Grandma Turns 100!

Who in their right mind would travel 1000 miles round trip in two days just for a birthday party?! That would be us because it is not every day you have a Grandma who turns 100! That's right, this weekend we celebrated 100 years of life for my dad's mom, Lydia Vaden and it was on her actual birthday to boot, November 1. It seems like a crazy thing to do, but it was important to my dad and well, it was important for me too, so Dennis went along with it all.

We left Friday after school and drove halfway which was Pendleton, Oregon roughly four hours away. We enjoyed a dip in the hotel hot tub so I guess that almost made it seem like it was a vacation. We drove the final four hours Saturday morning and arrived in Moutain Home, Idaho at about 2pm Idaho time. Grandma's party did not start until 3pm, but we enjoyed hanging out with my two aunts at the American Legion hall where the party was being held.

As one might expect, the American Legion hall in Mtn. Home is not a particulary fancy building. It dates probably back to the 70s or possibly earlier and hasn't been updated since then. For ambiance, there is 30 years accumulated cigarette smell, low ceilings and poor lighting. It made it very difficult to get good pictures, especially for an amatuer photographer like me. I did my best but the photos were either too dark, people's faces too shiny or green or the photos were blurry.

It was a very simple affair with mostly family, various relatives outside of direct family and people from Mtn. Home. There was a country/folk/rockabilly/gospel singer on accoustic guitar (too loud as most people complained but grandma thought he was great). My family, meaning dad's descendents, probably accounted for half the people there. Five of the eight siblings with some of their kids and grandkids were there. Everyone from my family stayed until about 5:30. We the Chandlers were the last to leave when dad left. We then drove the four hours back to Pendleton, stayed the night and drove the other four hours back this morning.

Now why would we do such a crazy thing? I guess it was so my boys could do the two-step and the swing with their great-aunts Boots and Deanna. So that I could see relatives that I haven't seen in 20 years or more, many of whom I would not recognized if I met them on the street. So that I could hear over and over again from those same Aunts, my Grandma and most importantly my dad, how happy they were that I came. So that my children could meet a Great Grandmother that they have never met before (Tucker is the only one who has met her and the last time was when he was just a baby). So we could pay tribute to a woman who has lived a long, somewhat cantankerous (okay really cantankerous) and amazing life.

I don't know my Grandma Vaden as well as I should. We were never particularly close. I think I like to place most of the blame for that on her end (and she deserves alot of it) but I think it works both ways. I don't know that she was every very comfortable with our family and we with her. Who knows everything she had to go through in keeping my dad at a time when having a baby out of wedlock was so very frowned upon? There is so much of her life that is a mystery that she would never divulge and now never will. I don't know all of what makes/made her the way she is. I guess I should have tried harder to find out.

No one is certain how much of her birthday party Grandma will remember. She seemed pretty lucid but who knows. What I do know is that my boys will probably remember it for a long time. They will remember that mom made them go on a crazy drive for a visit that lasted roughly 3 hours. They will remember being kissed, sometimes more than once, by strangers who mom insisted were family. (The Vaden clan are a kissing kind of family). They will remember dancing with their great aunts, eating pickled beets for the first time (Spencer, and he didn't like them) and most importatly, I hope they will remember that family IS the most important thing there is and sometimes we do crazy things for them.

Why I Love the Puget Sound

We had a visit from my nephew Tyson the other day. He was up here interviewing for a job with Microsoft. We were talking about what it is like to live in Seattle and it got me thinking about why I love living up here. In my spider blog I already mentioned the great weather--truly! (If you like weather that never gets too cold or too hot for long periods of time, this is the place for you! I have to admit that I haven't been to some of these places--even though they are close--but they are places I intend to visit someday (soon). Pictures are worth a thousand words, so here is some of what is great about living in the Puget Sound!

The lighthouse is located in a park that is only a few miles away from our house. It's a huge park with hiking and biking trails, open fields and beaches. It is really cool.

