Halloween Preparedness

Yes, I realize it's been a while.  I am so sorry for the delay in posting.  I will eventually post some pictures from our wonderful weekend in Pullman, but for now, let me entertain you with stories from this past weekend.

We decided, rather suddenly, last week that it would be nice to visit Tim's family in the North.  Being the adventuresome people that we are, it seemed logical to try a new route.  So we made our reservations for the Port Townsend/Keyston ferry for friday night.  I picked T up from work and we headed to the ferry. We were definitely patting ourselves on the back for our ingenious decision, especially because the radio was basically calling I-5 a parking lot from Tacoma to Marysville, essentially our whole drive.  As we pulled into the ferry terminal, I rolled down my window to pay and what is the first thing the teller says to me?  "Don't come yelling at me if the ferry is cancelled tonight!"  ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!  So, with crossed fingers, we got in line.  Not even ten minutes later, another man tapped on our window and let us know that "the captain would be tying up for the night as soon as he pulled in."  Ugh. Ok.  What now? It's almost 7, it's pitch black, the wind is pushing the car towards the wrong side of the road, and we have to change plans.   We consulted our handy-dandy schedule and decided to drive towards Kingston.  We considered spending the night there and catching a morning ferry, but the Garmin changed our minds.  Did you know it only takes 35 minutes from one terminal to another?  We pulled into the dock as they finished loading for the previous ferry, only missing it by seconds.  I, being the driver, was upset that we had come so close, but Tim was totally zen about the whole thing and we waited patiently for the next one.  With all these changes, we did miss all the traffic we were trying to avoid by going our first route, but it still took over 3 hours to get to our destination.

The next day, I woke up with a nasty cold, but soldiered on as we walked over to the local pumpkin patch/apple orchard/farm/donut shop/etc/etc/etc....

Taking a picture with the resident Scarecrow

We HAD to use a wheelbarrow for our monster pumpkins

On the hayride back to the scales

Combined, Tim and my pumpkins weighed 66 pounds. Needless to say, we did not walk home, T&P walked home and came and picked us up in the car.  My pumpkin was so heavy, the bag it was in started to rip from the weight.  :-)

That evening we carved our ginormous (at least for me and Tim) pumpkins.

Scraping out the insides...

Ewwww...

The finished products

All of our pumpkins, lit up for the evening!

From L to R: Laurie, Patti, Arianna, Tim, and TimE

**All photos courtesy of Patti!**

The next morning we headed to church, had a nice lunch with T&P, and headed home.  Of course, we had to end our trip with a quick trip to the outlet mall! :-)

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Around the House

We spent this weekend hanging out around our house and finishing some projects that we had started and not quite completed.  Tim has gotten a "project bug" and so I've been trying to find things for him to do, so he doesn't go crazy.  Those two projects are expanding the amount of hanging space in the closet and creating an area for me to hang my purses.  I guess Tim doesn't appreciate having my bags all over the house.  Whatever.  :-)

When I say that we expanded the hanging space in the closet, you would think that would be for me, right?  Nope, it's all for Tim.  My husband has more clothes than me, no joke.

The new level, now Timmy has two levels

All of his shirts in the hall closet, the rest were sprawled on our bed

Re-organizing...he did let me have the tall hanging space for my dresses! :-)

So after finishing the closet, he started working on my purse hooks.

Sanding it down after I painted it the wrong color...whoops!

Attaching the hooks took a lot of measuring

Attaching it to the wall

Painting over the screws...with the right color

Testing it out

This is what's been going on for us when we haven't been out on our adventures.  The next project is building a headboard.  We've been scoping out upholstery fabrics and Tim is coming up with a design.  Hopefully we'll get that done before Japan, but if not, he'll have something to do when we get home!

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New Web Address

We changed the web address for this blog! The new address is:

www.TAWellsFamily.blogspot.com

I decided we aren't while'n away and figured something more generic would be easier to remember.  :-)

In other news, Tim got his orders for Japan!  He's headed out January 3rd, 2010 and the return date is pending, but it's sometime in early May.  Christmas is going to be CRAZY for us this year, but we're looking forward to all of our new adventures!

