Our New Library!!!!

Humble little Grandview, WA just got a beautiful brand new library! I am going to try my best not to end every sentence in this post with !!!!

Ever since we moved to Washington 2 1/2 years ago, we have had rotten luck with libraries. Walla Walla’s library charged an arm and TWO legs for poor College Place residents to get a library card. Since Jeff was a student when we lived there, we didn’t have any spare limbs to pay for library cards. Grandview had a tiny old book nook called the Bleyhl Community Library when we moved here just over a year ago. A few months ago, Yakima Valley Community College (YVCC) announced that it would be building a library on its Grandview Campus, and the Bleyhl Community Library merged with YVCC to make one gorgeous haven of literary delight!!!! Ever since the words “Grandview Library” were hung on the outside of the building, I have gotten an Anne Shirley-style thrill when I see it. I even paused on a run one day to peek through the windows.

The grand opening ribbon-cutting ceremony was on Monday (Sept. 6th). You may recall that that was my first day of boy- babysitting bonanza. But, I have been withering away in the book-desert for FAR too long to let 4 small children hold me back. It was time for some Shaina-innovation! [or should I say Shainnovation?]

I reconnected with this old faithful garage-sale bike trailer. It came with a detachable handle and front wheel to turn it into a stroller. Perfect for 3 little boys! As for Rose…

Being the youngest, she got the short end of the stick. While puzzling over how to transport 4 kids 1/3 of a mile, I noticed this handy little compartment behind the seat in the bike trailer. I crammed a blanket-lined Costco wipes box back there to give Rose a little support, and then crammed my unfortunate daughter into the box.

After a few minutes, Rose embraced her back seat and calmly taste-tested the yellow blanket while we walked to the library. Man I have good-natured kids.

Steph walked over with us, and she was a great help with keeping track of the 3 little explorers.

The Ribbon. I thought it would be red. Oh well, gold is shinier. This little ribbon-cutting party turned out to be a 45 minute program with speeches by various community college people, architects, and librarians. Even the Mayor spoke! It reminded me of the State of the Union address: lots of clapping after every few words.

This is the Mayor of Grandview. He looks like a bigger version of Jean Valjean to me. Monsieur le mayor. Too bad he didn’t sing for us… or quote some Victor Hugo. That would’ve livened things up a bit! Today as I was leaving the library, I did the polite “hi” to a group of people that passed me. A few minutes later, I realized that the guy at the front of the group that “hi-ed” back was the mayor! I felt famous. Briefly.

Anyways, during the lengthy speech-making, los niños romped and roamed.

Jay led an expedition to get as dirty as possible. He must have been born with an internal dirt homing device. Jay can always find dirt.

I’m not the only one who’s excited about the new library. There was quite the crowd assembled by the end. They finally cut the ribbon, and we wove through the crowd with a chain of little boys to go see the inside of the library at long last. It was too crowded for me to feel comfortable with all those kids running rampant, so we left after a quick glance around.

Today Jay, Rose, and I went to the library together. I felt kind of dumb taking pictures, but it’s so SHINY and PRETTY!

Jay with the reading skunk by the children’s section. I wonder why they chose a skunk. It should’ve been a sage rat. hee hee

Rose basked in the books while I explored and picked out some fun kid stories. There don’t seem to be any new kids books, but I haven’t been able to explore the rest of the collection to see if they’ve added anything. I’m not positive, but I’m optimistically assuming that we’ll be able to do interlibrary loans now, since the library is part of the community college’s system. yay!!!

Jay was happy to find that they brought the cool Lego table from the old library.

While Jay splashed in the water fountain, I read all of the interesting history of books in Grandview in this nice little display case. I love old newspaper clippings! This isn’t a good picture, but you get the point.

For the new system, everyone has to apply for a new library card. Here’s mine. Before, they didn’t even give out library cards—they just asked for your last name at the check-out. This is a welcome addition to my wallet.

Bring on the books!