Trish's Birthday Weekend

Trish's birthday was approaching but because it was on a Tuesday this year, we had to celebrate it over the weekend instead.  It's too hard to do birthdays on the weekdays.  The week before, we discussed what she wanted to do for that weekend, and we came up with a solid plan.  We were going to eat the food she wanted to eat, play games and fix some of the stuff that she's been sitting on for a while like Amy's shower faucet, the garage door and other little things she had on her list.  I told her we would head over on the Friday after Ben gets off of work.  Trish said she would have stew ready and that we had to bring croissants. 

Earlier that week, I went to Costco to get the croissants and other items we needed at home.  I made sure we had enough ingredients for the breakfast hash I like to make and enough snacks and drinks to take with us.

After work on Friday, I packed up an overnight bag, fed the kitties, changed their cat box and waited for Ben to get home.  It never fails though, whenever we have something planned after work, Ben has to stay late.  It's so annoying and they must know when he's busy after work.  After getting everything done and ready to go, I just sat there watching TV because now it was just waiting for him to get home so we could go.  I updated Trish as I knew more.

Ben finally got home, changed his clothes and got an overnight bag ready.  We put everything into the Escape and left around 7.  Traffic wasn't that bad for a Friday evening on I-5 north.  We managed to remember everything but a birthday card for his mom.  We stopped at the Fred Meyer for a card really quickly.  We didn't want to keep everyone from eating dinner since we would be eating it super late as it was.  

We pulled into the driveway, brought our stuff in, gave out some hugs and we all dished up stew and biscuits.  Trish had forgotten she asked me to bring croissants for dinner.  She said it wasn't a problem because she will eat them the rest of the week on sandwiches and the rest bring them into work to see if anyone there wanted one.  Trish makes delicious stew.  

We cleaned up the table after eating and Trish opened her gifts.  We got her a Swiffer mop for the hardwood floors and some fall decoration I got from my neighbor Rhonda, since she was giving a bunch of stuff away for free.  I saw some of the stuff I thought Trish would appreciate.  She put her presents away and we got the table ready for marbles, since we brought the marble board.  We played a few rounds of that and then some 10,000.  We ate popcorn and watched the Cougars become bowl eligible against the Wildcats.  It was a nice game and the guys looked like they were having fun.  Next game was the Apple Cup and I had a good feeling about this year's outcome.

We stayed up til midnight and then got ready and went to bed.  We had to be up by 9:30ish so I could make breakfast.

My alarm went off the next morning around 9:30 a.m. and I did my bathroom stuff and threw on some sweatpants and a sweatshirt and headed upstairs to start food.  I told Ben he needed to get up so he could help me make breakfast.  I got the potatoes going, since they would take the longest, got the sausages going in another pan and once the potatoes were done, I used that pan for the scrambled eggs.  Ben came up from downstairs and I told him to get the scones ready.  I had a college football game playing in the background as we cooked.

Ed arrived, Trish was up, and we were making a lot of noise so Amy would get up and be ready for when breakfast was done.  I set the table as Ben put the scones in the oven.  Everything was almost done.  

The oven beeped and all of my has ingredients were done so I mixed them in a bowl while Ben put his scones on a plate.  I even brought my raspberry jelly to smother the scones in.  The scones were the ones you would get from the fair.  We put all the food on the table, and everyone dug in.  It was delicious since I haven't had food like this in a while.  I paired mine with some of Amy's orange juice I found in the fridge.  We chatted about random things as we ate.

We cleaned up and I wanted to get two caches since it was decent outside and I wanted to get some fresh air.  We went to one nearby and had to DNF it.  There were just too many places to check and a lot of debris and leaves everywhere.  I saw our next closest ones were in South Prairie, so we drove there and found two.  South Prairie Sewer Outfall (GC4F716) and DOT Crash Guard (GC2JE91), both were easy to find.  We stopped by the Veteran's Park to look for the cache there.  I had found it with Bob many years ago.  Sadly, we could not find it.  Too many leaves to dig through and lots of rock hidey holes it could have been in.  I honestly couldn't remember where it was since it was so long ago.  We hopped back in the Escape and drove back to his mom's house.  

