Gozzer 2009 - Coeur d'Alene, Idaho

Well....another memory for the scrapbook! The 12 of us all headed to Coeur d'Alene and specifically Gozzer Ranch for golf and lots of water activities which included: fishing, swimming, wake boarding, surfing, boating, and wave runners!! Too bad the weather didn't cooperate a bit better this summer. We did manage to get about three really nice sunny days, but we also experienced some very heavy rainfall! A couple of days the water temperature was warmer than the air temperature! ha...that is not cool, we could stay home for rain!

Anyway, we all were in one house this summer right on the Gozzer property - it was called a "cabin", yeah right, like a 3800 sq. ft. cabin! At times the noise was quite deafening - remember now we have 2 two year olds, and boy do they each have a set of lungs! Jalen is quite the sneaky one and knows how to push all of Addie's "buttons"...he grabs her 'blankie' and she falls to the floor in hysterics crying for her 'blankie'. Then he spies her juice cup, even though his is right there, he grabs for hers and has to drink out of it, oh and there she goes again, falling to the floor screaming for her cup! Oh my! And then there was the pounding on the heads, but that was shared equally! It was not all 'bad'....one great picture was of them sitting on the steps each with a pink 'DS' belonging to Ellie and Lily, and they think they are so clever pushing buttons and watching the screen. And of course, Jalen is quite the 'lover', he goes up and grabs Addie's head and gives her a big kiss. Like he thinks that makes up for all the pinches he has given her!

And our little Addie is quite the "fisher girl". Unfortunately for her mom and dad, she woke up quite early every morning, and Aaron, being the great dad that he is, whisks her off to the lake for some very early morning fishing before she manages to wake the entire house! And she catches fish all by herself!! Early in the week of morning fishing, Addie was sitting on the dock and her pole got caught on something. She called for her daddy, and he said he would be right there...but she had to look over the side and see what was happening and sure enough she fell into the lake!! Aaron heard a 'splash', looked and didn't see Addie!! He dropped his pole and ran to her, and there she was under the water, but coming up with eyes like saucers, arms stretched out and still holding the pole! Aaron grabbed her and hauled her out of the water! I do believe he learned to put a life jacket on her from that day forward. (thank goodness!!)

And Jalen is really obsessed with balls! Good thing we are on a golf course with lots of balls!! He has the stance down pat, but he does take out a few 'divots' when he swings! And all the kids love to swim. At the lake there is a slide and what fun they had going down the slide into the lake! We rented a boat a couple of days and the kids tried wake boarding. Caleb and Ellie got up and were so excited. Caleb actually did some wake surfing and was quite pleased with himself when he was able to surf across a wave!

All the kids went to Silverwood, a big amusement park, Scott and I chose to stay home and relax in the quiet of the house! Even though the weather wasn't great, it was nice to not have the hot sun beating down on them, but it was still really crowded and they had to wait in long lines just like at Disneyland! Bummer....

Joe and his family joined us for a few days of swimming and golfing. Joe is helping Scott build our house. They both deserve a vacation for all the hard work they have done, and we were happy that his family joined us in the fun on the lake. One day they all went to the movies since it was raining! We shared several meals together and the kids had fun playing on the beach of the lake.

All in all, it was a great time had by all and it was really fun to live with the little kids 24/7 ( I say this with tongue in cheek!!). And our littlest one, Tristan was SUPER! He slept through every single night and we hardly heard a peep out of him (unless you happened to be riding in the car with him when he is awake...oh my, he does NOT like the car and let's you know it quite clearly and LOUDLY!)

Another great family vacation with wonderful memories that we captured on film and in our hearts!

