Soccer at the RAC, Megan's Divorce Party and Dad's Birthday Party

Saturday, September 28th

Liz had invited me out to watch her two oldest boys play against SPSCC at the RAC around 10.  I got up, got ready and drove out to the RAC.  I had chosen the wrong way to go and ended up in road construction.  She had texted me that the parking lot was getting full and I might have trouble finding a parking spot. I told her I was almost there, and I would see her when I found a parking spot and walked over with my chair.  

She was right, the parking lot was packed and full of people and cars.  There were many baseball, fastpitch and soccer games going on all at the same time.  I did find a parking spot, grabbed my bag and my chair and walked on over.  I looked for her and her family as I got closer.  She ended up standing up and waving at me because I didn't see them right away.  They were sitting on the small incline with their chairs.  We visited while we watched the game.  I made a batch of gluten free pumpkin chocolate chip cookies to share.  They thought they were pretty good.  I try to make them at least once during the fall.

The game was back and forth.  Unfortunately, SPSCC took the match at the end with a last-minute goal because of a free kick penalty that went awry.  The foul was on Liz's oldest kid, but it should have been on SPSCC instead.  It was a terrible call that changed the trajectory of the game. Liz thanked me for coming and I thanked her for inviting me. I grabbed my bag and my chair and walked back to the Escape.

I got home and got ready for the next event for that day.  I packed up some stuff into the Escape and went to Lowe's to get some roof tar for Dad. We just can't seem to figure out why the roof is leaking over at the rental.  It has kinda set us back a bit.  I drove out to Rainier and met him at Grammie and Grandpa's house.  His kittens, Smoky, Maynard and Buddy let us pet them while they wandered around the yard. 

We drove over to the rental, me in my car and Dad in the truck, loaded up the fire pit and some chairs and headed over to Megan's house.  She was having a divorce party later on that evening and her girls were going to come over and support her.  We unloaded all the chairs and the fire pit, chatted for a little bit and then went back over to the rental.  Dad worked on the roof while I painted the front of the cupboards and put up trim in the laundry room. I was having a hard time with it because the ceiling and the cupboards are not square.  Dad ended up leaving before I did.

It approached almost time to go, so I gathered up everything, locked up the house and drove back over to Megan's house for her party.  She got the steak going on the cast iron while everyone started to arrive.  Once everyone was there, we ate tacos, chatted and laughed.  We talked about what we've all been doing since the last time we were together - which was April for the bachelorette party.  It seems like life changes a lot in six months.  We were all definitely not the same people we were back in April.

We helped Megan clean up the kitchen and got the food put away.  I went outside and got the fire in the pit going. We all went outside and found a chair to sit in, and Megan followed us with a box of stuff she wanted to burn.  Earlier that summer, I was over, and she was showing me the box of stuff she had kept during her marriage to Robert. She said she wanted to burn most of it.  Here, we are with our friends ready to help her do that.

We were out there for about an hour, hanging out and sharing stories about failed relationships.  We've all had them and some were worse than others too.  We were excited to see how Megan used this situation to make a better an opportunity for herself and her kids.  We were rooting for her, and we all saw her personality and sense of humor come back.  It had been suppressed for years.  We let the fire die down and returned inside for some board games.  They were off the charts, and we all had a great time!

It got late and some of us went home while some stayed the night.  I went home because I knew there weren't going to be enough places to sleep, and I had a party the next day I was going to help Erika host. I let Megan know when I got home and thanked her for hosting our gathering.  I got in a quick shower and went to bed. It was almost 3 a.m. Ben had spent most of the day over at Jeremiah's house in Enumclaw with friends at a LAN party.  He said he had fun hanging out with those friends since he hasn't seen them in a while. He planned on spending the night.