I have always loved the Seattle skyline. It is especially cool at night when you are driving up from the south. I don't know why but it I think it is just beautiful. it is also really cool at night from a ferry.

Downtown Seattle is funky and cool and fun to walk around. Of course there is Pike St. Market but it is fun to wander the waterfront, the Seattle Center, Seattle Art Museum (first Thursdays of the month are free), and lots of other great places. The kids love to ride the bus from our house and wander all the cool places downtown. It is one of their favorite summer adventures.

The Washington coast is only an hour or two away depending on which beach you want to visit. We haven't been to that particular beach in the picture but every summer we go camping a the beach and it is one of the funnest events of the summer for everyone--even when it rains (which it has only done twice in the 15plus years we have been beach camping).

The walking train is in the heart of Seattle around a lake called Greenlake. The trail is just under 3 miles and is very popular for running. That is where I did most of my marathon training. It is beautiful at 6am in the morning with the moonlight glinting of the smooth clear surface.

The picture with the mountain in back is Mt. Rainier which isn't as close to us as in this picture but it is amazing nevertheless on a clear day. There are amazing hiking trails and camping spots. If you love the outdoors then you couldn't ask for a place with more beautiful outdoor opportunities all within and hour or two of the city!

The other mountain range is the Olympics which is the mountain range between Seattle and the coast. This is not the view from where I live but there is a park about 1/2 a mile from our house that has a killer view of the Puget Sound and this mountain range. On a clear beautiful evening, nothing beats the view from this park (Sunset Park) of the sun setting behind these mountains and with sailboats on the sound. If you listen closely sometimes you can hear seals barking and an occasional tugboat whistle.

Since no blog would be complete without one obligatory picture of my kids, the picture with the dragon is from a field trip I took with Cooper's class last year to the International District (or Chinatown for the non-PC crowd). Regardless there is amazing international cuisine to be found in the city of Seattle. Whether your taste runs to Thai, Mexican, Mongolian, Italian or BBQ, you can find it all in Seattle.

Spiders

When Cooper and I left for school this morning we noticed that it was a bit of a foggy day. In Seattle that means a pretty heavy dew. Because of the beads of dew, you could see all the spider webs. There were probably 10 or more of them in the evergreen bushes in front of our house, which you can kind of see here. They were so cool I had to go back in the house and get the camera to take pictures. Now we are NOT ones to get scared of spiders so naturally we were quite fascinated with all the webs and their shapes and intricacies. I find it interesting to observe the interesting shapes and patterns. They are just amazing. The weather was perfect for viewing them. We walked a few blocks farther and saw tons of webs all over the bushes everywhere. Then we saw a great big one, with a huge spider on it that I just had to get a picture of him. He was HUGE! But he was also beautiful, just sitting there waiting for something edible to come along. SO I had to snap a picture of him too. (Click on both of them to enlarge them to really appreciate how many webs there were on the shrubs and how big the Big Daddy was!)
It was such a cool morning to be out and about and it really made me think about how beautiful the earth is that God made for us. I was thankful for Cooper's excitement, enthusiasm and exuberance about the whole thing. There are so many beautiful things that we pass by every day without even considering. It also reminded me what I love about living in Seattle. Yes, it rains a fair amount here, and when it is not raining it is often gray. But...it is vibrantly green much of the year, the climate is generally mild (not too hot, not too cold). Tall mountains to remind me of Idaho but lots of water everywhere. Yes, there are spiders but there aren't any snakes and flies are almost non-existent. So today I am grateful for spiders and all the amazing things that are on this beautiful earth!

Spencer is a Teenager!

