The Nelson Narrative

May 13 was our 20th anniversary!  We were originally planning on going to Fiji but the girls' graduation trip plans fell through, so we ended up cancelling that and we are taking them to Costa Rica instead.  So for our anniversary celebration, we went to dinner at Alder and Ash and then saw Phantom of the Opera.  This was my third time seeing the musical.  It is my favorite. The next day (Thursday) we left on a little get-a-way to Seabrook--just us and the dog.  Seabrook is a little town on the coast with a cute little town center and most of the homes are Cape Cod style and have names like "Seas the Day", "Sand in the Toes", "Rain Oar Shine", etc. We actually stayed in a tiny little one-bedroom cottage.  It was so cute!  We got there Thursday afternoon, settled in, picked up a pizza and salad for dinner, then took a long walk with the dog down to the beach. On Friday we fixed a nice breakfast in our house then went to the town center and walked around...

We had a busy weekend.  On Saturday, we left a little after 10:00 to drive almost 2 hours to my Dad’s.  He recently moved into an assisted living facility.  After visiting and having lunch with him there, we went to his old place that he and my step-mom (who just moved into a memory care facility down in the Portland area) just moved out of to pick up a mini fridge for the girls (one or the other) to have for their dorm room.  We got back home around 3:30, then we packed up to head over to Crescent Bar.  We just sold our condo there, so we needed to clear out some personal belongings before closing on Wednesday.  It wasn’t quite warm enough to use the pool yet, but we did go in the hot tub Saturday night, and then on Sunday we took a nice walk with Kona and she got to play in the river a bit and run around in some of the grassy areas. It was very bittersweet selling the condo.  Paul’s family has been going there for over 40 years, and I started going w...

This Easter was our last with high school-aged or younger kids in the house.  So weird. I thought that I wasn't going to bother putting up what few Easter/spring decorations I have, but on Saturday I realized that I have a cute wreath that I definitely wanted to put up, so I got out my decorations after all and put them up.  Just a few things for the mantel, the wreath and some old Easter photos of the girls. This table runner is new this year.  Saw it at Fred Meyer and thought it was cute and needed something for spring. The girls' last (maybe, we'll see) Easter basket was a Trader Joe's mini tote filled with favorite treats.  I didn't even know about the mini totes until a co-worker mentioned that she went one morning and they were selling them, and apparently it's a big deal because people get there early and wait in line.  So she went ahead and bought 4 of them and then asked me if I wanted one or two, perhaps for the girls.  Then she said that another ...

 Happy Easter! He is risen! This cross is in front of the potato processing plant that was (might still be, not sure) co-owned by my brothers’ potato farm. It shines bright for all travelers along I-5 in South Mount Vernon to see.

Several months ago a new business opened up in my town called Books and Bottles, which is, as you would imagine, a combination bookstore and wineshop.  I mean...two of my favorite things!  I had been meaning to check it out forever and mentioned it to a few friends and we all decided to make a girls' night of it and went a few weeks ago.  It was so fun to browse books while sipping wine!  You can't buy an actual glass, but you can get up to 5 tastings, and then of course you can purchase whole bottles but you can't open/consume them there.  It's such a cool place and we talked about going back regularly.