Back-Tracking to April

I have gotten so far behind in my blog.  I will try to catch up on some highlights of our spring and summer so far.  In April Tony and Amy were getting ready to close on their home in Fort Peck.  We kept Natalie overnight so that they could get an early start on clearing out the last of their things at the house before closing. 

Making breakfast is serious business!

It's just right, Papa!  Pour it in the pan!

How is it, Papa?

Are you sure its good?

Ooooo, bacon!

What fun to be able to have times like this with our granddaughter!  Something so small and everyday, but precious all the same.



Addilyn Mae Fast

We are very happy to announce the newest addition to our family. Addilyn Mae Fast was born on Wednesday, July 27, 2011 in Hutchinson, Kansas. She weighed 8 pounds, 2 ounces, and was 20 1/2 inches long. She has brown hair and brown eyes, and is such a precious blessing. Craig & Lindsay are happy to now be a family of three in their home in Buhler, Kansas. We can't wait to be able to meet her in person. We have been able to skype with them, and are thankful for that. Hopefully harvest will go smoothly and quickly so we can go visit them before too long.

Rain and More Rain

June 6, 2011  Looking to the garden from the living room window toward the shop. 

 my garden through the trees.  the strawberries are blooming in standing water, and the rest of the garden isn't much better.  The volunteer dill loves it, tho!

My garden is usually planted in the last half of May.  Much earlier than that, and it can freeze.  We water with underground soaker hoses put in with the tiller.  We then plant on either side of the hoses.  It works great, and the guys put the hoses down, we get the whole garden planted in short order, working together.  We do this after the guys are done seeding the crops in the fields. 

This year we are about a month behind the normal schedule as far as the seasons and also seeding.  Even if the guys were done with the crop, my garden has been pretty wet to work the ground.  The strawberry patch hasn't been dry yet.  Weeds everywhere!  I have the seeds ready to go, tomato and pepper plants are in the shelter of the garage.

Update:  June 10 - Warren took advantage of a bit of dryer weather and tilled the garden,  It was still too wet to be planting real well, but he got the underground hoses in and corn planted before we stopped to spend the evening with our favorite little girls.  :)   I got the rest of the garden planted the next day.  whew!

another picture of our yard in the rain.  Green as Ireland!

Warren found a rather large mushroom.



Warren flew to Kansas two weeks after our Arizona trip to help Craig & Lindsay with some remodeling work on their house.  They bought their first home in Buhler, Kansas in December, and did some work on the house before moving in.  They did a lot of work getting the original wood floors refinished, stripping wallpaper, painting, putting in duct work, water lines, but the big project was gutting the main floor bathroom and moving fixtures.

By the time Warren arrived, quite a bit of the work was done.  The plumbing had been moved, and some of the sheet rock was up and they had started taping.  Their first project was installing new wood flooring to go with the floors in the rest of the house. 

the tub and surround went in.

Warren did a lot of taping.

Craig doing a bit of electrical work.

It was a busy week, but the guys got a lot done.  After Warren left, Craig got the floors in the house stained and varnished, and he and Lindsay were able to move in a couple of weeks later.  We are so proud of them!  They have worked hard to buy and remodel their first home.  We pray they will enjoy their home and be very happy there.  

Over Easy

Darlene and I had seen a Phoenix restaurant featured on Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives called Over Easy.  http://www.eatatovereasy.com/  Any business featured on the show is pretty good, so we made plans to try it out for brunch on Wednesday.  Perry, Warren and Collin joined us.  It had moved to a different location since the show was filmed, and was a fun place.  

 I had to take a picture of Warren by the kids corner.  I thought Natalie would like the farm animals.  :)

Darlene and I both ordered items from the menu that were featured on the show.  Darlene ordered Waffle Dogs, breakfast sausage on a stick, dipped in waffle batter and fried to a golden brown.

 I ordered the Caramelized banana & pecan brioche French toast and scrambled egg whites.  Warren had an omelet. 

Darlene and I are both dog lovers.  She has a long haired Chihuahua named Napoleon, who believes he is alpha dog but really is pretty sweet.  We visited a couple of animal shelters in the afternoon, one a county one, and the other one privately run.  The latter was very nice, clean and well run.  We had a good time looking at the dogs and cats, and saw some different areas of Phoenix that afternoon as well. 

In the evening we went to Craig & Lori Schmitt's home for dinner.  Craig and Perry are brothers, and Warren and I both went to high school with Craig.  He and Lori have two children, Jacob and Megan.  We had a great evening enjoying a bbq and visiting, before heading back to Perry & Darlene's to pack for our trip home. 

We had a wonderful time on our trip.  It was a much needed break from the long winter in Montana.  We enjoyed seeing many friends, exploring new places, and spending some great times together. 



Coyotes and Stars

Tuesday night was guys and gals night.  Warren and Perry went to a NHL hockey game to see the Phoenix Coyotes and the Dallas Stars play. 

Warren found out it doesn't work well to wear the same thing to an evening hockey game that he wore to the afternoon baseball game.  He got a little chilly wearing shorts.  Good thing he had some wind pants along to warm up.  They enjoyed the game, which got pretty exciting near the end.  The Coyotes tied the game with about a minute to go, but the Stars won it with a goal in the last seconds.

 The popular KissCam kissing game was played, where the jumbotron camera picks on couples, they have to kiss, and the camera moves on to the next couple.  The people it zooms in aren't always couples, such is the fun of the game.  However, one young man had a plan in mind.  As the camera was on him, he popped the question on his unsuspecting girlfriend.  :)

While the guys were at the game, we girls had our own fun evening.  We went to a popular restaurant called the Elephant Bar, one of my favorite restaurants we ate at the whole trip. They feature a menu of European, Asian and American fusion foods.  If you haven't been to one, they are decorated in a sophisticated jungle theme complete with of course, elephants and animal prints, but in a rich woods, leather and English Empire kind of way.  We had a very nice, relaxed dinner, great visit and the food was wonderful.  We split some Orange Honey Shrimp, which was delish!  However, the dessert menu was too tempting to share.  Darlene had Creamy Creme Brulee and I had the Citrus Cheesecake Brulee, which was wonderful.   Warren had the camera at the game, so no pictures, but here's the website.  http://elephantbar.com/Default.aspx 

Cactus League Baseball

Warren and I spent the afternoon on Tuesday,  March 1 at the Rangers/Mariners game at the Peoria Sports Complex.  The Phoenix Valley is home to 15 Major League Baseball teams playing in 10 stadiums.  Most stadiums are shared by two teams.  They each have several practice fields, but share the stadium where they play their games.  Surprise Stadium is home to the Texas Rangers and Kansas City Royals.  The Peoria Sports Complex is very close to Perry & Darlene's office, and home to the Seattle Mariners and the San Diego Padres.  We wanted to see the Rangers play on Tuesday, so went to watch them in Peoria.   The stadium seats 11,000 fans and has 12 practice fields.  There are options for seating.  You can either buy tickets to sit in the seats, or bring a blanket and sit on the hill behind the outfield for just a few dollars. 

Ichiro Suzuki up to bat

Interesting.  The 3 men in caps in the foreground are from Medicine Lake, MT.  Warren noticed it on one of the caps and said hi to them.  They had come down for some games.  They were just a couple of rows ahead of us. 

We enjoyed the game, even though the Mariners won.  The Rangers had a comeback late in the game, but it was too late.  It was the warmest day we had since the first couple of days in Phoenix.  Perfect day to watch our first major league game.