The Last Lunch

Bill and Elsa came over to the house and brought sandwiches for our lunch. This was the last lunch to share with Anne Brita. The three of them wanted some time alone to reminisce from 42 years ago when A.B. was just 16 years old and came from Oslo, Norway to live with the Foelker's and go to school as a junior at Rex Putnam High School. It was at that time that she I became good friends and over the years we have managed to keep in touch, share Christmas greetings and somewhat keep up on our lives. This visit for Anne Brita was about reconnecting with her 'second family' and her old high school friends. She was able to spend 5 days at the beach and see friends; she and I had a lot of time to do some deep soul revealing sharing; some time shopping for her grand-daughter and eating out! The two weeks went really fast, but now we can look forward to the next time that perhaps Scott and I will go to her in Norway. And for sure the next time she comes here to Oregon our new house will be done and we will be living in it!

Kittens anyone?

Last week Ellie called and asked if I would take her to the PAWS store in Willamette so that she could volunteer! She needs an adult to be with her when she goes into the cat store. So let me back up here and tell you what Ellie and Lily decided to do when they planned their birthday parties on June 26 and July 1. They sent out invitations to their friends and asked for NO gifts for themselves, but to bring either cat food, kitty litter, or cash to donate to the PAWS store! They received and donated a total of $115 along with food and kitty litter! Isn't that fantastic and so selfless of them? They have been wanting a kitty for so long. We have been going to "Coops" a local restaurant for breakfast on Sundays with Papa Bill and Great grandma Elsa once a month for probably 7 years and every Sunday, we have to walk by the cat store front and look at the cats! What Dina and Jamie have been telling them for the last 2 years is when they move into our house (that means we have moved into our new house!!) they can get a cat and a dog (puppy!).

But Ellie decided she wanted to volunteer and pet the cats and kittens, groom them, feed them etc. So I took them this Sunday afternoon and we spent about an hour holding the kittens and brushing them. Lily fell in love with an older cat that just took right to her. And a little kitten just couldn't get enough of Ellie scratching her ears!

They will "foster" out the kittens, teach you how to bottle feed them and care for them, even give you food for them. Then when they are older you bring them back to the shop for adoption! They are just waiting for some cute little girls to take them to their "forever home"!!
And of course, they recommend taking two home so that the kittens will always have a play mate when the girls are in school!

Second time around

What a heart-warming surprise to stop at Lacey's house this afternoon and have Addie come running out to me saying, "Grandma, grandma!" And the surprise was that she was wearing a little knit dress that I had made for Ellie and Lily! Oh she looked so cute in it! Take a look - isn't that adorable?

Are We In Arizona??

Scott just said to me that I need to remember these days...so in 10 or 20 years I can say, "Oh yeah, back in the summer of 2009, remember when Anne Brita was here?, we had so many days in a row of over 100 degrees. Now today is Wednesday and it was 107 degrees at 3pm, however our all time high is what you see above 109.4 !!! Wowie Kazowie!! So I took a picture of our thermometer that sits inside the house on the Baker's rack in the kitchen and you can clearly see the temperature. So this is how I am going to try to "remember" this day! Hope this helps!

A Family Celebration in Honor of our Norwegian Visitor

Anne Brita came on Wednesday, July 22 and will stay until August 7. We have gone visiting, but thought it would be great to have the family over for a barbecue on Sunday. And fortunately Elsa was feeling well enough to join us and share a meal. Scott's brother, John and his wife Robin came over also. The house was plenty wild as Dina brought two young friends of Ellie and Lily with her, now I know they are girls, but you know girls scream and slam doors and run in and out of the house and poor Scott is trying to keep the cool air inside and the hot air outside - almost an impossible task when you have two 2 year olds, two six year olds, two eight year olds, and an almost 10 year old going in and out! We did try to have them eat outside so the rest of us could have a quieter dinner!

