Going to the Chapel

What a great time I had in Las Vegas attending Chelsea's wedding. Since none of you could attend check out the pictures of Chelsea and Bryce aka Mr. and Mrs. Bohman. Chelsea looked absolutely gorgeous. Bryce is one lucky man. I can't believe she is all grown up and MARRIED. I know it's cliche, but it seems like yesterday she was a little girl with those adorable dimples and curly hair. Wow, look at her now. If you read this Chelsea please know we love you and wish you all the happiness your heart can hold.

I also had a great time hanging out with Dianne and being her moral support. Dianne handled everything beautifully, but it's hard marrying off a daughter. She was a trooper and we had lots of fun together just being sisters.(Please excuse the "eyes" on my pix--technical difficulties.)

A League of Our Own

Some traditions just seem to come out of nowhere . . . like bowling on Black Friday instead of shopping. This year we bowled "league style" which means we alternated between two lanes just like the pros. Our pros for the day were Dad with the high score of 159, and Jamie with an almost equally high score of 140 (I don't think the bumper pads had anything to do with it). I personally bowled a 104. It was awesome. Aaron forgot his bowling ball and shoes so he was alittle off his game, thank goodness. After we bowling we adjourned to Olive Garden for a farewell meal to Michael as he headed back to BYU. What an amazing Thanksgiving we enjoyed, almost perfect (thanks to the brined turkey), except for the absence of some of our most favorite family. Look out Christmas, here we come!

Aloha

We're back from our wonderful visit to the Garden Island of Kauai. We had an awesome time! The weather was alittle on again off again with the first storm of the winter coming our way--tons of rain but always warm. We relaxed and read and read and relaxed. We self-toured the island and enjoyed it completely. One of the highlights was our helicopter ride. Many parts of the Jurassic Park movies were filmed here and we saw them all including the waterfall where the helicopter drops them off and picks them up at the end of the movie. We actually went down, down, down into the once active volcano and then up, up, up again. Thank goodness for those barf bags--LITERALLY. Inspite of queasy stomachs it was great fun.

We also made many feathered friends as Kauai is populated with wild roosters and chickens (no wild cows however). This is due to the hurricane a couple of years ago that liberated the birds never to be recaptured. At any time of the day or night you could hear roosters (that's a big plural) cock-a-doodle-doing. It is part of the charm of the island and the natives love it. We came to understand anew phrases such as "pecking order" and "ruffled feathers". Chris fed the birds everyday and can now add birdman alongside his previous lizardman title. Needless to say he was a big hit.

All in all we had a good time and are considering a new second address for the Steilacoom Stevens. In the spirit of Aloha we will invite you all for a visit.

The City by the Bay

We just returned from a short trip to San Francisco. It was great. The weather was beautiful and the city is gorgeous. We walked everywhere, took BART, walked and ate in Chinatown, climbed up Nob Hill, went to Fisherman's Wharf, and just plain enjoyed ourselves. Of course we went to SF because of the ADA meeting, so I was doing most of this stuff alone, but it still was a great adventure. For those of you who don't remember we honeymooned in San Fran. In fact one day while Chris was in a dental meeting I decided to walk down to the Wharf. The awesome thing is, I just happened to come down on the street where the Fisherman's Wharf Travelodge is and, here comes the awesome part, we spent one of our honeymoon nights there!! It was still standing even though it was barely standing when we were there so many years ago. It was so nostalgic I actually teared up thinking about us as a newlywed couple just starting out. No kidding. Too bad Chris wasn't there to share the moment. Anyhow I have spent 32+ years with the most wonderful man in the world. I knew I picked good, but even I am amazed at how good. Hope all of you will feel the same way after you've been wed 32+ years.

So I decided to dedicate this post to the best friend, companion, and husband a girl could ever have, yesterday, today, and forever (OK Michelle, you can pull out the barf bag now).

Here's to you sweetie!

Celebrate

What a great day we had Saturday. We attended David's White Coat ceremony--his advancement into the clinic part of his dental education. We technically can now call him Dr. Stevens. Oh my goodness, two Dr Stevens in the family. We were so proud as he received his white coat. We even watched him work on his first patient, none other than Katy. She was fascinated with the air thingamajiggy and showed great interest in all things dental, so who knows where it will lead. Another dentist in the family?

After the ceremony we met Michelle and the mysterious boyfriend Aaron at P.F. Chang's. He was very nice and we liked him--cute too.

