Grama Meri’s House

Three of us Whites drove up to Bellevue last Wednesday to visit the three remaining Browns (the manly 4th White stayed home and worked). Jay and Rose had a great time playing with Grama Meri and eating oatmeal chocolate chip cookies with Grampa Charley. We saw my sister Mel briefly a few times(she’s a junior in high school and it was homecoming week so she was ultrabusy).

I had a short list of things to do while we were up in the “big city:”

1. Spend time with my family and get OUT of town
2. EAT a LOT of GOOD food at REAL restaurants (E__’s fried chicken, a French Bakery with the best US-made chocolate croissant I’ve ever had, Thai Ginger, and of course, The Cheesecake factory, plus yummy food my Mom made at home).
3. Find a few things at stores (finishing touches for Halloween costumes and a dress for Rose)
4. Watch chick flicks with my Mom from her superb collection (we watched The Lakehouse and Kate and Leopold—time travel makes for wonderful romances somehow).
5. Take our travelworn Civic in for a makeover at the Honda shop. We actually weren’t planning on getting the car fixed, but our poor car has been roaring around for the past year—ask anyone in Grandview! So we acted when the opportunity presented itself. It was WAY easier to get a new muffler and exhaust manifold with my Mom to chauffer me around while the car was out of action—she was great!

Here are some fo-toes

Grama keeps quarters in her purse for when the grandkids visit. Weehaw! A random kid on the other car kind of smiled for our picture.

Jay and Rose loved Grama’s little stroller. It’s much more kid-sized than our big joggers. They took turns pushing each other around Joann Fabrics while I found supplies for their Halloween costumes.

We mean business.

Grama Meri’s famous story reading

While we were at Kohl’s one day, Jay became attached to a small plastic castle in the toy section. It was tragic when we left it there. My Mom is so clever! She made a sweet castle out of a cardboard box that she had at home. This castle was complete with a dragon—that purple balloon had a small plastic dragon head tied to the top. It looked hilarious.

We drove home on Saturday afternoon in a Seattle-Snoqualmie MONSOON. In our small car I had to slow waaay down at times to control the hydroplaning.

But when we got to the other side of the pass, a rainbow greeted us. It’s hard to take pictures while driving, by the way.

Then the sun broke through over Selah. It reflected off of all the water on the ground—the river? puddles? ponds? I don’t know, but it looked beautiful! Another picture taken at 70 miles per hour.

In spite of my reckless high-speed photography, we made it home at last to hug our favorite things. I hugged Jeff…

…Rose hugged ShainaBear and Bunny (or should we say Beh and Bubby).

Side note about the bear: My Grama Brown made this bear and her Shaina dress for me when I was little. I wish I inherited her sewing skills—ha. I’m glad Rose loves this bear. I can’t help thinking of Toy Story 3 when I see my kids love and play with my old toys…

…and Jay hugged all of his “kids.”

Visiting family is good. Coming home is good. Good food is GOOD.
Life is happy.