Montana Grandchildren

Here is the promised grandchildren laden post!

My precious Kyleigh and Caleb who are 10 and 8 years old.  They are the best of friends and rarely fight.  I love them both oh so much and wish we could see them more.

In the background you can see a couple of the cabins that are here at the lake.  There are about 22 or so of them in various sizes to rent for a weekend, week or longer during the summer.

A friend from church brought their kayaks and stand up paddleboard out on Saturday and gave the kids lessons.  They loved it.  Don't you just love Caleb's toothless smile?

Kyleigh took to both the kayak and the board like she was born to it.

Grandpa was never far away to lend a hand.  (And play lifeguard)

Now it's time for the board.  Sue steadies it while she gets going while grandpa stands by...

and she's off.  She did so well, and notice grandpa still standing guard.

The kids swim like little fish, but grandpa still wanted to be right there.  Obviously the water was only about a foot deep at this point.  Our little lake does get to a depth of 120 feet not too far out from that point you see on the right.

Caleb's turn and he did great too!

Here is my middle child, Jamie.  He has the greatest sense of humor and I just love him.  He inherited the genes from the males in my family,  All of my nephews and my brothers are well over 6 foot tall and have the same hairstyle or lack thereof.  Jamie blames me.  :-)  I guess he has a right to.  It is my family genes after all.  He is about 6'4" but I still love to give him big hugs.  I miss seeing him more often.

On the drive home after a day in the water and a picnic at the trailer.  One tired little girl.  The boys were in the front of the truck, the girls, including Chloe, in the back so I didn't get a picture of Caleb here.  Gosh it was hard to say goodbye Sunday.  Grandma and Grandpa both shed a few tears.  It was awful.

On a brighter note.  Green beans straight from the garden.  I picked them at 4:45 and by 5:30 we were eating them.  You can't get much fresher than that!

I can't get blogger to cooperate and let my type below the last picture, so I guess I'll say a little here and close with a last picture of my crochet.

We have so many fires burning around the northwest right now, several of them not far from Spokane.  It is just so dry and we've been having dry lightening strikes all night and more today.  Not a good scenario.

The smoke is so heavy here today that you can barely see across the street.  Neal and Jenny were going to come to the lake tonight for dinner with us, but 50 mph+ winds are expected this afternoon and I really don't want to be sitting in my trailer alone with Chloe with winds like that so we're having dinner here at home.  My other fear is that a fire will start while I'm there by myself.   Dennis and I will go to the lake tomorrow for a couple of nights and then Mandy and Piper will be here.  I'm so excited to see them.  I just face-timed with them and Piper is excited for the plane trip.

It's been in the 100's for several days now, but today, with the wind, a cold front is supposed to pass by.  Tomorrow the high is predicted to be 78.  That sounds wonderful!  I hope you all have a lovely weekend my friends.  I'm sorry if this post is a bit disjointed.  I can't seem to keep my thoughts all in one place for some reason

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"Follow God's example, therefore, as dearly loved children and walk in the way of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a Fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.: Ephesians 5:1,2

Blessings always,

Betsy

A little crocheting was done, but not much.  I was too busy playing at the beach with my babies. :-)

Family

Hello Everyone!


It's Sunday here and although I usually don't post much on weekends, I thought after my last post I should check in with you.  First of all, I know I said it before, but I am stunned by the wonderful, thoughtful comments you have all given to me.  You are such an encouragement in my little world.  I'm still in pain...the cardiologist gave me some pills for nerve end pain last week but I can't take them.  Oh my goodness I was loopy!  My sister said my pupils were dime sized after 1 little pill.  He prescribed 6 a day!!!!  I think I'd rather have the pain for awhile.  Anyway.  I'm about the same physically as I was last week but in a better place emotionally after having my big sister and BIL visit from Monday until yesterday.  We were busy all week, and I was exhausted but it was SO GOOD to see them.  I miss my sister.  She lives in Nebraska 1,572 miles from me.  She picked on me something fierce when we were kids but she never let anyone else do it!  :-)  And we're good friends as adults.  It was the first time her husband has flown in over 40 years-since he got out of the army.  He tells me he will drive here next time.  He doesn't care for flying.  She's never seen the ocean and their next visit needs to be longer so we can take them to the Oregon coast.


Here they are in Riverfront Park in downtown Spokane.  Melanie and Mike.

Blocks by the red wagon you see in the following photo.