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To the "Tip" of the world and back...

We went on an adventure today! We haven't been to the Olympic Peninsula since April (for a refresher click here), so today we drove/hiked to the "Most Northwestern Point of the Continental US," Cape Flattery!

The new Hood Canal Bridge

In case you're not aware, it takes quite a long time to get to Neah Bay and Cape Flattery.  We first had to go through Clallam Bay and Seiku.  We discovered that the only thing in Seiku is fishing.  There were HUNDREDS boats and RVs all over this one-street town.  We saw quite a few people walking down the road with 1-4 salmon a piece.  

After driving through, we continued on to the Makah Reservation and Neah Bay.  We had printed some directions to the Cape Trail, which is maintained by the Makah tribe.  It was also recently "renovated," with some boardwalks, viewing platforms and a more recognizable trail.  It was a VERY nice hike out to the Cape.

I could literally post hundreds of pictures from the hike and the "end of the trail," but instead I've put a select few into a collage for your viewing pleasure.

Click to Enlarge

Here are some pictures of us at the edge!

The weather was perfect, as you can see, and the view was gorgeous.  I actually stood pretty close to the edge (see the last picture), but Tim refused to get that close.  :-)

After we hiked back to the car, we headed towards the 101 by way of the 112 or the Strait of Juan de Fuca Scenic Byway.  We stopped along the way to take some roadside pictures.

We found a beach called "Shipwreck Cove"

Finally, we made it back to Port Angeles and enjoyed a dinner at The Downrigger.  It was right next to the Victoria ferry terminal and we got to watch an evening ferry depart.

By the time we got home tonight, Tim was P-O-O-P-E-D.  He tried to go to bed as soon as we walked in the door.

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MUUUURRRRDER...

Mark your calendars, I'm going to be a ::STAH::!

 I auditioned this past Monday for a community theater production and was cast in the play "Murder on the Nile" by Agatha Christie.  I will be playing "Louise," a french maid.  I can't really tell you anything specific, I don't want to ruin the surprise, but here's the information from the theater's website:

Murder on the Nile by Agatha Chrisie Directed by Katrina Baxter Hodiak Performance dates: November 6-November 29, 2009 Show times: Fridays & Saturdays at 8:00 PM; Sundays at 2:30 PM Simon Mostyn has recently married Kay Ridgeway, a rich woman, having thrown over his former lover Jacqueline. The couple are on their honeymoon and are at present on a paddle steamer on the Nile. With them is Canon Pennefather, Kay's guardian, and Jacqueline, who has been dogging their footsteps all through the honeymoon. Also on the boat are a rich, ill tempered old woman with her niece and companion, a rather direct young man, a German who nurses a grudge against Kay's father, and Kay's maid (this is me). During the voyage Jacqueline works herself into a state of hysteria and shoots at Simon, wounding him in the knee. A few moments later Kay is found shot in her bunk. By the time the boat reaches its destination, Canon Pennefather has laid bare an audacious conspiracy and has made sure the criminals shall not go free. I'll only be in the play for the first three weekends.  Unfortunately for the production, I'll be in Dover for the Thanksgiving weekend, and won't be able to close the show.  I actually pulled out of the auditions before I was even cast because I realized I would be gone, but the director called me after the auditions were all complete and asked me to do the part anyway!  It was a pretty, but I am very excited!

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It's A Small World...

We got to go to the Happiest Place on Earth this weekend, Disneyland, and it was WONDERFUL!

We started the trip off with our traditional Sea-Tac food, Wendy's, before we caught our evening flight to O.C. By packing light, we got to carry-on our luggage...which was the same plan the rest of the flight had. This is including an entire select soccer team...with all their soccer gear...all in the overhead compartments... It was a crowded flight!

We checked into our condo and met up with my parents and aunts, before we called it a night.

 The next morning, we got up bright and early and made our way to the parks. There was a bit of miscommunication in park opening times, so we didn't get in at the opening, but it ended up not mattering a whole lot. Tim and I got in four rides before we met my family in the plaza to head into California Adventure.