Ben got all of his tools together and started working on Amy's shower and the garage door sensor.  Those took about an hour to do.  The rest of the afternoon we played more board games including 10,000, rummy, Phase 10 and marbles.  It got loud but it always does when Ed is around.

As it approached dinner time, we got ready and had to remind Amy to get ready to go.  She was still wandering around the house in whatever she slept in.  Trish had to remind her to go get ready because we had reservations and had to get there.  We eventually were all ready to go.  Ed and Trish hopped into his truck and Ben, Amy and I drove to Mazatlan in the Escape.  

We walked in and didn't have to wait long when we agreed to sit in the bar.  We were seated and given menus to peruse.  She came back a few minutes later and took our drink orders.  That included margaritas, beer and lemonade.  

While she was there, we ordered chicken chimichangas, burritos and Amy's taco salad.  Our drinks and food were delivered, and we enjoyed every morsel and drop of it.  The waitress came back to gather our finished plates and tried grabbing Amy's plate and she basically grabbed it and pulled it away from the waitress, stating she wasn't done yet.  They were both in the wrong with how that interaction went down.  The waitress shouldn't have assumed she was done and asked, and Amy shouldn't have pulled her plate away from the waitress.  Then Amy thought the lemonade was refillable for no cost and she was mistaken so she didn't want another when asked.

We paid our bills and went back to the house.  I went the long way around and barely missed beating Ed and Trish to the driveway.  Ben and I started gathering up our stuff and cramming it back into the Escape.  We thanked her for having us, she said she had a great birthday weekend, some hugs were given out and we headed back home.  It didn't take us very long to get home since the traffic was pretty light. 

We got home around 9:30, unladed the Escape, got a shower in, watched the rest of the night college football games, worked on my blog and went to bed around midnight.  Ben had a 12-hour shift the next day starting at 10 a.m.  My next day consisted of helping Doug clean his house with the rest of our family. 

Next Adventure:  Thanksgiving and A Long Weekend

My Birthday Weekend

Thursday, November 11

This year, Veteran's Day was on a Thursday and so I decided I was going to take the Friday off because my birthday was on the Saturday and it didn't make sense to take a day off, go to work for a day and then have the rest of the weekend to do whatever.  I really didn't get to do anything fun for my birthday last year and it looked like this year wasn't going to be any different.  I honestly had no idea what I was going to do for my birthday.  I knew what I wanted to do but the weather was too bad to go ahead and plan for it.  This is why I wish my birthday was during the summer instead.  So, power trail caching in Walla Walla will have to wait again.

Just after our last paint day, last month, Nicole had already planned when our next one was.  Most of us work for the state and have Veteran's Day off, she planned to do our next one that morning at around 11:00.  I knew I could come a little bit earlier so we would have enough room at the table for everyone.  I got up around 9:30, ate a quick breakfast and told Doug jumped into the Escape so I could drop him off at the U-Haul place just off of Pacific.  He had to wait a long time and once he was helped, he found out Jenn only got the truck for a day.  He told her and she fixed the reservation online, so they had it for three days.  I took him to the truck and told him I would see him later that afternoon.

I drove over to Tumwater with my Fritos and cheese dip.  I saw that Nicole and her sister, Nikki, were already over there working on their painting.  Nikki was in town from Alaska to go to Lindsay's second baby shower (mostly for family) on Saturday and she wanted to try her hands on this month's painting.  This time we tried a new technique that involved shards of glass and glitter.  I chose to do blue and silver.  I found a seat, picked a canvas and had at it.  Nicole helped us along the way.  Sarah and her former co-worker, Michele showed up later that morning.  We had a great time working on our masterpieces.  Mine, turned out okay but could have been better.  We had to leave them with Nicole so they could dry.  I thanked Nicole for hosting paint day, and I would see her later.

I headed home really quick and then drove over to his house.  Jenn was supposed to be packing her stuff and I'm sure she was making this harder than it needed to be.  We loaded up some of the furniture that took two people into the truck and went through some of the rooms and packed up some of Doug's stuff he didn't grab the past few weekends we were here.  We put that stuff in the back of the Escape.  I was only helping him today and tomorrow because I was not going to spend my birthday helping my brother's ex-girlfriend move.

