Flurries or fine weather?

Brrrrr it makes me cold just looking at these

 The Portage Lake lift bridge is somewhere in that photo. The Copper Country is getting walloped with a doozy of a storm.

I stole this pictures of my cousin, Jeff, attempting to clear the snow that has blown up against their house. Oh I remember those days. It's fun when you're a kid and school is cancelled and you aren't responsible for shoveling it.

It looks like they are possibly in for more at the end of the week. 

Our FROSTY has melted

We need to get out on the porch and remove the lights from our swing. They have been unplugged since shortly after New Year's but I haven't convinced any of the guys around here to bring the ladder up so it can get done. The snowman is zip tied to the chain of the swing. It's not much of a deterrent for thieves but you'd be surprised how many of my Christmas decorations have walked away from my porch and yard.

A couple spots of color

Primroses have to have been created to encourage us to not despair  at the length of winter. They are so colorful and happy looking. The arrangements I bought each have a hyacinth in them as well. Lovely to look at an lovely to smell.

We haven't seen any rain since before sunrise. There are some beautiful big puffy clouds out there though. It should be close to 50 degrees each day this week and little chance of rain until the weekend.

If you can believe those weather folk.

All of you in deep snow territory ... keep warm and keep safe. 

And hang in there Spring is coming!

Some random photos + more

Intriguing place

 I've been meaning to stop in here with Harlan for a lunch or happy hour or something. But it never seems to be on my radar when we have the opportunity to go out. I know Krystle has met her friend, Sarah, there many times for a bite to eat. It's really close to this max stop on Interstate and Albina. 

I love taking pictures of Max trains.  I've got some sort of fascination for all trains, street cars and trolleys. I haven't done much travel by train but have enjoyed the times I have.

 Washington Park Railroad

 I don't know if this train changed its name when the zoo did. It is the train that does tours around the perimeter of the zoo and in the summer runs down to the Rose Garden at Washington Park. We saw this red engine switching tracks to hitch up to one of the other engines when we were at the zoo on Friday.

Train tracks disappearing in the distance always make me wonder about the people traveling on them. I love the way the railroads played such a huge part in settling the west. I don't think I'd have liked to travel across on those first trains. I get mighty sore riding around the zoo on unpadded seats for our annual Zoo Lights ride.

Krystle's friends

I made Krystle and her friend Christopher pose together for a picture since they looked so nice in their matching outfits yesterday. She assured me that they had not planned to wear the same colors. He's a nice guy and we are slowly getting to know him and his little boy Gabriel. 

He seems to be a good dad and he treats Krystle like a princess. 

It's very nice to see him and Gabriel at church each Sunday.

What's on my list you ask?

I obviously found it at Fred Meyer's!

There were two more bags, a gallon of milk and a block of ice around the corner on the front railing of the porch. I didn't realize we were out of so many basics. One bag contains things that I found at 70% off of the clearance price.  I found a few things for Katie, whose birthday is coming up, and a couple more girls are going to be thrilled with the fun knee socks I picked up for them.  But other than those things, this is groceries for a week. (Hopefully it will last the week!)

Sunshiney Saturday & those Beach Babies

Haven't started counting the days until we get to see these kids again but will start soon.

I'm happy to see that they are enjoying their beach time.

Thanks for warming our winter chill with sunny pictures, Cherise.

A day with Gar-bear

Sleep over with his new puppy

We had an over night guest on Valentine's Day. With his parents, aunts and uncles gone out for the evening, we decided that they would get back too late to pack him up to go home. So he stayed. It looks like he was pretty happy about that. 

A sunny morning at the zoo

Courtney didn't have to work on Friday so she and Charlie, Garrett and I went up to the zoo. We headed up after we safely delivered Cam, Wyatt, Genevieve, Danika and Hayden to their schools. We arrived a few minutes before the gates were open. We were among dozens & dozens of people that had the same idea. There were tons of jogging stollers with preschoolers in them. I think a young moms group met there that morning. We rarely see the gates closed so it was kind of cool to see the artistic  details on them.

First stop Tigers,

I love the new stroller he has. It's one that you don't have to bend over to push so it's easy on your back. It looks very comfortable for Garrett too.