Yes my tall, skinny redhead is now a teenager! Spencer turned 13 on September 11. We went out for pizza on his actual birthday but saved the majority of his party for Saturday when the Chandler clan could be there. He was very excited to get two things on his list (he always has one prepared for every gift-giving occasion). He got and i-Pod and a gift certificate for Hollister, which he is out spending with Tucker as I type.
I am always so amazed at how different all my boys are from the other, with their own unique personalities and likes and dislikes. Spencer is my little chef. He loves to make desserts. He is especially good at chocolate chip cookies. He is very good a reading and following recipes so he will always eat well. (Unlike Tucker who may be living off Top Ramen). He is very artistic and has a great eye for color, details, shapes, sizes, etc. He is funny, a good student and has a great ear for music. Lest he seems to be nearing perfection, he also has a temper which has a very short fuse. When he gets in a snit, he has been known to shut himself in his room for a couple hours. Moody doesn't do justice to his moods swings at times. He is now several inches taller than me and within an inch or so if being taller than Tucker. He is probably about 4-5 inches taller than Tucker was at age 13. Perhaps he got the tall Chandler gene. Time will tell. He is a super kid and we are blessed to have him in our family.

1st Day & Wedded Bliss

Today was the 1st day of school for Seattle Public Schools. That means even more now than it did before since they are my employer. The last two weeks I have been working a little extra time to get ready for the big day. Well truth be told, I have been working alot of extra time. Will be looking forward to things getting a little calmer. We did make it through the 1st day though--both me and the boys. I always take a picture of the boys on the 1st day of school and the last day. So here is the one for this year. (I also took one of each boy alone.) I always like to compare the growth from year to year. I guess this one won't be all that helpful since Spencer is crouching. He is actually taller than me and was laughing yesterday about how short I was.

Today was also a banner day for Dennis and I. It was our 20th Anniversary! Yup that's right. We have been married for 20 years!! Scary. Even more scary, that's what we looked like on the big day 20 years ago. The kids find it hilarous that Dennis had hair. They think their dad looks really funny. I guess that would seem weird since they have only known him sans most of his hair. It seems pretty weird to think about being married 20 years, but then I kind of seems like we have always been married.

I guess the fact that we have Junior in high school and have 20 years means that we are officially old. Well at least that's what our kids think. Funny, other than a few extra pounds and a little less flexibility, I don't feel that different than I did 20 years ago.

Last Gasp of Summer

Here's another picture from Hawaii. This is at the aquarium on Maui. Apparently Tucker posted one of the aquarium pictures of him and his brothers on his My Space and somebody wrote back wondering who the unhappy, round-headed kid was and what was up with the sandal on one foot and the shoe on the other. They must have thought he was some strange kid! This is how Cooper had to walk around for a day or two to keep his foot wound from getting infected and keep the bandaging on. As I mentioned, we had to make a trip to the emergency room because he cut his foot on some coral within hours of our arrival in Hawaii. Luckily it did not keep him from having fun!
This picture of Spencer and Cooper is from the last day at the beach. They spent a long time playing together in the ocean. We spent about 3 hours at the beach (hence the sunburns we all got the last day). They raced each other on their boogie boards, swam, floated and lastly had a contes to see whose tower of sand would disapper in the waves first. They would build a tower then race back to the water to watch the waves pound their creations. It was amazing how well and long they played together! Gotta love the beach for brotherly love. Tucker spent the day in the shade with a t-shirt on because he had burnt his torso to a crisp the day before. Tanning Lotion 4 just isn't the protection you would think?!

We got in late Friday night. Saturday we had an extended Chandler family get together in Port Townsend which lasted the whole day. It was great to see Dennis' cousins from California. They are a great group of people. We didn't get home until after midnight. That left Sunday for doing laundry and getting ready to head for Idaho on Monday. At least Spencer, Cooper and I. Dennis and Tucker stayed in Seattle because they had to work.

We had a great time visiting my mom and dad. Cooper spent alot of time out in dad's woodshop. The cut and sanded, painted and had a blast. I love this picture of dad in his apron. We also went on a four-wheeler trip with dad up into the hills. It was wonderful to enjoy fresh veggies out of the garden every day. Who doesn't like new red potatoes and peas straight from the garden in cream sauce! We had it twice. We spent alot of time in the back yard under the shade tree just visiting. It was a lovely, relaxing visit. It was nice to see Allison and girls and Roberta and Gordon.

