Week of July 2, 2012

Wow!  We're in the middle of an amazing fireworks display, the kind that only God can provide!  It started south of us with tremendous fingers of lightening.  It quickly blew our way and currently sheets of rain are pouring down, originally almost horizontally.  The thunder is now booming very near us making the house shake.  The dogs are going nuts!

An explanatory quote from a facebook friend here in Yakima:  Super crazy bizarre lightning storm going on right now!!  Wind, rain in every direction, lightning that won't quit/absolutely amazing!

Lindsey texted a few minutes ago that they arrived home safely.  It's back to a quiet house for us darn it!  I unplugged my computer to protect it from the power surges as we've already had one.  So I think I'll turn off the computer to save my battery.

SATURDAY - JULY 7, 2012
Another travel day.  This morning we're heading out to the Smith's farm to pick bing and rainier cherries

Aidan enjoying his outdoor adventures in Yakima

Mommy Donna giving Aidan a helping hand to pick the cherries on top!

Thomas the 'super cherry picker'!

There's goofy Nana!

and then we'll head over to Franklin park for the Folklife Festival.  The band Darvin plays in "Four on the Floor" will be playing there.

There's my handsome bass player!

Four on the Floor at the annual Yakima Folk Life Festival

 We plan on leaving from the festival to head to Seattle where I'll drop off Lance, Donna and Aidan.  It was wonderful having them come visit.  We'll miss the Aidanisms!  He's such a cute little stinker!

FRIDAY - JULY 6, 2012
Today has been hot!  It's reaching the 90's now and temperatures are expected to climb at least for the next 4 days or so.  Maybe it's God's way of preparing me for the heat of Hades in Texas next week!  Anyway, knowing that it would be hot and that we had plans for lunch and on I decided to take my run in the morning.  I've been following Lindsey's 1/2 marathon training schedule this week which meant a 4 mile run.  I didn't head out quite early enough and it was starting to warm up.  I had my 5 minute walking warm up, made it 2 miles running then walked 1/10th of a mile, ran another mile, walked 1/10th of a mile, ran about a 1/2 mile, walked .05 mile and ran the last 1/2 mile.  I felt like that was fine.  I would love to be able to run 4 in a row, but I won't be too hard on myself, as long as I persevere and make steady progress I won't let myself get down.  Next week on the long run I'll make it my goal to run past the 3 mile mark and then do the walk/run.

When I got home Donna was ready to go on her 50 minute walk, so I hydrated and ate a little snack and then headed back out with her and the two dogs.  There was a bit of adjustment walking them both.  The Gum's had loaned us a harness to harness 2 dogs together to walk.  Unfortunately Bear liked to run around a little too much which caused some entanglement.  We finally got the hang of it and were able to stay untangled from each other most of the time.  We walked the track and for the last 2 laps I tied them under the stadium seats because Bear was so tired and hot he didn't want to keep walking.  By the time we got home we had two hot dogs!  I wish I had taken a picture of Bear after the walk.  He threw himself down sprawling on the kitchen floor and stuck his nose over the side of his water dish to lap up water as he lay there.  It was hilarious, poor guy!  Both dogs have been pretty well pooped all day just laying around the house.
Lindsey had gone running in the meantime so after we all got showered and fed Aidan lunch we headed to the Indian food restaurant called the Taj.  This is the restaurant where Thomas and Lindsey had their first date on a Valentine's day.  They've been back many times and the owner recognizes and chats with them every time they come.  We had taken them to eat there last time they were in town and Lindsey was still pregnant, so Jessie was excited to see the baby and we even took a picture of them all together.

 Darvin was at work so we made a 'to go' box for him. Lance was kind enough to pay for all of us.

Lindsey and Thomas and I took Brooklyn over to Pops's work with the food so he could show off his Baby Beekee (as Aidan calls her).

Proud Pops always likes showing off the grandbabies when they come visit him at work!

