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!

2014 Calendar

As most of my close friends know, every year I put together a calendar for our extended family Christmas gifts.  We (I) started this many years ago & they have come a long way! It is about the only time I scrapbook.. and if you call it that.  It is all digital from smile box.com.  Sometimes I think, we haven't done very much, then I look back at our pictures for the year & realize how blessed I am! I'm glad I insist on taking a lot of pictures, even though sometimes my family dreads it.  It makes for good memories.  Sometimes I'm not sure which comes first.. the memory or the picture?! 

Our family talked about our favorite memories of the year & almost all of these pictures were included.  One we didn't a get a picture of though.. Our family temple trip.  With my kids all over 12 now, we can all go to the temple together.  We went this summer & spent a day there.  I love that! And love that was one of their favorite memories! (If you want to see the picture bigger, you can click on it.)

Here is the cover of our calendar.  I love how my kids love each other! I've been blessed that they have always had a special relationship; arguing has always been few and far between!  

 January - Keagan earning awards in scouting.  

February - My kids didn't like this page! Ha!  For the month of Love - Ray & Donna :)

March - The year of 2013 we did a lot of dance team watching.  It was a lot of fun! The dance team went to state in March.  What  fun adventures!

April - There was sunshine! We went to Tolmie state park! Kelli Redding was living with us for a few months while she worked at the Capitol for session. I love Keagan & his friend Mathew holding up their shorts to go wading.

May- We all agreed that this was one of our favorite memories of the year! We got to go to Utah and see Aunt Darlene while she was on her mission and we got to go to General Conference for our fist time!

June- Melissa spoiled us with tickets to the Mariner's game for a Father's day gift to Ray.  It was LDS night! How cool is that! And we got free t-shirts! The Stringfellows (and a few other families we knew) were there, too.

                                    

July - (Was actually June, but I had to separate the pages some how..)  We took the kids to the park by Pt. Defiance in Tacoma & rented kayaks for them.  This is one of my favorite places to go.  It is so beautiful! And relaxing!

August - My "little" brother, Adam got married to Heather! (He hasn't been my little brother for a long time, but he is 11 years younger than me and has been & prob. always will be the "little" brother).  Heather has 3 kids. They are great kids! So much fun to have more cousins! I'm very happy for them!

 September - We went camping with some friends the weekend of the stake dance - beach dance near Ocean Shores.  Most of the summer was dry... that night it poured!  We stayed mostly dry.. When I got up in the morning, I stepped out of the tent into a huge puddle.  I'm not really a camper. I much prefer a hotel, but I guess I can "suffer" through it once a year or so.

October - My kids don't dress up like they used to.. But both dressed up for Halloween night.  Melissa makes a cute Clark Kent & Keagan a cute nerd.  We went to the Pumpkin Patch 10 minutes before it closed!  We went around and took our necessary pictures and left.  We didn't even carve pumpkins this year.  Really that is okay with me, I don't like that part.  But I did use the pumpkins we bought and cooked them down for pumpkin muffins.  I still have some pumpkin in the freezer.

November - We love to have people at our house.  We have a ton of dress up & just like to be goofy.  We have had the missionaries over a lot this year & it has been so fun!  Melissa & Aurora have spent a few days being crazy (crazier than normal) putting their feet in the arms of the hoodies and "walking" around. (Middle picture of Melissa in black) Soo funny!  We were dying laughing!  Also for Melissa to get her hair in that tall bun (at the bottom rt. corner) she put a water bottle in it.

December - These pictures are from Dec. of 2012 (Dec of 2013 hadn't happened yet when I made the calendar) They are at my mom's house for Christmas eve.  I love Melissa in her sparkly dress & the big picture of her & Aurora together.

Now on to making some more fun family memories for next year - 2014.  I'm sure there will be lots of Melissa's graduation!

Merry Christmas 2013

Merry Christmas!

This is our Christmas card this year.
Someone asked us when they opened up our card, Is Keagan going to have a goofy face.. like usual? He does have other cute faces.. I guess it is me that loves his goofy faces. It is hard to narrow down our pictures of the year for one card.
And here is our Christmas letter below.

December 2013

The novel, “A Tale of Two Cities” opens with the line, “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.” This is how I have felt about this past year.  This year has probably been one of the hardest years we have had.  Ray was unemployed most of it.  BUT I do NOT want to complain! I want to tell you that it was hard, but we have been blessed so much! I can’t even tell you all of the blessings we have had this year! 

Ray got a temporary state job in late August at Labor and Industries.  Happily, it turned into permanent in November.  We are so excited for benefits!! 

Ray had to have surgery on his eye last week.  We are grateful for insurance! He had a detached retina.  He had the same thing when he was 18.  The doctor said they don’t know what causes it.  Some people just have that happen. His vision started getting blurry in his left eye. His vision was down to 20/400 in that eye... practically blind.  It should be to 20/100 when it is all healed. Yah for sick leave!  He had over 500 hours of sick leave when he left the state a couple of years ago.  Luckily the sick leave will carry over if you get a state job within 5 years.

In March we got to go to Eastern WA to watch Melissa & her dance team perform at state. They did a great job & it was so exciting to watch. Sadly, Melissa decided that dance team wasn’t for her this year.  It was a hard decision, we all loved watching her perform & she loved it, too.  It just took too much time.  She got a job (two for a while). She worked at an ice cream shop and a state job she got thru her school.  She is still working for the state. 