We asked Ben to come over and drop off the dolly and he stayed for a bit helping us move boxes to the truck.  It got dark and so we wrapped up what we were doing and called it a night.  We went home, made some homemade teriyaki chicken, watched Thursday Night Football, which turned into another weird prime time game that ended not how anyone thought it would, worked on my blog for a little bit and we all went to bed eventually.  

Friday, November 12

The next day, Doug and I got up before 10, I got some breakfast and we met Dad over at Doug's house.  Of course, the weather was horrible.  We spent the next few hours loading up large furniture, desks and more boxes.  Meanwhile, I loaded up so many cardboard boxes into the Escape and every time I thought I was done, there were more I found inside the house.  Doug said that she would not get rid of the boxes, and they just piled up.  He was glad to finally get rid of them.  We even stuffed some Styrofoam into the Escape as well.  Jenn said we could have the turkey inside the chest freezer she was cleaning out.  We already had one for Thanksgiving, so we decided to see if Erika and Zach needed it.  

We did as much as we could that afternoon.  Dad went to go see Grandpa and then drove back into Rainier since he had some other stuff to do that afternoon and Doug and I went to the Hawks Prairie recycle to get rid of the boxes and then stopped by Erika's house, since she has Friday's off.  She was diligently working on her thesis.  She took the turkey off of our hands, we visited for a little while and updated her on what was going on with the whole break-up and how difficult Jenn was making it.  We left and Doug said he was hungry.

I asked him what he felt like eating and he decided on Pho, so we went to Pho Hoa, near the Red Robin complex.  I haven't had Pho in almost two years...back when Nicole, Lindsay and I had lunch meetings once a month when we used to go to work in Tumwater.  I ordered the smallest size of chicken Pho, and it was tasty.  My body wasn't used to eating this kind of stuff, so it made me feel bloated and sleepy.  We came home and we each took naps.  

Later on, that day, I watched the World Cup qualifier, USA beat Mexico 2-0, Ben came home, and we ate leftovers for dinner and hung out the rest of the night catching up on our shows like Survivor.  

Tomorrow's my birthday!  Woooo!

Saturday, November 13

Ben bought tickets to the Point Defiance Zoo and Aquarium for the 11 a.m. time slot.  We woke up with our alarms, had a light breakfast, got ready and headed to Tacoma to spend a few hours wandering around the zoo and aquarium.  Traffic wasn't that bad, and we made it to the parking lot without any trouble.  We parked in the duck lot.  We walked to the ticket office, Ben showed them our tickets, they handed us a map and we went in.  We decided on doing a circle and trying to see as much of the place as we could.  Since it was fall and the weather was disappointing, some of the exhibits were closed and the zoo staff had started putting up the zoo lights displays.

The last time I remember being at the zoo was on a 4th grade field trip.  Back then, the place seemed much bigger than it appeared today.  I know the place has been remodeled since 1994 but it was so long ago, I can't remember what it used to look like.  I do remember enjoying the beluga whales and they didn't have them anymore when we walked through the aquarium part of the zoo.  We meandered along through the wild animal exhibits, had a great time looking at the marine life, we got to pet a sting ray and even stopped by the gift shop to look at all the cute plushies!  We got a fantastic picture of Ben with the butterfly wings.

We figured we spent enough time there and walked back out to the Edge.  I wanted to find a couple caches on my birthday, so we checked the app to see which ones were closest.  There were two near the park on the way out.  The first one was On the Way to Salmon Beach (GC3DXGH).  We pulled up into the small parking lot, parked and got out to look for the cache.  I wasn't sure what I was looking for and neither of us understood the hint.  I checked a bunch of places and we finally found it tucked in one of the holes of the cement poles.  We signed the logbook and shoved the bison tube back into where we found it.  We hopped back in the Edge and went to the next one.