Proud Pops!

 I gave him the choice of lunch from the Taj or Brooklyn and their was no question his first choice was Brooklyn!  He's such a sweet, proud Grandpa.  He always loves showing off the grandkids to his coworkers.  Stopped at Costco and then headed to Allan Neal's chiropractic office (Cascade Chiropractic) where Brooklyn has been getting adjusted all week.  She's doing so much better with sleep, pooping, and gas pain not hurting.  Allan wouldn't charge the kids anything for the 4 visits this week.  What an angel for our family!!

Lance, Donna, Aidan and I plan on heading out to the Smith's farm once Aidan gets up from his nap to pick U-pick cherries.  They're only charging .50/pound for Rainiers or Bings.  In the grocery store the cheapest you can find them on sale is about $2.50/pound.

Getting ready to pick cherries at the Smith family farm

This is kinda cool!

Ray Smith with the 'adopt a grandbaby for a day' program! lol

Aidan riding the broom-broom with 'Grandpa' Smith

Maybe this is too scary after all!

 We'll pick some for Lindsey and Thomas to take home with them too.  Then we're planning on making a stop at the Hot Rods and Harley's event they have every Friday night during the summer at the McDonald's on 40th Avenue.  We're all thinking that will be a big hit with Aidan.  Darvin indicated he should be able to get off early tonight at the patient count is really low again (it was yesterday too), so hopefully he'll be able to come with us, at least to Hot Rods and Harley's.

THURSDAY - JULY 5, 2012
What a wonderful fireworks display at Legend's Casino in Toppenish last night.  Unfortunately the new SD card that I used had an error message after taking many pictures.  Turns out it wanted to be formatted before taking pics and formatting erases everything that's on it.

Hiking adventures:  Lance, Donna, Aidan and I were going to take a short trip to White Pass meeting Mike Park and Molly dog there.

White Pass Ski Resort

Lance and Aidan chillaxin' on the ski lift

Aunt Denise, Aidan and Donna

 We were supposed to meet him at the Ski Resort area around 10:30 a.m.  We actually arrived on time and waited and waited for Mike.  Took a walk around the ski lift.  Lance and Donna took turns walking down the street to the gas station to use the restroom.  We changed Aidan's diaper.  In the meantime I'd left phone and text messages for Mike with no response.  He did call me back at one time but the coverage was spotty and the call was dropped.  We were getting a bit anxious after we'd waited about an hour for him since we'd only planned on spending about an hour on the mountain eating lunch and taking a short hike.  Aidan's nap time is usually 1 p.m. and most of the time he will not take a nap in the car.  So we knew we had a small window of opportunity for our trip so we could make it home in time.  We finally decided to head further west down the road to the site that we thought we'd be hiking at and try to keep our eye out for Mike on the way and when we got there.  We stopped at a lookout point.  I was scanning oncoming traffic looking for Mike.  When I thought I saw his car pass by I told Lance and Donna that I'd head back up to the ski resort to see if it was him.  I found that it wasn't him and returned to the Larkin's.  At this point I was in a quandry not knowing what to do!  We decided to head down the road a little more in the hopes that it would cut down on the time it took to meet up with Mike.  We found a nice lunch spot, I kept trying to text and call him.  We ate lunch and by that time it was getting quite late and so we decided to start heading back the way we came.

Larkin family with Mt Rainier in the background

Aidan enjoying the grasses at our lunch spot

Sharing our lunch with the neighborhood chipmunks

Aidan loves his Mommy!

When I got ahold of Mike he indicated that he'd come over Highway 410, Chinook Pass and what should have been a 2 hour trip took over 4 hours because of poor road conditions and road detours.  Then he missed the turn to Highway 12 to White Pass so instead he ended up in Yakima.  I felt bad, but didn't want to cut our trip too short since the idea was to lunch and hike.  I told Mike to head over to our house to chat with Lindsey and Thomas and we'd try to catch up with him in Yakima.  Lindsey and Thomas had intended to spend the afternoon at his parent's house as some of his siblings are still here from out of town, but they graciously hosted Mike instead.  Of course I was stressed about ALL of the changed plans, feeling like I'd messed up everyone's plans.

