Max's last day of preschool

Well, it's official. I now consider myself a "frequent blogger". This is the second post in less than a week. This time, it's all about preschool, and the last day thereof.



Max's class had their commencment ceremonies during the last half hour of class on Wednesday morning. The original plan was to have a picnic at Mud Mountain Dam, but the rain cancelled that. Needless to say, it was very cute to see all of the little kids waiting for their names to be called and getting a hug from each teacher and a certificate. Plus, since some of the kids have birthdays during the summer - Max included, they all got to wear birthday crowns for the day.

After the formalities were taken care of, it was time to party!! The kids had cups of chocolate pudding with Oreo crumb sprinkles (like dirt) and a gummy worm and flower in it.


Next stop....kindergarten!!!

Memorial Day weekend for the folks

We've arrived in Heiskell TN, for the long weekend. I've put up new photos of our stay in Crossville - check it out at : http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=2BatnDFy4ZPLA
We had a very good time. Played golf twice, once 9 holes, and 18 holes at the Jack Nicolaus Bear Trace course. As mentioned before, TN (and NC for that matter) are just hilly country. Good thing we had golf carts, or I would still be out there! Our condo was very nice, and seemed very big, even tho it was one bedroom. Course that could be because we live in 40 ft rv!

This park is having some fun activities for the holiday, Texas HOld 'em on Sat., free ice cream social and music tonight, and then free barbeque burgers, cheeseburgers, brats, and hot dogs. Visitiors will bring side dishes to share. So we are content here for the long weekend. We have a membership in Campclubusa which gets us 1/2 price rents, which is great. Saw a sign at a gas station in Crossville, "regular, arm; premium leg; diesel arm and a leg"... no kidding! Wanted to get a photo but we always seem to miss it. Hope you all have safe, fun time this weekend. Sounds like Jason and Candi have already made the first move, going to Seattle. hugs the folks

Pike Place Market

Better judgment not withstanding, we packed up and headed to Pike Place Market on the hottest day of the year (90+). It was a fun day-trip, complete with raw fish, a cheese festival, lots of people in need of deodorant, and capping it all off was a bum fight.

The market was packed since there were two cruise ships in port, one from Alaska - not sure about the other one. The cheese (and wine) festival was pretty neat, but I only tried one piece of 5-year smoked cheddar from Wisconsin; it was excellent. I would have tried some more but it was pretty crowded.

We ate at Cutter's at the north end of the market. Very good! I had my first fish taco and some smoked salmon chowder, Candi went with the hot crab-melt sandwich, and Max had grilled salmon and french fries. I highly recommend eating there if you're in the area.

After lunch, we goofed around in the market a bit more (Candi picked up a framed picture for the house). Across the street at that little park we got to see one bum giving another an afternoon beat-down...you know, a couple of punches to the face then some kicks to the gut...all in good fun, right? Thankfully, Max didn't see any of it but it was disturbing none the less.

Next up on the list was walking 7 or 8 blocks south to the Chocolate Factory for dessert. Max got the ball rolling with a double-dipped chocolate covered Twinkie on a stick. It was so rich that he could only eat about 1/3 of it. Candi & I shared a giant caramel & chocolate dipped-rolled in nuts-drizzled with white chocolate apple. Very good, and healthy too (after all, it IS an apple)!!

Then came the hike back to the car, which involved me carrying a 50 lb. sack of sand for the last 5 blocks. I really thought that the choc. covered Twinkie would get him to the car, but there was no chance. It was just too hot.

Then came the long drive home, just in time to spend the evening doing yard work. It takes just about 3.5 hours to mow and weedeat, barring any technical problems. I'm almost ready to pave it all over and lay down astroturf!!

That was our Saturday, May 17th.

looking at my address file on blog

Hi, this is just a test to check out who I have in which group of my email list. how's everybody doing? Did the ladies have a good Mother's Day. Thanks to all of you, I sure did!

hugs ma

Vegas Pictures

Here's a link to some Vegas pictures:

http://3koehnkids.shutterfly.com?a=1

I've also included a few of my favorites below:





I've also added some videos at the bottom of the page...Enjoy!

Roaring Fork road trip 5/10/08

Hi gang
more photos of our trip in Pigeon Forge...http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=2BatnDFy4ZPDg

This time in Pigeon Forge we have just hung around the rig most of the time... reading and staying out of the rain storms at night. However, this nature motor trail was a great side trip. TN has lots of hills much like NC. In the Smoky Mtn park they have made a real effort to preserve some of the old farm buildings and the stories of the area. At park visitors center on this trip there was a young man playing fiddle music outside the center. Pretty cool.
hugs ma

in Pigeon Forge TN

put new pics on shutterfly http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=2BatnDFy4ZO8A

We've come back to Pigeon Forge for 9 days. Then we move on to Fairfield Glade TN for our timeshare week. It is getting more humid and warmer here now. All the trees are leafed out and wildflowers along the road here were gorgeous! We are staying at Campclubusa park, which is great as it's only 1/2 price using their card. Doubt we will go back to Dollywood but do have a 1/2 price coupon (we seniors love coupons!) for the Dolly Parton Dixie Stampede dinner and bulls show. I also hope to do some painting. We have cable tv and wifi so dad is a happy camper too! Love reading the blog... keep it up... love the folks

'putting at the dealership

Well, we are in dealership park in Marion. Dad is waiting for them to open up service part so he can leave info to have checked while we are out today. Right now all the service guys are sitting having coffee here in the 'cafe' area! He wants to have breaks checked before we hit the hills again.

We will probably drive to Black Mountain and Arlington (?). The Bilmore House is there and not to be missed according to a couple of friends. Was the biggest, most expensive house/mansion of its time in the country. Black Mountain is supposed to be quite the arts/crafts community. But we will see, having to fill a whole day can be tiresome after while. The weather is great and we just sat out after doing laundry yesterday afternoon. This is a huge rv park area attached to the service department. Across the road is a big rally park and beyond that is the rv store... all of these are very big businesses, each to itself. There are nice paved bike/roads and trail, some of it along the river. This is lower elevation country than Boone, so the rhodys and azalias are in full bloom.

well, I am rambling. Happy to hear spring has come to WA. Hope you all get a chance to enjoy it! Dad's back so guess we will have to find something to do for the day. big hugs

bar-b-cue is operational

Sun. May 4th - We finally were able to get the bar-b-cue out and fired up. On a spur of the moment decision, we thawed out some steaks and fired it up. We have also gotten out or patio furniture and actually got to eat outside in the sun. It was nice! 

We also went to costco to get some hanging baskets, but they were sold out already. Jenny had already gotten some (3) on Fri. but we need 2 more. Costco has them for $25. We stopped at a nursery in Enumclaw and they wanted almost $50. Those people are crazy!!

That's all I have for now. I am off to work.

Ryan

Llast day in Boone, NC

Well, we are finishing up our week here in Boone. Tomorrow we go to Marion NC to have breaks checked out at a service center. Probably stay two nights there. Our friends from the AK trip last summer have been in the park with us here this week. Played golf Friday and will play 9 holes again this afternoon. They are heading for KY for a Life on Wheels conference. We will meet up again in WA in Aug for a month. My watercolor workshop was awesome and I have lots to practice. This teacher was well organized and did lots of demos so we could see exactly how she accomplishes her work. In the week we have been here the trees have really leafed out, and now everything is much greener. We have several little kids parked next to us this weekend and noise level has gone up considerably! Not sure exactly where we will head from Marion, but we have to be in Fairglade, TN 5/16. Hope all is well with all the'kids'!!