The view from the dock at the Mylnar's house on Long Lake.
The newly engaged Josh Mylnar and Natalie.
Perrin and Sam out in the paddle boat all by themselves. They loved it.
Perrin driving the ski boat, nice and slow.
Sam driving the ski boat, nice and fast!
Perrin sleeping in the corner.
Sam and Zags out in the paddle boat. Sam dropped Zags out at the swim dock and then came back to shore, with Zags still out on the dock. Sam said, "I'll rescue him". Every hero needs a little help sometimes.
Sam and I in one of my favorite conservatories.
The Duncan gardens, Manito Park, Spokane Washington.
I'm doing the happy dance.
Sam's doing the happy dance in the gutters.
The house I grew up in until 1980: 429 E. 22nd
The walk to school.
Perrin wore her pink cowboy boots all weekend. Not one person called her pretty, much to her pleasure. She was always cute and "I love her cowboy boots!"
Part of the perennial beds at Manito Park. With these gardens as my home as a kid, it's no wonder I love to garden.
Inside the conservatory at Manito Park.It sure takes a long time to get from Prescott, Arizona to Spokane Washington. Yikes. And the other thing I noticed is that Prescott is really a small town. I used to think that Spokane was small when I lived in Seattle, but no, compared to Prescott, Spokane is a huge city. I was delighted to go back to what I consider my "hometown" where my memories of elementary school were born. I loved my house, neighborhood, friends and school when I lived in Spokane. Don't get me wrong, Bellevue was also a great place to live, but it didn't/doesn't carry the ambiance of the South Hill nor the memories.
Upon our visit to my old neighborhood, I couldn't help but think about what a wonderful place it would be to raise kids. We lived on a tree lined street, where you could ride your bike to the park, store or fire department where the firemen sold kids candy. A couple of blocks from our house there was even an old school store in the middle of a bunch of houses, like you might see back east. I can remember spending countless hours riding our bikes everywhere or walking to the 7-11 for a snack. All these memories for a kid under 9 years old, as we moved to Bellevue in 1980.
Not much has changed on the outside of the South Hill community. The schools are in the same location, the parks are perhaps more beautiful then I remember and for sure there are more Starbuck's coffee shops but on the surface it's still a gorgeous piece of Spokane.
The reason for our trip to Spokane was primarily to go to my Grandma's 100th birthday party. I know, 100. I swear the women in the Peterson family live a very long time and I look more Peterson than I do Weatbrook. For those of you that gave me grief about marrying a man 6 years my junior, now you might understand some of my reasoning. My logic has played itself out well thus far as he definitely has way more energy than I do.
My Grandma looked great and is in good health. I went up to her and gave her a hug asking her if she was excited for her party and she just said, "well, it'll be nice when it's over." Funny Grandma. It was a lovely party and my cousins and family did such a wonderful job organizing it! Thank you! At one point all of Grandma's offspring were on the stage and I think there were well 60 people there - that was with some of the family missing. I looked at Perrin and said, "These are all your family Perrin." She looked up at me and said, "That's a lot of family." Sure is sweetie. It's good to have so much family, though something tells me I won't ever have that much offspring. At least we can hope.
The other delight of the weekend was going to our friend Josh's parent's house on Long Lake. It was so much fun to see Josh and meet his new fiance Natalie. We've known Josh for over 10 years now and were starting to wonder if he'd ever find the woman of his dreams and we think he did. It was so nice to visit with Josh's parents, who were so hospitable to our family. "Uncle Josh" was a huge hit with the kids as he let them take the paddle boat out by themselves. He took them on the jet ski's and even let both the kids drive. Sam said his favorite part of the trip was driving the boat. Sam got in that drivers seat next to Josh and got a hold of the throttle and I'm surprised no one got thrown out of the boat with how quickly he made the boat speed up and slow down. And Perrin slept through most of it.
All in all it was a great trip to Spokane, one that I can envision happening more than every 4 years. But both Balin and I agree that we're ready to be home for a while.
Comments