Friday, July 12

Venue Decorating, Rehearsal, Pizza and Swimming Pool

We have finally arrived!  The day before!  

My mind was racing to figure out what needed to be done before we left the house and drove down to Chehalis. I woke up around 8ish, got ready and went over to Hobby Lobby and Michaels for some more ribbon (I didn't purchase enough) for our trivia scrolls we were putting at each of the place settings.  Rhonda texted me to see if it was an okay time to come over to learn how to take care of our cats for Saturday. I told her I wasn't home but would be home shortly.  Ben and his mom were there.  She said she would walk over and have Ben help her.  I continued with my errand and then went home.

I got home, Rhonda was at the tail end of Ben's cat instructions, and I knew we needed to eat something for breakfast before we got busier. I grabbed the sausage, cut it up, scrambled some eggs and mixed them both together for some sort of an egg/sausage scramble.  Willmarth had texted me around 10ish stating that he had made it to Auburn. Ben and I eat it all the time in a pinch. We took a few minutes to eat and go over some last-minute stuff.  Mom finally got there, and she helped us go over our inventory and packed up the cars.  We had made sure we had everything we needed stuffed into the totes.

Ben and Trish left with a carload of stuff just before 11:30. Mom left to go run some errands in town.  We made a grocery list and gave her my debit card.  Willmarth arrived at the house around 11:30 in his girlfriend's car.  I haven't seen him in person since June 2023 when we originally asked him to be our officiant. Life had changed so much since then and there wasn't enough time on this visit to talk about it.  I handed him his Kraken hat; we had gotten it for him as a gift many months ago.  He loved it and stated he didn't have a Kraken hat yet and would someday love to go to a game.

I gave him the quick tour of the house...the room he would be staying in, where the bathrooms were, towels, extra blankets, gave him rules on the cats, the itinerary and gave him a house key.  I told him if he had any questions to call or text me.  He handed me a present and told me a little bit about his day so far. 

I finished up with packing the Escape, made one more sweep of the house and told him I was heading down to Chehalis.  He said he had to go pick up his allergy meds and some clothes for the ceremony.  I told him I would see him down there.  We left at around the same time.  Nicole and Megan arrived at the barn and asked where I was on my journey.  I told them I just left but Ben should be getting there any minute with a carload of stuff.

The drive down was uneventful, and I arrived just after 12:30. I pulled into the parking lot in front of the barn, and I had help unloading my bins and stuff I had in the Escape.  Ben and Trish went to go pick up the cake and cupcakes in Onalaska and Josh and Heather picked up the kegs on their way down and showed up just as I got to the barn.  The boys dollied them into the bar area and got them set up.  Then I heard people were at the Airbnb wondering what room they were in.  I drove the Escape over to the house and parked it there.  That's where it stayed until Sunday afternoon.  

I brought in the rest of my stuff and got out my room assignments.  I made trees for everyone with their names on it.  I walked around the house putting the trees up so when everyone did finally arrive, they knew where to put their stuff. Ben and I did have to make one alteration because one of the rooms did not have an actual bed for two people in it.  I guess it was a good thing my Dad wasn't going to stay the night with us.  Everyone got settled in and Megan found a rogue bra from some other gathering behind one of the ottomans.  We laughed.





Ben and I took our stuff to the cottage out back past the swimming pool.  We chose our sides of the bed, set up our toiletries, hung up our wedding stuff and went back to the main house.  I had a bunch of people finish up tying ribbon on the scrolls.  I assembled everyone so we can go back over to the barn to start decorating.  By 1:30, just about everyone was on the property except for Dad, which didn't surprise me. I knew Doug wasn't going to make it because he had to work, but that was fine.

There were three places we had to decorate, upstairs of the barn, downstairs of the barn and the ceremony area outside.  Ben and some of his guys worked on getting the bar area set up downstairs and I was back and forth from the supplies warehouse to the upstairs of the barn to the ceremony are outside. I was constantly being pulled in directions answering questions.  We did get into a rhythm and were making great use of our time.  It was coming together!  Ben and I tried really hard to make it simple, yet, nice to look at. We were also thankful for Kari's decorations in her warehouse because it saved us so much money.















As it got closer to our rehearsal, Ben and I made several trips to the three areas in and around the barn to make certain, we had it decorated how we wanted it. Our friends and family did a great job.  Everything looked nice and were in the correct places.  Willmarth spent time perfecting his officiant speech and had us, along with our witnesses, sign the documents we needed so we didn't have to do it tomorrow when we were distracted.  I was getting worried because Dad wasn't on the property yet and he was needed for our rehearsal walk through.

