Geocaching in Mount Vernon, Visiting Doug and Jenn in Mill Creek and Home

Since we got to Mount Vernon so late the previous night it was nice to sleep in for a while.  I got up and got ready for the day.  I heard Elaine and Dom in the kitchen making breakfast for everyone.  I had my two pancakes and bacon and milk while I chatted with Elaine.  We didn't want to wait for the guys to get up because they were taking too long and we were hungry.  About twenty minutes later, Michael and Ben came downstairs to eat their food.  Dom wanted more bacon but he had his share for the day.  Elaine had to make some scrambled eggs for Ben because they were not used to making a large amount of food for anyone.

We chilled around the house for a bit.  Ben and I played basketball and legos in Dom's room with him before we all got motivated for a small hike around the Skagit Valley neighborhood.  The weather was decent and I regretted not brining shorts with me. They asked me if there were any geocaches around and I said there were about four of them within walking distance...only if they were up for it.  We changed our clothes and got everything ready to go.  We started towards the park that wasn't too far away from their house.

There Can Only Be One!! (GC54QAE) was on a bus stop sign.  I explained to everyone that I have found caches similar to these ones over the years and that these ones area hard to spot because the fishing line it really hard to see, the fishing line tends to blend in really well to its surroundings.  I found the fishing line and it was attached to something inside the metal part of the sign.  I pulled gently and the line broke because of the overgrown grass inside.  I could not get the small nano container out of the holes.  This cache was doomed.  I said we found it and then I attached a needs maintenance on my online log.  I didn't get a picture of this one because we couldn't.  We walked on down Skagit Highlands Parkway to the next one.

We found a small dirt trail off to the side of the paved pathway and decided to take it.  We found an obvious nurse stump but we were still off by 50 or more feet.  The directions on the cache page were very vague.  We spent too much time here after we figured out we were in the wrong area.  We walked back down to the pathway and found this grassy pull out area and it was muddy.  Ugh, how are we going to get across the muddy area?  Ben had his waterproof hiking shoes on, Michael just went in and got a little muddy and I found a way to get in but only got slightly muddy.  The cache, Knot Hallow (GC3QM09) was either near a homeless shelter or a shelter that was created by teenagers to have sex in.  Either way it was gross.  I found the container thrown on the ground my a muggle and its contents were scattered all over the ground.  I checked my bag for an extra piece of paper to add to the cache because a baggie was left behind.  We all signed our names and we put it back where we thought it was suppose to go.  We let the cache owner know that its been compromised.

We started down the hill to the third one along this road.  We all really weren't looking forward to walking back up the hill after we were done finding Don't Get Stumped (GC5VJNH).  We threw rocks at targets across the street to see if we could come close.  It took me three throws to hit the light pole.  Then Ben and Michael tried to scale the wall next to the road without getting hurt.  They decided that they weren't wearing the best shoes to do it.  We saw several retention ponds on the way down. 

There were birds chirping and animals scurrying about.  We were all looking for a day when it finally didn't rain on us.  Apparently Washington set an all time record for the wettest winter on record from November to April.  I didn't think it would ever end.  We got to the dirt road and followed it to the stump.  I had someone else go and find it since I was the veteran.  It was an ammo can and had lots of weird trinkets in it.  We signed the log book, got a quick picture and put it back.

We started heading back towards the house because we were getting hungry.  Michael suggested we take the Buckhorn Trail back because it was shorter.  We still had to go up a hill though.

I wasn't wearing the proper outfit or shoes for this particular trail.  I wished I was wearing shorts and hiking shoes rather than jeans and tennis shoes.  We finally got to the house and we all realized we were starving.  We threw around the idea of going out to Mexican but then Michael suggested we have burgers and fries at the house.  The burgers and fries hit the spot.  Dom put on a weird kid show of eating cheese and falling on the kitchen floor hurting his face.  He acted like he was dying.  As the day wore on, he got more comfortable with Ben and I.  The last time we saw him he was an infant.  We chatted, played dominoes and ate our food.  It was nice catching up with them again.

We knew it was getting late and we had to get through Seattle traffic on a Sunday so we packed up our stuff and headed out.  We thanked them for hosting us and we would have to do it again soon.  We headed onto I-5 and down towards Mill Creek.  I thought it would be nice to see Doug and Jenn.  Doug gave me his address and it was stop and go near Tulalip and there wasn't a reason for it to be congested.  Then the nice day turned into cold and raining as we entered the convergent zone.  Gross.

We got to Doug's exit and needed some drinks so we stopped at the Fred Meyer.  Hey turns out there was a cache here too!  We literally parked 10 feet away from Five Nights at Freddy's (GC5TWCT).  We quickly found it under the lamp skirt, signed it and put it back in less than two minutes. 

