Easter

We were excited to finally have a little kid to do Easter with this year. Ben and I had to go to the storage unit to grab our Easter baskets, the eggs and the rest of the decorations. I spent the few weeks before Easter going to the Dollar Tree grabbing goodies for Easter baskets. Some people are harder to shop for than others. I go through this every year, and it sucks. I asked if everyone was okay with having BBQ chicken and everyone was good with it. Beans, fruit, potato salad and chips would be served with it. Mom said she would make cupcakes and provide some Cutie oranges.

Ben and I assembled the baskets about a week before Easter. I made sure everyone had a couple things in their basket. We kept them in the extra bedroom so the kitties wouldn't get into them...because they would, if we didn't put them away.

I went to the store to grab the final touches for the Easter baskets and the stuff for dinner. Grocery shopping always takes a huge chunk of the day away. I hate traffic, lines and wandering around the store with people in the way. Shopping shouldn't take that long, but it does. I went home and Ben helped me unload and put stuff away. We spent some time cleaning out the grill since it sat all winter long with the cover over it. It's another job I hate doing but it needs to be done.

I was hoping that we would be spared from rain on Sunday. There was a chance of it, and I hope that chance was slim to none. But with my luck, it will only rain when we were outside looking for baskets and eggs. I got together with Dad a couple days before Easter, so he could get some change to put in the plastic eggs. I had some change set aside and he brought over a sack of quarters, nickels and dimes while I was working one afternoon. Later on, that day, I got the eggs out and divvied them up into the eggs along with the candy eggs. Mom contributed a couple gift cards for our big prize eggs. Those would be harder to find.

The day of, we got up, ate a light breakfast to get us through the morning and started finishing up the house. Ben got the BBQ all fired up and started cooking the chicken about an hour before everyone started to arrive. I got the serving table ready and put the tablecloths on the tables. I put the Easter baskets outside on the back table and now we were just waiting for people to arrive.

Trish, Ed and Amy arrived with the potato salad, Mom and Grandma Karen brought their stuff, Erika, Zac and Brian arrived next and then Dad, Doug and Sonya. The chicken got done as soon as the last people arrived, so it was still hot. I told everyone the food was ready and to come grab a plate. The food frenzy began.  We chatted about all kinds of stuff. I shared more information about my new job that started later on that week, Doug was still trying to find work and had some leads, and I really need to get a highchair for Brian when he is at our house.

We finished up food, Trish and Grandma pitched in with the dishes while Ben and I went outside to hide the Easter baskets and the eggs. We were all excited for Brian to push his wagon around looking for eggs. He was getting better at walking but still needed something to keep him steady. Erika had also put a cute bunny button up shirt on him. I found some bubbles in our garage that Grammie bought years ago. 

Ben and I finished hiding everything and went back inside and got everyone's attention since somebody didn't listen to the rules last year. I explained the rules and made sure everyone was crystal clear on how we were going to do it. I gave them the yard boundaries and told them nothing was hidden inside the vehicles. We all went outside and of course the only time it rained was when we were looking for our baskets and eggs. Luckily, it was brief.

Brian was adorable pushing his wagon around. We made sure his basket was easy to get while Erika helped him find eggs. Sonya brought over some real eggs that she filled with confetti (cascarones). You smash them over your head to bring good luck in the upcoming year. This is something she did with her family growing up and decided to share it with us this year. It was fun and there were confetti pieces everywhere! I pushed Brian around in his wagon on the cul-de-sac and he had a blast! We also played with bubbles!

We gathered for the family picture before it was time for everyone to head home to get ready for the upcoming work week. It should be an automatic day off for everyone after a major holiday on a Sunday. Everyone came into the house and unloaded their eggs and basket into a bag. I put the Easter baskets back into the large garbage bag and everyone thanked us for a good time.

Ben and I cleaned up afterwards and put everything away. The late afternoon was nice, so I took a post-Easter walk around the park. It was nice to get some exercise after spending the last few days getting the house ready for a family gathering. 

I am excited to see how Brian will respond to Easter next year. Happy Easter everyone!

Next Adventure: Friday: Girl's Weekend - Leavenworth

Ben and Grandma Karen's Birthday Party

Since we were gone during Ben's birthday and life was crazy when we got back, we decided to combine Ben and Grandma's birthdays, since they were both belated. I had just got done with one of the busiest weeks of my life. For some reason coming home from vacation is harder than it sounds. I was fresh off of being nominated and won, to be the Southwest Chapter Rep for the WSGA, and being absolutely miserable preparing and anxiously surviving a virtual interview for a job I really wanted. I really could not wait until life slowed down a bit, but I don't think it will any time soon.

