More Summer Fun

Once again it's been forever since I wrote on my blog. A lot has happened since then, but let me go back.... to the rest of our summer trip. On the way back from Utah, mom, dad, sister Sherrie and I drove back to Wenatchee via Spokane. We used to live there when I was in high school and still have awesome friends we keep in touch with.


We were able to visit the Grover family, it was great because they were having their family reunion at Deer Lake. When we lived in Spokane we built a lake cabin and hadn't quite finished it when we moved to Hawaii. Grovers used to come out to the lake with us so we have lots of fond memories of swimming, boating, waterskiing and even beaching the boat (mom remembers that one well!!!). Years later Carol was looking for a lake cabin and bought our "old" cabin. It was so fun to be back at the lake where we have so many fond memories. Mom and dad used to go out dancing on Friday nights with Lou and Carol and I was the babysitter of the 5 kids in exchange for my free tap dance lessons from Carol. It's funny to look at these beautiful/handsome grown up kids and believe that I was their babysitter.


We also spent time with our life long friends John and Melissa Ward and their grandson Triston. We stayed with them, but was really disappointed that Triston was at camp for the week. While in Spokane we went down to Riverside Park and crossed the "swinging" bridge which isn't even swinging anymore since it has been rebuilt. Lot's of fun memories at the park too!

The Borg family was one of our closest family friends when living in Spokane -- us three girls of course thought the family was great because they had a boy the same age of each of us, plus a couple others thrown in and a few sisters too. It was a fun family to have Thanksgiving dinners with, dance festivals fun, and just hanging out. We were able to have lunch with Greg and his wife Sue one afternoon. Then we went over to Susan's house to visit with her, Kim and his daughter Maddy. I just love middle school kids - I had a great time visiting with Maddy and of course Kim and Susan too.

We also had a great visit with Rene & Curt Miller. Rene and I have been friends since 6th grade and have kept in contact all these years. They just remodeled their basement and it is awesome!!

Petersen Reunion in American Fork

I am going to start my rambling blog about our trip to Utah and will add pictures when I arrive back home or get near a computer that I can download some pictures. But some of the cool ones are on Dave's camera so that will have to wait.

Dave and I left Wenatchee on Friday, August 18th to head to Utah. We stopped at Scott Foster's house in Nampa Idaho for the night. What an interesting adventure - he and his wife and kids just moved into a beautiful new home and we really enjoyed their hospitality and I loved their huge shower (almost as big as most people's bedrooms). Scott is into computer websites and products that have proven to be financially successful. It was fascinating to both Dave and I to see how all that works. He does a cool site hooking up writers with people who are looking for articles to be written for newsletters, etc. Who knows Dave and I may just become famous writers on his website someday.

We arrived at Altamont Campground up American Fork Canyon for the Petersen Reunion (my mom's side of the family) on Saturday afternoon. What a beautiful site!! The campground is all wooded with pines and white legged aspens - my favorite. But the most spectacular sight was the awesome view of the backside of Mount Timpanogos. After we set up our tent and visited with everyone for a while we headed back down to Springville to visit Dave's brother and sister-in-law Jim and Debbie. We enjoyed their nice home and all went out to dinner at Art City Trolley - an interesting little restaurant with great food. We spent the night there and headed back up the canyon in the morning.

The true campers at the reunion consisted of our camp hosts/planners for the year Blaine (mom's youngest brother) and wife Charlotte. Two of their children, Natalie and Heidi and spouses John and Chris were there with their children - KC and Cheyenne with Heidi and Chris and Katie, Jordan and Sam with Natalie and John. The other campers were Pat and Paul (mom's brother) from Cedar City, Ray (mom's oldest brother) and Carol from Salt Lake, their son and wife Kevin and Debbie. Kevin is my "twin" cousin as we were born on the same day in Utah. Ray and Carol already had a boy and mom and dad already had a girl, so Blaine suggested they just trade - but I guess they decided not to. Mom and dad were accompanied by myself and Dave (no dogs, kids or grand kids - since we don't have any) and Sherrie. who had just flown in from a 2 week Head Start Management Training at UCLA.

