Amy and Jean's Birthday in Bonney Lake

Amy has been notorious, over the years, making it difficult for her family and friends to get her gifts she could use for her birthday and/or Christmas. This year, Ben and I decided to make her a scavenger hunt around Bonney Lake for her birthday. You know, to test her detective skills and all. 

Ben and I worked on the scavenger hunt for a few days. We worked out each card, made sure each card made sense, they were in an order that made sense and they were simple enough, yet challenging for her to figure out. We didn't want to make it too easy. Once we were done, we ran it by Trish, just to see if it was diverse enough and she said it was perfect.

We planned out the Friday and Saturday we would be there. Because Jean doesn't drive anymore, she had to come down on Saturday with Lynn and her son, Javis. David also doesn't drive and his transportation would have to be planned out. That really didn't leave us with much time to do the scavenger hunt. We would have to see how it played out.

We also talked about the menu and what Ben, and I could bring with us to contribute. We managed to make a menu and made a note of what we were going to bring with us.

Friday, June 6th

Both Ben and I worked that day, and I had packed up the stuff we were going to bring with us to Bonney Lake. I wanted to maximize the time we had after I got off work. I packed up what I could into the Escape (since it was my turn to drive) and all I had to do was wait until Ben came home. Once he did, he got changed, grabbed a couple things, grabbed the cooler and packed it away in the Escape. We were on our way up to Bonney Lake on a Friday night.

The traffic surprisingly wasn't that bad. There were a few slow spots but that's pretty usual with the route we take up. After about an hour on the road we drove up into the driveway. We grabbed as much as we could carry into the house. We did have to come back for another trip. Trish always asks, "are you sure you brought enough stuff?" 

I always overprepare when I travel short distances. You never know what you'll need. She had also asked us to bring an extra folding table and some chairs for the party, so the Escape was extra full. We spent some time settling in and visiting while Trish was getting ready to cook burgers out on the grill. She also grilled some corn on the cob. Ben and I brought some chips to go with our dinner. 

Once dinner was done, we dished up and sat outside. It was such a nice evening! I love summer and wish it was year-round. We talked about our days, the weekend, how the rental house was coming and other random things as they came up. We cleaned up the table, and everyone wanted to play a game, so Amy went and got Yahtzee. I haven't played Yahtzee in a while.

We played two games and I literally destroyed everyone that first game. I was rolling super lucky because I have never gotten that many Yahtzee's during a game or have ever scored that many points in a single game before. It probably won't ever happen again. I savored every moment of it. I slayed them all in Yahtzee!

We had a small birthday party when we went into the house for the night. Trish always gets Amy small roses and Ben, and I bought Amy her own set of measuring cups. We were hoping that Amy planning, shopping and making one meal a week would stick. It failed just like everything else we've tried at making her more independent.

We hung out for a little bit longer before deciding to go to bed because the morning was going to be busy if we wanted to fit in the scavenger hunt in along with when everyone else was going to arrive for the party. It was going to be a short window of time.

I slept the best I could in a bed that wasn't mine.

Saturday, June 7th

I set my alarm for 9 a.m. I got up when it went off and I could hear Trish upstairs getting breakfast ready. I jumped into the shower really quick and got dressed. I grabbed what I needed for the day and went upstairs to see if Trish needed any help. I helped her get the table ready. Amy and Ben emerged from bed. We had a quick breakfast of eggs and sausage. Everyone finished up getting ready and we were in the car just after 10. We had to be finished with the scavenger hunt before 1.

We wanted to make sure we beat most of the traffic and the heat. Before we could start the scavenger hunt, we had to meet someone at the Safeway to sell a leaf blower we connected with on OfferUp. The person wanted it and handed us the money. I gave Amy the first envelope and off we went.

The rules were simple. Amy had to figure out each clue and direct us to where we needed to go. If she was wrong, she had to figure out where the correct place was. She could use her phone to help herself with the clues. We were not going to give away anything. She did pretty well on most of them but got stuck on three of the ten we created. She appeared to have fun, and we took pictures along the way.

We made cards for:

Mazatlan - she had to translate a question asked in Spanish into English.

New Peking - attached a YouTube video onto a QR code of the music video Power of Love by Huey Lewis and the News. She sang a lot of Huey Lewis and the News at open mic night in this restaurant.

Fred Meyer - attached a YouTube video onto a QR code of the music video Low by Flo Rida. Amy works here.

Hops and Drops - a riddle about a neighborhood gathering place.

