Memorial Day Weekend 2012 - Day 1

Memorial Day Weekend 2012

When we found out that we were not transferring, we made plans to spend Memorial Day weekend with our friends, the Rhoads, in Eastern Washington.  Where we have mountains and the ocean in Western Washington, the Eastern portion of the state is more of a dessert dotted with lakes running along the Columbia River.  We spent two weekends out there last summer and had a great time, so East we go! 

We spent Thursday night and Friday morning going through all of our camping gear, packing up just about everything but the kitchen sink, and prepping food for the long weekend.  Around 11am on Friday, we pulled Grace out of school and we were off.  Now we were not the only ones who were there to pull kids out to g6et a head start on traffic.  The list of kids who were signed out was already almost a page long at 11, when on a normal day there are only a few names on the list.  When I was working in Elizabeth's class Thursday afternoon, her teacher told me that nearly half of her afternoon class would not even be in class on Friday.  Didn't make us feel bad for taking our girls out.

We stopped for a quick lunch a little bit of shopping along the way (Dave would probably say it was more like a lot) then we were on the road again.

Unfortunately, our plans to leave early coincided with everyone else's plans to leave Seattle early.  When we got to Stevens past about an hour outside of Seattle, we found  what Washington State DOT referred to as "Holiday Traffic."  It is times like this that we are thankful for this wonderful mini-van of ours.  The kids watched a movie on the DVD player, and Dave and I played the popular car game, "Wow!  Look at what they get to do this weekend!"  We also tried to point out some of the amazing scenery that the low traffic allowed us to take in along the way, but it the kids didn't seem nearly as interested in that as we were.  We got a lot of, "oh" and, "Yeah.  That's pretty." 

After sitting in traffic at Steven Pass for 2 hours, we were finally on the open freeway.  The drive was beautiful.  The pictures don't even come close to doing the scenery justice.

After just another hour on the road (which included an "uh oh, we just passed our exit) and quick stop at Dairy Queen for a bathroom break and a little snack, we arrived at Blue Lake Resort.  Now I just want to say upfront that the term "Resort" should be used very, very loosely here.  The words "total dump" are what first came to mind.  Like I wanted to turn right back around and drive the 5 hours home.  But the girls saw Ellen and Garrett the minute that we pulled in and they were off and having a great time in a matter of seconds.  I love kids and the way that they turn a blind eye to things that stick out like a sore thumb to adults.  Their friends were there, the lake was just a stone's throw away, and there was a playground.  They just wanted to let loose have a good time. 

I'll admit that I was pretty darn grumpy as we unloaded the van into our 30-year old camper complete with mousetraps in the cabinets and stains on the couch.  But I would just have to be grumpy because the kids had waited all day for a campfire and they weren't taking "no" for an answer.  Ann and Jason fired up their grill for hamburgers while Dave worked with 4 kids looking on very eagerly to get the campfire started.  A few hours visiting with friends, a trip to the playground, a quick look at the lake, and some s'mores really ended the evening on a great note.

Sure, I had to wipe our entire camper down with disinfecting wipes and used nearly an entire bottle of Febreeze to mask the musty smell that permeated our camper.  But everything is really about perspective.  We were away for the weekend with our friends, the kids were so happy, and, besides the traffic at Snoqualmie, we really did have a nice drive full of road trip games and Radio Disney.  Reminding myself of how many, many good things outweighed the bad, I went to bed glad that we came and thankful for our awesome kids that always make the most drab places a great adventure full of new memories. 

