20,500 SCREAMING Girls

{or how I took my daughters to see Justin Bieber} 

How to go to a Justin Bieber concert:

1. Buy tickets in May

2. Watch daughters scream, jump up and down and CRY when you tell them 

3. Wait for many long months, plan, make a purple poster to take along

4. Drive 8 hours to Tacoma, Washington 

5. Stay in hotel next to the Tacoma Dome

6. See tour buses the morning of the concert and . . . 

7. Spend all day standing outside with a large group of girls hoping he'll come out to see the fans (he never did) 

8. Get dressed in Bieber shirts and purple hair ribbons, scream/dance a lot 

9. File into Tacoma Dome with 20,500 people 

10. Scream/cry/cheer through a really fun show

11. Moms - look around at thousands of darling, elated faces and wish they could all be chosen as the "one less lonely girl"

12. Lose hearing for a while after show 

13. Stand in a ginormous claustrophobic mob for almost an hour to buy t-shirt 

14. Go back to hotel, talk it over 

15. finally sleep 

16. Drive home 8 hours, sleep (if you're a kid) and listen to Justin's CD 

17. Give your mom a sweet card saying thank you and how it was the best day of your life and you'll never forget this

18. Lay in your own bed with JB songs stuck in your head until you finally sleep


I'm so tired.

College Football Saturday

My viewpoint on Saturday afternoon: Sitting with Gary, watching our alma mater blow a 17 point lead in the 4th quarter against a team they were favored to beat by 21 points.

Painful. 

Even a Diet Coke and plate of nachos couldn't lift my spirits. Gary got so crazyfrustrated I thought his head was going to explode into little pieces. At times like those I just quietly crochet and lay low.

Puget Sound Dreamin'

This time of year I always find myself longing for the Puget Sound. The smell of salt water, a pebbly beach, a perfect 75-degree day, a small boat, the ghostly silhouette of a distant ferry, the evergreen breezes. To me, early September is western Washington's finest hour. 

I happened onto these photos this week. Taken one August evening on the Puget Sound in 2005. We didn't have the girls' swim suits but they were dying to wade in so we tied up their dresses and sat on the shore while they puttered about until the sun went down and the air got chilly.

Oh, where are those two little girls now? Where has the time gone?

Foggy Skagit Morning

Skagit Magic

 

We've had quite a bit of rain, sprinkled with drops of sun. When the sun comes out in the Pacific Northwest it is so beautiful that you develop instant amnesia and every dreary, wet day is completely forgotten.

The daffodil fields are blooming now - no tulips yet. And the snow geese are getting ready to head North. Did you know the snow geese that winter in Washington State migrate to their nesting grounds on Wrangel Island in the arctic region of Russia?! My waterfowl wizard husband told us this as we stopped to watch them fly overhead.

Note to tourists: When in LaConner you must have breakfast at The Calico Cupboard. The eggs benedict was the best I've ever tasted. The english muffins were thick, homemade, and huge. Mmmmm. I feel like eating there right now!

LaConner, Washington

If you ever find yourself North of Seattle with nowhere to go I highly recommend you exit I-5 at the Conway/LaConner exit and drive across Fir Island to the tiny town of LaConner. My father-in-law lives here in a house with lot of big windows overlooking the valley. The town consists of two main streets, lots of quaint shops, and a half-dozen little eateries. The main street runs along the Swinnomish Channel and a candy apple red bridge spans the Channel as it moves out into the Puget Sound. It's a very lovely and relaxing place. In April they host the Tulip Festival and if you time it right you can see either huge fields of daffodils or tulips. The tulips are amazing - waves and waves of every color you can dream up.

Our last few visits here have been a little bittersweet. Gary's dad's wife passed away very suddenly of a heart attack at the young age of 62 in 2010. She'd been a part of our lives for close to 20 years and was like a Grandma to my girls. She loved this town and their home here. She decorated it for each holiday, and loved to have fresh flowers sitting about. She had a big personality. Although we love being here in LaConner it's still weird not having her with us. She was so alive. . . and then she wasn't.

Roadtrip!

The Puget Sound during our visit last June.

This afternoon at 3:32 the girls officially start Spring Break and we're leaving on a roadtrip to the Seattle area to visit Gary's father, sister, and sister's family in the Skagit Valley for a few days. We're all so exited to "get out of Dodge" for a bit and head somewhere a little greener. The forecast there is calling for rain, but that's pretty much what you'd expect from Western Washington this time of year. At least there will be flowers and delicate ferny ground cover and it won't get below freezing at night.

Gary and I have made this trek so many times I think we could do it with our eyes closed – and sometimes in that really flat part of Eastern Washington I feel really tempted to do just that (take a wee nap) and then Gary will make me pull over so he can drive.

I hope to continue posting while we're in the Skagit Valley but my father-in-law is approaching his 80's so I think he might still be on dial-up internet?