Costco - she is against Costco and one of her tasks was to go in and buy a $1.50 hotdog and drink combo.

Starbucks - a quick riddle about a quick drink on the go.

Target - a quick whimsical riddle on "targets". We also took a quick potty break at the Target while we were there.

Allen York Park - had to figure out what park to go to based on the history of the Lake Tapps reservoir.

Wendys - attached a YouTube video onto a QR code asking Amy, where's the beef?

Victor Falls - another riddle about a park she had to figure out based on the history of the falls.

We made a loop around Bonney Lake, and we made decent time if we wouldn't have gotten hung up on three of those questions that took longer than they should have. It was approaching 1:00 and we had to get back to the house. Ed had arrived while we were out, Amy went to go pick up David and Jean, Lynn and Javis arrived shortly after.

When we got home, we had a party for Amy and Jean with family and friends. Trish made kabobs, we had a green salad, fruit and chips and for dessert we had cupcakes, ice cream and gluten free brownies. We hung out, visited and had a great time on a hot, almost summery, day.

We thanked Trish for a wonderful time and headed home just before dark. We had another long day ahead of us before we started another work week.

Happy Birthday Amy and Jean!

Next Adventure:  WSGA Southwest Chapter: My First Event at Rainier Vista

Brian's First Birthday!

Mom was probably more excited about Brian's first birthday than anyone was. She started talking to me about it around Mother's Day. Mother's Day was at our house. We made chicken, potatoes and green been sheet pan meal for dinner. I made a purple Funfetti cake for Erika because she wanted a purple cake and I made some gluten free brownies for Ben. The mother's opened some homemade gifts, received some pretty flowers and enjoyed everyone's company. Brian was now walking well, and I had to put a lot of my stuff away because he would grab them and pull them off the shelves.

Over the next few days Mom would pester me about Brian's birthday. I told her she needs to talk to Erika since Brian's her kid. Erika kept saying she would get back to us but never really did until the last minute. I found out on the Wednesday before his birthday that we were actually having a party. Mom made me get a couple of Baby Shark decorations online and luckily, I had enough time for Amazon to get it to us before the party.

Erika let everyone know that it was going to be at their house at noon. Zach wanted to have chili dogs, chips and fruit. You know, something easy for a last-minute birthday party. We all didn't mind because we like food. 

On Friday after work, I went to go pick up a few things. I hit up the Dollar Tree, Safeway and Winco. I grabbed a few decorations, a fun gift for a one-year-old and some chips to go with the chili dogs. I came home, ate something and then went for a walk since it was so nice. I listened to my murder porn. Ben and I stayed up way too late, but I got everything organized for the next day and got in a quick shower.

For some reason I got up at 8. I just went back to bed until mom called me. We talked for almost an hour about random things. I thought about going for a walk, but it was raining and I really wasn't feeling it. I ate a quick light breakfast to tie me over until the party. Ben finally got up, shaved and got in a shower. I was glad I did all of that the night before. 

We grabbed everything we were going to bring with us, including the extra table and chairs, packed it up in the Escape and headed over to Erika and Zac's house to party with Brian! Traffic wasn't bad, which was nice. Sometimes that area during the afternoon sucks. When we got there, we tried parking out of the way so everyone could fit in their yard. 

Zac had the BBQ all set up getting ready for the hot dogs and sausage dogs. We all went inside to see if Erika needed any help getting the rest of the stuff ready. I even packed up the dinosaur year blanket so we could get one more of Brian before he is over a year old. Erika let me get that last month I needed. She had made it really difficult throughout the year mostly because Zac didn't care so she started to not care about it. Mom and I had to do it and some of the months it was hard to get over there and get the pictures. We got his year-old photo, and other people started to arrive.

We had chips, potato salad, fruit, chili, hot dogs, buns, condiments and birthday cupcakes. We all filled up our plates and found a place to sit down. I haven't had a chili dog in quite some time. We made sure Ben brought his own gluten free buns since they are expensive. We visited as we ate food. Brian was having a great time with his pieces of hot dog.

We helped Erika clean up and set up presents on the floor so he could open them up, with the help of his mom, of course. He has been into bucket lately, so I bought him his very own bucket and shovel. I was hoping as some point this summer, we would make it to the beach so we could build sandcastles as a family. He got some new clothes, toys and some stuffed animals. He was so excited with all the cool new stuff to play with.

Mom grabbed him and plopped him back into his highchair so he could have a Baby Shark birthday cupcake. We put a party hat on him and sang to him. This was the first time he's ever had a cupcake and from the look of it, he enjoyed it thoroughly. 

