Melissa's pictures

With Melissa getting ready to graduate this year, I am feeling a little sad and nostalgic.  I made a book of pictures of her that we have had taken professionally. Sometimes over the years we were really good at getting the kids pictures taken.. sometimes not so great.  I hardly had school pictures taken.  Sometimes she has two pictures taken that year, sometimes none.  Here is our photo book.

Click here to view this photo book larger

Build your own high-quality photo books at Shutterfly.com.

Keagan's getting taller!

This was fall of 2011.

This is almost 2 1/2 years later.  We knew that Keagan was taller than Melissa.. but we thought just barely.

I love her face when she is realizing how much taller her "baby" brother is.

A day to Seattle (picture overload)

There was this random Saturday in March that we didn't have anything going on! Very rare at our house! My sister called and asked if Aurora could come over. I thought, we need to do something! So, very spur of the moment we made a plan to go to Seattle.  It was so fun!
We first drove to Bremerton and went on the ferry.  Going on the ferry is one of my favorite things to do! It reminds me of going to my grandparents house. I love to stand outside and have the wind blow in my face. I love to sit by the window and watch outside, too. I love almost everything about the ferry. This ferry ride takes about an hour. It was a little cold & overcast.  It was too cold for Ray & Melissa.. they didn't like being outside much like Aurora, Keagan, & I did.

 As you can see, it was super windy outside.  Ray was super cold.. and a little miserable.. but I made him come outside and take pictures with us.
I love these next 3 of the kids, you can tell how windy it was & Aurora loving it!

Some one gave Aurora a piece of bread and she fed a seagull.  She was in heaven! She loves all animals, especially sealife.

 This next one is Aurora & my attempt at a selfie... haha.. Fail!  We went and got someone to take our picture.  I thought, the kids always have a picture with Aurora.  I don't have very many auntie pictures with her.

Of course, we had to get one with Melissa, too!

 After we got off the ferry, we went to the Freemont troll.  There was a wedding going on! Can you believe it?! Weird! Anyways.. there was a lot more cars parked there.. I guess because of the wedding.. so we dropped the kids off & went to try to find a place to park.  That is when our adventures began.. we went down an alley close by and then out to the road, we were in the middle of turning around when we noticed we were on a one way road.. going the wrong way with someone coming, yikes! All I could do was laugh! Then we ended up on a 2 lane highway with a barrier in the middle so we couldn't turn around! It took us 20 minutes or so to get back to the kids. Melissa called at one point and asked where we were & said they could start walking towards us... Ugh.. NO!

 We then went to Dicks Burgers in Seattle.  I have never been there before, but have heard of them. It was pretty good. No pictures, though. Next we went to the Ballard Locks.  We had never been there before.. my mom said I had been when I was little, but I don't remember it. We had been lucky most of the day & hadn't had any significant rain.. just a little drizzle here and there. Soon after we came into the park by the Locks it started raining pretty heavily. We only saw one fish, the worker said July is a good time to come, so we will have to do that.  One of the best things was, when we walked in there were so many blossoms that the scent was almost overwhelming in such a good way.  I actually stopped and just stood there a few seconds and just breathed in.  It was awesome.

 We then started driving home.  One of our favorite stops is the D.I. (thrift store) in Federal Way.  It closes early on Saturday nights, so it had only a few minutes open when we got there, so we found another thrift store and treasures.  They had a special 50% off and we scored!
What a fun day! With Melissa leaving soon, I'm trying to get in all the family time we can!

Thinking of my Grandma Bilow & her house in Brinnon

On March 23rd, we went to a memorial for a great Uncle.  This Uncle (George Snider) I didn't know very well.  He married my Great Aunt Norma in 1985.  He was a quiet man, but smiled a lot and was pleasant.  I don't think I ever had a conversation with him, but I have seen him many times.  He came to all of the yearly family functions that I came to. (And some that I didn't come to..)  

My Aunt Norma is the youngest of her siblings and the last one alive.  She is in her early 80s.

She looks a lot like my Grandma.  My Grandma was one of 10 children.  She had 4 sisters in adulthood.  They were together a lot, whenever they could be! They laughed & cried together. They loved each other dearly! They used to have monthly Wed. lunches. This tradition still carries on. Now the cousins & grand kids go.  I have only been once, but I love that the tradition carries on!  It is mostly my mom's cousins that go now. One of my mom's cousins travels 2 hours to come to this monthly lunch.

(My grandma & some of her siblings, Don, Stan, Gordon, front Norma, Gma, Vera, & Shirley)

Some of my best memories from when I was a little girl are at my Grandma & Grandpa's property.  They called it "the lot". It started out as just a piece of property with 2 outhouses on it & then they built a house on it that they moved to when I was 5 or 6. Most of the great aunts and uncles had property up in Brinnon on the Canal tracks.  During the summer we would go up there and have so much fun! During the day, I would go for walks with my grandma.  She was slow... because it seemed like she knew everyone there & would stop and talk with EVERYONE! Some of her cousins lived there, too. I loved that she knew everyone & everyone knew her! When she was happy like this, she was so much fun to be around. In the evening there would be huge bon fires and smores. (And drunken & lively adults). My grandma & grandpa lived next door to my Uncle Stan & because the 2 properties were so close together this was usually the gathering spot. 

(My gma & her sister Norma, they loved Raggedy Ann dolls)

One of the great things going to my gma's house was the drive there. No matter where we lived, it was a long ways. An hour or two.  They lived in the middle of nowhere! Brinnon is on the Hood Canal. It is almost an hour past Shelton on Hwy 101 on very curvy roads. We would measure the 2 big curves both a little over a mile each.  The other way to Brinnon was to ride the ferry from Edmonds, WA to Kingston and then drive to Brinnon which from Kingston is a little under an hour. I loved going that way and riding the ferry! Still to this day, I love riding the ferry and it reminds me of going to gma's house! 

My gma lived on a cul-de-sac. The cul-de-sac went down a hill to the left.  My gmas house had a driveway that went all the way around her house with a steep hill on one side. There were lots of flowers, (she loved flowers and hummingbirds!) , ferns & huckleberries. One of the other great things about gma's house was the                                                                 "Eye house"

Strange, isn't it?! It is prob. a little more run down & cluttered now, but how I remember it.  As a child (and maybe still a little now..) I could never stare at enough, so odd!

Soo many more memories, but I will save those for another blog post.

One of my favorites of my Grandparents.  I loved them mucho!