Mom and Trish went to go get the pizzas from Papa Pete's in Castle Rock.  This is what Mom wanted to do so I let her be in charge of that. We both just figured pizza was easy to provide for 20+ people.

Unfortunately, we started the rehearsal walk through late.  Dad did end up making it down and Mom and Trish made great time to and from Castle Rock.  Our DJ Darin and Barb (Nicole's mom and stepdad) made the trip down after work as well.  We pulled the wedding party into the bottom of the barn and went through verbally what we were going to do.  I wanted my walk out song to be a surprise but it was okay to ruin the surprise so we could time everything out.

We only had to go through it once, everyone knew their job and everyone's questions were answered. Easy peasy.  We spent the next hour or so eating pizza and salad and visiting. As it died down, I wanted to hop in the swimming pool.  It was so warm that day running around, making decisions and slowing losing my mind, I needed to relax a bit.  I knew the next day was going to be an insanely long, tiring day.



We swam for a while until we got tired of it.  Ben and I took quick showers in the cottage, the water tank in there sucked, the water was luke warm and not very powerful. It was a quick shower.  I got dressed and went over to the main house to hang out for the rest of the evening.  A bunch of us spent some time eating snacks, drinking beer and playing board games.  Some of the others, watched movies or went to bed early. 

We cleaned up and everyone retreated to their rooms.  I told everyone we would see them bright and early the next day.  Ben and I retreated to the cottage, made sure everything was ready and spent about an hour working on our choreographed dance. We brushed our teeth and laid down.  The bed was surprisingly comfortable.  

I am not sure how much sleep I actually got, but it wasn't enough.  I couldn't shut my brain off.

Next Adventure:  Our Wedding Day!

Thursday, July 4

The 3rd and the 4th of July

Wednesday, July 3rd

My alarm went off and I wondered what kind of a workday I was going to have. I logged on and found out that morning that my supervisor decided to take away the data collections and give them to the nurses.  I sat there and was like, hmm, more stuff taken away and nothing to replace it with and it was very poor timing on her part as well due to the 4th of July holiday.  I worked on my share of the date extensions and then waited until the other work came over.  My afternoons were already boring and now my early mornings were now too.

That day, I was pretty much done with all of my work by lunchtime. I spent some time putting up barriers in the cul-de-sac so no one would park along our stretch of street. 

The other day, Mom wanted us to get together for dinner before the fireworks at Rainier Vista Park.  We came up with a menu and everyone was going to come over to our house.  We decided on burgers, beans, chips, potato salad, brownies and key lime pie.  I had most of the stuff already and only had to go purchase a couple things earlier that week.  We invited Josh, Heather, Mom, Dad, Doug, Sonya, Doug, Erika, Zac and Brian.

When it was finally time to log off for a day (I really hate it when holidays are in the middle of the week because it ruins the week), I got my shoes on, grabbed my keys and headphones and went for my daily walk around the park.  The neighborhood and park were starting to get busy.  I listened to my murder porn and did my loop.  I noticed that the park had painted an American flag on one of the soccer field hills and I thought it was pretty cool.


I got home and started getting the tables and chairs out to the back yard.  Ben came home shortly after and helped me.  He got the grill going and I started getting the rest of the food going.  Everyone came over around 6ish.  We ate, hung out and talked about wedding stuff since it was about a week away.  We still had a bunch of stuff left to do.  Mom had brought over some baby clothes and boxes from our cousin Amanda, who had just moved, and her son outgrew his clothes and thought Erika might like them.

Erika, Zac, Brian and Dad left just before 8 to go home.  They didn't want to watch fireworks at the park.  Doug and Sonya went over early and saved us some spots while everyone else helped us put the food, tables and chairs back into the house.

Mom, Heather, Josh and I grabbed a couple of blankets and walked over to the park through the neighborhood.  We got closer to the park, and I texted Doug to see where they were. He said they were right by the fence and tree line as you entered the park from the neighborhood, and we will see them.  I told him okay.  We got into the park, and we saw them just as he said we would.  We put down blankets and got comfortable.  We had about a half hour to go until 10.

I told Mom that this was probably the last time we were going to do the Rainier Vista fireworks with the eventual move and all.  I was not going to drive out from Rainier and try to find a place to park or try to leave the area afterwards.  We have gone every year since 2017 except for the Covid years (2020 and 2021) when the event didn't take place.