Cerese and I took the boys out fishing one evening. Or should I say casting. That's all it was. It wasn't that there were no fish. They were jumping like crazy! They just weren't interested. Well not in the hook anyway. The took plenty of bait. The boys thought it was great though and were actually pretty good at casting. We got bit by lots of mosquitos though.

We left Mackay a little early so we could spend time with Randy and family at Redfish. We wanted to see the damage done by the big wind storm. It was amazing how many treess were taken out by the wind! (See Celiacs blog for pics). We were only staying Thursday night so the boys and I slept in the back of the van. Amazing how much room there is with all the seats down! Well not quite as much as I thought when the boys started to heat up. I made Cooper sleep at the other end after only about an hour. It was cozy but it worked. It was nice to be able to hang with Randy and family. His grandkids are lots of fun. The boys had a good time with them all. The weather was not so hot (thunderstorms Thursday and overcast again on Friday) on Friday so we left early for Riggins and the river rafting expedition.

I think this picture probably looks similar to the one from last year. Not much changes from year to year but that's great because it is always fun! Cooper came on the raft trip for his first time. He thought it was great. We had a great trip downriver this year. Tucker made his first venture at going through a set of rapids in just his life jacket! Ah youth. Or should I say youthful boys! That's not anything I would have ever wanted to do--even when I was young.

So back to Seattle on Sunday and back to work on Wednesday :-( I guess it has to come to an end sometime. These past two weeks were awesome though!

Maui Memories

This will be a quickie as it is already 9pm and we are leaving early tomorrow morning for Idaho. This is one of cool things we did while in Maui. It was a 5 hour snorkeling trip to Molokini which is just a very tiny, horseshoe-shaped, uninhabited island just off the south end of Maui. It's a popular snorkeling spot so we were in the water with a few hundred snorkeling "buddies". Crowds nevertheless it was still really cool. We were in about 30 feet of water and could see all the way to the bottom. Once I got over not wanting to put my face in the water (which really is an issue for me) it was major cool. It is kind of freaky at first realizing that you are breathing under water. There was a lot of different types of tropical fish visible. Not as many as we were expecting but cool enough. It took about an hour to motor out to the island and we snorkeled for an hour or two. Spencer and I work wetsuit tops to help with sunburning issues--the water wasn't that cold of course. Then we took another boat ride to an area called Turtle Town--for the apparent plethera of turtles to be seen. Unfortunately it seems that the turtles are smarter than the tours. As soon as all those bodies hit the waters the turtles head for deep water. We did see one way down at the bottom. As soon as everyone got back in the boat, up pops a turtle about four or five feet from the end of the boat! Smart turtle. It was still really cool. Nobody got sunburned on this outing despite all the fears of sun glinting off the water making it likely.

We rented an underwater camera so we could get some cool pictures. They gave us a CD at the end of the cruise with all the pictures we took (so these are the only pictures we have right now--I haven't had a chance to download our camera yet and won't until we get back from Idaho). These next two underwater ones I took are from Turtle Town. I had finally gotten over that whole stick your head in the water phobia by then so my big thing was to try and get a picture of everyone under water. The first one is of Spencer just floating along on the top. It took a few tries to get it since just when I would get a good one he'd be too close or move the other way. Tucker was the only one who went all the way under however. He was the only one to swim the whole time with out the aid of a flotation device! (I didn't even get in the water without the float belt they had available.) All and all it was a pretty cool experience.

We had a great time in Maui. A cool family vacation which included a trip to the emergency room, a crazy lady and Mentos, sunburns on the last day, boogie boarding, a luau, watching the sun set and lots of relaxation. A trip we will all remember for sure. It's good to be home, even for a day or two. Will document more next time, plus the trip to Idaho!