Wednesday, August 13, 2008

A Busy Wednesday!

What a day! While Danny headed down to pick up Shawnie-Boy at the airport, Brian and I dropped the girls off at the park so they could take part in a service project by serving lunch to the elderly at the community center. This was coordinated by Coach Kryger and Coach Rooney from the high school volleyball team. These teachers/coaches are two of the most amazing ladies I've ever had the good fortune to get to know. They are completely selfless and utterly commited to the kids they work with. That is Coach Rooney on the far left, making her first official photo appearance on the blog (Hey Coach!) and Coach Kryger on the far right (Hey Coach!) The weather couldn't have been more beautiful for a lunch outside at the park.

After dropping the girls off, Brian and I headed over to the bowling alley to brush up on our mad bowling skillz. Now, most of you know that I bowled on a league for 12 years. I love and miss my Lees Fencing team more than you can imagine. Since we moved, I've waited to join another league because frankly, I was too busy setting up house, but moreso because I know I'll never find another team like the one I left. {{sniffle sniffle}} Anyway, I threw my first ball verrrry gingerly and immediately realized I'd have to alter my approach because even though my ankle is healed, it still can't take my normal final step without discomfort. And thus, a new upright approach was born...with pretty good results! I stopped league bowling with a 150 average and yesterday, I bowled a 137, 167 and 152...for a 152 average! Baby, I'm back! I signed up at the desk as a single to join a team in the upcoming Fall league on Tuesday mornings. Woohoo! Meanwhile, Brian is improving greatly! He had a 119 for his first game, not so good the second and then a 126 his third game. Good stuff!

On the docket for the evening was a tour of the Red Hook brewery in Woodinville. So, we plugged in the address into the trusty (?) GPS and off we went. There are two fairly direct routes to get there. Why then did the dang thing take us off the highway and re-route us past every dairy farm in Snohomish County??? We'll always wonder... Once there (only 1/2 an hour late for our tour) we had a quick refreshment while waiting for our own private tour! It's all who you know and Shawn knew the right people. So the tour is pretty simple: Go to the tasting room and taste a variety of beers in these jumbo shot glasses. The kids, needless to say, didn't much enjoy this part of the tour. Our guide Patrick would have served them if they could produce valid ID, so they drank water! The girls did try a nibble of hops which didn't go so well. Then, you walk down a long hallway and look out over the bottling line. There might have been more to the tour, but after the beer, you aren't so interested. No, you're hungry!

We pause now for the gratuitous "See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil shot..."

Okay, dinner. Pretty good foodies! Flat iron steaks with garlic mashed taters, bratwurst, BBQ pork quesadilla, killer burgers and this creation: (Missy Laura, this is to taunt you...) Southwest Chicken Nachos. Poor Hayley...it was her order, but it quickly became nibbles for everyone! Anyway, thank you Red Hook! We enjoyed our tour and our dinner immensely!

After arriving home, we lit a campfire in the backyard and had dessert. S'mores and stick biscuits with all the fixin's. Stick biscuits, you ask? We learned this one at Bow Lake: you wrap a refrigerator biscuit around the end of a soaked wooden dowel and "toast" it like a marshmallow. When it is done, it pops right off and you fill the hole with butter, jam, honey, cinnamon sugar or whatever you feel like. It is an art that obviously takes practice (and longer dowels than we had!) to get it just right, but they were pretty tasty!

It is now Thursday morning and the menfolk are packing up the trailer to head to see Tom Petty at the Gorge. To say they are excited is quite the understatement. This is Brian's first concert and they have awesome seats in Row 27 so I imagine they will return on Saturday in a Tom Petty induced euphoria! For now though, the waaaiting is the hardest part.... (See what I did there? heh heh!)

Have a great Thursday!

1 comment:

Laura and Corey said...

#1 That nacho picture is pure evil on your part.

#2 I am sooooooo happy you are going to join a bowling league! You are so due to do something for YOU! And the last time I bowled, I got a 67. Do they even accept people like me into leagues?????