Happy 10th Anniversary

We hit the decade mark last Friday. Doesn't seem like it's been that long actually, but here we are ten years down the road. For as much that has changed just as much has stayed the same. Couple kids, a house, one big move, addition of lots of nephews, loss of loved one, coming and going of new pets and assorted critters. Travels, journeys, all manner of adventure. We've had a pretty good ride so far and now that we're all "warmed up" were looking forward to the next 50 or 60 years.

To celebrate this auspicious occasion we were fortunate to have Kevin's folks come to visit and stay with the kids so we could get out. We went to Boise for the night, explored a couple places we always say we'll get to eventually, had some Seafood, and took a nice long walk on the riverfront trail down to the new Esther Simplot park area. The next morning we took the scenic route up to Fairfield, took the dirt roads off the highway for a bit and toured the last of the bloom on the Camas meadows. We grabbed some triple thick x2 milkshakes from the Wrangler for lunch (ice cream is a legitimate food group) and to the long way home stopping to check out the occasional antique store, garage sale, and pawn shop. Nothing to fancy or planned out, but we've always done better without a plan for these types of things. It was a nice relaxing trip.

The in-laws stayed on through Memorial Day so we got to enjoy the rest of the weekend spending time with them. Mostly we just hung around the backyard puttered around in the garden, planted some trees (two nectarine and a walnut) the folks brought down, roasted sausage and s'mores, made ice cream, and just enjoyed each other's company. Of course with Dad being there a skunk showed up (and was quickly dispatched). He truly is the skunk whisperer...its like they sense his presence. Mom and I went down to the landscape center and perused plants, I got some succulents for the flowerbeds since those seem to be the ones I'm least likely to kill (though I did grab a couple of Phlox for under the lilacs) and Mom found a variety of ice plant she didn't have. It was a nice long enjoyable weekend and a wonderful start to summer. Now we just have to make it through one more week of school and we can really get things going.

Way Back Wednesday

A blast from the past today folks. I was trying to come up with something interesting to post about and all my constituents could suggest was ‘swimming lessons’ (they’re a bit obsessed with that right now) as it is apparently the coolest most awesome thing EVER!!! I figured I’d wander through the old picture archive and see what sparked. Found these photos from the summer Kevin and I met and figured I retell the tale.

As many of you know both Kevin and I met through the US Forest Service. This is to spite the fact we both attended WSU and were in the same graduating class. Three years of running around the same campus and we’d never met. Kevin even had courses with my sister and I had an Economics class with his friend/roommate.

 

Summer of 2004 we were both SCEP (Student Career Experience Program) interns working on the Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forest. I had been transferred from the Colville NF over to the Okanogan to get more ‘typical’ range experience. Kevin had been working on the forest already but had been encouraged to live in the bunkhouses that year instead of with family friends as he had in previous summers.

That meant we would both be living in the Tonasket Ranger District ‘bunkhouses’ which are, in actuality, the old Conconully Ranger station in Conconully, WA…population 200ish on a good day.

I was driving up from Vancouver and had pretty much zero idea of where I was going. I was just following the map. I was told I was supposed to meet some engineer guy there who would have the key to the building.

So I show up late on a Sunday evening, it’s getting dark, it’s raining, I’m low on gas (and the only gas station in town has closed for the night), I’m not quite in the middle of nowhere (but I can see it from there), and I’m the only one there. There is no cell service in Conconully (at that time I didn’t know about driving up to the cemetery to get reception) I don’t know anyone, and everyone I do know is hours away anyhow so not really much help. Pretty much I just had to sit tight and hope this guy showed. Not sure how long I waited, maybe half an hour, but it seemed like ages.

Finally this Jeep pulls up and this guy steps out of his jeep and introduces himself as Kevin. I remember he was wearing a blue fleece. He opens the door to the bunkhouse (a cabin with one main room a bathroom and a kitchen) and starts putting his stuff inside. Uh, wait a sec! Until that moment I hadn’t realized that ‘guy with key’ would also be my roommate so that was a bit of a shock especially since privacy was at a minimum.

Fortunately for Kevin, his natural charm  (realized or not) won me over in a short period. Even though he didn’t share his Chico’s pizza with me and left me to have some questionable potato soup for dinner that first night. He did help wash dishes though….not just the dinner dishes either. Since the bunkhouse sat empty all winter it was really necessary to wash all the dishes in residence. Good thinking too because we discovered the cabin had a bad sugar ant infestation a few weeks later. He also cross-stitched, and had an excellent brand of humor. What’s not to love?

For the first month it was pretty much just the two of us. He’d go home to Moses Lake on the weekends though (to get his laundry done) and it was one of those weekends where I caught myself watching and waiting for him to come back and it just suddenly hit me how ‘screwed’ I was  (No fooling, that was what my inner monologue said to me, “you are so screwed”) They say you’ll ‘just know’ and ain’t that the truth?

We survived living together that whole summer and actually had a lot of fun in the meantime. I guess we figured after that everything else was cake….