Kids of all ages love this wagon...

including Mike!   There is a ladder in the back of the wagon to climb up and the handle is the slide.

There is a beautiful carousel that is well over 120 years old.

And the garbage eating goat.  You put paper up to it's mouth and it sucks it into it's "stomach".  The kids all love this too and it really cuts down on littering.  Everyone feeds their litter to the goat!

Spokane is famous for Bloomsday, a run in the spring.  These statues depict the run.  We really do have a beautiful downtown here in Spokane.  There is something going on all spring, summer and fall most weekends in the park.

On Thursday, Dennis took a day of vacation from work and we drove to the $50,000 Saloon in Montana to take Mike over a couple of mountain passes for the first time ever.  He's a Midwest flatlander!  Melanie has driven with me before from Omaha to Spokane so it wasn't new to her.  We had breakfast at a restaurant in Spokane, lunch in Montana and then we went back over the passes to Coeur d'Alene, ID to walk the boardwalk and we had ice cream.  Not bad.  We ate our way through three states in a  matter of hours!

Here is Mike and Melanie in a HUGE Adirondack chair at the end of the boardwalk.

And here is Hubby and me.

This isn't a good picture, but a lunch cruise was leaving as we were walking the boardwalk and there on the left is a float plane getting ready to take off.

Part of the marina at the Coeur d'Alene resort.

Another view of the plane, boat and beach.  Coeur d'Alene really is beautiful and it's a resort destination for many.  It's hard to remember that it's only 45 minutes from home.  We rarely go unless we have visitors.  There is world class shopping and eating too.

Friday afternoon our son Jamie and our two grandchildren drove over from Helena, Montana and they left this morning.  Beware... the next post will feature grandchildren pictures!  It was so hard to say goodbye to them.  We never know when we'll see them again.  The last time was Christmas!

AND, Mandy and Piper are flying in on the 18th and staying for two whole weeks!  I'm so excited.  All of my grandchildren within two weeks time.  I think they all were afraid I was dying or something and thought they better come see me one more time!!!  Ha! Ha!    Maybe I should get a pacemaker more often!  On second thought, no.  

I am very, very tired and had planned to go to the lake this afternoon until Thursday morning and do nothing, but it's supposed to be 103F on Wednesday so I think I'll probably come home early.  It will be too hot to be there by myself.  I can come home and do nothing, right?

Thank you all again for your sweet words and encouragement.  I am a very blessed woman and I know it.  You. Are. All. Wonderful!!!!!!!!

"Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.  No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and His love is made complete in us."  1 John 4:11-12

This is how you all have shown me that God lives in us.  With the love and sweet words you've had for me.

Blessings,
Betsy

Monday, Monday

There I was on Friday afternoon at the lake.  It was 103F outside so I sat inside the trailer with the A/C on full blast, Sophie on my lap and crocheted the afternoon away while watching TV.  Nita and Lori were swimming in the lake but I'm not allowed to do that. 


I want to thank each one of you for the sweet comments and all of the love you've shown me over the past few weeks.  I can't believe how much it means to me to have you all thinking of me and praying for me. It was a rough weekend pain wise.  My sweet Mandy has made me put another call into the doctor this morning.  I haven't heard from them yet.  She said I shouldn't be having this much swelling and pain almost four weeks after surgery.  I hope they have some answers.  Now, enough of that.  There were some pleasant moments.


This was sunset Friday night.  They took me to the beach in the golf cart so I could at least wade in the lake after it cooled off a bit. (I think it was about 90F).  Look at that sunset.

Just a few minutes later... We have so many fires burning up here right now.  Friday night there was one about 15 miles away from our trailer.  It went from 10 acres to over 200 in just a few hours.  I think it's in the "mop up" stage now.

This was the plume of smoke we saw when it first began.

Larry and Dennis during my wading excursion.

The sky on Saturday.  Smoke from the Chelan, WA fire and the Ford, WA fire were both drifting directly over us.  It doesn't look much better today here in Spokane.  It reeks of smoke when we go outside.  Since it was so nasty we had to stay inside the trailer on Saturday, we decided to come home after dinner.  Compare this with my normal gorgeous blue sky and lake photos.  So sad.  But there were still skiers out there!

I did get all of these hats made while sitting inside the trailer Friday and Saturday!

Now I'm off to the airport to pick up my sister and brother in law.  They'll be here until Saturday.  It will be SO good to see them.

Blessings and much love to you all.

Betsy