I remember the first time Ben and I went to the fireworks at the park.  Erika was living in Nevada and she and Travis rode up on the motorcycle to visit for a couple days.  We walked from the 59th Loop house to the park.  We didn't realize it was that far of a walk and kinda regretted it. We still had fun until we got home and found out our roommate that was living with us invited her boyfriend over without telling us and he almost got punched in the face.  The reason being that the hallway was dark when we got home, and we saw someone we didn't know coming down the dark hallway.  We were very angry at her for not communicating.

Anyway, fireworks promptly started at 10:00 and went until about 10:20.  I love this time of year.  It is hands down my favorite.  I wish it could be July year around.  Fireworks just make it even better.


We gathered up our stuff and started making the walk back to the house.  Doug and Sonya left as soon as they got back, and Mom loitered around for a bit.  Josh, Heather, Ben and I stopped by Randy's house and Ben and Josh took shots with Randy.  Mom decided to leave and stop at the store for some strawberries.  She called and told me she had to fight with traffic, and it took her a while to get to Safeway.

Josh and Heather left after a while and Mom texted me that she got home just after midnight.  Ben and I did the dishes, cleaned up the rest of the house and then went to bed late.  I am so glad I didn't have to go to work the next day.

Thursday, July 4th

I woke up around 9:30ish, ate a light breakfast and turned on ESPN to watch the Nathan's hotdog eating contest.  I did not see Joey Chestnut competing and wondered why.  I looked it up.  He was banned from participating in the 2024 contest due to a competing sponsorship with Impossible Foods.  Well, that saved me some time that morning. Instead, I did some laundry and put some stuff away.

Ben eventually got up, ate breakfast and then got ready to go for the day.  We had a couple of stops to make before heading over to Eatonville to Paul and Peggy's lake house for the 4th.  I asked Megan if we could stop by and bring root beer over for their root beer floats (she and the kids had made homemade ice cream the day before) and she said to come on by.

Ben and I got organize, got everything packed up into the Escape and stopped by Walmart to grab a few things and the root beer we promised Megan.  We drove into Rainier and stopped by the storage unit so we could pick up our floatie tubes.  We were at the storage unit for a bit because we had to get to the back of the storage unit where the tote was.  I high fived past Val for labeling the totes so we didn't have to open all of them.

We put everything back, loaded up the Escape with the tote that we needed and headed over to Megan's house for a bit.  When we got there, Megan was helping her dad with the tractor and Miles and Mason had a giant plastic tarp with the sprinkler on it dumping soap so they could slide across it.  I found this amusing and we totally did this as kids too.  Miles and Mason took turns sliding across it a couple times before Megan came back.

She came out of the woods on the other side of the driveway and asked if we wanted to come inside.  We brought the root beer with us into the house.  The boys rinsed off and wrapped towels around themselves.  We couldn't stay long so we chatted for a bit, she told us about her upcoming trip to Yellowstone with the boys, she gave us some of the homemade ice cream and some eggs, we thanked her, and we headed over to get Grandma. 

We got to Grandma's, helped her cram the Escape with her stuff and drove over to Mom and Dad's house.  Mom was actually ready to go.  We transferred everything from the Escape to her Expedition. Everyone piled in and we headed off towards Eatonville.  Dad was going to drive himself over later.  We got there around 3:30. We unpacked all of our stuff and drove it to the lake side of the house.  Ben and I spent some time blowing up our inner tubes. 

We said hi to the people who were there that early and then Ben and I got into our suits and spent about an hour floating around in the lake.  It was such a nice day!  I love summertime! It was so nice to just float, enjoy the sun and relax a little bit before the wedding (which was the previous weekend) and we still had a lot of stuff to do. 

It was almost time for us to get out and Amy, Trish and Ed showed up.  Amy got changed and went into the lake for a little bit.  Ben and I wandered around visiting with people we hadn't seen since the last 4th of July. We had invited most of them to the wedding so that is what they wanted to talk about.

They took the boat out a couple times and circled the lake. I didn't go on it this year.

They had started dinner around 5ish, and everyone was helping Peggy get things ready in the kitchen. I helped bring out some of the food to put on the tables on the porch.  There was a lot of food but there were also a lot of people there too!  I enjoyed a hamburger and some of the sides, fruit and chips.  It was delicious on an 80-degree day.  I was in my favorite time of the year.  We visited some more, had a small birthday party for Bev, played with some of the daytime fireworks and waited until it slowly got dark.  All of the lake houses along the shoreline lit their red flare.