We went inside Fred Meyers and got drinks and a couple of candy bars.  We texted Doug we were a few minutes away and then had to turn around because we missed the road.  We drove up and saw the small park and Doug standing there waiting.  It was nice to see him but with all the stress he had endured the past few months he looked pretty bad.  He was having trouble with his roommate and was urgently trying to find a new place.  It needed to be closer to work, be pet friendly (since Jenn got a cat) and the rent had to be cheaper.  He was hemorrhaging money.  They had to use public transportation because they didn't have a car anymore.  It was just a terrible situation that needed to be changed.  We talked about various things for about an hour or so.  Then we had some nosey neighbors approach us asking if we saw some kids being inappropriate.  We told them that we didn't see any kids in the area being inappropriate except for a few girls playing on the playground and some kids using razor scooters.  They thanked us and moved on.  I made fun of them because they were clearly Huskie fans. 

Doug's quote though,

"Better watch out for them kids because we heard some inappropriate things we didn't like.  Just look out for those kids. Gotta love passive aggressive busy bodies."

He thanked us for coming and we said our goodbyes.  I told him to let us know if he needed help moving and he said he would let us know.  We headed home and the traffic was surprisingly not that bad for a Sunday night.  We got home around 7:30ish and unpacked the car.  I started a load of laundry and got cleaned up.  A new week was upon us with lots of changes.

Next Adventure:  Blue Switch Day!

Seattle, Pike's Place Market and a Sounder's Game

We had no plans for the weekend...but that changed real fast.

Earlier this week Ben and I got tagged in a Facebook post by my cousin Shari.  She grew up with this guy who lives in Shelton and had Sounders tickets.  He couldn't go to this particular game so he was trying to get is money back but didn't want the tickets to waste.  He wanted to sell them to actual fans who would appreciate going to the game.  Ben got on that as soon as he could and he sold them to him.  He got 3 tickets for $63.  He met him over by Shopko and the Regal Cinemas on Thursday to pick them up.  Our tickets were in section 117 near the players tunnel.  Of course Ben wanted to sit with the ECS group in the south end zone.

We really couldn't think of anyone else to go with us except Michael, Ben's friend.  He was a huge fan of the Sounders as well.  We gave him a call and asked him what he was doing this weekend.  He said he had no plans except some overtime at work on Saturday but would be done by noon.  We asked him if he wanted to go to a Sounders game.  He asked when the game was and it was an evening game which made it nice...we could take our time getting there.  He said yes and planned accordingly.  He asked if we wanted to spend the night at their house after the game and we agreed since we haven't seen Michael, Elaine or their son, Dom.

That Saturday we got up, ate breakfast and got ready to go.  Since we were only going to be gone a night, we packed pretty light.  Other than the game and visiting Ben's friends we really didn't have any plans or really knew what to pack.  I packed some extra pants, sweatshirts, socks, underpants and some shirts.  I wanted to bring my hiking shoes but totally forgot them.  We drove Ben's car because mine had already been up to Everett that week for Ben's testing.  We packed up everything and hit the road.  We stopped by both of our banks to get some parking money out and got gas for the trip up.  We were hoping to be there by 1:30 to intercept Michael, who was coming down from Mount Vernon.

Traffic wasn't that bad and we got to SoDo very quickly.  We let Michael know we were in Seattle and he told us where he parked so we could pick him up.  We met him by the Krispy Kreme and we headed out towards the waterfront and Pike's Place Market.  We needed to find something to do for a few hours before the game.  We found a parking garage and it turns out most of the parking we had to pay by card instead of all the extra cash we took out to pay for parking.  Lame.  At least we know better for next time. 

We walked towards Pike's Place Market and we actually got to watch fish being thrown.  It was awesome!!  We found out Michael has never been to the gum wall so guess where we went?  The gum wall!  The last time I was here there was so much more gum stuck to the wall.  About two years ago the city took steam cleaners to the wall and cleaned it to prevent further erosion of the bricks.  It was the first time it was cleaned in 20 years.  It took 130 hours to complete with over 2,350 lbs of gum removed and disposed of.  It didn't take that long for more gum to be added to the wall once it was finished.  There were a lot of people in Post Alley that afternoon.

We made our way down to the waterfront.  Again, last time I was here they were remodeling the waterfront.  It was nice to not see construction equipment and taped off areas everywhere.  The first place we went to was Fisherman's Landing on Pier 57.  That pier was home to the Great Wheel, the Crab Pot and our beloved Sport's Den.  The reason why we even went into the building was for the sports shop but sadly relocated to a different place.  So instead we just wandered around for a bit looking at random shops until we got hungry.  We all decided we wanted beer and the closest place was Pike's Brewing Company in Pike's Place Market.

I haven't been here in years.  I remember the last time was with Megan, her mom, Chaise and his parents many years ago when we went to a Mariner game.  We were seated right away and our waitress was very nice.  We ordered beers.  I had the Space Needle Golden IPA, Michael had the Pike's Monks Uncle and Ben had the Kilt Lifter.  Michael had eaten earlier so just Ben and I had food.  The chicken nachos sounded delicious and Ben got the crab chowder and a side pretzel.

