Monday, April 18, 2016

Another Busy Weekend

Saturday morning we had the kids with us again, while Jill taught mountaineering up in the Cascade MountainsWe went on a field trip, scouting out a place new to us where we were planning to take our garden club in a few weeks. 


Lake Wilderness Park and Arboretum is a public recreation site very popular in summer, but fairly quiet on this cool Saturday morning. 
The kids really wanted to spot a frog or two on the shore. 

After hanging out by the lake and enjoying the view of Mt Rainier in the distance, we moved on to check out the arboretum.
The Tribal life Trail had good signage pointing out native plants and how they were used by the Native Americans.
Like this camas, the bulb of which was an important food crop.


The Maple Grove was lovely with its new foliage.  


Isaac was our navigator, studying the map to determine where we were and where we wanted to go next. 


Tom was checking out the plant identification labels. 


'President Roosevelt' is an old but still wonderful rhodie with variegated leaves and flowers.  
The park is divided by the Cedar River Trail, an old railway bed that is now a lengthy walking, running, biking trail. We left the cultivated arboretum behind and crossed over to the wild side, to hike some forest trails.  

This ant hill was interesting and creepy, and by the time we had stopped to check it out, the ants were already crawling up our pant legs. Eeeek!. Move on!


Back across the Cedar River Trail, we followed a trail along the lake shore.



And ended up right where we had started.  Because of the white sky it's hard to see Mt Rainier across the lake, but look right over Irene's head in the photo above. 
Isaac found a snake and wanted to use the camera. I just had my little canon point and shoot, so no problem. And it has a great zoom feature. the rest of these photos are Isaac's, having some camera fun.
I did not go visit the snake. 

That's my phone there in the corner. Tom and I had a great bench seat. 




 Back at home Saturday afternoon, we had lunch and then the kids helped me decorate the dining room for Irene's birthday celebration scheduled for Sunday at our house. 

We dropped the kids off at their house about 4:30 and headed for the light rail station. We were on our way to a Sounders game. 

In the city, we sat in Occidental Park and enjoyed some freshly grilled sausage dogs while we waited for the March to the Match. 
It was a beautiful evening in the city, as you can see from the sunset we viewed from the third deck concourse at halftime. 
To make it an even better evening, the Sounders won 2-1!

As I mentioned, we were selected to host Irene's family birthday party on Sunday, her real birthday. She had already had a friends party at her house on Friday. I also was scheduled to go to the legislative district Democratic Caucus, which, when I committed myself, was scheduled for 10:00 to 12:00. But then it was changed to 1:00 to 3:30. That was not convenient, but I try to honor my commitments, so I did food prep work and table set up in the morning.  

While Tom went with Jill and the kids to Irene's soccer game, I went off to play politics. To make a long and aggravating story short, disorganization was rampant, we didn't start until over an hour late, and at 3:20 and they were still waiting for the credentials report before we could elect delegates to the state convention, I walked out the door. I honor my obligations so long as others do what they are supposed to do too. 

So next up was the birthday party. The theme - there is always a theme- was the colors Black and White. 

Irene ordered pesto pasta with chicken, zucchini, broccoli and peas, and tropical fruit salad. Aunt Jan joined us, of course. 

While we were opening gifts, Irene got a call from her Aunt and cousin in Colorado, and both kids talked to their dad in South Carolina. 
And there was cake - animal print cake!
Happy Birthday to you, Irene!  Eleven already!

17 comments:

  1. Happy Birthday to Irene! You all had a busy weekend, that Arboretum is beautiful! :)

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  2. That's a long post! Sounds like a great weekend! You actually have leaves and flowers out there!

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  3. That was a busy week-end. My life is so slow it's almost in reverse. Beautiful pictures. Most of the time I think chaos is what you find at these political meetings. Perhaps because they're all lay people, these events only happen every four years, and there's very little continuity. There must be a better way.

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  4. What a gorgeous place. I'd love a walk there and if I had the grand girls they could run their little hearts out. The oldest also loves nature so I'd have to watch her so she wouldn't pick all the flowers. Sounds like a wonderful, but tiring, time.

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  5. Also, good pictures by the Grandson. I always encourage the grand girls to take photographs. They can work a cell camera as well as I can.

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  6. I'll say that was a busy weekend. However, keeping busy gives more satisfaction than sitting around and doing nothing.

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  7. The Arboretum is beautiful -- sans snake, of course! :) The children are getting so big! You have such a sweet relationship with them. Happy Birthday to Irene.

    I once got up and walked out of a special team meeting at school. I had given up a planning period to work on this project and sat and sat waiting for others to stop kibbitzing and get to work. I asked politely twice and then got up and left. I feel the same way about honoring my committments.

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  8. You certainly took us on a wonderful stroll. Happy belated Birthday wishes to Irene, the cake looks amazing.

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  9. I love that maple grove, and Irene is definitely growing up into a lovely young woman. I know those jackets they were wearing early in the day came off before too long. Can you believe how hot it was yesterday???

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  10. You all visit the most beautiful parks! But wow! Your dining room is absolutely gorgeous! Such a pretty birthday party. Irene is beautiful too with those blue eyes and that long hair like Jill's. I need to come up with some new words. Seems like when I leave you a comment, every other word is beautiful. :) I just love your family.

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  11. Wow, I thought Irene was a teenager-she's growing into a beautiful young lady. I envy your green walks...but will just have to continue to enjoy my red rocks now we have lots of blooms on our cactii...

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  12. Happy Birthday Irene. How cool to have 2 parties and such great grandparents.
    That was such a beautiful day you had in the park. I love the new growth colors so much. Here, the mountains seem to glow with the iridescent greens.

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  13. Your post has brought back to me the many happy and beautiful memories of living with my son and his family when they lived in Olympia. Washington is such a beautiful state, it's a great pleasure to be reminded of just how beautiful!

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  14. A packed weekend. The party looks so sophisticated. Your Irene is growing up!

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  15. What a lovely place to get exercise and explore. You guys do throw the most wonderful parties. I can't believe how fast those beautiful grandkids seem to be growing. Happy Birthday, Irene!

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  16. You had ants in your pants? Eek! Irene is such a lovely girl and already eleven. How time flies!

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