This group of campers had only 3 dogs, which is a very small number of dogs in relationship to people at a Peterson reunion. But never fear - as Sunday arrived and the big potluck and auction activity was about to take place - more people rolled into camp with their dogs and kids. I couldn't even begin to name all the kids or dogs - but I can name my cousins. From Ray & Carol's family, Scott and Claudia and kids came. Also Larry and Kathy with their kids, spouses, grand kids and dogs arrived. Also Kevin and Debbie's kids, spouses, grand kids and dogs. Pat and Paul's kids Brett and Linda and kids along with Connie and Steve and grand kids arrived. I think by the time everyone pulled into camp we had more dogs than people - a true Petersen Reunion tradition. Dutch oven chicken cooked by Blaine's family was delicious, as were all the potluck yummies. Dad was the auctioneer, and as usual there were fantastic handmade arts and crafts displayed and bought.

The campground had a huge pavilion with enough picnic tables for all of us to eat, play games and do crafts together. It also had a fire pit in the center where we enjoyed visiting around the fire every evening - even those who hated the smoke joined us. And of course there were smores - made with marshmellows and Chips Ahoy chocolate chip cookies instead of graham crackers. I'm not a real smores lover so someone else would have to add their opinion on that one!

The little kids (and some BIG kids also) were involved all week in butterfly and dragonfly catching. At one point they had caught 14 butterflies and had a "grand finale" where they released all the butterlies at the same time. Later when they had a bunch of dragonflies and one didn't make it through the night, Jordan decided since it was dead she would jut use it for a pin on her shirt or a barrett in her hair, so wore it for awhile around camp. Everyone also enjoyed walking down to the Creek daily to play in the water and enjoy the beauty.

Dave and I went on a gorgeous hike on the ridge trail with Kevin and Debbie. The wildflowers were above head high - okay, maybe just above my head high, but close to 6 feet tall. The view was undescribably beautiful! Dave and I have decided we need to get into shape, as Kevin and Debbie were just strolling along as we were huffin' and puffin' our way up the inclines. Of course I just like to blame it on the altitude - as we were at 6,000 feet (I think) and only use to 600 in Wenatchee. Sounds like a good excuse to me. On our way back driving back down the canyon to camp we saw a moose grazing by the side of the road. We all got out and looked down over the hill, which must of "bugged" him so he started up toward the road, as did we. When he got onto the road he turned and looked us straight in the eye, then I guess decided we weren't that interesting so continued on his way up the hill. That is the closest I have ever been to a moose so I thought it was pretty cool.

My "old" friend - meaning friends for a long time - not old as in age, Laural, her daughter Katie and son Austin came to visit me from Wyoming. We had fun laughing about old times together when we were both single, out dancing and having fun. It was great to catch up on old times. Also, Dave's brother Jim and wife Debbie came up and camped with us one night. They live in Mapleton, Utah so we were also able to go there and see their new home and of course have a fun game night with Debbie's son and family.

We broke camp on Saturday and headed down the canyon - the end of another great Petersen Reunion!

Wooden Boat Fest

Dave and I went to Sandpoint Idaho for the wooden boat fest last week-end. It was great weather and really fun. Dave has been researching wooden boats for a while now and would love to someday build his own. We talked with a guy named Mark from Sandpoint who had built his own boat. It took him about 5 months, full time. As we were visiting with him he asked us if we wanted to ride with him in the "parade". I of course had to have him twist my arm. Instead of standing on the bridge waving to the boats as they go by, we were in the boat waving to the people on the bridges. After we did the parade around the bay, some of the boats went out into the main part of the lake and really opened it up! Dave and I got soaked sitting in the back seat, but it was a hot day and it felt great!!

Our camp spot was pretty cool too. We stayed at Garfield Bay, about 14 miles outside of Sandpoint. It was a wooded area and campfires were allowed. So we built a nice fire and sat out and enjoyed the quiet of the woods and the beauty of the stars. They look so different when you get away from the big city. It was just great to have a week-end to relax and enjoy life.

Exciting News!!