We ate, visited, paid and headed out.  They used the restroom while I went upstairs to mom's Rocky Mountain Fudge Shoppe to get her a half a pound of fudge.  I figured why not since I was here.  I met Ben and Michael at the top of the stairs and we walked back to the parking garage to get the car and head towards the stadium.  The traffic was pretty dumb through Pioneer Square but we managed.  We tried to find the lot off of Jackson that we parked at last time we were here but it was closed.  We found another one near Safeco Field so we didn't have to walk as far when the game was over.  I saw the Ken Griffey statue and we NEEDED to stop and take some pictures.

Earlier we had driven by and wondered why there were a bunch of people walking in front of Safeco Field...maybe a Mariner game?  Then we noticed that no one was wearing Mariner gear.  Then it dawned on me that it was the Bacon, Eggs and Brew event and Nicole and Del were there.  Then we saw the signs.  Pigs have feelings too!  My pig had blue eyes!  Pork is murder!  We giggled, took our picture with the statue and moved on towards Century Link.

We decided to prefunk at The Temple off of Jackson.  The ECS 253 supporters met there as well.  On the way there, Michael had to use the restroom so he went on without us.  We saw an opportunity for a free Sounders scarf so we took the few minutes and got one.  We met up with Michael and the rest of the supporters upstairs of the bar.  We drank a few glasses of Mac N' Jacks and talked with some of the people that were going to try and get us into their section. 

It was getting closer to the march so we walked towards Occidental Park.  We hit the tail end of the rally at the stage.  We found the group we were going to walk with and ended up being in the front holding the banner.

We chanted about four different songs and we got closer and closer to Century Link.  There were tons of people watching us from the sidewalks, taking video and pictures and there were even a few news cameras documenting our movement.  It was pretty cool.  I've been in two others but this one we actually got to be in the front.  We marched all the way to the Safeco Field left field sign.  We stopped at the road, put the banner away and headed to a line.  Once we got into a line, Ben didn't realize he still had his firefighter pocket knife on him.  We tried to hide it in my clear bag (bag rules have been changed in Century Link) but it fell out of my hat and we had to toss it in the garbage can.  Ben was pretty devastated because he received it as a gift.  He knows he should have left it in the car.

We took our tickets out, they were scanned and we found the group of ECS.  Michael and Ben really wanted to sit in their section but we needed wrist bands.  Maybe Paul can get us in?  We followed Paul and he told the usher at the top of the section that we were helping him today and they allowed us to sit in the area.  Of course it started raining as soon as we walked into the stadium.  It was nice the whole day until game time.  Figures.

Ben and I haven't sat in this section since my very first Sounders game back in October 2013 when we met.  Since then we've been to five Sounders games total.  Out of those five games we've tied three of them and won twice.  We were hoping for another win tonight against New England.  The rain kept coming down, harder and harder.  I was getting cold because I decided to leave my NorthFace jacket in the car because I didn't think it would actually rain and get cold.  I did bring some Frog Toggs rain ponchos with me and they came in handy.  However, I was already wet.  I should have gotten it out sooner.  I regretted not bringing my jacket.

The first couple of minutes we played like absolute crap.  The defense had to work hard the entire game because our offense wasn't aggressive enough.  They kept passing it around the top of the box and wouldn't take the shot.  Several times they had wide open looks but passed it to the outside so they could get a horrible cross off and no one was open and their defense just kicked it away nonchalantly.  Anything and everything went wrong for the Sounders in the first half.  New England's first goal was scored off of a mistake by Stephen Frei and then about 10 minutes later we were scored on again by our defense not being in the right spot and having a header hit the back of the net.  We were all standing there like "what the eff was going on??!"  Were the Sounders abducted?  They went into halftime with a 0-2 hole.

Second half was about the same.  The crossbar was not our friend.  We could have had multiple goals in the first and second half if it weren't for the posts and crossbar.  Ugh it was getting so frustrating! Not even 10 minutes into the second half they scored again...making it 0-3.  The game was getting out of hand and it was raining harder.   I was even colder at this point and struggling to keep warm.  I ended up turtling inside my poncho to keep my face, arms and hands warm.

Then, we actually didn't know what was happening, with about 15 minutes left of the game we started showing signs of life.  We started a comeback literally in the 75th minute of the game because of Lodiero and Jones.  Jones had crossed it to Lodiero and he deflected it off of a NE player and into the goal.  The crowd went wild.  The second goal came shortly after in the 85th minute with a header by Bruin.  The crowd was heating up and the Sounders were on a hot streak.  Lodiero crossed the ball to Alonso with the header to tie it up 3-3 which sent the crowd into a frenzy!  It got so loud up in Century Link!  We were all hoping for a miracle goal in stoppage time but it did not happen unfortunately.  We did end up with a point after all that instead of none.