About three days ago we introduced Jalen (now remember he was 2 on May 20) to a little battery operated motorcycle. Oh my gosh, you should see him go...he can steer better than his 8 year old sister (lol, really!! -- she rolls her eyes when I say that, but trust me, it is SO TRUE!). And he does a whole body turn, it cracks me up to see this little "man" riding around my entire house on a motorized little motorcycle. And he found it so fun to go down my driveway cause it goes fast even without putting the 'pedal to the metal'!! And then he looks ahead and sees a car parked, so he leans to the left while he turns the steering wheel, then he quickly turns it back and can make a short circle and avoid the car! I am telling you it is a sight to see...he is cracking us all up!

Now Addie got one of those little pink battery operated 'jeeps' for her birthday a few weeks ago and up until last night, she didn't really have a clue how to steer the thing. But coming to our house with lots of grass and yard, it took her NO time to get the hang of it, of course, remember she cannot let her older cousin (by two months!) beat her in anything! And as usual for Addie, she stripped down to nothing but her diaper.

The grandchildren keep us in stitches ...an example is Scott has a pair of slippers that happen to be green and gold --DUCK slippers. (We are U of O alumni and big fans!) They LOVE to put them on. In fact last week both Ellie and Lily had a sleepover with us. I had them take a shower and get into their jammies. I went downstairs and a bit later they came down wearing all of Papa's "duck" clothes, they found a t-shirt, a sweatshirt, hats and then these duck slippers. They each had one on a foot and were chanting: Go Ducks, Go Ducks, Go Ducks.....over and over again. So last night when we had our dinner, the slippers showed up downstairs and both Addie and Jalen had to put them on and walk around. They even posed for us! Such hams! It is so fun...can hardly wait to see what Tristan brings to this mix!

The Reunion Girls 2009 Gathering

June 25, 2009...the date was set months ago for our annual trek down to Gail's house to enjoy a meal prepared by Gail and then lot's of talking and talking and talking...and of course enjoying the peaceful river and the sunshine! Anne Brita was our special guest this year! And Susan joined our group and was our designated driver, we were all able to pile into her car and drive together...the first stop (and the last stop!!) was "Starbucks!"

Gail had the most beautiful place setting with fruit around a cup filled with a strawberry dipping cream. Yummmmm! And of course, she also made two kinds of lemonade and they were both delish! One was a lavender..oh so delicate and refreshing! The other had frozen plums and apples and then a 7 up added for a little zing! Fortunately we had the canopy over the picnic table to keep us in the shade as it was getting quite warm by the time we sat down to eat.

It is so nice to gather and share our stories...keeping up on the grandchildren (or lack of...in two cases!) and this time Donna has two new twin grandbabies, she was not with us as she was in Seattle to see the new little ones..a boy and a girl! Lucky Grandma! It seems we never stop talking, always a story to share and of course lot's of laughing and just plain having a grand time. Now three of our group...okay I will name names as this is all about "remembering" things...or at least writing it down here so I can always have a place to go back and read and then say: "Oh Yeah, now I remember!!" (LOL, isn't that just crazy? but sometimes I need all the help I can get!)....almost forgot what I was going to write..oh yeah the names: Lizi, Kari, and Susan are the "elders" in this small but fine group. In other words, they turn 60 (can you believe it?) this YEAR!! while the rest of us sweet-young'uns have a few more months and turn the big 60 in 2010! However we talked about getting together for a weekend next year in celebration of our 60th year! Just so I remember, we are thinking about either Black Butte or ..darn, can't remember....it is someplace in the same general direction however! I know someone will read this and then send me an email and tell me the name of the other location, then I can edit it and everyone will be happy!!

Now...so that I can look back on this and remember everyone's names, the people in the group photo are: Susan and Gail kneeling in front, from the left to the right: Anne Brita, Colette, me, Kari, Lizi and Becky! Aren't we a fine looking group??!! It is really a highlight of the summer to spend the day with all these delightful ladies whom I met in high school, but for many of the rest, they have known each other since kndergarten! You know what they say: husbands may come and go (or boy friends! tee hee) but us sistah's are always there for each other! It is comforting to know that I will always have the support and love from each of these wonderful, caring people who are in my life! Thank you girl friends!