Flaming Geyser State Park

We headed over to Flaming Geyser State Park after breakfast to check the flame out as well as check off the park from our 2010 to do list.



Colby and Elle checking out the river that meandered through the park.

The hike was a bit longer then planned as they are doing construction and you have to walk into the park.

This was the mighty flame we were in search of!  It has been recorded to be as high as 8'. Apparently not in the last 20 years or so.

It was a perfect day and we plan to take a picnic back sometime this summer!

Happy Mother's Day! (a little late)

My first Mother's day was wonderful!  Colby was very thoughtful and gave me flowers as well as a book on planting my first garden and a cooking magazine.



Elle gave me a poem with her picture, hand, and foot.  Thank you Amy for helping Elle bring her vision to fruition!

Colby and Elle made me Strawberry French Toast it was amazing!!

Elle has begun clapping at any and everything!!

I couldn't ask for more!

Surprise!!

For Grandma S's birthday Grandpa planned a surprise party at the M's game.  It was a great night for watching baseball.  It was a good game but it went 10 inning with the M's losing in the end.  Which is fun to watch unless you are paying for a babysitter :)



The sunset was amazing!

This picture is completely untouched.  Red sky's at night, sailors delight!

Fox Sports came to our section.  Uncle Donny did a little schmoozing with them so they filmed Sydnie cheering on the M's.  I got up and moved for that part which all I have to say about that is HDTV!

20th Anniversary Banquet

After the races we headed back to Corrie's house to get changed and add some war paint.  Shoot, reverting to Pullman girl talk. 
 The banquet was held at the old Livestock judging pavilion, now known as the Ensminger Pavilion which was on my old stomping grounds as I graduated from the Agricultural department.

The banquet was set up extremely well.  We were able to mingle and spend some time with all the other alumni as well as coaches, weight lifting staff and even Bob, the bus driver who drove us to all of our races as well as to and from the airport.   I am sure he has lines from Rudy memorized as we watched it on all long trips! 

  We were all given a t-shirt, etched mug, door prize ticket, and copy of the video they played highlighting the last 20 years of women's rowing.

 

I won a fleece jacket, Colby won but we gave his ticket to Liz so she won a tank top and Liz won so she gave it to Christy who also won a tank top, Anna won a travel kit!  Poor Holly and Dana were the only ones who didn't win at our table.

 

Part of the deal with traveling to Pullman is eating at "The Emerald"  they make the best Hunan Chicken!  I have tried it in several restaurants around Seattle and it is never quite the same.

 We had hunan for dinner on Friday night, Saturday we bought Erik hunan to go since we had the banquet dinner, and we got an order to go for ourselves to take home to MV!  I had packed a cooler just so we could take some home!

 

Sunday night back at our home we ate Hunan. It rocked! As we sat on our couch part of me missed Pullman but then I looked around at Colby sitting next to me and Elle playing on the floor.  I came to the conclusion that I won't change one bit of my life except maybe the falling out of shape part because dang, watching the rowers walking around in spandex reminded me I use to wear them everywhere!  But I also realized I could never go back to have carpet you can't sit on because it was so dirty and having completely plastic dining ware that we had stolen from the fitness buffet :)

Row, Row, Row Your Boat

I think Elle had the best seat in the house for the races!  Her blanket is one that Grami made for Elle out of a bunch of my old rowing shirts.  All the alum were quite impressed with it and probably at the next reunion we will see a few of them!



Group shot!  It was a beautiful day down at the river!

WSU was racing Oregon State.  This was the varsity 4, which is what I rowed in my senior year.   WSU is way a head.  GO COUGS!!

A look at the crowd along the point.  In the far distant there is an old ice cream truck that is now a Coug mobile.

Family pic!  It was so comforting to be around so much Crimson and Grey!

Kisses!  Elle's latest trick, how ever you must, I repeat must pucker up or she will slobber all over you.

Waving to the boats as they passed!

Elle and I had a little talk about what she needs to do to prepare for a rowing career.  It went a little like this:

Momma:  Elle, you need to grow 47 inches in the next 18 years

Elle:  Eeck  (translation:  no problem)

Momma:  you must eat all your veggies so you grow strong

Elle:  Waved it off

Momma:  Crimson looks good on you, huh?

Elle: nodded yes then no then yes

Momma: We probably need to get you swimming lessons

Elle: babble babble, squeak  (translation: yes, I agree!  The sooner the better)

Saturday morning: Race Day

In the morning we went to Muffy's house for brunch.  Muffy is Liz's younger sister who is now a big wig doctor in the Palouse!  Liz and Myron brought Stewie along.  Elle crawled all over Stewie and loved it!  Stewie soon settled into the "Crab position" in order to protect himself!



After breakfast we picked up Erik, Colby's cousin who is attending WSU and headed down to the river.

Elle checking out the rowing shells in the boathouse.

I think she really enjoyed how the seat rolled.  We will be feeding her a lot more Wheaties in order for her to fit better in the boat!

This melts my heart!  I am so proud of my baby girl all "coug'd" out sitting in a rowing shell!

Friday night Social

We stayed with Corrie who I rowed with and she is now an assistant coach for WSU rowing.  Elle loves her Auntie as well as McGruebor!



Friday night there was a social at the new Tom and Barbara Wilson Rowing Center.  It was amazing!! I would have been a much better rower if this would have been around 10 years ago!  There were poster boards around the tank with pictures of each class.  It was fun to get catch up with everyone and check out the new digs! 

I forgot the camera so Colby took this one with his iphone.  Here you can see Christy and Holly trying out the tank.
 Roger, my old coach's husband, ran the bar.  Each time you went up to get a drink he would tell a story about you.  It was amazing what he remembered.  Needless to say I only had two drinks so Colby didn't get too much dirt on me!

Rollin to Pullman

April 30th we headed over to WSU for the 20th anniversary of women's rowing as a university sponsored program.



The drive to Pullman is long and a bit desolate.  The rolling wheat fields were green and vivid along the way.

Roughly half way to God's country you past this potato shed :)

I was getting excited and slightly bored with the drive.

Colby was not amused as you can tell.

Miss Elleanor slept the entire way.  I think she enjoyed the sunshine and a few of her new toys from the Purple Pelican!

We finally saw signs of life as we approached Colfax!  Almost there!!

Goodbye Purple Pelican

On our way to Pullman we stopped off in Ellensburg to have lunch with Grami and stop by the Purple Pelican toy store for the last time.  I am sad they are closing their doors but we got a ton of great toys for upcoming birthdays.



Elle enjoyed checking out all the unique toys at the toy bar.

Monster Mash, 9 months

Crawling has officially begun! Elle is a very cautious baby when it comes to any sort of flooring change. This makes the kitchen floor a cattle gate of sorts! She crawls to the edge and screams! If the invisible string between Momma or Daddy seems too long, Elle puts her head down and cries as she doesn't have the endurance or attention span to make it across the house.

Still not too happy to sit in one place too long as she has places to go and people to see!

and she is off...

Elle loves to walk with assistance. She squeaks and giggles the whole time. The stiff legs remind me of the Monster Mash!

9 months:

- I am crawling cautiously

- I can sit up on my own

-I have two teeth now on the top

-I am starting to eat more solids and feed myself

- I love beans, puffs, teething biters, bananas, mangos, and green beans

- I went swimming with my Daddy for the first time in Port Townsend

- I love my singing cow, especially when I first wake up from a nap. Mommy sings along which sometimes scares the cow I think...