Sunday, September 29th 

I woke up groggy, but managed to get ready, put clothes on and grabbed everything that I needed including the food I was responsible for, the table, chairs, decorations and crammed them all into the back of the Escape. I made sure I had everything and texted Ben that I was heading over to help Erika set up the house and finish making the food.  He said that he was getting ready to leave Enumclaw and meet everyone at Erika and Zac's at noon.  I told him to drive safe.

I had talked to Dad about what he wanted for food at his party, and he said ribs, pasta salad, beans, chips and Funfetti cupcakes.

I left the house around 10:30 and got there just before 11:00.  She got up earlier that morning to get the ribs put into the oven.  The other day, I had stopped by with the ribs and the rib rub and gave her instructions on what she needed to do.  I was thankful that she was willing to start them.  I was able to get the pasta salad put together on Friday night, so I didn't have to worry about finding time to make it before the party.  I helped her put up the birthday decorations.  We decided on a Mickey Mouse themed birthday party.  She bought a couple decorations, and I had some Mickey Mouse stuff on hand. I made my own Mickey Mouse ears out of construction paper and toothpicks for the cupcake toppers.  We set up the tables, the chairs and decorated as quickly as we could before people showed up.

As it approached noon, everyone started to arrive, and it got crowded.  Once everyone got situated, we loaded up our plates and found a place to sit down.  I remembered that I brought my Mickey Mouse ears that I got from Disneyland over 20 years ago.  Wow, 20 years ago?!  Since it was Dad's birthday he got to wear the Mickey Mouse ears.  We ate, carried on and Zac had weird movies and shows on the TV in the background.  Brian had a great time hanging out with his Great Grandma, Grandma, Grandpa and Grandma in Law. Dad enjoyed his food, presents and the company.

We helped Erika clean up, got everything packed up and headed home.  I went over to Megan's to pick up the fire pit and chairs and Dad and I took it back over to the rental.  I came home, vacuumed and did some laundry.  I'm very thankful it didn't rain on us at all during the weekend.

Next Adventure:  Brian's First Visit to the Pumpkin Patch

Seattle Seahawks vs. Miami Dolphins

I got a random text message from Dad asking me if Mom and I wanted to go to the Seahawks game against the Miami Dolphins at the end of September.  I said sure.  He said Randy had some tickets that he wasn't going to use and offered them to him to give to us.  Dad thought it would be cool if we could go see the Miami Dolphins because I was a huge fan of Dan Marino as a kid.  Randy sent them to Mom, and she sent them to me to my email.  I looked at the date of them and it was Dad's birthday.  Before I accepted them, I asked Dad if he meant to do it on that date.  He said yes.  It said, it's your birthday, are you sure?  He said yes, because he planned on going to his high school reunion in Eugene that weekend.

I accepted them and put them into my Google wallet.  I put the date on my calendar so we wouldn't double book ourselves.  The night before we were at Nicole and Del's wedding, so I knew I was going to be tired from staying up late.  Of course, Dad drive Mom's Expedition, so I had to get up extra early to go pick up Mom in Rainier and drive her into O'Blarney's.

I got up around 8ish and got ready to go.  I made sure I had everything I needed for the game and left my house by 8:30 to go get Mom.  I was still tired from going to bed late the night before.  I ate some yogurt and part of a blueberry bagel as I drive into Rainier.  When I got to their house, I was glad Mom was ready to go with her clear bag in tote.  We got to O'Blarney's about a half hour early and sat in the Escape for about 15 minutes before getting out and finding what bus we needed to be on.  The lady asked us whose tickets we had, we told her Randy, and she told us bus #2.  We found our seats and got comfortable.

The emcee of bus #2 got up and told us about the party bus for those who were new and told us that we would be starting the games soon.  I ate my chewy bar (since the yogurt and bagel were not enough) while Mom and I talked about some stuff on the way up I-5. We participated in a raffle, we both lost, we bought and filled in our squares for the grid game and got into Seattle within about an hour and half.  There weren't any slowdowns because of traffic.  It was so nice!