A day in the life of Chris and Linda

Ahh, what a beautiful Saturday in July. I often hear, "What did you and Dad do today?" Well here is a typical day-off for the two of us. First we decided to pick up some salmon for our Sunday dinner straight from the source, or almost. We know this fish guy who has tribal rights, being from the Nisqually tribe. The fish is so fresh that just hours prior to our purchase the salmon is happily swimming in the river. Yummy. This time when we stopped the old guy was gone and some other guy told us, "no problem" he would get the fish for us. He used a fork lift to get down this big bin-type container, opened it up, and voila, FISH on ice! We were so excited. We told him we'd take one and he told us to just get it--just pick out this big fish with our bare hands--a whole fish. Unfortunately we know very little about filleting, etc. and his fillet-guy was not around. "Sorry," we say and are forced to buy our fish at Costco.

Next we had lunch with Margaret Densley, an old time member of the ward (92yearsold) and Chris's home teachee forever, who moved to Patriot's Landing, a retirement type place to live out her last years. She is the most wonderful, interesting AND entertaining person you can imagine. She took us to lunch in their dining room. We had a lovely time. Lunchtime invariably brings naptime for Dad. He napped in the Fred Meyer parking lot while I shopped--a perfect solution for the both of us. Don't tell him but while he was napping I found a really cute dress and sweater.
Then we went car shopping for me. I kind of like the cute little commuter cars, but haven't really decided. Dad wants me to get something much cooler than a Fit or Matrix or Yaris like an Infinity or a Lexus or a BMW. Who knows?
On to Dave and Jen's to try out their new Love-sac. Yes indeed it is wonderful. Maybe we can have Dave negoiate a purchase for us too. They are amazing bargain hunters. Dave and Jen then took us to the Ballard Seafood Festival. We had delicious seafood and other yummy treats. It was great fun. We proceeded into the city of Seattle for the Torchlight parade. Chris and I stood in some bushes to see the parade, but ever resourceful Dave and Jen found a relatively comfy location sitting right in the front row. After our fill of the parade we said a brief good-bye to Homer, returned Dave and Jen to their cute place and headed home. A near perfect day in the Northwest.

Just a side note--how come my "preview" never looks like the "publish post"? The pictures and text are always goofy! Help!

Good-day sunshine?

Oops, I guessed I wished for the rain a little too soon. Now I'm wishing for the sun. This weather is really perfect for us Washingtonians as Blake pointed out so accurately, because we love to talk about the weather. What would we do without our weather?(and our Mountain and the Mariners). For myself I am very glad it is cool and rainy. I love it. I almost made myself a cup of hot chocolate today--in the middle of July! I was just on Steph's blog and she had 14 comments. Sometimes I wonder, Is anybody out there?

Send in the clouds

I was so happy today when I looked at the sky and there were clouds. I don't care what the weatherman reported I know we hit 100 degrees here in Steilacoom yesterday and that's not right. After yesterday's heat wave I'm thinking of relocating to Alaska. Anyone want to join me?

New York New York

Wow, did I ever have the best time in New York--not only one of the most exciting and interesting cities in the world but one of the most amazing and wonderful two children and awesome mom and dad in the world too. I just can't say how great it was to be there. First off, we have all heard the story of Blake and the washing machine so I took pictures. I for one, am really impressed with Blake's ingenuity--the way he twisted those pipes around the tub inspires confidence in his new chosen profession. Stephy forgot to mention the actual washing machine. It's a washer/dryer all in one. What a sweet gesture of love and consideration for Steph and the fam. Ok, enough about the washer/dryer (although it was totally amazing). Here's a list of all the fun things we did: walked the neighborhood, Prospect Park and Zoo, saw Nancy Drew movie, Museum of Nature History (where Night at the Museum was filmed), fed ducks, went to Coney Island and aquarium, ate Nathan's hot dogs, Brooklyn Bridge Park, water taxi, Grimaldi's Pizza (fantastic), Seaport area, Wall Street, NYSE, Trump Towers, Times Square, Ground Zero, wax museum, fashion district, rode the subway, watched many episodes of "Snapped" (check it out on WE), ordered chinese food, and had the most awesome time hanging out together. As you can see our days were filled with fun. It's hard to believe I was only there for one week. Stephy is the perfect hostess always, and Blake always gracious with the onslaught of family and friends.

