Christmas

Well it is Christmas Eve and we are sitting in Kentucky, the most backward inbreed state I have ever been in! But Gary and I are together for the first time in 9 years for christmas tomorrow and I am very excited about that. We stopped at Flying J and had a christmas buffet for dinner tonight and now we are stopped and headed for bed. We really wanna wish all of our family, friends and those bloggers out there that follow our blog a VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS! Stay safe, be warm and be happy.
I did do some decorating for christmas in the truck, we hung our stockings, but Santas gonna have to travel the interstate to find us. Gary bought me my Kmart christmas bear, I have been collecting them ever since they first came in 1986 and he has boughten me at least 1 every single year ever since, that's a lot of bears. Unfortunately they seem to be getting uglier, we were in Walmart and they have a collection of christmas bears and they are a lot better looking so I might switch to Walmart christmas bears.

Spokane, WA

It's been along time since I have been to Spokane WA, looked just like all the other towns we go through.

Kennewick, WA

There was this really cool looking bridge in Kennewick, we didn't go over it so I didn't get a really good picture of it. Those white pillars are the tops of the bridge.

Columbia River Gorge

It was absolutely beautiful with all the snow fall in the gorge, also very slick and very dangerous. We had to drive 180 miles before we turned north to go into Kennewick Washington to get our load. It was a good thing we didn't need to continue on I84 it closed about about mile marker 190 and was closed for 3 days. That woulda really sucked! Multnomah falls was so pretty with all the frozen water and ice around it. I know it was pretty but Gary didn't think any part of it was pretty cause he was doing the driving.

Let it snow, let it snow

We got into Portland about 11:30pm on saturday december 13th, spent the night in the CR England drop yard in Portland. Sunday morning we headed over to Bob's house and boy was it slick outside, snowing like crazy. There was even a film crew from one of the local news stations out filming a segment. It was slick but we finally made it to Bobs place. This last week Portland broke their all time snow fall record, I'm not sure how much they got but school was canceled the whole week we were there, then they started christmas break, so the kids got 3 weeks off for christmas this year.

Christmas shopping and dinner

We made christmas very easy on ourselves this year, there was no time for shopping, so we just asked each one of them what store they wanted a gift card from and we went to those stores and got the gift cards, filled them out and left them under the tree for them to open on christmas day. I know it was a cope out but now they can get what they want and it was just so much easier for us this year. Plus, they will be buying their gifts after christmas so they will get more for their money with all the sales that will be going on after the first of the year. As the family grows christmas just gets more expensive every year and hopefully next christmas we will have at least one more grand child to buy for and if Bob and Lorly (hint, hint) go for it again there would be 2 more grand kids for christmas, that would just break our hearts!!!!! Tuesday night we went to dinner at a theme restaurant, they served foods from Hawaii, the food was really good. Unfortunately I woke up at 3am and was sicker then a dog, I thought at first it was food poisoning but soon realized I had a bad case of stomach flu, Bob and Kaylee had just gotten over this same awful affliction. So needless to say tuesday night was miserable and I was just exhausted and out of it and dehydrated all day wednesday. I was upset that it affected our visit with the kids but I was very grateful that we did not get a load out until thursday morning, cause I wasn't going any where. Bob and Lorly got us a great gift, it is a battery operated digital picture from, I still have to figure out how to download pictures on it, then velcro it up so we can watch it.

Brunch on Sunday

Bob, Lorly, Ken, Kaylee, Jason, Gary and I went to brunch on sunday december 14th. It was this pancake house the kids had been bragging about, very expensive pancake house! I ordered this apple pancake, it was huge but more like a custard with apples and cinnamon sugar on top of it, I could only eat half of it, I took the rest with me and ate it later cold and I thought it was better cold. I really wanted some bacon so I ordered I side order $6.95 for 4 pieces! Just unbelievable prices by mine and Gary's standards. But the kids like to go there and have been wanting to take us there. The coffee was really good, for $3 a cup it better be fantastic. I know I keep complaining about the price and that wasn't the point of the whole morning, the kids wanted to spend time with us and take us some place they like to go. We all had a great time and a good meal, despite the prices!

Thanksgiving 08

Just a bunch of random pictures from Thanksgiving Day.

Thanksgiving Dinner

The main reason we were there, to eat! And boy did we eat and eat and eat, everything so was good. Bob hadn't really planned a huge dinner until he found out just a day or two before that we were gonna be in town, so he went the extra mile and made sure some of our favorite dishes were made, he and Lorly did such a great job and we thank them so very much for having us this year for Thanksgiving.

Nana

Kaylee always puts a smile on my face, when I call and Bob puts me on speaker she knows my voice, we've used a web cam a couple of times and she recognizes us. But she has grown up so much, when I was there this last summer she was still this cuddly little baby, now she is a toddler and doesn't want anything to do with cuddling. Which Gary could see was tearing me apart. But just being able to spend time with my 2 grand children is truly amazing every time.

Lorly

Our wonderful daughter in law, accept we don't use the 'in law' part, we consider her our daughter. She so graciously invites us into her home and into their lives, the most special gift she ever gave me was letting me be in the delivery room while Kaylee was being born, that to me was just the ultimate gift ever. Anyway, we love her just as if she has been part of this family from the beginning, we don't even remember our family without her in it. So, as you can see she has become very special to us. And being able to spend Thanksgiving with her was just wonderful.