I saw just about a mile away or so was a TB hotel and hoped there were some inside for me to move along.  Champs TB Lookout (GC4XBV4) is not where we thought it was, haha.  I thought it was over by the bench on the other side of the road, nope!  It was in someone's yard at the wooden carving of Champ.  Champs is a legendary sea monster that lives in Lake Champlain on the US-Canadian border of Vermont and New York.  We found the hiding spot, found the combo for the lock and opened the cover.  I grabbed a couple TB's and an evil cache someone had made out of a fake tree branch and a nano.  Yes, we will hide it at some point.  

Ben was hungry so we stopped by a Taco Time in Fircrest.  We went through the drive through and shared a chicken burrito stick and some tots.  We didn't want to eat a lot because we were having Buffalo Wild Wings with our family and friends later on.  We ate our food as we drove back towards Lacey.

We made it home just in time for Trish, Amy and Ed's arrival.  I ran into Rainier to pick up Grandma and brought her into town because Mom, Dad and Doug didn't think they would be back from Federal Way after dropping off Jenn's stuff at her new apartment in time to get Grandma.  She was ready when I got there and headed back into Lacey.  We all played a round of marbles while we waited to go to Buffalo Wild Wings.  Ben had called a few days ago to make sure we had a couple tables in the patio area.  They told him to show up early so they can get it ready to go.

We all drove to Olympia and were there a half hour early.  Apparently, none of that information was passed onto the manager so there was a miscommunication between the staff.  Once, Cassidy found out, we were seated right way and got some free appetizers, which wasn't necessary, but we appreciated the gesture.  We got organized, ordered food and drinks and I made my rounds visiting with my family and friends.  It was so nice to finally have a birthday party after throwing one together last minute in 2020.  It felt great to finally have a normal birthday party again with my people.  We ate white cake with strawberries and whipped cream and opened presents.  I got a couple gift cards, money and some fun little thoughtful gifts.  Nicole made me a Seahawks wreath and it was pretty awesome.  I love handmade gifts.  The Cougar and Ducks game was playing on the TV in the background, and we held our own through most of the game.

I thanked everyone for coming, we all paid, and Ben and I wanted to give Cassidy a tip, but she couldn't accept it.  We ended up sending it to her via Venmo because we did appreciate the effort that she put into making her customers happy.  

We came home, watched the rest of the Cougar and Duck game and we barely lost but the Huskies lost, we relaxed a bit and went to bed. 

Here's to 38!

Sunday, November 14

Sadly, my four-day weekend was almost over.  That morning, I slept in, made a light breakfast, finished some laundry, watched some morning football and then decided to go to the Walmart in Hawks Prairie so I didn't have to do it during the week.  Traffic was stupid for it being a Sunday afternoon.  I thought more people would be at home watching football.  Our game with the Packers started at 1:30 and I hoped that we actually played football this time.  This season has been so disappointing.  

I got groceries, watched some really dumb people in front of me using the self-checkout and had to wait a long time for them.  I finally got to ring up, paid and headed home.  I unloaded groceries and put them away.  I saw the Seahawks game was really sad with us being down 3-0 at halftime.  Our defense was hanging in there but not for long.  We made chicken salad sandwiches and watched the rest of the really terrible game.  We ended up losing 17-0 and were given Wilson's first NFL shutout. 

I changed the plastic shower curtain liner in our bathroom, did some shredding, worked on my blog, petted the kitties and did some of the dishes.

We watched Sunday Night Football and got out all the ingredients for dinner.  We made lasagna, salad and Texas Toast garlic bread.  After dinner, we cleaned up the kitchen, talked to Trish for a bit, Ben gave himself a haircut, he showered, and then played his game for a while with Josh.  I got cleaned up and got ready for the upcoming work week.  

It's sad that four-day weekends go by super-fast.  This wasn't the ideal birthday weekend, but I was happy to spend it with family and friends.  I was excited for my upcoming chiro and massage visit on Tuesday.

Next Adventure:  Trish's Birthday Weekend

Maris Farms, Tacos and Pumpkin Carving

Ben and I were talking a few weeks back and came to the conclusion we haven't been to Maris Farms in a while, and we haven't hung out with his family in quite some time either.  It's been since the middle of August since we hung out with his mom and sister.  I called Trish and asked if she would be interested in going to the pumpkin patch, eat food and carve pumpkins and she said she was.  We ended up choosing Sunday, October 24 because it was the only day open, with Ben's fire shift schedule, before Halloween and month's end.  She said that date would be fine, and we included Amy, Ed and Jean.  We just had to hope for decent weather.

