I have a hard time even really knowing where I left off...what has happened since we returned from Florida? Well, for one thing, the Paynes visited from Nigera for six weeks. A treat to see they all look happy and unchanged...except Jordan, Cypress and Isabel have seemingly grown up overnight! It was so great to see Hannah again, looking well and also more mature than the last time we saw her. There was the family get together at the cabin. Mike spent one adventuous day with the girls, Kim and Gary in Birch Bay in a water park. In Sept. we enjoyed one last visit with the Payne's at Tom and Judy's..always nice to spend time with the family.
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| This one makes me laugh...what are we yaking about anyway? |
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| Food, glorious cabin food! |
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| Miss Jordan, all grown up and just as beautiful as ever |
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| The handsome, fit couple...training together for the 3 day, 60 mile cancer walk |
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| Tom and Judy were there, too |
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| Cute baby doll aka McKenna, Lia and everyone's favorite Grand-Pa |
When we came back from Florida we had several hectic weeks settling two vacancies in the rentals...a fairly non eventful and expected vacancy in the Bellevue condo and an unexpected troublesome vacancy in Marysville. We have the routine down and got them both cleaned up, repaired and rented within a couple of weeks. I will not bother to go into details except to say rentals are not for the weak willed or thin skinned. Of course, just when we thought we had it all under control, a major leak was discovered in the Kirkland house in which we had to replace an entire underlayment in the floor of the laundry room. Fortunately, we have found an awesome fix-it all construction guy that we trust to do a good job at a reasonable price. Mike spent hours and hours, trips and more trips overseeing these repairs and helping out when he was able.
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| Mona, Amy, David, 2 lady friends whose names escape me |
All right people, heads up. Just when you think you are "in shape", you meet people like these. David and Amy RODE their bikes from their home in Bothell to Whistler, BC, stayed a 2 days, then RODE back. Along the way various biking friends joined them including yours truly. They rode something like 650 miles in one week. Yes, in case you were wondering, they have completed 3 full Ironmans! I rode with them from Birch Bay, pictured here, to Marysville at which time I cried "UNCLE" and had Mike pick me up. I was toast after riding hard for 80 miles in 90 degrees.
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| Joan and Mona on the way to the start of STP |
Following the "ride from H---", excuse my French, riding the STP (Seattle to Portland-200 miles in 2 days) the following weekend was a piece of cake! This is me and Joan the morning of our ride to Centralia which was 98 miles away. It turned out to be a beautiful day; we had a great time.
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| Bikes unloaded, ready to go! |
As you can see, she is one large woman. I was trying to stand tall, but I just couldn't quite measure up! We are both doing the Ironman in Arizona in November.
I have a hard time even really knowing where I left off...what has happened since we returned from Florida? Well, for one thing, the Paynes visited from Nigera for six weeks. A treat to see they all look happy and unchanged...except Jordan, Cypress and Isabel have seemingly grown up overnight! It was so great to see Hannah again, looking well and also more mature than the last time we saw her. There was the family get together at the cabin. Mike spent one adventuous day with the girls, Kim and Gary in Birch Bay in a water park. In Sept. we enjoyed one last visit with the Payne's at Tom and Judy's..always nice to spend time with the family. 