We got out of the rain and ended up in the concourse near the giant MLS cup replica.  We took a group photo with the 253 Defiance group.

We chatted a bit with everyone, Ben and I took our own picture with the trophy and we headed into the team store to look around.  I ended up with a Sounders pint glass and a couple of free posters with the schedule on it.  I kept on, gave one to my mom and gave the third one to Lindsay.

It was getting late so we walked the short distance to the car and dropped Michael off at his.  The traffic was horrible.  Once we got onto I-5 north it wasn't that bad.  Michael on the other hand got stuck behind several trains. 

Ben wanted a snack so we stopped in Marysville at the only thing besides a convenience store that was open; a Denny's.  I ate a salad and he had a turkey club sandwich and some fries. 

We were not the only Sounders fans that were in there.  There were several people that went to the game and needed some food for the drive home.  We used the restroom before we went and headed the extra 20 miles north to Mount Vernon, a place I haven't been to in at least three years.  I forgot how way up here it is.  We got to Michael and Elaine's house just before midnight.  We unloaded out stuff out of Ben's car and headed inside.  We chatted for a bit and then all decided to pass out for the night.  It was a long day.

Next Adventure:  Geocaching in Mount Vernon, Visiting Doug and Jenn in Mill Creek and Home

An Earthcache on Earth Day

The weather has sucked since October.  We've had very few dry days and we all were really getting tired of the constant rain.  I saw that an earthcache, A View of Kettle View (GC6WPEA) had been published just down the road from where we lived and I wanted to go get it.  Plus, we got a badge for the 3 millionth cache that was recently published if we found a cache or went to an event this weekend.  I was game.  "Ben!  Let's go get an earthcache on Earth Day!"  He said sure.

Someone had knocked on our door as we were getting ready.  I really didn't like answering the door if I didn't know anyone was coming over.  So I ignored it.  I went in the kitchen to get some cereal and saw some guy using a machine on our lawn.  I had Ben go outside to see what was happening.  Turns out a company sends out a guy every year to aerate the lawn.  I wish someone would have emailed us so we knew it was happening.  He was only here for about a half hour.  Our lawn isn't really that big.  I went outside and the small chunks of earth brought me back to when I was in high school and they did that to the lawns on the school's campus.  We would call it "turding the lawn" because they looked like small turds.  During track and fastpitch practice we would throw them at each other.  I picked up a couple of them and threw them at Ben.

Of course it was rainy...off and on.  I wore my waterproof hiking shoes and a jacket, hopped in the Escape and drove down Yelm Highway.  I've been to Kettle View park a few times over the years while binge caching, this is when I got addicted, in the beginning.  Kettle View is a small park sort of in the center of where Lacey, Tumwater and Olympia merge.  I am not actually sure what city this park is actually in.  It has a small playground area, a tennis court, basketball hoops and a walking trail.  Some of the housing complex's nearby are still unfinished. 

I open the app and read what we have to do.  We didn't have to do anything outrageous but mostly answer questions about kettles in an area we really couldn't see past the brush and trees.  That made it extremely hard.  You knew there were kettles but answering the questions would have to be pretty vague.  Such as:

"There is a lot of sediment in the area, the topography varies and this one isn't deep enough to reach the aquifer. The piece that we noticed that gave it away was the abundance of overgrowth. It made it really hard to see. The deeper kettle just further up the dirt trail (outside the park) we could see inside the kettle because that one did reach the aquifer allowing not as many plants and trees to obstruct the view."

I think I answered three of the four questions with something about an obstructed view.  I'm pretty sure we answered everything to the best of our knowledge but we will see when we get an email back from the cache owner.  We took a few pictures and tried to avoid getting rained on that much.  It sprinkled but we managed to not get entirely soaked.

Ben wanted to stop at Lowe's to price out some stuff.  We ended up looking at lawn mowers, plastic bins and we ended up buying some lime and turf builder for our lawn.  We won some free lightbulbs and a shower head just for walking into the store.  We headed out to Fred Meyer because we wanted some plastic bins but didn't like Lowe's prices.  We wanted to start organizing our garage and Ben needed some bins instead of keeping his stuff inside of paper cardboard boxes.  We didn't want our lovely rats and mice ruining his stuff.

We got home and for the rest of the day we cleaned, washed laundry and got ready for our upcoming week.  Ben did some homework for his classes and studied for his firefighters exam coming up in the next few weeks.

Next Adventure:  Seattle, Pike's Place Market and a Sounder's Game

Geocaching: A Delphi Road Adventure

I really wanted to go geocaching because it was a dry day and everyone was busy for a while so I didn't need to be home right away.  At break, I looked at the caching app to see which series of them I could get on one road.  I really didn't want to drive all over creation.  I haven't been on Delphi Road in quite some time and several have been added and taken away since I was there last.  Unfortunately at this point I hadn't upgraded my caching account so some of them didn't show up on my app.  It was pretty lame but there was enough to last me a couple of hours.

