands that evening, but some friends stayed and took pictures for us.

We ended the week by going to a friend's yard sale.  Bonnie picked up several tea cups and brought them home to make candles out of them.  They turned out pretty cool.

Antiques

Bonnie and I thought we were going to be "Boy Free" this week and had planned on celebrating by spending a day in Wenatchee to visit all of the antique stores that are downtown.  However, Brian's boys scout trip was cancelled.  So even though the guys are still home we decided that we still were going to go shopping.  We didn't quite make it to Wenatchee.  There are two huge antique malls in Cashmere that we decided to hit first. Bonnie was intriqued by the jewelry and door knobs. lol  She has plans for her future house which involves using old antique door knobs on all of the doors.  ha ha....  She has some Lambertson/Wright antique blood running through her veins.  My Grandma Bonnie Wright collected antiques and so does my dad's sister, Gloria.  I know they would both love the malls we shopped through yesterday.  Bonnie tried on one dress that was made in the 50s and would have bought it if it had fit.  She likes that Audrey Hepburn style of sophisticated dress.  She also had a lot of fun trying on all of the hats.  It took us a couple of hours to go through the first mall and we didn't even make it through half-way in the second mall.  We decided that we will have to plan another girl day and go back to finish the mall. 

Sound of Music

Last night I got the privilege to work the concession stand for the Leavenworth Summer Theatre.  Throughout the summer LST puts on three musicals, but the most famous one is the
 Sound of Music. 

Every spring kids throughout Leavenworth try out to get one of the coveted roles as one of the Von Trapp children.  Bonnie tried out the last two summers to no avail.  It is very competitive.  I have always wanted to go see the production but prices are a bit steep for my blood.  However, if you volunteer to work at the concession stand you can see the play for FREE!  Wednesday night I got a call from my neighbor who was asked to work but couldn't and passed the request on down to me.  I jumped at the chance.

The set is amazing.  Of course you can see the backdrop is the Cascade Mountains.  From what I understand, just recently LST got a revolving stage (not pictured) which allows them to change from the convent, to the outdoor terrace, to Maria's bedroom in no time. 
Everyone involved was awesome.  Five year old "Gretel"  was adorable and the chemistry between Captian Von Trapp and Maria was amazing.  (It helps that they are married to each other in real life.)

I hope they call me again.  I need to get Bonnie on the volunteer list as well.  She was pretty jealous that I got to go last night. 

Dirty Jobs

Whether or not we will be able to purchase the Chumstick property, we have decided to clean it up.
Days have been spent burning everything we can and taking load after load to the city dump.  Last night we headed back out to the property to fill up another truck load of junk.

This time we decided to incorporate the use of the tractor by using the bucket to scoop up the piles of debris and help pull out some of the more heavy, imbedded junk.  Todd also decided that this would be a good time to teach me how to run the tractor.  Eeekkk!

I don't think I ever got the hang of it.  Stick shift is not my favorite and trying to remember which geared controlled which bucket and which way to push to get it to go up or down....well, I need some more practice.  I let Todd dump the contents into the back of the truck.  I didn't want to have any part in damaging it.

Today Todd and the boys will take the truck to the dump to off load the back end.  I don't envy that job.  I hope they bring a couple of shovels along to help scoop it out.  We have at least two more truck loads of junk to move off the property.  Then we still have piles of wood to burn, but we won't tackle that until this winter when people won't care about what you are burning.  

Tuesday night Todd wasn't thrilled with my dinner plans so he decided to take me out to eat.  :)
I will have to make more undesirable meals so that I can go out to eat more often.  lol
After eating at Los Comparos we stopped in at Lak's Galleria to grab an ice cream cone.  I was trying so hard to be good yesterday, but who can turn down an ice cream cone with your hubby.

Summer Jobs

This summer has been a season of jobs it seems.

Bonnie is working at the pool concession stand.  It is nothing glamorous and sometimes downright boring for her.  We had hoped she would work five days a week but the manager hired four girls to work that one station, so they are each working two days a week.  sigh...not the big bucks we were hoping for.  Bonnie is putting 80 percent of her take home pay in the bank so she can pay for school books and such at the college.  If she finds the course loads manageable she will most likely apply to work in town in one of the restuarants during the school year.