We found out they moved the bus parking to the north end lot.  Mom and I got off the bus and walked to the field house.  We went through security quickly while they scanned our game tickets.  We went inside and walked around.  Every time I come to a game and go inside of the field house it's situated differently.  We circled the place three times looking for the face painting and finally found it tucked in one of the corners.  We stood in line for about a half hour to get our faces painted.  We gave them a tip and decided to go into the stadium to try and look for food.

The concourses were so busy Mom just said to go to our seats, and we would get food sometime later on.  I misread the section number our seats were in and some guy in a Dolphin's jersey gave me a hard time until I told him I was a huge Dan Marino fan.  His behavior towards me changed instantly.  We did find our correct seat and sat down. The game started within those 20 minutes.  We sat next to a lady and her son.  They came to watch Tua play but Tua wasn't playing because of all his concussions.  He's had two in the last three years.

The Dolphin's first half was pretty much the entire game.  Miami struggled on offense with their backup quarterback Skylar Thompson and then when he went down with a chest injury, they threw in the third string, Tim Boyle.  All they could manage was a field goal, very little movement on offense and multiple punts.  The Dolphin fans were hopeless.

Our first quarter saw a field goal, two touchdowns, one by Zach Charbonnet and one DK Metcalf and the rest of the first half was boring.  Nothing happened except a bunch of penalties that took us backwards instead of forwards.  Each drive we had were 5 plays and under.  We were either explosive and made the big plays that resulted in some scoring, or we did nothing with it.  

We went into halftime up 17-3.  From the way this game began I wasn't sure if we would get any touchdowns. I got up with eight minutes left in the second quarter before the half to get Mom and I some food.  We ran out of time to do it before the game, and we were getting hungry.  I asked her what she wanted, and she said to surprise her.  I walked clear over to the other side of the stadium to find an Ivar's.  I got two fish and chips, a soda and a water.  I was in line longer than it took me to get there and back to our seats with the food.  I had a couple of close calls with people bumping into me out on the concourse.  I got back with two minutes before halftime ended...when the food and beverage lines got worse.  We ate our food while watching the halftime entertainment - a Brazilian drum line with dancers.

The third quarter was full of punts on both sides, penalties that caused both teams to go backwards and the Dolphins went on a 4th and 3 and fell short moving the ball.  The score still stood at 17-3.  Miami fans started to leave knowing a comeback was not in the cards. 

We went into the fourth quarter with some excitement.  We were able to put up 98 yards with 11 plays and another touchdown by Charbonnet with our first possession of that quarter.  That was the extent of the 4th quarter and the rest of the game.  We beat Miami 24-3 and extended our winning streak to 3-0, 2-0 at home.  Even though we won the game as a whole was played terribly by both teams.  There were some interceptions, bad choices, over a dozen accepted penalties with several more declined or offsetting.  It was going to be a long season if we couldn't figure out how to be more efficient on offense and stop the lazy, drive-killing penalties. 

We stayed until the end of the game and then slowly made our way back to the bus in the north end parking lot.  We didn't leave until after 5.  We started watching Sunday Night Football on my phone.  It was the Chiefs at the Falcons.  Once we got going and heading south towards Lacey, our emcee, started going over the games.  Mom and I both lost the grid game but by not much.  We needed the Dolphins and Seahawks to score more.  The other game we put money into we also didn't win.  Oh well.  You can't win them all.  We watched SNF the entire bus ride back to Lacey.  There were a couple times we had to stop along I-5 because of traffic.  We arrived back to O'Blarney's around 6:30.

Mom and I stopped at the Safeway on College to pick up a few things.  We bought Dad a cupcake for his birthday.  I got Mom home and while I was there, Dad pulled up with Mom's Expedition.  He made pretty good time coming home from Eugene. We had a mini birthday party for him before I left to come home.