I got off of work around 4, hopped in the Escape and decided to take I-5 not knowing how the freeway would be at this time.  It actually wasn't bad until you got to the 101 junction the traffic moved a little bit slower.  Once I got away from that awful part of the road it was smooth sailing until the Delphi Road exit.  I found how far down the road the first cache was and noticed that it was probably going to be next to a bridge.  I found a good place to pull over and the cache, Delphi #3 McLane Creek (GC3TWBE) was roughly 120 feet down the road and yes, you guessed it, near a bridge and it was a guardrail cache.  I had to wait until there was a break in the cars to not make me look so obvious when I pulled it out from its hiding spot.  I signed my name, took a picture and put it back right where I found it.

I walked back to the Escape and on the way there I noticed the house nearby had two white ducks.  You could hear them talking to you.  I headed towards the next one, Delphi Golf Course (GC4FNAH).  I had no idea there was a golf course down this road and I soon found out.  Since it was the middle of the week after work, there really wasn't that many people around to go golfing.  I had the parking lot and basically the place all to myself.  My phone GPS was being wonky so it took me a while to pinpoint the location without a hint.  It literally could have been anywhere since it was pointing to the forest.  I read some of the logs and found out where I needed to go.  I found it pretty fast after that.

I got back into the Escape and headed to the next one along the road. Delphi #1 Access Denied (GC3TJD3) was in a housing area.  I get why it was called access denied because the housing area was gated and the neighborhood patrol was on watch.  Luckily the cache was outside the gate, there was a pull out and not a lot of people could see what I was doing.  I did have to wait for a car to drive by before I started looking.  I found some recent drug use in the area, which didn't surprise me, and I spotted the cache quickly so I could get the heck out of there.  I signed my name, took a photo and moved on.  Gotta love bacon flavored toothpicks!!

My second to last stop was at a historical area of Delphi.  Delphi School is located in Thurston County, Washington certified as a historic location on Thursday July 19, 1990. This location is a protected historic place because of historical significance relating to Education, more specifically a School. Delphi School was nominated by as a historic location by State Government based on Event and its significance in Education.  Delphi School was founded in 1895 and they still use the building for community events.  The cache, Delphi School (GCHMAP) is one of the older ones in the area that is still active.  I took a few pictures before finding the cache just so I could get them before the darkness settled in.  My phone was quickly dying so I had to go find the cache.  It took me a little while because my signal wasn't that great.  I was probably there longer than I needed to be but eventually found it after wandering around the trees for a bit.  I signed it and put it back better than I found it.

I walked back to the Escape and my shoes were wet from the grass.  Meh.  I wished I had upgraded my account so I could get the others in the area but they were either premium or the app wouldn't pick them up because of the difficulty level.  I wondered why if they weren't premium.  I figured out a way to go home and still pick up another cache along the way.  I figured I should probably go get Scott Lake Corner (GC71J34) before it disappeared.  It was located in a very busy intersection of Case Road and 113th.  I parked at the store and slowly worked my way across the street.  So many vehicles!!  I managed to find it after going to the second spot I looked.  I signed it quickly and tried to put it back in its spot and cover it.  There wasn't much to cover it with.

        

I got onto Case Road and made my way over to Littlerock Road.  I stopped at the store for a few things we were out of and talked to mom about our upcoming trip to Ecuador in September.  I was waiting to hear back from her to see if I could go.  They met with the lady in charge and we found out there would be room for me and Erika to come.  She sent me the itinerary the lady drafted up and now all I had to do was save up, get my medical stuff out of the way and finish getting my passport.

I got home and decided to work out since it was a nice day.  I ran four laps around our neighborhood and then did some weight lifting in the garage.  I ate some left over chili and cornbread I made yesterday and watched some documentaries on my laptop.  I finished my night up with a chocolate ice cream cone and a shower.  Ben came home after a while from the gym with Josh, he ate food, showered and we relaxed a bit before heading to bed.  It was a long but productive day.

Next Adventure:  An Earthcache on Earth Day

Easter Sunday

Sunday morning I got up, had some cereal and we really needed to take our recycle away.  Since we had our get together the night before our recycle tripled in size.  I had a family gathering at my aunt and uncle's house around 2. 

Ben also had a family gathering except his was at 3.  He wanted me to go with him to his family's gathering but I already committed to mine because it was planned first.  I told him he needs to find out sooner so we can plan ahead better next time.  I decided to leave a little earlier so I could get rid of the recycle. 

I put some nicer clothes on...mostly a button up spring-ish looking shirt, jeans and my tennis shoes.  I left around 1 to head towards Rainier with the recycle.  I like going to Rainier instead of Hawks Prairie because there is less people and less traffic.  If I were to time both places I would probably say Rainier would be quicker just because of the traffic.  I told Ben have fun and be safe and to let me know when he got there.  I loaded up the stuff and drove into Rainier.  I knew it wouldn't take me that long to get there, get rid of the recycle and head out to Tumwater.  The weather was decent so I took the scenic route on Waldrick Road.  At the rate I was going I would be at their house just before 2.

