Finishing Up Our Seaside Visit

Wow! I am so far behind on my blog. Now it seems like an insurmountable task to get caught up … but I am going to break it up into smaller bites and individual blog posts that will be pretty close together!

Grace and I made the trip back to Moses Lake to be with our friends and celebrate the life of LuDeen Earl. The visit was fun! On Friday we got to see our friend Heather and go swimming in her pool. I went to my old office and saw Laura and Cindy. That was fun!

The viewing and the funeral were beautiful. We were so blessed to see so many friends and family of LuDeen and enjoyed hearing their stories about her and her life. We spent the time at Pat and Lori’s house and were surrounded by them, their kids and grandkids. It was nice to spend time with them and eat some of LuDeen’s special spaghetti sauce for dinner one night! Cassidy’s daughter, Haven, calls Grace her Baby … Grace is holding her in the pictures.

The weekend went fast for us but we knew we needed to get back to Brent and the dogs! Brent kept busy doing projects and taking care of the dogs while we were gone. We only had a few more days at Seaside and those were taken up with walks downtown and on the beach, gelato, seafood and other fun touristy things. We even fit in a trip to feed my Thai food cravings at Thai Me Up! It was so good even Grace and Brent who aren’t really Thai fans loved their food!

When we leave Seaside our trip is going to focus on family for about a week before we head south to California.

Seaside Oregon … Fun

We have been here is Seaside for about a week. Seaside holds so many memories for our family and we have made even more this week.

Grace was so excited when she got here to find some friends she had made in Long Beach here as well. They played together hard for days until the other family had to leave. There has been lots of swimming, walking dogs and a few trips to Warrenton for supplies.

We even drove back to Long Beach last Saturday for a fun visit to Sandsations - a sand castle building contest and another excuse to go to Dylan’s Cottage Bakery.

Grace has started doing a little light summer school work … mostly working on her penmanship and letter writing skills. We started reading a book together … Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret. by Judy Blume. Anyone from my generation remember that book? LOL!

Grace got a cold, which she got over in like 1 day, that she passed on to me and I haven’t been so lucky. It has given me time to listen to my books, lay in my zero gravity chair and rest. All the stress of life has been reduced and now my body seems to want to be sick all the time. I need to build up my immune system. Anyone have ideas for that? 

I finished The Resistance Girl by Mandy Robotham. It was good. I sure wouldn’t have wanted to live during those WW2 times and not sure Norway would ever suit me. It sounds very pretty but very cold and harsh weather. I enjoyed the book and will read more of her books.

I also listened to an audio book called The Shut Away Sisters by Suzanne Goldring. It was set in England during WW1 and present. It was interesting and a good read. It would go back and forth between present time and WW1 time as a young woman was discovering details of her two Aunt’s lives during WW1 and discovering herself as well.

Brent seems happy in his element as caretaker encouraging me to rest and let him take care of me. He has been putting together some dressers we picked up at IKEA for Grace’s clothes, working on his invention, reorganizing the storage on the RV and PU and generally enjoying his retirement.

Sometimes when you don’t live near extended family you develop friends that become the family you choose for yourself. In Moses Lake I met Lori Earl, who has become my sis, and who introduced me to her mother in law, LuDeen Roylance Earl. LuDeen passed away July 19th and was 96 years old. I am sure there was a HUGE party on the other side of the veil as she was greeted by friends and family including her husband, who went before her in 2004, and their daughter, Tami.  LuDeen was an elect lady who loved Heavenly Father and all others around her. Her eyes would light up when you walked in the room and she would smile and invite you to sit with her. She loved to make scones for friends and family. Grace and I will drive back to Moses Lake this week for her funeral. She was such a special woman and was so loving and gracious to us.

Well … my laundry is about done … it’s time for me to go … I think I’ll take a walk on the beach! 

Wish you could all be with me! Have a GREAT day!