A few days before, we discussed what we wanted to make for dinner, and we chose tacos because it was quick, easy and they're delicious.  No one hates tacos.

Ben was on a 24-hour shift the night before and I tried to help Doug get his life in order by going to the dump and helping back some of his stuff.  I stayed up way too late cleaning, moving stuff and doing laundry because we wouldn't be home Sunday to do anything at home.  I got all the food I was responsible for and stuff ready in a couple bags the night before, except for the guacamole, which needed to stay refrigerated.  

I woke up around 8:15 a.m. and started getting ready and Ben arrived home shortly after.  He got his stuff ready but is always slow when he gets ready.  It drives me crazy.  I packed the Escape, because it was my turn to drive, and we didn't leave until after 9:30 a.m.  I took some yogurt and grapes with me to eat for breakfast.

It didn't take us long to get there since it was Sunday morning and people were still sleeping off whatever they did the night before.  We called Trish to see if she needed anything and she said maybe some more lettuce?  We took note of that and stopped by the Dollar Tree for some pumpkin supplies.  I bought some Sharpies and glow sticks.  I didn't want to ruin Trish's Sharpies and I wasn't sure if she had any candles, but glow sticks seemed like a good idea.  We also had some time to stop by the Fred Meyer, so we picked up a pumpkin carving kit, because I forgot to grab mine out of the garage, some more lettuce and a drink for Ben.  I walked over to the sports stuff and found a Halloween Cougar decoration that was on sale for $8 instead of its original price of $25.  I bought it because it was a screaming deal.

We got to the house and unloaded our stuff, got ready to go and took two vehicles to Maris Farms, just a few miles from the house towards Buckley.  Jean rode with Ben and I and we got to the farm and found a place to park.  We wondered why Trish, Amy and Ed weren't behind us, so we waited for them to arrive.  They finally pulled up beside us and they got out.  Trish goes, funny thing happened...at the light we just looked for a blue Escape like yours and ended up following another person into a gas station.  We all just laughed at her.

We grabbed our jackets and boots and headed to the entrance so we could get in line to get in.  Ben had bought tickets for us a few days ago so he just had to show the receipt to the ticket takers.  We didn't have to wait in line that long which was nice.  We could start our visit before the inevitable rain showed up.  

We got a family picture and then did the corn maze since that was the part of our visit that would probably take the longest.  

We broke up into two teams.  Ed, Ben and I were a team and Amy, Trish and Jean were a team.  We did sports trivia, and they did movie trivia.  We were neck and neck for a while and then Amy wasn't being a very good team leader and tried piggy backing on us.  We told her to go find her team and not leave them behind.  She pouted but she did go back and find her team.  Meanwhile, Ed, Ben and I pulled out the win and waited for them at the finish, which doubled as the start.  We made fun of them when they finally did cross the finish line, mostly Amy though.

Then, we tried our skills at the zipline.  We even talked Trish into doing it and I told her I would do it with her if she did.  We stood in line and once we got to the front, I let Trish go first.  She should have been paying attention.  It went well until she tried to dismount.  She fell off the end of it, her pants got dirty and she pulled some skin off of her hand.  She was fine but mostly embarrassed because she did that in front of all of us.  I took my turn and demonstrated what she should have done.  

We played the wooden ball games and then Ed and Ben played human foosball with some kids while I went on the slide.  I walked back up the hill and Jean and Trish did as well.  We chatted for a bit, and I asked Trish and Jean if they wanted to do bubbles and then I saw the tricycles and called Ben to come race me.  But when he finally came up the hill a slew of kids bombarded and took all the trikes.  We had to wait.  Once they were available, none of the trikes worked very well so we decided not to race after all. 