I got home around 7:30, grabbed the mail, unloaded the Escape, went inside, fed the cats, watched the rest of the SNF game, the Chiefs should have lost that game, but somehow, they didn't, talked to Mom and Ben for a little bit since he was on a 12 hour shift at the fire station, ate some salad and got ready for the work week.  Weekends go by way too fast. 

Next Adventure:  Soccer at the RAC, Megan's Divorce Party and Dad's Birthday Party

Nicole and Del's Wedding

Like I had mentioned in many of my blogs once 2024 hit - this year was going to be busy, right up to the end of the year.  It was extremely busy.  Every weekend we were doing something for us, other people or chores. We still had three more months of 2024 to go and those were the holiday months.  I sure hoped we survived.

Nicole and Del got engaged back in October 2021 over in Chelan.  He proposed to her through a custom card game.  It was pretty cool.  Since then, everyone - including family and friends - have been asking them when they were going to have the wedding.   They were not in any hurry.  We did talk about it off and on since then and they decided to do a small wedding on September 21st.  I'm sure most of you know the Earth, Wind and Fire song September.  Do you remember, the 21st night of September?  We do!

She and Del were so overwhelmed as the date got closer and closer.  She did ask for help with some of the things she needed done.  Del's dad passing away made planning a wedding more difficult.  Del really wanted all of his family to go to his special day and sadly, his dad, would have to miss it.  Ben and I really felt for him; it was a terrible thing to go through right before a huge event.

During the week I had to find something nice to wear.  I haven't been a guest to a wedding in many years and didn't really need to have any nice clothes...especially when Covid hit and we were stuck at home.  I went to TJ Max and found something that would work.  I chose a blue dress because it went with my blue and white wedding shoes.  I wanted another fancy occasion to wear them to. 

They had a family gathering at her mom and stepdad's house the night before.  She had invited us to go but we had already made plans before she had asked us.  I told her that if she needed more bodies the next day to help set up the venue that we were around.  She said she would let me know if they did or not.  I thanked her and told her I would see her the next day regardless. 

They kept the ceremony to just family members.  Her brother was the officiant, and her sister took pictures with one of the two fancy cameras that were there.  

Nicole wore two dresses, one for the ceremony and one for the reception.  I was sad none of their close friends were invited to the ceremony but that was their call because it was their day.  I was just thankful we were invited to the reception so we could celebrate them.

They rented out the Heritage Room in downtown Olympia.  I've been there a few times over the recent years with friends, so I knew where I was going when we drove over there. We found a parking spot to back into, made sure we had everything and walked over to the building.  The families had just finished up with the ceremony and were double checking everything for the reception. We found a table and went and got drinks.  We spent the next hour or so visiting, taking pictures and talking to Nicole and Del and the rest of their family and friends.

The caterers came out and brought out the fancy food Nicole and Del chose.  There were some gluten free options for the people who had dietary needs.  Ben was newly gluten free after a preliminary visit with his doctor.  He had been having stomach issues for the past couple years and needed to know why he felt bad all the time.  We grabbed a plate and went through the buffet line, scooping as much food as we could because it all looked good.

We ate, hung out with our friends and enjoyed the night as it wore on.  Once we were done eating, Nicole and Del planned some interactive games for people to play against each other and it was hilarious watching people play them.  I do believe there are some videos of them somewhere.  From there, the rest of the night was cake, dancing, playing the table games Nicole and Del provided and digging through many large fishbowls of dice.  

It's weird that so many of us decided to get married later on in our lives.  Only a couple of my friends got married in their 20's, a few in their 30's and me and Nicole, in our 40's, lol.  Some of my friends still aren't married and a few of them have been divorced.  Looking back, I don't think any of us were really ready or financially secure like we were currently.  We've talked about this a few times in some of our get togethers - and being with our partners/spouses should be easy and not hard.  I've been with Ben, up to this point, for 11 years and the relationship hasn't really been that hard - definitely more good days than bad and I can be myself around him.  I don't think I would have enjoyed being married as a younger person. 