I asked the both of them what kind of food and dessert they would like to have and they almost didn't care what it was. Ben obviously needed it to be gluten free. After thinking about it for a few days, Grandma said she wanted ribs, mashed potatoes and salad. Ben likes food so he agreed to that menu. Desserts are hard when it comes to gluten free, so I decided to make pies since "Pi" Day was close to the party date.

I called, messaged and emailed everyone to let them know we were having a birthday party, where it was, what time and what kind of food we were going to have.

I've had some success with my Key Lime Pie, which isn't gluten free, (I would have to make my own crust) and found a gluten free Blueberry Chia on the internet a couple months ago and this party gave me a reason to make it. That Friday after work, I went to the store to grab the ingredients I would need for dinner and the pies. Just about everyone messaged or called me to ask what Ben wanted for his birthday. I had no clue and had them message him to find out. I deal with this during Christmas too. It's like people are afraid or don't want to take the few minutes to ask the person. It's weird.

Ben and I spent Saturday cleaning up the house and doing laundry. Later on, that afternoon, I made the pies so they would be ready the next day and I wasn't trying to rush. I put them both in the freezer to set. We did a few last-minute things before going to bed.

The next day, we got up and finished up the rest of the house. Ben prepared the ribs because they were going to have to be in the oven for a bit. He took the membrane off of then and rubbed them down with our pork rub seasoning. He wrapped them up in foil and stuck them on a sheet pan and threw them in the oven. As it got closer to 2:00, Ben helped me peel the potatoes so we could get them cut up and in a pot. I had no idea how many potatoes to make so I just cut up the whole bag of them and hoped for the best. The salad, I dumped it in a bowl and added some shredded carrots, some cheese and called it good.

As the food got closer to being done people started to arrive. We finished up the food and put it on the table. Once everyone arrived it was game on. We all nabbed some food and sat down. People asked us how our trip went since we haven't had a lot of time to share it with our family. We shared pictures and everyone passed Brian around. He is getting more rambunctious and is not too far away from walking.

We cleaned up and I grabbed the pies. We sang Happy Birthday to Ben and Grandma and dished up some pies. They both tasted fantastic! Both Ben and Grandma opened their presents and thanked everyone for coming and their generosity. 

Everyone gave out hugs and headed home to get ready for their upcoming work week. Ben and I spent some time doing dishes, vacuuming and putting the tables and chairs away. It was great to get together and hang out with family.

Happy Birthday Ben and Grandma!

Next Adventure: Easter

Honeymoon: Euro Trip - Day 15

Our alarm went off bright and early at 5 a.m. I could hear Ray and Brenda moving around in the other room. I got up, did my bathroom stuff, got dressed and finished packing up my suitcase and backpack. I grabbed the rest of the snacks we bought at the store and packed those up too. Ben got ready and finished up his last-minute packing as well. We loaded up the car and started our 2.5-hour drive north to Lisbon. Ray tried to see if we could get a shuttle, but they were too expensive. 

Along the way, we ate our donuts, yogurt, bananas and oranges for breakfast. We chatted off and on, through an array of topics, while we drove. Ben fell asleep a few times when I noticed he stopped eating his breakfast. I worried that we were not going to have enough time to get to the airport, check in, drop our bags off and get to our gate in time. But then, I always worry about stuff like that.

We went over the Vasco da Gama Bridge and into Lisbon. We were making great time until we came to a standstill a few miles from our exit. It was morning traffic gridlock. I started to get even more anxious. Uh oh, were we going to make it in time? We got closer to the airport, and the traffic started to line up in the right lane for the exit to the airport. It inched along. We were so close.

We eventually got off the freeway, made our way through several roundabouts and followed the signs for the departures. Ray found a place to pullover, but it was so crazy, we grabbed our luggage from the back, made sure we had our backpacks, hugged them through the windows and thanked them for letting us stay and spend time with them. I told them that we would see them in June when they come to Spokane for Matthew's college graduation. I told them we would update them along the way and rolled our luggage towards the entrance to the airport. They drove off in their little white car back down to Pêra.

Ben and I went inside, made our way to the check in area for Delta. We got our bags checked; Ben got his fragile sticker put on his bag and the clerk gave us our boarding passes for both flights. I should have asked if our bags were going all the way through to SeaTac, but I guess we will find out when we got to Boston. We had to wait in line, went through security. I texted Liz to let her know we were on our way back home and asked if her surgery went well. My bag had to be screened further, luckily it was quick and nothing was wrong with it. 