We got out some sparklers and messed around with those and then found our chairs, got comfortable and watched the barge float across the lake until it reached the middle.  We wondered what was going on because they did not start promptly at 10, like they've done in the past.  We thought maybe there was a malfunction of some sort.  They did finally get it going around 10:15 and the show was amazing, like it always was.





We gathered up our stuff, packed it in Mom's wagon and took it to the Expedition.  We thanked Paul and Peggy for a wonderful time, and they said they would see us at the wedding the following weekend. We piled in all of our stuff into the back of Mom's vehicle and headed back to Rainier to drop off Grandma and Mom.  We got our stuff into the Escape when we dropped off Mom, we got gas and Ben, and I went home.  I showered really quickly and went to bed around 1.  We had to go to work the next day.  I really hate having holidays in the middle of the week.  It really does wreck the week and gets people off their routines.

Next Adventure:  Venue Decorating, Rehearsal, Pizza and Swimming Pool

Wednesday, June 19

Shop Hop around King and Pierce County with Grandma and Janice

Mom caught wind that I had the day off on Wednesday because of Juneteenth.  The Western Washington Shop Hop was also going on until the end of June as well.  Mom always tries to plan out those two weeks with her quilting ladies and me.  In the past, I have driven her and Grandma around, but this year we were busier because of the wedding.  I told her I would stand in for her because she had to work that day.  I got to work making a route and putting the addresses into my GPS.

I called Grandma and told her that I figured out a route we could do.  She said Janice was interested in coming with us as well.  I told her to arrange specifics with Janice and meet up at my house at 9 a.m. and I will drive the route for the day.  She thought that sounded like a great plan.  I shared it with Mom and told her that she was responsible for getting Grandma her passport and the money for the finishing kits.

I had set my alarm for 8:45 because it doesn't take me very long to get ready in the morning, but Mom had called me at 8:30.  She wanted to let me know that she gave Grandma the passport and finishing kit money.  I told her okay and she said to have fun.  I really didn't want to go to quilt stores on my day off but at least I wasn't at work.  The quilt stores opened at 10 a.m. and closed at 5:00 p.m.  That was our shop hop window.

Grandma and Janice arrived just after Mom called.  They were super early.  I got up and got ready quickly.  I used the restroom, got my clothes on and they hung out and used the restroom until I was done.  I grabbed a banana and threw all of our stuff into the Escape. I ate the banana as I drove to our first location.

We got onto I-5 and our first stop was Pieced Together Quilts in Lakewood.  I wasn't sure how the traffic was going to be, so we gave ourselves plenty of time to get to Lakewood.  We got there super early, and we had to wait in the parking lot for a little bit until they unlocked the doors.  We did find out that the children's consignment shop next door was open, so we went in there for about 15 minutes.  I did find a few things for Brian and a couple things for Mom.  I paid for my stuff and met Grandma and Janice inside the quilt store.  I got my passport stamped, the free quilt pattern and wandered around the store for a few moments.

Erika texted our family thread to let us know that Zac's mom, Nancy, passed away that morning due to her cancer.  The last few months have not been kind to her, but she was happy she did get to meet Brian.  We told Erika we were sorry, and she said that Zac was happy she wasn't suffering anymore but deep down he was going to miss his mom.

We finished up at Pieced Together Quilts, hopped back into the Escape and I set my GPS for Shibori Dragon in University Place.  We made our way over.  Janice told us that she comes to UP often because her daughter Mary, her husband and kids, live not too far away from the quilt store.  I remember coming to this store the year before with Mom, Grandma and Janice on our way to do the Olympic Peninsula. 

We pulled into the small parking lot and there were tons of older women inside the quilt store while their husbands waited for them inside the car.  I thought this was hilarious because Dad would never take Mom shop hopping. We got our stamp on our passports, and I noticed Mom's was almost full from the previous trips she took over the weekend to other shops and walked back out to the Escape to drive to the next one.