I was the first one there and everyone else was about 10 minutes late.  I talked to Kevin for a bit while I parked the Escape.  I chatted with Ben for a few minutes letting him know I was there.  He said he was almost at his aunt's house in Puyallup.  I got out and went inside.  Kevin and Karla asked a few small talk questions and then everyone started to arrive.  Mom brought cupcakes for the February and March birthdays, except Ben and Jenn were missing.  Grammie brought rolls and Kevin and Karla made a complete Easter meal of ham, chicken, mashed potatoes, gravy, veggies, salad and even drinks...even though I brought my own.

We helped clean up a bit and Kevin and Tracy went outside to hide the Easter baskets and the eggs.  When they got done it was on!  Tracy thought she was clever when she hid my basket.  I found it right away in the first area I searched for eggs.  She was like, "you already found it!?  I thought I hid that one pretty good!"  I continued finding eggs.  There were about 50 of them and we found most of them except for about two. 

Kevin and Tracy circled the yard a few times and told us how many exactly haven't been found yet.  We can't leave eggs with money in them!  I wandered around and eventually found them all.  We each dumped our money out and counted the eggs to make sure they were all there.  I did some trading.  I wanted pennies and traded nickels for them.

We gathered our stuff and I put mine in the Escape. We gave Grammie and Grandpa back their baskets and we headed inside to celebrate birthdays.  As I mentioned before, mom made some cupcakes and Karla and Kevin provided the ice cream.  They dished it up after we sang happy birthday to everyone who was present and not present.   They opened their gifts and cards.  Dad decided to head to Lowe's before they closed and left mom and grandma and said he would be back soon. We talked about some stuff and then it was time to head home.  We thought dad would have been back already.  We thanked each other for coming, gave out some hugs and gathered our stuff.

I headed to the store to get a few things for the week and Grammie called me asking who was going to get mom and grandma.  I told her dad was suppose to come back and told her I was at the store.  She decided to let things happen and she told me she would talk to me later.  Ben called me and he said he was on his way but was going to stop at Walt and Wendy's house for a bit before coming home.  I told him alright.  I was going to go home and get stuff ready for the week.  I ended up washing some clothes.  I am glad we got to do our Easter egg and basket hunt this year.  The weather was decent unlike last year.  We couldn't even go outside because it was too cold.  We ended up doing our Easter egg and basket hunt during Mother's Day.  When Ben got home he said he had a great time but wished I was there.  We will have to do better next time we plan something with family that overlaps.

Happy Easter!

Next Adventure:  Geocaching:  A Delphi Road Adventure

Easter Game Night

About six months ago we divvied out the next few months of who was going to host game night.  We got April because we found the golden egg during last year's Easter/March game night.  The rule was whomever finds the golden egg they will host Easter, depending on what month it fell on.  You were responsible for filling the eggs with whatever you wanted plus putting an airplane shot of alcohol in each of the eight eggs with holes at the top.  I saved five from previous years and just reused them.  We ended up getting three more shots and just put candy inside the eggs.  I got Reese's peanut butter, Skittles and Starbursts...a little bit of everything.  As for the golden egg I found this really cool carrot thingy that you had to unravel it to find prizes inside.  I thought it was hilarious.

A month before I made sure to update everyone on the Facebook group when it was, what time it was, my address again (everyone seems to need it every time we have something over here) what food everyone was bringing and a head count so I knew how many chairs and tables to set up.  It helped having Suzanne's craft table and the table we bought from Walt and Wendy.  It sounded like we were going to have a pretty good turn out.  The only thing I worried about was the weather.  If the weather was going to be bad we would have to have our Easter egg hunt inside the house instead of outside.  I picked up some Easter bingo prizes and the ingredients for the dessert I was going to make, S'mores cookie cups both gluten and gluten free.

The day of I assigned Ben and Suzanne some chores to do so we could get the house cleaned and the food made.  We all had breakfast together of pancakes, eggs and bacon and then from there worked pretty hard to get everything done before 5:30.  I started in the kitchen and cleaned up from breakfast and started on my S'mores cups.  They took about an hour or so and then I washed those dishes.  I had Ben clean the bathroom and take out the garbage.  I swept and mopped the floor and vacuumed the rugs.  We put our clutter away, wiped off the tables, put them in the dining room and got the table cloths out. Ben went and hid the eggs in the front and back yard.  I went and took a quick shower after being sweaty and gross from cleaning all day. 