People started to leave as it approached 11 p.m.  We helped Nicole and Del gather up all the stuff off the tables and pack it away in the totes. Once everything was packed up, we took it out to a few of the vehicles that had room in the back.  We all thanked Nicole and Del for inviting us, gave out some hugs and headed out to our cars.  It was a nice little wedding catered to Nicole and Del.  I've been friends with Nicole since 4th grade, and I am happy to see that she found her perfect person to do life with!  Congratulations Nicole and Del!

Next Adventure: Seattle Seahawks vs. Miami Dolphins

Nicole's Bachelorette Party - Dungeons and Dragons

Nicole and Del are massively into board games, card games, tabletop games, online games, you know the whole shebang.  Their entire upstairs loft area is a game room, complete with a game table, chairs and shelves full of board games.  

This year had been a busy one for me and my friends.  Between my bachelorette party, Ben's bachelor party, our wedding, me becoming an aunt, Lindsay and Justin adding a daughter to their family, Megan's divorce, Del's dad passing away, Del's bachelor party, Nicole and Del's upcoming wedding and Nicole's bachelorette party, we almost ran out of weekends.  That spring and summer were literally a blur.

Anyway, Nicole and her sister Erin, prepared and planned out a one-shot D&D campaign.  They started months ago. Nicole 3D printed and painted our characters. They invited me, Celeste, Tara, Megan, Chandra, Hannah, Lindsay and Megan.  Everyone brought food including the gluten free dick cake, a couple charcutierie boards, other various snacks and drinks.  

Nicole even made a hype YouTube video:  D&D Sneak Peak

Nicole also made us tumblers.  I was sad that they were purple, but I accepted it anyway because it wasn't my party, it was Nicole's, and purple was one of her wedding colors.  I wasn't going to touch mine until the Apple Cup was over.  Yes, the Apple Cup was moved to September due to the idiotic dissolution of the Pac-12.  It was being held at Lumen Field. I stopped watching the Apple Cup years ago because the game was so bad.  I have hope that every year we will curb stomp the Huskies but somehow, they manage to get calls to go their way, and it changes the trajectory of the game, like last season.

While we waited for people to get there, a handful of us got into the car and headed down to Historical Tumwater Park to do some Pokémon Go.  Lindsay and I decided to stay in the car since we had no interest in the game.  

One of the games Nicole had us play was adding a shot of anything we wanted to into a glass that we all had to sample once everyone took a turn.  I went down, picked something not horrible and recorded myself adding my sample to the glass.  Once everyone went, we all drank a shot of what we had made collectively.  It actually wasn't bad.  We watched the videos of what we all added and got a good laugh out of it.

Anyway, we spent the first two/three hours eating food, hanging out and chatting.  Nicole and Erin had some D&D info on the TV that we could watch since most of us were not in tune with D&D.  They had filled out some of our character sheets with the specifics that we all chose.  Everyone chose a different type of character to keep it diverse.  We had some elves, humans, Tieflings, gnomes, orks, etc. We had people choose characters that were spell casters, characters who fought, characters who did specific things, sneaky characters, the sky was the limit!

The next couple hours were us filling out the rest of our character sheets using the information out of the books Nicole let us look through. I was so lost trying to figure out the correct information for my character.  I had to ask Erin for help.  Once we all figured out what we had to do we started the game.  We were all level three and Erin took us through the story of what we were going to do on our campaign. 

I was a half orc rogue, and my specialty was stabbing people with my daggers from behind since I was also an assassin.  Close encounter fighting was my niche. We used teamwork to battle each challenge during our adventure.  Lindsay had to leave a few times to go home to feed her 4-month-old since children were not allowed at the bachelorette party.  