On our way home we stopped at the gas station across the street from the ski resort and inquired about hiking trails.  The lady told Lance that there was one around Leach Lake which she said was about 200 yards down the road.  So we stopped there and took a hike around the lake.

The Larkin family at Leach Lake

Aidan ended up falling asleep in his backpack on Lance's back!  So we extended our hike a little longer as it was supposed that he would wake up as soon as we tried to take him out of the backpack.  He got about a 30 minute nap.

Nothing like a nice hike to help a guy sleep!

We made a stop at the Clear Creek Falls overlook and enjoyed the beautiful waterfalls and view.

On the way home we got delayed with road construction in Tieton.  We waited and waited and waited all the while listing to Aidan grunt and watching him turn red in the face!  After this had gone on for quite a few minutes Donna happened to check and Aidan was have a front blow out of his diaper!  So we quickly pulled into the adjacent grocery store parking lot and had a huge 3 adult production cleaning up the boy, getting him out of his poopy clothes, etc.  Of course by the time we were finished our side of the traffic had proceeded through the construction zone and we were left to wait, again!  I'm guessing we waited for at least a total of 30 minutes to get through Tieton!  We finally made it home and Aidan got his bath.

WEDNESDAY - JULY 4, 2012
Happy Independence Day!  Today we went non-traditional.  No bbq with burgers and dogs, instead we had a yummy lunch of Rohn's Pistolette, Dirty Rice and Ratatouille and then Raspberry crepes for dessert.  Lindsey picked up Grandpa Clement on her way home from shopping for a 4th of July outfit for Brooklyn.  He really enjoyed getting out, eating and socializing.  I took some time to show him pictures of baby Vona and some of Brooklyn as well.

Tomorrow Lee's sister Pearl will be coming into town with her daughter.  They're taking Grandpa out for dinner, will spend the night and then head out again I guess.  I suggested that Grandpa call when they get in town to try to arrange a time when Lindsey, Thomas and Brooklyn could go over to visit with them.

TUESDAY - July 3, 2012
We took a picnic lunch and some stale bread to Randall Park today.

Ate our lunch and then took the bread over to the pond to feed the ducks and geese.  

Aidan thoroughly enjoyed watching the "dack-oo's" chase down the bread.  We gave him some bread to throw and he wanted to eat it instead! lol

Lindsey, Thomas and Baby Brooky hiding in the Moby wrap

I hear Aidan waking up from his nap downstairs and he's not a happy camper...we are hoping to take him across the street to the fire station for a visit with the "broom-broom's".  I guess we'll see if his mood improves.

Later today Lindsey and I will be climbing the hill on 96th Avenue for our exercise.  I'm NOT looking forward to it.  But I guess the truth be told I can't say that I ever REALLY look forward to my 45 minutes of exercise!

MONDAY- July 2, 2012
Today we headed to West Valley U-Pick farm and picked raspberries. Lance, Donna, Aidan, Lindsey, Thomas, Brooklyn and Thomas's family all went.

The Giles totally out-picked the Larkin/Clement's. I think Thomas's mom Sandee ended up buying about 22 pints of raspberries. I'm glad it was her and not me! We'll just eat ours by the handfuls! lol
Which is EXACTLY what Aidan did while we were picking.

He is the cutest little stinker. He figured out that if he stayed near Aunt Denise he didn't need to pick raspberries off the bushes, he could just pick them out of Aunt Denise's bucket! lol

This evening after Darvin got home from work, Lindsey and I got our run in and we got the little people to bed then the adults played the game Citadels.  It was great fun.  We'll try to have another game tomorrow night.