After birthday cupcakes, Erika cleaned him up and we started putting everything away. Our tables and chairs were loaded up and Erika thanked everyone for coming over and celebrating with Brian.

Ben and I got home, unloaded everything and took a walk around the park before getting ready for session 10 of D&D over at Nicole and Del's house. 

I can't believe he is now a one-year-old. The year really did fly by. I'm kinda excited to see what he will be like during his next birthday. I know he will have more teeth, will be walking better and saying more, clearer words.

Happy 1st Birthday Brian!

Next Adventure: Amy and Jean's Birthday in Bonney Lake

Sunday: Girl's Weekend - Leavenworth

After a rough night of being woken up by constant interruptions - drunken snores and it got unbelievably hot sharing a bed with another person. I slept like hot garbage. I did set my alarm for 7:30 but got up earlier than that because I could hear people downstairs. I got dressed, did my bathroom things and headed downstairs to see what the plan was. 

They all wanted to go out and get coffee again. I chose to walk around the downtown loop again, just to get some exercise in and some fresh air. I knew the rest of the day was going to be rough because I didn't get enough sleep. I might take a nap once we get back home this afternoon. It was a pleasant walk, and I ended up meeting up with the girls again. We walked past some of those character cut outs near one of the resort complexes in town. We thought we'd take advantage of them.

We got back to the house and Megan immediately started making us breakfast sandwiches. We ate some of Fitzy's gluten free muffins too. Those were pretty good. I asked her if I could take some home to eat later and she said I sure could. While Megan was busy cooking, we helped her as much as we could without being in the way. We did start packing up the kitchen as we went too. Erika still felt terrible from the night before and relaxed a little bit. She said she just wanted water and a banana.

Food was finished and we all sat at the table and ate while we talked about random things. One of the things that was brought up was where we might like to go next year. Someone brought up Hood River, Oregon and we all kinda agreed that would be a great place to meet up. It was about halfway for everyone. Megan said she would look into housing options while the rest of us would look into activities and what kind of food we wanted to eat while we were there. We had a year to plan out the next girl's weekend along with the notes we took along the way.

After breakfast, we helped clean the kitchen and the started getting our belongings packed up from our bedrooms and making sure we got everything. We packed up the vehicles. I helped Erika get her stuff in the car. She still wasn't feeling great. I hoped she was well enough to make the drive home without a bunch of stops along the way.

We all left around 10:30 and got onto Hwy 2 to get onto US 97. Fitzy and Megan pulled over to exchange money and Erika, and I drove past them to the junction. Erika was doing alright at that point. As we started up Blewett Pass and the roads got windy, Erika wasn't doing as well. She got super quiet. I told her, "Let me know if we have to pull over." She just nodded. I really didn't want barf in my car.  As soon as I said that there weren't any good places to pull over. She rolled the window down and just puked out the window. Some of it got inside - I felt barf drips on me; she got some of it on the seats and the ceiling. Luckily, most of it got on the outside of the car. 

I found the next available place to pull over and try to get the Escape cleaned up. Thank you past Val for keeping wipes in the car for such emergencies. Erika felt terrible about making a mess inside my car. I told her that it can be cleaned up. We grabbed a bunch of the wipes and started wiping up as much as we could. 

Since Megan, Nicole and Celeste were behind us. They drove past us, realized it was us and turned around. They pulled up behind us to make sure we were okay. They thought we might have had some car troubles. I walked over to them. Nope, no car troubles but Erika barfed in the car. They felt bad for me, but we all realized it was inevitable. Erika went hard the night before. I thanked them for stopping. They continued on their way while we finished cleaning up as much as we could. 

We eventually got into Cle Elum and had to get gas at Safeway. It was cold and windy. Megan, Nicole and Celste were also there getting gas. They went inside the store to use the restroom and to get some snacks. Erika and I just got gas and were soon back onto I-90. We had no issues from Cle Elum to Hwy 18 to home.

I dropped Erika off just after 1 p.m. I helped her bring in her bags. She said she was going to take a shower and then go take a nap. I told her that was a great plan. I left and went home. I was tired but I decided not to take a nap so it wouldn't affect my sleep schedule for work the next day. I also decided not to clean my car until later on that week. I just didn't have the energy. 

Instead, I got in a shower, washed some clothes and got a few things done around the house before it was time to get ready for the upcoming work week. I had a great time during girl's weekend. I am excited for next year!

Next Adventure: Brian's First Birthday!