Current Location: Washington State Fairgrounds, Puyallup, Washington

Another fun and busy week in review. Malcolm worked part-time (mostly just mornings) this past week, and an occasional hour or two in the evenings. Most of the rest of his time most afternoons was spent finishing up work on the granddaughters’ play house. Cole worked quite a bit on it, too. They both finished up the last final details today and the girls “moved in”.

Violet’s excited!

Both girls ready to move in

Look, we got mail already

Scarlet retrieving her mail

Last Sunday, we attended church with Elizabeth, Cole and the girls. Elizabeth played her flute during the opening songs for each of two services. After church, Elizabeth and crew were heading to a friend’s birthday party, so we ran around and did some shopping, including a run to IKEA.

Elizabeth (far left) playing her flute during church services

One day this week, Elizabeth took Violet over to visit and spend the night with a friend of hers. While Elizabeth and Violet took care of that visit, we took Scarlet out for a special dinner at Trackside PIzza and later for some yummy frozen yogurt at Elements in downtown Puyallup. She was going to spend the night with us, but decided she wanted Mommy and Daddy instead, so Elizabeth drove down to retrieve her.

Scarlet watching a passing train at Trackside Pizza

Thursday was Malcolm’s birthday. Elizabeth took him out for the day while Val kept the girls. She and the girls cooked birthday cupcakes while Elizabeth surprised Malcolm with a horseback ride. They had a great time and got to visit with several animals after their ride.

Post-ride picture

Riding in the woods. Malcolm’s horse had a bit of a shaved mane, making it look like a llama in pictures

Visiting with Willow, the four-month-old mini donkey.

Besides finishing the playhouse today, we all met in downtown Puyallup for the weekly farmers market. It’s always a pretty big event with dozens of vendors selling lots of different items. One reason we were there was that the Puyallup Main Street Association was giving away free tickets to the Washington State Fair to people who presented a receipt for a purchase from a downtown merchant. We had one receipt from a recent visit to get frozen yogurt. While at the farmers market this morning, we bought coffee at a nearby coffee shop and took that receipt over to get another free fair ticket. Fair tickets are $10 in advance or $12.50 at the gate, so that’s a pretty good savings.

Farmers Market in Puyallup

Speaking of the Fair, our time at the Fairgrounds campground comes to an end tomorrow. We have to leave to make room for incoming vendors (the fair starts this coming Friday). We head a few miles north to the Seattle KOA for one night, then back south and east to the Auburn city campground for a week. We test drove the route to each campground last Sunday afternoon so we would know where we are going.