Okay, so it's been five months since I've posted a blog. I can't say it has been an exciting 5 months but it has been interesting. We sold our beautiful Wenatchee home and are now living in East Wenatchee - not only a new city, but a new county too and it's just across the river. It's a much smaller house, which I must say has taken some adjustment. And for those of you who know how great I am at directions will appreciate this. I lived in Hawaii so long that I don't really do the east/west, north/south thing. But they do here - so while living in Wenatchee I had it all figured out -- straight across the river was the town of East Wenatchee (so that must be East) which made North to my left and South to my right. Here lies the problem - I now live in East Wenatchee so when I look to my left I expect it to be North and to my Right would be south - now I have to turn everything around in my head before I figure out which direction I am going. I think it's easier just to stay in the state of confusion.

The first exciting news - Melanie was able to go to Florida to visit her birth mom over Memorial Day week-end. Her boyfriend Paul went with her. They had a nice time visiting with Liz and her husband and seeing the sites of Florida. They even went to Key Largo (I know it just makes you want to sing that song, Kokomo by the Beach Boys). Melanie had some alone time with Liz and they were able to talk and share pictures and stories. I was glad upon her return that I am still her #1 mom. Liz wants to take her on a cruise for her 30th birthday -- so that should be fun.

Joey reeived a promotion with the company that he has been sales repping for - Batalion Snowboards, a company out of Europe. Joey is now their U.S. sales manager, and having fun with it. His girlfriend Julie just started her graduate program in education at Pacific Lutheran University. She will get her teaching certificate and wants to teach high school or college.

And the big news for Emily is that as of today she is officially engaged to Russell Knight. They drove up to Snoqualmie Falls, hiked down to the bottom and that is where he proposed to her. They are pretty excited. Haven't set a date yet -- but probably sometime next summer. And the place? Who knows - Tahoe? Hawaii? Guess we'll have to wait and see.

I will try to not wait 5 months before blogging again!!

We had 2 Chirstmas days while in Hawaii. Melanie and her boyfriend Paul and Emily came down to mom and dad's for a Christmas together on December 21st, as they were leaving to return home on the 23rd. Mom and dad put together huge stockings for everyone full of all kinds of goodies, and had presents for all too. We had a great dinner together and played games.

My sister Nancy and her husband Larry and kids Ammon and Lindsay came over from the Big Island on the 23rd, the same day the girls left, so mom made a fantastic brunch for everyone. We had sushi, shrimp, fruit, and a egg/bacon/cheese caserole, and a variety of breads. It was fun for the cousins to see each other, since they don't get to do that too often.

My second Christmas was on the real day. Mom and dad, once again had filled stockings for everyone and had presents ready too. We exchanged gifts, ate a delicious Christmas Eve and Christmas Day dinner and played games and worked on computers.
Nancy is a computer whiz, not to mention Microsoft Certified, but I think she really uses "pixie dust" - because there has been many times she can fix my computer in Wenatchee over the phone from Hawaii.

One little mishap over the holidays regarding computers and ipods was that I wanted to download Nancy's movies and music from her ipod onto my computer and then onto my ipod. I acted like I knew what I was doing (but I obviously didn't) so Nancy gave me her ipod. What happened is I downloaded all of my music onto Nancy's ipod and completely deleted everything she had on hers. It took her 3 days to restore it all!! And she was even nice enough to load some movies onto mine too. I can't believe her sense of humor through it all.

Arrival on O'ahu

Emily and I flew Alaska Air and Melanie flew Hawaiian, but we all arrived within a few minutes of each other. Mom and dad were there to great us with beautiful orchid leis. We visited for a bit and then Melanie and Emily went with their dad Joe up to North Shore and we headed to Kaneohe, via Costco of course - had to get some of my local treats.

As soon as I step off the plane in Hawaii I still remember the first time I stepped off, June 15, 1969 - the warm humid air that makes you almost melt and the fragance of the flowers in bloom. Of course, back in the good old days you were served cold pineapple juice and given a lei and a kiss.

One of the first days on O'ahu I headed up to Malaekahana Beach where the girls were staying in a yurt. Mom and dad came up for a short visit, then I spent the night and we went to North Shore the next day and layed in the sun and swam in the warm tropical sea. And only in Hawaii would you see a rooster just playing around at the beach.

My month in Hawaii

I just returned from an awesome month in Hawaii, which included visits to O'ahu and The Big Island. It was very difficult to return to the white slopes of Wenatchee instead of lying on the white sand beaches of Hawaii.