New Paint

Andrew and I really enjoyed picking out paint and painting some of the rooms in the mobile home on his place. It was fun to decide the color schemes for each room. We spent quite a bit of time over there working.


View of the house


Painting the kitchen. We chose a very dark purple, but then decided it was too dark.


I love the colors in both bathrooms. Dark red and sage in the master bath....


... and blue and yellow in the other. It was so fun to take some of the gifts over after the shower to see how they looked.


We finally decided to add some white to the kitchen paint and give it another coat. I like it much better.


The finished kitchen. The kitchen colors are purple, sage, and blue.

A Bridal Shower

While up at the Engell's Mrs. Engell put on a lovely shower for me. It was great time to meet many people from the area. Everyone was so friendly and pleasant. The shower was a dress up tea party and evryone looked beautiful.

Aleah with rag curlers

All the pretty teacups


Some of the ladies playing the game

Gift time

Some of the lovely ladies

Afterwards we did a little dancing!

At The Engells

In between all the busyness and activities it was fun to get to know my new family the Engells better. We had nice dinners together, did cherries together, did dishes, I helped Aleah make a dress, helped Adam get spots out of his white shirt, and shared a room with Aleah. Here are some pictures from at the Engells house.


Tickling

Juicing

Dinner Time!




Washing garden produce

Getting ready to ride

Setting up the volleyball net

Cherry Picking

One day while I was up in Washington we went cherry picking with the Pittelkow family. It was a lot of fun. The trees were loaded with cherries, it was easy to pick them. We picked bucketfuls of them.













The next few days we spent pitting, then freezing, drying and canning cherries.



Some of the younger kids got bored with cherries, so they began to sword fight. It was so hilarious, especially if you notice what the red apron says.

Dreaming

The first thing Andrew and I did the next day was go over to see his property. I was so excited to see it. Andrew was a little nervous that I wouldn't like it but of course I did. It is so beautiful and so amazing that it is actually going to be my new home. We had a wonderful time walking around, planning and dreaming. We thought about paint colors, planned where to put the garden, and dreamed about where we will build a house someday. It was so fun, we spent quite awhile over there.

Looking up toward the trees where we hope to build a house someday.




Self-portrait


We also drove around the area a little and over to Lake Roosevelt. It is not very far away and looks like a beautiful place to go to cool off in the summertime.

The Trip North

Well I am back! And ready to share lots of pictures from my trip. I had a wonderful time. We just got back late last night. I haven't don too much today, just a little unpacking, a visit to the garden, uploading and looking at pictures.
It will probably take a few days to get the whole trip blogged. Now I will just start with the trip up there. Andrew, Jonathan and I left early on Saturday morning, July 12th. We had a good drive up. Andrew did most of the driving except after a bug flew in his eye. It kept bothering him for quite awhile, so I did some driving. That was interesting because I don't know how to drive a stick shift. I managed to kill it every time I stopped :) That night we stayed at Gabe and Mandy's. They are very hospitable and it was fun to see them.


Mandy's sister Annie, Gabe and Mandy


The next morning we got a fairly early start for the last day of driving. On the way we stopped at a Stonehenge replica to stretch our legs and enjoy the view.


View of the Columbia River


Andrew and I


Jonathan didn't want his picture taken but I took one anyway.

We made another stop in Spokane, to meet a family from Andrew's church and look at some furniture they were selling. They were friendly and very sweet. The sad thing is that they will be moving away before I move up there.
We arrived at the Engell's in time for dinner. It was so nice to get there. They were so welcoming and excited to have me there. I could tell I was going to enjoy staying there.

Hello From Washington!

I am having a wonderful time in Washington visiting Andrew and his family. We have been keeping busy cherry picking, painting, seeing the area, meeting Andrew's friends, and yardsaling. I have been taking lots of pictures and will be posting some when I get home.

My New House

I saw some cute birdhouse planters and decided to try making one. Here's what mine looks like so far.

The Garden

It's so exciting to watch everything in the garden grow.
I can't wait until we can start harvesting the vegetables
and melons. This morning, I had fun taking pictures in
the garden , here are a few of them.

A cheerful sunflower

Summer squash blossom

Purple bush bean flower

A cute baby watermelon

The colorful Painted Mountain corn

Long orange pepper

One of the many tomato varieties

Summer squash

Pear

Grapes

Tizzy loves watching the chickens
while I'm in the garden.

Packing

Jonathan and I are heading up north with Andrew to visit his family and see his place. We will be up there two weeks, then we will meet the rest of my family for music camp. The whole trip will be about three weeks. I have been packing and getting ready today. I probably won't be posting anything new for awhile.