We got onto I-5 and made our way up to the Des Moines exit.  I've been to Carriage Quilts many times in the past, so I knew how to get there.  It was down near the waterfront on the main drag of town.  The parking is the worst part about going there. I was hoping we timed it right to where we could just pull into one of the spots off the road in the front.  We arrived and I saw there were no available parking spots.  Luckily, we had Janice with us, and she knew where to park in the alley up the hill.  We maneuvered the Escape into a spot, got out and entered through the back door.  We got our passports stamped, turned Mom's in and started a new one, and I got Mom her finishing kit for this quilt store's block.  We wandered around the shop for a few minutes, Janice ended up purchasing some stuff and we left.

We got back onto Hwy 516, drove over I-5 and down the hill into the valley towards Kent.  Running Stitch Fabrics is in the middle of downtown Kent and parking was difficult since it was parallel parking on the street. I never get lucky enough to park in front of the store.  We usually have to park and walk.  Well, we were in luck today!  I got to parallel park right in front of the store this time and yes it was awesome! We went inside and walked to the back of the store to get our passports stamped.  We wandered around for a few minutes and then headed to the next one.  



I got us out of Kent and onto 167.  I was so happy the traffic was minimal because this area absolutely sucks during certain parts of the day.  From 167, we got onto Hwy 410 and up the hill into Bonney Lake.  I wanted to get the one in Buckley out of the way first.  We made our way to Front Porch Quilts.  This is another quilt store I've been to a bunch over the years and mostly with Mom.  We had to go around the block a few times to find a place to park.  The ladies are always nice at this quilt store and their bathroom sign makes me laugh every time. 

We got back onto Hwy 410 and back into Bonney Lake.  I had texted Trish earlier to see if she would meet us at the Ben Franklin Crafts, but she decided to go to work that day and wasn't home.  Bummer.  We got our passports stamped, wandered around the store and I actually found a few things to purchase.  I bought some scrapbooking stuff and a sign for our wedding since it was on clearance. It will go well with our theme. 

Our next stop was The Quilt Barn in Puyallup.  I found the correct address on the Nuvi and off we went!  Again, traffic was minimal, and we were able to get there pretty quickly since we had a time limit.  We made our way to E Main, the road that connects Sunner with that part of Puyallup, near the river.  I've been to this quilt store a few times and it's one of the newer ones throughout the years. We got our stamp, wandered around and thanked the ladies.  I rarely purchase anything while shop hopping. 

My shop hopping posse was getting hungry.  I asked Grandma and Janice what was sounding good to them, and they said just about anything.  I hated that answer.  I hate being in charge of choosing where to go. We got up to Meridan where most of the food was.  I asked everyone if Burger King was good, and they all said that it was fine. I ordered a chicken sandwich and ate some of Grandma's fries.  The weird kid working there needed to tell me he had one hour of sleep and then came to work for a full shift.  I would die if I did that, even if I was 18, 25 or 37.  I would die. 


After our food pitstop, we drove further up Meridan and stopped at The Quilting Fairy in Puyallup.  We got our passports stamped, got our block and this is another place Mom wanted the finishing kit from.  I handed over a couple bucks and received a little packet of fabric, buttons and other knickknacks. We hopped back into the Escape and got back onto 512 to Hwy 7.

We were making pretty good time.  We stopped briefly at All Things Sew in Tacoma (basically Parkland) and almost got hit by someone in a truck being impatient.  I hate people.  We were in, got our passport stamped, got our free block pattern, thanked the ladies and left.  I was bound and determined to get to the quilt stores in Lacey and Olympia before 5 p.m.  I followed Hwy 7 to Hwy 507; we drove through Yelm and onto Yelm Highway.  I've never been to the Shiplap off of the Yelm Highway before and have driven past it hundreds of times. 

We found a place to park, went inside and got our passports stamped.  It served as a feed store as well and the place smelled like chicken food to me. We thanked the ladies and jumped back into the Escape.  We had one more place to hit up before it hit 5.

Stitches Quilt and Craft was our last stop of the day.  We had about a half hour to spare when we pulled up in the parking lot.  This was the lady who owned the quilt store in Westport and moved it to Olympia because of the better market.  Her store front is an old bank just a couple blocks down from where Erika and Zac lived. We got our passports stamped, she handed us our free quilt blocks and we got out of that area of town before people got off work.

I took Grandma and Janice back to my house; they used the restroom and thanked me for driving them around all day.  I handed Grandma all of Mom's stuff since she was going to see her before I did.  They left and I started dinner.  Ben and I had a copycat Hello Fresh beef rice bowl.  We worked on some wedding stuff and relaxed before having to go to work the next day.

Another shop hop in the books!

Next Adventure:  The 3rd and the 4th of July