Saturday, August 6

Trish's Backyard BBQ on her DECK

Trish has always wanted a deck, so she saved up some money and made her dream come true last summer.  Just about every day during the summer, she ate, hung out or read outside in the sunshine.  She bought an outdoor rug, chairs, table and umbrella to outfit it.  It was perfect.

I always joked around about having a deck party at her house.  She surprised me one day and agreed to have one!  Now, we just had to find a day and time that works best for everyone.  I knew we had to find a weekend Ben wasn't working at the station or the speedway.  We decided on that first weekend in August. 

I asked Erika if she and Zach wanted to go to Trish's BBQ and originally, she said yes but then changed her mind once she found out it was in Bonney Lake.  I asked her why she said yes in the first place, and she said I thought she was having it at her house.  Why would Trish host a BBQ at my house when she has her own house to do it at?  Her and Zach didn't go.  Doug dropped what he was doing on Friday and drove to Wenatchee to hang out with Ross, so he didn't go either. 

Mom, Dad and Grandma Karen agreed to go with Ben and I and Trish assigned us food items to bring with us. Ben and I brought buns and some chips.  Grandma brought dessert and Mom and Dad brought beans and tomatoes. 

Mom woke me up early that day stating that I needed to take Charlie over to Erika and Zach's house before we left for Bonney Lake...mostly so Charlie doesn't have to sit in his pen all day without someone being there. I told her it was a good idea even though I didn't want to drive all the way to their house.  I packed up the red truck with all of Charlie's stuff he would need overnight, put Charlie in the truck and headed over to their house.  It took longer than I anticipated because of the traffic and the stop lights. 

I dropped Charlie off with all of his stuff and Erika and I talked for a little bit in the back yard while all the dogs ran around.  I was there for about a half hour and then I went home.  I had to get Ben out of bed--he should have been up getting ready to go.  I got the recycle ready, threw the stuff in the Escape that we were taking to the BBQ and headed out once Ben was done getting ready.

We got into Rainier, dropped off the recycle and went to Mom and Dad's house so Ben could drop me off.  Mom didn't want to drive up to Bonney Lake for some reason.  Ben drove the Escape to Bonney Lake.  I wrangled up Mom and Dad and then drove over to Grandma Karen's house to pick her up.  We went the back way through Spanaway and got onto Hwy 12, briefly onto Hwy 167 to Hwy 310.  Traffic wasn't too bad, but we did hit some.  We did get to Trish's house a tad bit late, but she was okay with it since everyone was not all there yet.  I thought it was rather odd Ben wasn't there yet, but I found out he made a stop at the store for ice and beer.

Aunt Jean came down from Seattle to hang out with us for the afternoon.  We haven't seen her in a while, so it was fun to hang out and chat with her.

We unloaded the vehicles, hung out for a bit, Trish started the burgers and brats on the grill while we helped her get the toppings, chips, potato salad, fruit and veggies, beans, buns and everything else ready on the dining room table.

We loaded up our plates and went outside to eat food on the deck!  The food was delicious as always.  You always seem to eat more food than you need to.  We helped clean up a bit and I got out both marble boards and my tin of marbles and dice.  Some people made room for Grandma's apple crisp while we played a two-board tournament.  We picked randomly out of a hat and then the winners played each other, and the losers played each other.  We played a good three rounds before everyone was pretty much marbled out.  

Trish set up a kiddie pool in the back yard because some other friends and family were supposed to come with their kids but couldn't make it out.  So, I stood in the pool for a bit since it was a hot afternoon.  

Amy decided to be somewhat of a butthole that afternoon and decided not to eat with us or play marbles with us.  It was disappointing.  This was supposed to be a fun family memory of us hanging out.  Trish told us later on that Amy had a tummy ache.  Why couldn't she just tell us she wasn't feeling good?  We will never know.  She did come out for a group picture though.

We packed up everything and I had to have Mom and Dad follow me in the Escape to 410 because they didn't know where they were going.  I drove back to the house to get Ben because he had to use the restroom.  I had to have my parent's follow me out because Ben and I were going to stop by Walt and Wendy's for a bit before we headed home ourselves.  We thanked Trish for an awesome day, left, found a geocache at the Walmart, GIF or JIF? (GC9VZ0E) which was pretty easy, a park and grab at the guardrail on the north side of the parking lot.  

We took a picture with the Seahawk logo at the BLT and then went to Puyallup.  I tried taking the picture without the garbage but just couldn't get the angle.

We got to Walt and Wendy's house and stayed until about 10.  We talked about various things that have been going on in our lives since the last time we hung out and chatted. They were dealing with some hard family things they had no control over, which sucked. We thanked them for the visit and drove home.  Ben got ready his shift the next day and I finished some laundry and put stuff away while I watched a few episodes of Bones. 

Next Adventure:  GeoWoodstock XVIII - Abbotsford, BC, Canada

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