Sunday - Thursday, August 4-8, 2013 (Camano Island, WA)

Sunday

We got to attend Tidelands worship service again today.  They meet in the Standwood Senior Center and above the senior center are apartments, so a few of the residents attend the service also.  They are very happy that they are able to attend this worship service as many of them are no longer able to drive.  This week a swap meet was being held at the senior center and originally Tideland's were told they would not be able to meet because of lack of room, but the residents raised such a fuss that the senior center told them to go ahead and meet anyway.  

After church we stopped at a local farmers market and picked up some marion berries and boysen berries and several ears of fresh corn.  Boysen berries are one of my favorites, it stems from fond childhood memories of Kraemer family reunions and my grandma's yummy berry pies.  The Boysen berries we just ate over ice cream and the marion berries I made into a berry crisp, very yummy.  

In the afternoon we went to an open house for "Growing Gardens for Life.  A local couple here on the island have started this outreach that comes alongside orphanages and group homes around the world and teaches the children how to raise food, them helps them put in and learn to care for sustainable, organic gardens and orchards.  We watched a slide show and walked around their gardens and met Elaine, one half of the couple.  Her husband John was busy running the slide show.  It sounds like something that Rich and I would be interested in helping out with at some point during our journey, we'll have to wait and see.

Other than that, it was just a relaxing day/evening around the 5er.

Monday - Tuesday

The focus on these two days was painting, so that's pretty much what we did all day long.  It was nice to see some major progress on the kids house. 

Tuesday morning we spent the morning with Tideland's volunteers and the local elementary school PTA members painting the stripes on the kid's playground as well as working on putting down a huge stencil of the USA and then painting in the states.  It got so hot on the asphalt and we also ran out of paint that we had to quit by early afternoon, it was unfortunate that we didn't get to finish the whole project, but the PTA will get some more volunteers to finish up the project. 

Volunteers working on USA stencil

Another view - Rich & Cameron (our grandson) painted in Texas, good job don't you think?

Tuesday afternoon, we painted some more on the kids house and then spent a relaxing evening just kicking back in the 5er. 

Front view of freshly painted house - Brandon & Kris had this done already

Back side of house

Brown color we are painting over - this is all that is left to paint on the body of the house, then there is the gable ends, gutters and trim that still need paint

Wednesday

We spent the morning painting, we have the body of the house finished, now what's left is just the trim work and the gable ends of the house which will be a different color. 

After we got cleaned up, we headed into Jessica & Gary's new home in Lake Stevens to help Jessica finish up some wedding things.  I got to tie paper hearts with the kids name and wedding date on the wedding favors.  Rich helped Jessica with a picture project. 

Then we met Gary in Everett at a local Mexican restaurant for dinner.  It was very good, they greeted you with a fresh tortilla with butter and salsa, that was a first for me.  The food was good and the portions were large, we brought leftovers home. 

We then went and helped Gary move a few items from his apartment to their new home.  Rich and Jessica practiced their dance steps for the father/daughter dance at the wedding and then it was time to head home.  It was a long day for all of us.

Thursday

Today we slept in a bit and then did our normal morning routine and then, you guessed it, headed out to do some more painting. 

Rich started in on the shop and I started in on the trim work.  I got the window/door trim done on the house but there is still lots to go.  Rich got one wall of the shop all cut in - painting the grooves in the boards which takes forever it seems.  

Tomorrow starts the wedding festivities so Friday/Saturday will be pretty much taken up with those fun activities.  I'll post some pictures, so stay tuned......