During a short break, Mom called me to ask if I was paying attention to the Apple Cup.  I told her I was checking the score every once and a while, but I wasn't watching it.  She said it was getting down to the nitty gritty and I should check in with ESPN.  I really didn't want to stress myself out, but I checked the scores every once and a while after she called. It was close in the 4th quarter, like, really close.  We would have had a huge lead over them, but our quarterback kept throwing interceptions throughout the game.

It literally came down to the last play with 1:07 left in the game.  The Huskies had the ball at the goal line and were going for it on 4th and goal.  Somehow someone was looking down on us that day.  We stopped them from scoring.  Washington turned it over on downs and we ran out the clock.  We beat them for the third time since 2008, 24-19.  I was stoked!  It was okay to drink out of Nicole's tumbler at that point.  I know; people probably thought I was a superstitious weirdo. 

As the night grew late, we continued on with our campaign and continued making our way through our adventure.  When it was time for the boss stage, my dice decided they didn't want me to participate.  I rolled terrible there at the end.  I actually threw my dice over the railing and onto the floor down below.  Luckily, Chandra's character killed the boss, and we were able to save Del from the evil Prince Alec.

It was fun learning a new game that does take several hours, days, weeks and even months to play.  This was a one shot, so it only took a single night.  I did find out that I might not be nerdy enough for the game though. We had lots of laughs, snacks and fun.  It was the most unique bachelorette party I've ever been to, and I've only been to three or four of them in my life.  I think it's funny that people think that bachelorette/bachelor parties need to be wild, crazy and expensive.  They really don't need to be as long as you are doing what you want to be doing, are surrounded by people you care about and are willing to come be a part of your story.

Next Adventure:  Nicole and Del's Wedding

Centralia College Men's Soccer VIP's, Cleaning and Painting Cupboards and Drawers and Del's Dad's Celebration of Life

Saturday, September 7th

About two months ago, I was able to reconnect with Liz after a four-year hiatus.  We are still not sure what happened during that time but decided to move forward instead. I understand that things are different now and will have to adjust to them.  She invited me to watch some of her kid's soccer games over the fall.  Her two oldest kids play for Centralia College.  She told me that there was a game on Saturday and that I was welcome to come.  She gave me the time and the place and said she would meet me there.

It takes about a half hour to get to Centralia from Lacey and I wanted to get there a little bit early since I wasn't sure where I was going, since I haven't been to the College in a long time, and I really didn't know my way around Centralia all that well...I do know the basic roads to get me by.  I headed down and followed my memory on how to get to the College.  I wasn't sure where the field was since I came into town from the west.  I just found an open parking spot and called it good.  I walked over to the field. 

I made my way around to the entrance and went inside.  I've never been to one of these before and their new sports complex was super nice.  Admission was free, but you could donate money to their raffle to win a prize.  The raffle prize was sitting up in the box seats and free food and drink. I decided not to donate, at least, not this time.  I grabbed a program with the players and the schedule on it.  I walked over to the bleachers and Liz was sitting there by herself.  I climbed up on the bleachers and sat next to her.  We engaged in some small talk while we waited for the game to start.  She pointed out the kids she knew on the team and which ones play with her boys on the Sunday team.

Then the people who were running the raffle asked the crowd in the bleachers to check their tickets to see if they won.  They rattled off a set of numbers and the people who won didn't want their prize, so the guy asked if anyone wanted the prize and Liz was the only one who raised her hand. So, the Blazer Box Seat Raffle coordinator asked Liz and I to go with him.  He took us up into the "crows nest" that gave a great view of the soccer field.  He told us there would be AC, which was nice, since it was a hot, muggy day.  He added that at halftime we can go to the concession stand and get a free hot dog, chips, candy bar and a drink.  

Liz and I watched the game from above.  The view was great, and we got to yell out the window at her kids.  At one point the ball hit the side of the window and scared us.  We just laughed it off.  We had a great time watching the game and chatting about random things.  Damian's girlfriend joined us for a bit.  Then halftime hit, the raffle coordinator came up and escorted us to the concession stand inside the building. We walked up to the person running the concessions and asked what we wanted.  The raffle coordinator said that we were the winners, and they get a hotdog, chips, drink and candy bar.  Liz and I both chose what we wanted. 

