Throwback Monday

There's a trend making it's way around social media where people are sharing what their lives looked like in 2016 . It sounded like fun so here we are. 

Ten years. I had to scratch my head a little to remember what we were doing in 2016, but thankfully I have a blog to help with that. 

Turns out we were building a house. Ha!



How do you forget that? 

I guess I've successfully blocked the process from my memory, but at the time it seemed to fill our every waking moment. 

When I say we were building a house I mean the entire year of 2016 was dedicated to that endeavor. We actually broke ground on September 24th of 2015 and then it proceeded to rain for the next month so we didn't start construction until mid-October of that year. 

And it took a looooong time. Almost fourteen months but who's counting? My camera reel from 2016 is filled with a lot of red clay, lumber, plumbing, and stone. 

And that was pretty much it. 

I mean not it it, but the home build did consume our time and our thoughts and our lives for the entirety of 2016.

As home builds do. 

In other old news...having newlyweds in the family made for a happy distraction in 2016. Daughter1 and her hubs married the year before and promptly moved thousands of miles away, which incidentally would become a trend for them going forward, although we blessedly didn't know it then. 

God gives us grace for the day y'all. 

I made two trips to the Evergreen State that year and I loved it. I didn't love the distance, but I'd never spent any time in the PNW before my daughter1 moved there, and I thought it was so beautiful. 

The trees...all the green...I loved walking in my daughter's neighborhood with her picture perfect view of Mt. Rainier. 

Loved walking the path through what I dubbed the Jurrasic forest and then the way it opened up into the wide expanse of the Puget Sound. 

Loved hanging with this guy too of course. 

He was an adorable and only slightly naughty one year old puppy who had no idea he'd be coming to live with us just three years later.  As I said, grace for the day. 

We bought a boat-

Our dock went in before the house was even framed, and this was smart on our part if I do say so myself. 

I mean hubs was all over that so I can't take any credit but having the dock meant we could hang out in the lake while the builders did their thing. 

May 7, 2016...dipping my toes in the lake from our dock for the first time. 

We had to navigate through the overgrown prickly brush on the hillside to get to it, but still we were a step closer towards calling home home. 

What else? OOOhhh the apartment. It was actually kind of fun living in a furnished apartment while we built. I could clean the whole thing in about an hour and best of all daughter2 lived in the same complex.

She was teaching school and we got to see a lot of her and her sweet Greyhound. 

Scrolling through pictures I see we had time with extended family, some fun weekends spent both here and away with friends, some of whom we haven't seen in a while which makes me a little sad, but also grateful for the people whose paths have crossed ours whether for a season or forever. 

I see too, that taking sunrise/sunset pics has been a thing for at least a decade. 

Mostly I'm struck by how ten years feels like forever. I'd almost forgotten we lived in that apartment because life flows like a fast moving river and we have to keep paddling forward. 

Still, it's okay to glance over your shoulder now and then. 

Cheers to the next ten. I don't know what they'll bring...

...but I know there will be grace enough to meet us there. 

Hodgepodge Questions-Volume 600

Volume 600? That's crazy! Here are the questions to mark the occasion. Answer on your own blog, then hop back here on Wednesday (April 30th) to add your link to the Wednesday Hodgepodge. See you there! 

1. My very first edition of The Wednesday Hodgepodge was published on November 10, 2010 (linked here if you're curious). Tell us something about your life from that era. 

2. What's a song you love that relates to time in some way? 

3. May is nearly upon us. When did you last need to yell 'MAY DAY-MAY DAY!!'? 

4. How do you feel about food trucks? Is this a dining experience you enjoy?  Do you have a favorite What's something you've ordered from a food truck? 

5. We're bidding farewell to April...what are three adjectives you might use to describe the month you're leaving behind. 

6. Insert your own random thought here. 

Putting The Car In Park

Bringing the recap of our trip up the California coast to an end today. 

Day 8-Half Moon Bay

This pretty little seaside town was the setting for the wedding of our friend's daughter. We've known her since she was a tiny tot and all her siblings too. 

My how the years roll by. 

We have lived a lot of life beside this family and always pick up right where we left off. 

The day started early for us. It dawned on me as we were driving into town that I would not be able to do my own hair for the wedding. Or do much of anything really, but after a week in a convertible I definitely needed hair help. No way I could get my arm in gear for that, so we phoned the hotel and they gave me the name of a nearby salon. 

The salon was of course completely booked but the stylist I spoke to was so kind and said she'd come in at 8 am to help me out. Don't you love when businesses go out of their way to be accommodating? (Aqua Beauty Lounge)

Hubs drove me over for the appointment and then we spent the rest of the morning hanging out with friends before going back to the chowder house next door for clam chowder and a lobster roll. 

Fog moved in to the bay and made for a gorgeous ethereal setting for the vows. 

The ceremony was followed by a fun reception with dinner and dancing (yup, I danced, broken elbow and all) and then we sent the bride and groom on their way with bubbles and best wishes. 

Here's hubs with the father of the bride who is one of our most favorite people in the whole wide world-

Another sister of the bride...she and my daughter2 are good buds and have known one another since birth. 

These boys all worked together once upon a time, one is second generation which is fun to see. 

We love this family so much. We treasure all the memories made and love the here and now too as we celebrate and navigate the changing seasons of our lives. 

Day 9-Saulsalito to San Francisco to home to Urgent Care

We had an overnight flight Saturday so the whole day was ours to fill. We took a long walk beside the sea with the bride's parents (nobody can say I wasn't a trooper!) then had breakfast at the hotel before saying our goodbyes and wow this was fun and can't wait to do it again! when more of their children tie the knot. 

Hubs and I have both been to San Fran more than once and honestly have zero desire to go into that city now. We needed a plan for how to fill the day and since hubs loves Sausalito and I'd never been we pointed the car in that direction and off we went. 

It was a gorgeous day and the city was bustling with people. Such a cute place! We walked a while then had a leisurely lunch with a seaside view at Scoma's. It was so good and the atmosphere, the service, the gorgeous setting, and of course the food were all wonderful. 

After lunch we walked some more, admired the boats in the marina, then made our way to the airport. Our hometown team had a game that night and since we were on west coast time realized we could watch the whole thing while eating dinner in the terminal. 

We got home the next morning (Sunday), collected the pup from the kennel, and called my doctor who advised I get back in the car for an x-ray pronto. Well, pronto after a 2-hour wait in the urgent care and three days after my son-in-law advised the same. When the doc walked in the room her first words were, 'You're holding your arm funny', followed by 'Even without me seeing an x-ray I can tell you you'll be leaving here in a splint and a sling with a referral to the orthopedist'. 

Party's gotta end sometime, right? 

Once I knew it was fractured I gave in to reality and basically hubs has been waiting on me hand and foot (elbow?) ever since. On the bright side it was a non-displaced fracture which meant I did not need surgery. Recovery is going very well and as the doctor says 'in another three or four weeks you can do a pushup'. 

A pushup? How about we start with drying my own hair?