 We got to introduce them to the magic of Midway Mania, Grizzley Bear Run, the Ferris Wheel, and the Animation Academy. We split up for lunch, and we tried to go to our favorite corn dog place, but construction got in the way. :-( Tim and I got in four trips on Tower of Terror, two with my parents, before we headed back to Disneyland.

We had reservations that evening at the Celebration Ranch, which was SO good, but before we met everyone else for our only dinner in the park, we hurried through some more lines and got a few fastpasses to use that evening.

One of these fastpasses was for Splash Mountain, but it wasn't valid until much later that evening, so we all split again and Tim and I headed over to TomorrowLand.  I am HORRIBLE at the Buzz Lightyear laser game, but Tim loves it.  Needless to say, I failed and Tim beat me by a LARGE margin.  We had been able to obtain fastpasses for Autopia and decided to do it before heading back to Splash Mountain to meet everyone else.  The line was not short.  Not even for those of us with fastpasses.  Once we got in the car, we had to wait even longer, because a car in front of us broke down.

We still managed to make it ALL the way back to Splash Mountain about 4 minutes late! Too bad for us that we pretty much jogged there.  Having fastpasses was TOTALLY worth it though.  The stand-by wait time, even at 8 o'clock, was still over an hour.  We waited maybe 5 minutes.  The guys sat in front and got soaked, but the next day would prove to be much worse for the front person! :-)

After getting drenched, without the CA sun to dry us off, we split again.  Tim and I honored Tim's mom with Ice Cream on Main Street, where we stood and waited for the fireworks.  Love Disney fireworks.

Not a great picture, but I'm not sure how to upload the video we took of the finale.  It was the first time I've ever seen Tinkerbell AND Dumbo fly across the night sky, so that was really cool! After the show, we tried to go on Big Thunder Mntn. Railroad (for the third time that day), but the line was pretty long, so we got fastpasses for a half-hour later.  To kill time before the ride, we made our way to Fantasyland and Tim got his first set of Mouse Ears (he even did his hair to match Mickey's).  He definitely "earned his ears" when he passed his oral board!

We ended up going on Big Thunder twice that evening, which does go faster at night, before heading back to the condo to rest before our second, and last, day.

The next morning we made it to the park at opening and started the day on the Matterhorn again.  I wanted to see the updated Small World ride and because the line was so short, we got a boat all to ourselves.  It's the best way to do this ride, guaranteed!

After trying to get fastpasses for everyone for a second ride on Splash Mountain, we went on Indy with my mom before meeting everyone again for a trip to CA adventure.  We did our last rides on Tower of Terror and CA Screaming before heading back to Disneyland to finish our day.

Before heading back to Splash Mountain, we did some more rides and walked around a bit.  We met everyone in the French Quarter and headed over for one of the most epic rides of the weekend.

My mom mistakenly challenged everyone on Midway Mania earlier in the day.  The terms of the challenge essentially were whoever had the lowest score had to sit in the front on Splash Mntn, and whoever had the highest got to choose their seat.  Well, she lost the challenge.  And despite her best efforts, she sat in the front!

There was a little bit of dry spot on her shirt...see on the left hand side...everything else was wet.  Tim, the winner of the challenge, was the least wet of the entire group.  It figures!

Afterwards, we split up again, before picking a meeting time at the condo for our trip back to the airport and back home.  Tim and I fit in three more rides: the Carousel, the Tea Cups, and Star Tours.  Two of those rides are ones I've refused to go on the last two times Tim and I have gone to Disneyland.  It was a big step for me and was very fun!

The Carousel

After this, we headed back to the condo, I changed from my still wet clothes, and we left for the airport.  We were on the flight with the same soccer team from our first flight, so space was limited, but all 6 of us ended up with an empty seat in our row.  That was a nice bonus to a great weekend!

A quick rundown:

First day - 8:45 AM to 11:45 PM

15 hours

25 Rides

2 meals

1 fireworks show

Second Day - 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM

8 hours

15 Rides

1 meal (we did find some tasty corndogs!)

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