Washington Trip Part 1

Last month I decided to go home to Washington for a visit, and stayed for about 3 weeks. I don't go home very often, once a year if that. It is a long drive with children, esp. when you are by yourself, so I decided that if I was going to go I might as well stay long enough to make it worth the long drive. The main reason I had for going home was to visit my Grandma Nelson, so she could see my children. She isn't doing well health wise and I don't know how much longer she will be around. I will post pictures of her and the kids in the next post.
I am from a very beautiful area, and I was excited to see it again. The above picture is of a canal/reservoir that is just outside my town area, along the route there. I tried to get some good pictures of it myself, but the weather didn't want to cooperate for my dinky cell phone. I have some on film i'll need to get developed. This picture is from this website, where the photographer also has several other really good pictures of the area. http://www.jeffpolston.com/eastwash.htm

While home we watched grandpa, uncle bruce and some other friends of my dad help put on his new metal roof; went to the beach on on Lake Roosevelt, behind the dam; picked 11qts of blackberries; visited friends up near Republic (very beautiful area up in the mountains north of my town); did yard work for my mother; and saw people I hadn't seen in a long time, some not even since High School 9+ years ago.

 

Ethan had fun playing on the granite boulders while I risked my life to pick blackberries. Some of the bushes were seriously monsters, they towered over me, and the thorns were nasty. It was worth it though, I now have plenty of berries for pies and other good stuff this winter.

Last thursday I drove to Spokane to spend a couple days with my sister Rachelle, and also see my brother Levi. I am so impressed with Levi, he is going to school at ITT in Spokane, and just got a job at the airport cleaning airplanes at night time. He seriously rides his bike home at 3 am from the airport, and it takes him about an hour. It scares me having him do that, but at the same time, i'm impressed with his willingness to do hardwork to achieve his goals. Things don't come easily for him, but he still works hard at them. We spent friday afternoon with Rachelle and Levi at Manito park (a botanical series of gardens and green house) in Spokane. I had never been there and it is beautiful.

I will post more picture is future posts, once they become available. I didn't have my digital camera (still broken) and so I used Ryan's nice 35mm camera. The pictures in this post were all taken with the cameras on Rachelle and my phones.