It was almost time for the duck races, so we walked over to where we thought they were going to have them and turns out, we were wrong.  We got up and walked to the correct place and found a spot to stand.  The ducks were announced, and the race was on as soon as they pulled the plank up.  They swam through the lower level, ran up the ramp and then raced by foot down the track to the finish line.  The workers had to whack the side of the pen to get them to go sometimes.  Quackie Chan won.  They returned the ducks to their pen, and we walked around the farm for a little bit longer.  The rain was staying away for the time being.

Ben decided he wanted to ride the bull, so we found a place to sit, while he filled out the consent form (just in case he got hurt, they weren't liable) and waited his turn.  Ben got on the bull, got set up and they turned it on.  He managed to stay on for 32 seconds before he fell off.  We cheered for him because he beat most of the people's time that were in line before him.  We got a video of it.

It started getting cooler and the wind picked up a bit.  We all decided it was time to go pick out our pumpkins.  We grabbed a wheelbarrow and went searching.  I found a good one right away, but I wanted another one as well just in case we needed it.  As it approached 2:00, Jean wanted to go watch the candy cannon.  I walked over with her while Ben, Trish, Ed and Amy continued looking for their pumpkins.  The candy canon went off promptly at 2 and the wind blew it away from where everyone staged themselves.  Jean and I laughed at the herd of kids running to the candy.

Jean walked back up to the main entrance while I met up with everyone in the pumpkin patch.  I picked out one more and had to get after Amy to pick one.  She didn't want to, but we forced her to.  We told her we were doing something as a family and making memories.  She was being a Debbie downer for some reason.  Almost like she was punishing herself for having fun and living her life.  We paid for our pumpkins and took them to our vehicles but couldn't remember what row we parked in, lol.

As soon as we got everything loaded up and Ben took the wheelbarrow back, that is when the rain started.  It waited until we were done!  Thank you, rain!  I really though the rain was going to ruin our good time at the farm.  It was perfect timing.

We headed back to Trish's house, unloaded the pumpkins and went inside.  I asked everyone if we should start making food and everyone agreed.  Trish and I started making the meat and cutting up everything for tacos.  The weather got really bad, very windy and the rain was pounding down.  We got the meat on the stove, and I was so thankful Trish had a gas stove so we could continue to cook while the power went on and off like five or six different times.  I cut the lettuce, tomato, onion and tried cooking the rice in the microwave and had to try two different times.  We got everything ready, and people dished up.

I was hungry so I inhaled my food.  We cleaned up, put stuff away and brought in the pumpkins to get ready to carve.  Jean decided it was time to head home so she could make decent time and try to get home before it got dark.  We thanked her for coming and we hope she had a great time.  We staged the table with our pumpkins, knives, carving tools and bowls.  I knew I wanted to do a face but what kind of face?  I found one I sort of liked in one of the many carving books they had and away I went.

Ben free handed his, Trish did a page out of a book, Ed free carved a face and Amy carved her feelings into her pumpkin.  We activated all the glow sticks I brought and put them inside all the pumpkins once they were done.  We placed them on the edge of the table with all the lights off and got some photos.  It wasn't quite dark enough to put them on the porch yet, since we haven't had to turn our clocks back an hour.

Ben and I got ready to go after we helped Trish clean up the table.  We thanked Trish for a nice day and loaded up the Escape.  I stopped by Krissy's house to drop off some McDonald's toys I promised her about a month ago.  I met her through Brandon and his roommate Alan back when we were at WSU and have been Facebook friends ever since.  She and her family love Disney and I had some toys they needed to finish their collection.  It was a quick chat and she thanked me for bringing them by.  She handed me a thank you card, and I hopped back in the Escape.  Ben and I drove through town, which was a mistake, but I needed to get some gas before we went home.  The power was out in half of Bonney Lake.  It took us a while to get through town because people don't know what a foour-way stop is and how to navigate it.  

We finally got down the hill into Sumner and away from all the congestion.  I pulled off of Hwy 410 and went to the gas station by the Winco.  We filled up and got back onto 410, then 512 and finally onto I-5.  We got home just as the Colts and 49ers game got finished.  We unloaded our stuff, Ben got ready for work the next day and I watched some Sportscenter, blogged and then we got ready for bed shortly after.  It was a fun weekend making memories with family.

Next Adventure:  My Birthday Weekend