It is hard to believe that this is her Senior year in high school!  We are enjoying everything we can with her! She is such a fun girl (woman) to be around! This has been a hard year for her because most of her friends were Seniors last year.  She has so many friends that are on missions for our church and lots have gone off to college.  She is hoping to go to BYU-I next year.

Keagan is in 8^th grade this year. He played soccer again this year.  It is fun watching him play.  He wants to play basketball again in January. He got glasses this year. I was asking him why he wasn’t reading very much this summer. He told me because he couldn’t see very well.  Really?! Geez, parent of the year... He has problems with his eyes tracking.  He has to go to eye therapy every week for 3-6 months. No wonder he had problems reading! Sometimes he couldn’t even focus on the letters! He is growing up so much and getting taller all the time.  He turned 14 this summer and is now going to church dances.  He loves them! J

I am still teaching preschool with my friend Marie. We have 10 kids in one morning class.  As always it is a lot of fun.  I am also watching a little girl after school and most days, my niece, Aurora too. We joke around that we have the perfect all American family of 2.5 kids because we have Aurora part time. We love having her! She is part of our family!

Next year will be big changes for our family.  Everyone goes to a new school! Aurora to middle school, Keagan to High school, and Melissa off to College.  I try to not think about it too much, it makes me a little sad.  It is hard for me to believe that we are old enough to be in this stage of life!

This spring we also got to go visit Ray’s Aunt Darlene in Salt Lake City while she was serving her church mission there.  What a great experience! We also got to go to our first General Conference. (Our church has semi-annual meetings in Salt Lake where all the church membership gathers together and listens to our prophet & other church leaders.)

We also got to go to several weddings this year.  My little brother, Adam got married.  We love his new family, his wife Heather and her 3 children. New cousins! Yah!  

            The pictures on our Christmas card; Keagan being goofy as always at Adam’s wedding, Ray & I at Melissa’s state dance competition, One of Melissa’s Senior pics, and Keagan & Melissa in Utah.  There is a cute little story behind this one... They were giving me goofy faces, not cooperating to smile for me.  I told them, ok that is going to be the Christmas card picture.  That is their reaction when I said that.  J 

            We are so blessed! We have such wonderful family and friends who love and support each other. I try to look for ways that we are blessed every day. It is amazing to find so many little things to be thankful for when you look!

            We wish you a very Merry Christmas and hope we all can remember the true meaning of this Holiday season!                                  

Love, Ray, Donna, Melissa, & Keagan

Random facts about me

Facebook had a thing where you post random facts about yourself and I thought it would be a good thing to blog, too.
1.  I am short (no new news there). Our bed is tall.  I have a stool on my side.
2.  I'm an awful speller.  I love spell check and google.  Luckily I can tell if I have misspelled the word, I just can't spell it.  I love it when google "says" Do you mean?  Sometimes I misspell the word so badly I have to try again, google doesn't even know. Sometimes I change what I am going to write if I don't know how to spell the word.
3.  I have had Shoop twice as long as any other last name in my life. My mom changed our last names whenever she did.  I was born with Mattson.  When my mom got re-married when I was 7 or 8, it changed to Blakley. Then she got divorced and went to her maiden name and so did we.. Bilow. Then when I was 10 she got re-married and her husband adopted us and my name went to Richardson.  I've been married and happily been a Shoop for over 21 years.
4.  I like to re arrange my living room.  The problem is there is only so many ways it can go.
5.  I can't stand to have my hair the same way for very long. I like to try different things.  Some are better than others..
6.  I didn't see my dad from the time I was 7 until I found him when I was 22.  It is one of my best memories of when I was reunited with him and the rest of his family.
7.  I met Ray when I was at college.  I went to college with a boyfriend... Ray lived a couple of doors down from my boyfriend. Ray was a stalker.  :) He waited patiently.  After we broke up, he would say Hi to me all of the time.  I felt bad that I didn't know his name and had to ask around to find out.
8.  The first time Ray asked me out, he baked me chocolate chip cookies.  He put word strips in them to ask me.  We went bowling with a group of people.  He still makes excellent choc. chip cookies and likes to go bowling.

Melissa's Senior Pictures, Fall 2013, Nisqually Wildlife Refuge

Click here to view this photo book larger

Turn your favorite photos into a photo book at Shutterfly.com.

I took all of Melissa's Senior Pictures and put them in a photo book.  We ordered one for home.

Picture were taken by Kylee Ann Photography, check out her blog!

                                    She does a great job!

Donna Birth to 3, redhead?

I was talking to some friends tonight who have a red head and mentioned that I was a redhead when I was born and a little girl.  Well, this is what I have always been told. I tried to find baby pictures and all I could find was several pictures like this first one, exposed film pictures that you can't really tell and Black & white pictures.  Man, I'm old to have so many black & white pictures.  It would of been nice to have some where I could tell what my hair color was... but really I'm just grateful to have so many pictures.  Yes, I was the first child..  Photography has come a long way!!

Up above, Donna Kay at 3 months

These 3 black & white ones say on the back 20 months.

These 3 in the red & blue dress say 2 years old on the back. Hmm, I just noticed, I bet these are from different setting. I'm wearing different shoes and the bottom one I don't think I can see the scratch on my nose.

 This one is with my mom, she was pregnant with my Brother Eric. (You can see my mom's arm in the other picture, trying to get me to sit still).  I'm around 2 1/2.

One of my first pictures with my brother, Eric.

Here I am at age 3.