The boys have been looking for work as well.  Todd gave the boys the job of cleaning out the rock pile next to our driveway.  It is a 6 foot by 6 foot square of rocks that dirt and debris have accumulated in and now all kinds of weeds are growing in it.  The boys have had to move all of the rock, sweep up and scoop out all of the dirt and debris and then put the rocks back.  Not a lot of fun but will improve the curb appeal of the house.  They have also been doing odd jobs for the neighbors as they get ready to move.  Of course, Andy pays the boys in frozen yogurt, but hey, they haven't complained.  This week the boys are taking care of another neighbor's lawn making sure it is watered every day so it doesn't dry out while they are away on vacation.  All of these little odd jobs will give the boys some spending money for the summer.  Bryce really wants to buy a game for his DS so that he can play it on the airplane when we fly to Tennessee in 27 days!

Bryce at guitar practice.

I am sad to say that our neighbors are moving.  Just a few doors down lives another homeschool family with two boys ages 11 and 8.  They have been a great family for our boys to hang with.  They have a YARD!!! to play in, basketball goal, bike ramps to jump, a rock climbing wall to climb on in their garage, and they are family I trust.  They aren't leaving Leavenworth but moving further out of town where they can have more space which is great. It means we can still see each other but it won't be as convenient.  Our boys are always hanging out together.  In fact, there are days when I don't even see my boys.  That is one of the things I love about living in town. The convenience of hanging out with friends.  Something we didn't have when we lived out in the country.  In fact, I am becoming quite spoiled as my kids quite easily bike to the pool, the playground or a friends house without me having to stop my day and transport them around.

I'll leave you with a picture Todd took of Bonnie the other day. 

I have yet to be on time to the church office this week.  Not that anyone is here checking up on me.  It is just engrained in me to be punctual, regardless of whether anyone is noticing.  I notice!  Part of my problem is that we have adjusted our morning routine for the summer.  In other words, we are having breakfast a half hour later than normal.  That puts me thirty minutes behind within no room to fool around after breakfast.  I am scurrying around finishing up dishes and handling disputes or tending to my final preparations to get out the door.  This morning I was doing ok.  I had a minute or two to spare when I left the house, but half a block later when I tried to take a sip of my coffee while driving, I realized I had put the wrong lid on my cup when coffee streamed all down the front of my white, crisp blouse.  Ugghh!!!  A trip around the block and I was back at home washing out my blouse and finding a new top.  Finally, I could head out the door, stop by the post office to check the church mail box...empty...then to the church office.  No messages on the phone, no one impatiently waiting for me to open the doors, no janitor wondering where I have been, and yet, I feel guilty for being ten minutes late.  Thanks mom and dad for installing in me the internal pressure to be on time no matter what.  ; )

Backpacking

Brian is off at camp this week, so Todd decided to take the time and take Bryce out on a back pack trip in the mountains.  They decided to head back up to Lake Valhalla where Todd and Brian backpacked last summer.

The weather was perfect when they took off.  Sunny, high 80s, not a cloud in the sky. 

 However, they didn't go far until they encountered snow.  Lots of snow!

They also encountered several fallen trees.  This past winter we had a lot of trees fall down due to heavy wet snow, ice, and wind.  There were so many trees down that at times they couldn't find the trail.  If Todd hadn't hiked this trail several times they would have not known where to go.  Fortunately, Todd has a good sense of direction and a good memory when it comes to hiking in the wilderness.

They finally reached the lake and set up camp.  They spent the remainder of the day fishing and enjoying the outdoors.

Todd decided not to pack a tent especially sense the weather was so nice back home, but it was a different story at their campsite.  The snow made everything cold and by midnight it began to rain.  They moved their sleeping bags under some trees and tried to sleep through the night.

 The next morning they packed up camp and ventured back out of the mountains, climbing over the trees again, and heading back to the trail head.

Bryce did great on the trip.  He never complained but persevered through each obstacle.  Todd was really proud of him.