Annual Deer Run Yard Sale 2012

Today was the day of the Annual Deer Run Yard Sale!  If you asked me yesterday morning if we were going to participate in our neighborhood's sale, I would have said, "No way."  But in true Amy Zinkhon-style (you know, that last-minute style that makes my dear husband CRAZY!), I decided mid-afternoon Friday to have our things out bright and early Saturday morning.  I dropped Elizabeth at school, worked at the Recreation Center for a few hours, and then came home to a house full of kiddos - we were watching a friend's kiddos so they could go out for their anniversary.  Now it may sound like we are crazy for having extra kids on the night we are trying to get ready for a yard sale, but it couldn't be further from truth.  The girls were both able to play with friends while we got things in some kind of order.  I had been putting things into a "yard sale" pile as I unpacked from our big move to Japan (ha!), so we didn't have to search here and there for things.  This made it waaaay easier to set-up.  A quick run to my friend Jessica's house last night to get another banquet table and we were ready to go.


After a long week, we all headed to bed early on Friday, so it was up at 6am (okay...it was really more like 7am) this morning to get things ready.  Our neighbors were out getting ready for their sale, too, so at least we were in good company as we tried to make our "treasures" with missing pieces and big scratches look good enough to buy.


Normally the girls have lemonade and chocolate chips to sell during the Sale, but with our late-entry, I was not about to stay up until midnight baking cookies.  Okay...okay...normally I would have done that, but, like I said, it was a long week and I wanted sleep way more than I wanted the girls to have fresh baked cookies to sell to total strangers.  Long story shortish, we ended up with a coffee stand in place of the lemonade stand.  Now this might not sound like a good idea, but this is not Illinois.  We don't have 80 degree weather here in June.  This morning, it was closer to 55 degrees and cloudy, so a a coffee stand was a perfect fit.


Grace set up her stand complete with to-go cups, half and half, and sugar.  Her best friend, Michael, who lives right next door, had his cupcake stand running bright and early, too!  A lot of their customers asked if they planned to have one stand offer drinks and one stand to offer a treat because it seemed like the perfect set-up...a drink and a treat...hard to pass that up when you are out looking to for deals bright and early!


Our things we had put out for the yard sale sold slowly throughout the morning.  We got rid of a lamp that we have been dragging around for about 10 years and the bicycle that Elizabeth finally outgrew this Spring.  The kids lost interest after their second pot of coffee was emptied.  Not because the customers stopped, but because all of the neighborhood kids came out and they wanted to play.  (Let me just quickly add in here that our neighborhood is awesome!  There are always kids to play with and they all get along so well).  They all had fun eating cupcakes and buying/selling things from another.


After hanging around our yard for a while, Grace and Elizabeth took off with another family to check out the other sales on the Loop.  An hour later, they came back with some new stuffed animals (because we just don't have enough already) and bellies full of lemonade from a stand they found along the way.  Around noon, we were done with the Sale.  Elizabeth then zoomed off to a friend's cupcake-themed birthday party while the rest of us quickly cleaned up.

Forward two hours: we picked Elizabeth up and all headed over to the Poulsbo Library to sign the girls up for the Summer Reading Program.  For every 15 minutes that they read from today through August, they color in a star on their reading sheet.  If they have 10 hours at the end of the Summer, they get a free ticket to the Kitsap County Fair and a book.  It may not seem like exciting prizes, but they are both bound and determined to get those free tickets!  Grace has lost some interest in reading this year, so we made sure to pick some books off of the "Suggested Books for 4th Graders" list.  She was not excited by the titles that we chose, and I do mean not excited at all, but hopefully she will take to at least one of them.  Elizabeth, on the other hand, can never get enough books when we go to the Library.  We kind of have to cut her off at a certain point - usually when the bag is too heavy to carry. 

After the Library, we went to the theatre to see Madagascar 3.  We all love this series of movies and had been anxiously waiting for it to be released.  It did not disappoint!  It was funny, very colorful, and had a great catchy tune that Marty the Zebra sang that no one can seem to get out of their head: Da da da da da da da Afro....da da da da da da da Circus...Afro Circus..Afro Circus...Polka Dot...Polka Dot...Polka Dot Afro!  Here's to hoping there is a Madagascar 4!!!!

Tired and full of popcorn, we headed home.  It was another long, but fun-filled day at the Zinkhon's.