Our guests started to arrive and we engaged in some small talk and what we've been up to and if anything was new.  Everyone was pretty much here by 6:15.  Several people used the oven to heat up their food.  Fitzy brought the ham, Nicole brought scalloped potatoes, Lindsay made deviled eggs, Suzanne made salad, Celeste brought dip,  Josh and Heather brought some sort of a bun less taco wrap thingy, there was bread, some desserts and drinks. I still couldn't believe that many people showed up to game night.  I think there was about 14 people.

We ate, visited, laughed and carried on about random things.  The atmosphere was great.  Everyone seemed to be having a great time.  Megan had to leave early so we thanked her for coming.  We cleaned up the table and we all decided to go Easter egg hunting before it got too dark.  No one really wanted to use a flashlight.  I handed out plastic bags.  We had half go out the front door and the other half go out the back.  I supervised the backyard.  Ben yelled GO!   They were off!  It was a mad rush to find them.  There were 31 eggs all together.  Eight had holes in the top with small bottle shots of alcohol, one golden egg with a special prize and 22 regular eggs with candy inside of them.

It was fun to watch people look for them and what places they checked.  We were surprised the golden egg was found as quick as it was.  Justin found it so he and Lindsay were to host next year.  We all found them and headed back inside to see what everyone got.  I handed Justin the prize.  It was a carrot wrapped up in streamer material and as you unravel it prizes were tucked inside of it.  It wasn't the greatest prize but I thought it was funny.

I set up the bingo and we all got cards and markers and had a seat.  We played regular bingo, small picture frame, postage stamp, four corners and had a few winners in each because I got some silly Easter prizes.  We laughed, people pretended to yell bingo and Celeste must have had the lucky cards because she won a lot.  Our finale was blackout and she won that as well.  I didn't have a grand prize so I gave out one of my canning jars Ben and I painted and decorated a few weeks ago.

Everyone helped me clean up the bingo stuff.  By that time it was around 10 and some people had stuff to do the next day with their families.  I thanked everyone for coming.  Our next game night was discussed and we came up with a date, time and Nicole would be hosting it.  I picked up a few things, washed some dishes and then got ready for bed.  I was tired from all the cleaning and getting stuff ready for everyone.  I thought it turned out great and had an awesome turn out.  Until next time. 

Happy Easter Eve!

Next Adventure:  Easter Sunday

Danny's 1st Birthday Party, Two Geocaches and Visiting Ben's Mom

About a month ago we were invited to Chris and Rosa's first birthday part for their son, Danny.  Wendy gave us the date, when we needed to be there and what to bring.  It was set for 12:30. 

That week was busy for us so we didn't have time to get a present plus it was for a one year old, what did he really need?  We asked Wendy but we still didn't come prepared.  That was due to getting up way too late that morning and Ben takes too long to get ready in the morning plus he was working on a video for his Dragon Ball Z group he didn't finish the night before.  We didn't leave until 11:35. 

When we got to I-5 it was bad.  I assumed a bag wreck up ahead.  We checked our WSDOT app and just beyond Dupont a truck had smashed into a semi truck.  We called Wendy to tell her we possibly could be late and to start without us.  It cleared up pretty fast when we drove by the vehicles that were in the accident.  It made me wonder what all the commotion was about because no lanes were closed.  Why was it stop and go?  We will never know the secret behind traffic.

We ended up getting there just after 12:30 and we were the first guests to arrive.  I was floored.  Seriously?  We were the first people to get there?  I thought we would be the last group to arrive.  We asked Chris who all was still coming.  He said they invited a bunch of people but some of them canceled at the last minute.  The neighbors walked on over and Walt's sister arrived shortly after.  The last two people who arrived where some of the people who helped with the haunted house.  I can't remember their names but I've been around them a few times.

We dove into the food as soon as we could.  I was hungry.  They had mini sandwiches, chips, cookies, punch, fruit, veggies and cupcakes.  I really enjoyed the sandwiches because they were made on those Hawaiian rolls which gives them a sweet taste.  I took a handful of chips and some fruit and veggies.  I was pretty happy.  I even tried the punch.  It was way too creamy for me so I just had the one cup.

We sat there and ate our food and chatted.  The them was little monsters so there were balloon monsters, signs, and we could even adopt a monster as a parting gift when we left.  The food was even monster themed and all had names.

We basically sat there and watched Danny make messes with his food and then wanted his mom and dad's food instead of his.  Bubbles were passed out and we all blew bubbles at Danny.  They told us he was really into them.  We cleared our plates and cups and brought out his cake.  We sang to him and his dad helped him blow out the candle.  We were each given a cupcake and he totally destroyed his and ended up wearing it. 

They cleaned him up and then opened his gifts.  He got more bubbles, a push toy and a few outfits to wear.  They put him in his little suit and he ran around in it for a while.  They took the pants off and he looked like Tom Cruise from Risky Business. 

We all hung around and chatted for a while.  We paid our next installment of our table and chairs to Wendy.  We now have $150.00 left on it.  I grabbed one of the monsters to take home with me.