Then penguins,

Last time we were at the zoo the penguins were in the Polar bear building. They are back in their own place again. I don't know what they did to renovate the penguin exhibit. It looks pretty much the same.

& Elephants

We didn't get to see baby Lily on this visit. She must have been in the back with her mom. We did she one of the big males in the front elephant yard. Gar-bear got out of the stroller at the elephant exhibit and didn't want to get back in.

He jogged along toward...

AFRICA!

He saw lions both bronze and real.

We found a feather.

Posed for a cell phone picture.

He saw zebras, giraffes and those funny looking deer that stand on there hind legs to eat.

He groomed goats

I'm pretty sure he's done this before. He washed his hands and went through the gate and straight to the container holding the grooming brushes. He wouldn't leave until he had brushed every goat in the enclosure.

A hope of SPRING

These are only flower buds on a tree but they're the first sign I've seen of spring showing up. 

They sure were a lovely peachy pink!

Westside truck repair

The sun was still shining when we dropped the kids off at their house. Joylynn was outside with a few neighbors. She had replaced the radiator on the truck. She was starting in on replacing the thermostat.

That part proved to be a bit of a problem. Harlan and one of the neighbor guys got involved and a couple hours later when Jess got home from work he buttoned up the project by replacing the air-cleaner.

If "Many hands make light work." I'd have hated to see what this would have been if they weren't all working on it.

Bottom line... their truck is running and they will have wheels again!

A silly farewell

Thanks for the fun time Gar! 

Grampa and I look forward to hanging out with you again soon.

Our Valentine girl is TWENTY-ONE

Our Hearty-heart had a birthday

Genevieve wrote a message for Courtney to see first thing in the morning.

She was also greeted by twenty-one roses that Harlan and I got her. Charlie took her shopping and she found a cute red satin shirt to wear for her first happy hour!

 It happened to be Charles' first Happy Hour as well. Both of them got carded. We didn't :(

 Valentine's date for both couples

Harlan wore a red shirt so I wore my red scarf to match. Courtney and Charlie celebrated their 3rd Valentine's Day as a married couple. Har and I our 34th!

 Dessert for two! Newport Seafood Grill had a special of the day cheesecake. 

My little Valentines

 I picked up cards for all 9 grandkids but these local ones got spoiled a bit more by balloons and stuffed animals. The girls got TY kittens and the boys got puppies. Garrett's says "Who do I love? Youuuuuuuuuu" Wyatt's says the same thing with 3 additional phrases. 

The cards got to SanDiego and D.C. a day late but the kids were still excited to get their cards and lollipops from Grampa and Gramma.

Birthday festivities continue

The family sat around and watched Courts open her presents. 

The presents from Logan and Alyssa and Kiel and Cherise came in the mail and I squirreled them away and brought them out in time for her to open with her others. The girly looking knife from the Godsiff's could be packed in Charlie's bag on drill weekends. It is sharp enough to shave with! She also liked the "grown up" quilt that I made for her.

Danika made her a special birthday/Valentine card. So sweet!

Funny boys with their mustaches

 Thanks for the chocolate mustache chuckle, Lys and Logan and to Cherise for sending this picture of Henry. 

Happy 21st Birthday, Courtney! 

Courtney's friend made this cake and surprised her the night before her birthday. A bunch of them surprised her at the Rhienlander and then came back here for cake. It turned out that there was a perfect heart shaped piece leftover for her family party.

The gang went out to see "GREASE"

I bought tickets to Cam's high school's musical production of Grease for the kids to have a night out and the married "kids" to have a date night.

We let them used the van and Har & I  stayed home with the grandkids.

Charlie and Jess, though acting a bit camera shy, both enjoyed the outing. I'm sure that Joylynn would have loved it to be the sing-along night (on Friday) but she said she sang along with the songs anyway.

Grampa and Gramma's evening

Garrett loves wearing the headphones to listen to Grampa play. This time the headphones were unplugged and we all could hear the music but he wanted them on anyway.
I love hearing Har at the keyboard.
It was a great way to end the day.