Crazy Wonderful Weekend

This last weekend was crazy wonderful and very busy. I love our three day weekends.. I just wish we had even more time... would be nice to work 2 days a week and have a 5 day weekend... but even then I am sure I would not get enough time.

Friday we slept in and then headed out to run some errands and do some shopping. When we were on vacation we bought some cowboy hats and well... I wanted some boots to go with mine. Dave has wanted boots for a long time... but since his accident a few years ago...(busted up his ankle really bad) he was not sure he would ever be able to do cowboy boots again. We did find one pair in Mt. Vernon that he was able to get one and walk in.... but... they were not awesome. We had looked online and new there was a place south of us with a lot more selection in the bigger sizes.. so decided to head there on Saturday.

We also have started shopping for a new kitchen stove. Which has not been a wonderful experience. We built our kitchen around a beautiful stove we had bought.. it is a slide in... dual fuel... so stove is gas (and works even when the power is out ) and the oven is electric ( bakes very evenly) I loved my stove.. until July 4th when it decided to turn it self on and keep heating up until it started smoking and we had to flip the main breaker to get it to stop getting hotter. I am so thankful that we were home and caught it before it melted and burned our house down. Doing some research we learn there was a recall because of this issue... but we had not know thing because we had bought it used when someone else redid their kitchen to stainless.

We head out to do some stove shopping.. since the stove part still works and it is just the oven that we can't use... well I have not been in a huge hurry... too hot to be doing too much baking. I am thinking we will find a new stove for $600 or so. Yeah well.. I am so wrong.. a normal stove.. sure there are some to pick from at that price... but a slide in.. well we only get about 3 options that are under $2,500 and there is nothing fancy about these stoves... the same damn stoves as the $600 free standing ones.. just the one we need does not have finished sides or a back... but it cost that much more :( At this time I do not want a stove... I am trying to to figure out how else I can do baking... I can think of a lot of other things to spend that much money on. Plus we have to figure out what color we want... right now everything we have is black.. but we will also be updating the dishwasher soon.. and someday the fridge... we are thinking of going to stainless.. but.. with a lot of black in it.. so that we do not look totally unmatched until everything has been replaced.. it has become a bit more stressful than I was looking forward to... might not have a new stove until Thanksgiving I am thinking.

So back to boots... we did end up going on Saturday to Renton Western Wear and we did find some boots... Both Dave and I found ones we liked and Missy found the ones she had fallen in love with in Colorado. Not only did we find ones we liked.. they were on sale.. they were on sale enough to cover the sales tax so that was sort of nice. they did not have the ones Missy loved in stock so we had to order those for her. Means we get to go back in a couple of weeks and pick them up. When we got home Saturday we decided to put on the boots and hats and get dressed up a bit and head out. We ended up casino hopping and had a great time. We started off at one casino... the machines were paying ok.. but.. the people were sort of skanky there.. had a meth freak playing at machine.. and then a guy sat down and started pounding on his machine... just not the feeling we were looking for. Headed to the next casino and even though the machines were not paying.. the people were having fun. Figured we would try another one on our way home.. and the machines were so and so and the people were fun... we ended up spending the most time there.. ordered some drinks and some food and enjoyed sitting at the bar people watching :)

Sunday was a relaxing day.. parents came over for lunch (they are staying at a camp ground not too far away for a few days ) and we sat and visited. After they left we decided to head out and check out a few of the new caches that had posted while we were on vacation. It was nice to be caching again... we did not do as much as we would have liked on vacation.. and the weeks before had been sooooo busy with other stuff..so it felt really nice. We found a new area to explore... found one of the caches in the area, Annie which was in a very Beautiful area... when there we saw that there were two more caches on an island there... but.. you have to go all the way back to the starting point and take the other trail... as there are big waters to go over otherwise. So we are planning on packing a picnic next Friday and heading out there after my Doctors appointment. Looks like one cache is at the top of the island so we will bring hiking boots :) We did tackle one cache.. it did mention that "part of the trail was a bit rough" and it was only 200 feet from the jeep... we figured no problem... turns out.. it was 200 feet straight up a rock mountain... it was straight up... which was hard enough.. coming down I had a sit and basically slid down, while praying. Oh yeah and watch out for the barbwire fence. The view from the top is well worth it though.

This week I am looking forward to spending time with my parents.. some caching... some working on art projects.. and just visiting a lot. I am also looking forward to going blueberry picking with a friend.. and now the picnic on Friday with my honey. I also plan on getting some beach time in.. and doing lots of sit ups. Will explain that one on Wednesday :) My life is so good and I am so much more than spoiled rotten :)