We thanked them for inviting us and headed out to Bonney Lake to hang out with Ben's mom for a bit.

On the way there we stopped and got two geocaches.  One was down the road a bit from Walt and Wendy's house in another housing development.  For some reason my app map did not match the road we were trying to find.  I read the description and saw we had to find a specific road that did not show up on the map.  We followed the road to a dead end sign and we all go out without looking at the hint so we weren't even close.  I walked over to the dead end sign and we found Easy Family Friendly Beginner Cache (GC3026D).  I really didn't think where we parked the car would be a problem because we were pretty much out of the way.  Nope a truck wanted to drive down the dirt road where we had the car.  I got in and moved it as quick as I could to allow the guy to drive off.  I'm sure he wondered what we were doing.

Since it still wasn't raining we grabbed one more since it was just down the road.  We looked for the first one but didn't want to spend a lot of time looking for it so we just moved on and would find it some other time.  We drove a little further up the road and found a place to pull over.  The park was covered in water.  Ben told me that most of the year it is covered in water.  I asked him why didn't they just call it a lake instead of a park?  We walked along the only dry part of the park and grabbed WASRF - P2 (GC14RM4) hanging from one of the small Douglas Fir trees.

We took the back roads to his mom's house.  This weekend her niece and her two 3 year old girls were visiting from Spokane.  She was trying to figure out if she could find a place nearby to purchase since she got a hefty amount of money from when her dad passed away.  She was sorta done with Spokane and needed a change.  Earlier that day they all went to Northwest Trek.  We arrived just as Trish was making dinner.  I wasn't really that hungry but I ended up having some anyway.  We talked to Katrina and watched her girls run around, sorta eat their dinner, cry, pout, laugh and be random.

We also chatted with Trish for a bit on the status of Brad moving out.  The date kept getting moved back.  She was getting frustrated with the whole situation and hoped that he found a place soon.  Then we settled down on the couch just before the girls bedtime.  Trish said that we would read them a story and to go pick one out.  Before that one of the girls read us a bedtime story.  It was hilarious.  Then Trish got her turn and about a half hour later it was their turn to head to bed.  Of course they didn't want to, one pouted and one cried when their mom had to bring them downstairs.  We thanked Trish for dinner, gave everyone hugs and headed home.  I was tired.

We got home, I showered and got ready for bed.  I read one of my library books before settling in completely.  It was a long day and we got to see a lot of people and we were one step closer to having our dining room table and chairs paid off. 

Next Adventure:  Easter Game Night

Disney Paint Night

We had so much fun at the last paint night Nicole decided we should do it again except this time Disney!  Everyone was pretty stoked.  Me, on the other hand, had no idea what Disney character I wanted to paint.  I wondered if we could do non Disney painting so I ran it by Nicole.  She said as long as we can make a stencil of it sure!

I chose Toothless from How to Train Your Dragon. I figured he would be an easy silhouette with a moon and a night sky similar to the one we did a few weeks ago. I made sure to find the perfect Toothless for my painting.  I grabbed some chips and salsa to bring for a snack to share with the group too.

Tigs decided to say hi to us for a bit.

Nicole had it set up like the last time, the really awesome Fred Meyer bag table cloth, the various colors of paint and our canvas.  She helped me get my Toothless stencil made and we unpacked our snacks and set them on the kitchen island.  We waited until everyone got there.  This time there were six of us painting whatever Disney/cartoon painting we wanted to do.  Lindsay chose a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle cut out, Nicole did a Edna off of The Incredibles, Sarah did a Alice in Wonderland picture, Suzanne did a painting with Lilo and Stitch and Cheyanne did a different Alice and Wonderland painting. 

We got to it!

I started with a background.  I wanted it to be lighter at the bottom and progressively blend it darker to black at the top.  It actually turned out pretty good even though I thought I added too much white to it in certain spots.  It kinda gave it a "cloudy" look.

I took it to the star box and splatted it with white from the bristles of a toothbrush.

It was time for the moon so I asked Nicole for some advice on how to go about it.  She asked how big I wanted the moon to be.  I found the right sized circle and traced it with chalk.  She said the chalk was easy to remove once I was done with it.  I painted my circle white and then added some craters to it with a gray and teal color.

Next I decided where I wanted my Toothless and outlined the stencil with his body and wings and then painted him in with black.  I used red for his broken tail flag.

Then I added some highlights and some minor details so you could tell he was Toothless and then got a group picture after we were all done.  We had to wait a while for Lindsay because her stencil took a really long time to cut out with an X-acto knife.

We helped Nicole clean up a little bit and we all sealed our paintings with some clear coating.  We picked up our stuff and took the rest of our snacks home with us.  We thanked her for hosting and getting all the supplies together and headed home.  I had some laundry and cleaning up to do.

Next Adventure:  Danny's 1st Birthday Party, Two Geocaches and Visiting Ben's Mom