This post would not be complete without some pictures of the fun. You'll have to figure out for yourself where we are and what we are doing. One last word--thank you Steph, Blake, Evy, and Dane--I love and miss you tons.

I hope they call me on a mission

I can't believe I haven't share this completely awesome, wonderful picture we took when we were in Korea (as part of our China trip). It was so wonderful to see these fellows and they were so excited to see us. Only one of the elders was Korean, the rest were Americans.

Hot Fun in the summertime (almost)

As I dropped Michael off at the airport this morning, I recounted the many fun activities we enjoyed during his 10+ days visit. For instance, we visited Grandpa twice (not so exciting but definitely rewarding), savored local strawberries (an absolutely heavenly treat), ate lunch at the Ram (they were out of Diet Coke!!), played Pirates Dice (Jenny is the champ--what a bluffer), saw West Side Story at the 5th Ave ("tonight, tonight"--after which Michael couldn't stop singing tiny bits of the songs--I know what I'm going to get him for Christmas), hung out with Jamie, Noah, Adam, and Kitty at Wal-Mart (what would we do without that store), went to Seattle and toured the Market (unfortunately the line for the little donuts was a mile long so we had to pass), went to the Center and ate Seattle Fudge (yum-yum), went to the EMP (we totally were rock stars playing the drums and guitar together), and the Science Fiction Museum (wow, lots of Star Wars stuff--Jason would be in heaven), babysat the Pace kids and played Mario Party & Mario Cart on the Wii with Adam and Noah, then watched Noah play Donkey Kong (it was loads of fun--three little angels under one roof), met Michelle at Bellevue Square (shop til you drop), ate together at Cheesecake Factory (didn't leave room for cheesecake), went bowling (I bowled an amazing 109), played racquetball (just Mike and Dad, but Michael feigned an injury when Dad put the hurt on him), and that just touches the surface. I didn't even mention all the small things that really make spending time together so wonderful. You know my motto--it's not what you're doing but who you're with that matters!!

Loveable Laurels

In YW last Sunday the attention getter had to do with blogs leading to favorites leading to choices leading to Alma 37:37 (my most recent scripture posting) leading to counseling with the Lord. Unfortunately only two of my six Laurels were there but they are so darn cute I just had to post their picture. Ahhhh to be young again and full of possibilities.

On the road to China and other Asian adventures

The only thing worse than a returned missionary with hundreds of photos is a near senior citizen who travels and has a blog. Yes, I am using this blog to send you all some "stories and stuff" about our recent travels. Of course I will intersperse my epic Asian adventures with the mundane day to day, so don't despair. How many Asian blogs/pictures could I have? Only time will tell. Click on the picture, the English translation is cute!

Did I mention.....

Dad had no problem with the restroom situation and, as always, he was a happy and contented traveler!

Things aren't always what they seem....

Sure it looks like a beautiful, peaceful setting but this location--Xiamen, China--is where I first laid eyes on an "eastern" toliet. What's an eastern toliet you ask? Let me just say Kohler needs to make some inroads here as the only porcelain to be found is surrounding a hole in the ground. I hear all that squatting really builds the leg muscles but there must be an easier way. At this point in the trip I said "no thanks" however later the call of nature was not to be denied. To my credit I adopted the "when in Rome" philosophy while most American women opted to wait in huge, long lines for the one handicap "western" toliet. Wimps. Oh and that stylish hat only cost me 50 cents and it's completely disposable. Ask Noah and Adam!

Where do souvenirs come from? China, of course.

Our recent Asian cruise began in Hong Kong and so did our quest for the best souvenirs for family and friends. We were only in Hong Kong the first day of our trip but it turned out to be the place for primo stuff at cheap prices -- Stanley Market by name. This is where most of your presents came from including those beautiful silk robes, which I'm sure you are all wearing, right? In Hong Kong Chris purchased a tailor-made suit. When it arrived it fit perfectly and had a special label stating "Hand Tailored for Chris Stevens". This is the way to buy clothes. Good-bye JC Penney.

You can't teach an old dog new tricks, or can you?

People are willing to study all kinds of crazy things, but how about teaching an old dog new tricks? Well it's been done and the study revealed this long held notion concerning old dogs is false. Old dogs can be taught new tricks! Who'd have thunk it? But what does that have to do with me and this blogspot? You guessed it. If old dogs can do it, perhaps I can learn new tricks too and this blogspot proves it, complete with pictures. Stay tuned for exciting "stories and stuff" coming your way soon....