We grabbed our stuff and looked or our departure gate. We hiked to that one while we did the adventure lab inside the airport. We found our gate, set our stuff down and relaxed for a bit. Before it was almost time to go, we both used the restroom and they set the area up for passport control. It was odd that they did it at the gate. We got through passport control and got in another line to board the plane. We found our seats and got comfortable. I let Ben sit at the window seat since I had it on the way to Europe. We had an eight-hour flight ahead of us, but least it wasn't a 10-hour flight like it was on the way over. Our flight left late due to congestion on the runway.

Ben watched movies while I needed to read my book for February. I was behind on my reading because of how busy we were in February. The last time I was at Costco, I had purchased another Freida McFadden book called The Crash, because the price was a steal! They fed us lunch, which wasn't that bad, and Ben had some gluten free options. 

For the next five hours of and on I read that entire book. It reminded me of the Stephen King book, Misery. I also dozed off a time or two. Ben did several times throughout the flight.

We finally arrived in Boston. You could see the airport as we descended onto the runway. We pulled up to our gate, and we were patient getting off the plane. 

Once we were able to, we went into Boston-Logan and meandered our way through the corridors to the international arrivals. We waited in a long line to enter back into the US. While in line, I adjusted my phone, so I wasn't on my international plan anymore. I noticed a text message from Liz, she said that surgery went well, thankfully, and to have a good trip home! I responded that it was great to hear her surgery went well and that we were in Boston, getting ready for one more flight. 

This was the quickest passport control we went through the entire trip. They scanned our passports, asked us a few questions and welcomed us back home. Ben and I had to go pick up our suitcases and check them back in, luckily, it was done right there with the clerk, so it was a fast process. Now, we had to go through security again, ugh! Thankfully, it was a speedy process and none of us or our bags had to pulled aside for extra screening. We walked to our gate, and it seemed to be far away from everything.

We got onto an escalator, went up, and at the top a Buffalo Wild Wings Go welcomed us to Boston (and our gate, lol), it was meant to be! We checked to see where our gate was and then walked back to BWW for an impromptu date night. We had roughly four hours to kill before boarding started. We ordered our food, sat down, ate our food and enjoyed the afternoon. Now I can say I've had Buffalo Wild Wings in Boston, Massachusetts. It was awesome!

While we were checking where our gate was, I noticed a Harpoon Brewery, could this day get ANY better? It sure can! Harpoon Brewery had my favorite beer of all time, UFO Wild Maine Blueberry! I was so stoked! I haven't had any since the fall of 2022 at the Cheers bar in Boston. When we were done eating, we wandered on over there and ordered myself a pint. Ben got a different beer to try, hoping it was a good idea. We sat at a vacant table and enjoyed our beers. Ben tried a sip of mine and agreed that it was delicious. 

We finished up our beers, used the restroom one more time and headed back to our gate. Boarding was about 15 minutes or so away, so we just chilled until it was our turn to get into line. We boarded, found our seats and I was next to the window this time. This flight was a little over five hours long. Most of this flight, I wrote in my journal and dozed off and on. At this point, I was so tired, I had no idea what time or day it was. I could not wait until we go home for a shower and to sleep in my own bed. At one point it was too dark to do anything, so we just slept until we were about an hour away from Seattle. Ben watched movies and dozed off.

We touched down in Seattle, we got to our gate, I turned my phone on and was glad to be home. I enjoyed the honeymoon, Europe and my time with Ben, but it was for a shower and sleep! I texted my family's group chat and Trish to let us know we made it to Seattle safely. We patiently waited for our turn to get off the plane; we used the restroom and made our way to the luggage carousel. We waited for my obnoxious orange suitcase and Ben's rollie bag. He was anxious to see if his expensive bottle of alcohol made it the 5,000+ miles from Portugal to Seattle. We grabbed our bags and let Josh know to come get us. He was parked in the cell phone lot. He rolled up, we threw in our bags, and we left to get onto I-5 south towards home.

Ben and I have been up for over 24 hours through several time zones. We were tired. We chatted about our trip as Josh drove. We got home just after midnight, took our luggage in, Ben gave Josh his whiskey and thanked Josh for driving us to and from the airport. We unpacked some of our stuff, got in a shower and went to bed around 1:30 a.m. For reasons beyond me I got up at 8:00 a.m. the next day. Being halfway around the world for about two weeks messes up your internal clock. For the next several days, I was getting up at weird times and going to bed at weird times. 

I finally made it over to Europe and I want to go back to experience different countries. Hopefully it's sooner rather than later.

Some notes:

We found 54 geocaches in 5 different countries.

We got a FTF in Portugal and found the oldest geocache in Europe (GC43).

I have now been to 11 countries.

This was Ben's first time out of the country besides Canada.

We drove our rental car 1,521 miles.

Next Adventure: Ben and Grandma Karen's Birthday Party