The drinks were called Lotus and I've never had one before.  Liz had to tell me what they were, and which ones were her favorites.  They are a popular plant-based energy drink option, offering a lend of natural ingredients for a boost of energy and focus.   I got a blue one and she got a peach colored one.  I took my first sip and was like, woah!  It was super sweet, but I didn't stir it around before I took a drink.  We got locked out of the crows nest and she had to go get the guy.  A baseball player who was taking batting practice inside let Damian's girlfriend and me in.  Liz and the raffle coordinator followed.

We went upstairs with our food and the raffle coordinator asked us if he could get some photos to post to the social media pages and we said sure.  He got what he needed and left us to watch the game with our food.

The game was entertaining, and her son scored a goal!  It was fun to cheer them on to a 4-3 victory!  They even nabbed their first win of the season as well.  

We grabbed our stuff and headed down to the field.  The box seat coordinator asked us if we had a great time and we did.  We thanked him again for the experience.  I thanked Liz for inviting me out to the soccer game and I started to walk back to the Escape.  I got a text a few minutes after from her saying that she just realized she could have given me a ride to my car.  I told her that it was okay, and that I needed the walk.  I let her know when I got home and thanked her again.  She said she was glad I came down and that it was a great day and a game.

We really felt like VIP's for a day.

When I got home, I worked on the cupboard doors and drawers I brought home to work on.  I was able to get the blue part of the cupboard doors that afternoon.  The hardware was so layered in past paintings.  I had them submerged in acetone.  They aren't perfect, but they are better than they were. 

Dad and Ben also finished the trench over at the rental but hit a snag when Ben broke through the waterline.  Luckily, it was repaired quickly.

Sunday, September 8th

We celebrated the life of Del's dad, Delbert Clyde, at the LeMay Car Museum in Tacoma.  I have never been to the museum but see it every time I drive by it when I am on I-5

I've only met his dad once.  Del and Nicole were moving from Puyallup to Tumwater back in August 2020 and he and his mom were there helping pack stuff up.  This was my first time to the Puyallup house, and it was chaotic with boxes, cleaning supplies and people all over the place.  We had a few moments to meet everyone and to learn who everyone belonged to.

There was quite the spread of snacks, mostly finger foods, light refreshments and even a sheet cake.  He said his sister was in charge of the food and said she did a great job getting that together for the event.

From what Del told us and through pictures he has shared with us, he and his dad loved spending time together, like most kids do with their parents.  Del had season tickets to the Seahawks and he and his dad went to several of them over the years.

I learned that Delbert loved cars and racecars.  The reason why Del had the celebration of life at the car museum.  It was his dad's element.  His dad had his own racecar and would race it at several different tracks around the state, mostly the one in Spanaway.  While we were visiting with his family members, there were several home movies playing on the of his races.  He won a bunch of awards and trophies too.

Del had many photo albums and loose photos scattered around the tabletops for everyone to look at.  We spent some time getting to know his dad through those photos while asking Nicole more in-depth questions if she knew. She showed us a pretty sweet picture of Del in 5th grade sporting a hardcore mullet.  Majority of the photos I saw, it looked like a typical family enjoying time together through hobbies, holidays and other family gatherings.  It reminded me of my family throughout the years.

I thanked Del for inviting us to his special event he held for his dad.  We all knew there wasn't anything we could say or do to make it better but what we could do was support our friend through this difficult time.

We gave out some hugs and then wandered around the museum for a little bit.  That place had so many cars, automobiles, trucks, etc., that I never knew existed!  We drove home and spent some time getting ready for the work week.  

Next Adventure:  Nicole's Bachelorette Party - Dungeons and Dragons