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.

Current Location: Washington State Fairgrounds, Puyallup, Washington

Been busy again the last week or so. Malcolm worked during the days again the past week. In the afternoons, he would come over to the house and he and Cole worked on the playhouse. Wednesday night they took the night off as we all went to a ball game (more on that later). With wet, cool and windy weather forecast starting Friday, Malcolm and Cole worked until dark on Thursday evening getting the roof shingled. Malcolm took off a little early and came over around 1:00 to work on trim and started working on the porch railings. Here are some pictures.

Starting roof work

More roof work done

Wednesday night, all of us went to a Tacoma Raniers ballgame. The girls earned free tickets for reading books from the Puyallup library. We also got a free hot dog dinner as part of the deal. On the evening we went, there were local firefighters and police at the stadium with various things to give away (firehats) and various vehicles the kids could check out.

Checking out the tactical police vehicle

Fire hats

As part of the library program, the girls along with Mom and Dad got to line up out on the baseball field before the game.

Lineup on the field

During the game, Malcolm bought some noisemakers at the gift shop and brought them back to our seats. We caught the eye of one of the stadium workers in charge of various customer relations and eventually won a cheering contest which garnered us (we put Cole in charge of the winnings) a set of season passes for next year’s games.

Friday was Elizabeth’s birthday, so we all went to The Old Spaghetti Factory in Tacoma for dinner. The food was great and we had an enjoyable time.

Waiting to be seated

Birthday Candle

This morning we ran a couple errands, just Malcolm and Val, and had lunch at Taco Time. Val has caught the cold the rest of us had last week so she wasn’t feeling the best. We headed out to Fox Island to Cole’s grandparents’ house on the Puget Sound to meet the rest of the family. We had dinner, then birthday cake and ice cream to celebrate Elizabeth’s birthday again, and Malcolm’s upcoming birthday.

Today’s weather was pretty yucky. Some pretty stiff winds blew in the rain today, knocking out power here and there. Our power was out some period of time starting at 12:20 (according to our microwave, which shows the last known time on the display when power is restored). There was also a lot of debris on the road like leaves, small twigs and lots of pine needles.

Current Location: Washington State Fairgrounds, Puyallup, Washington

Since we last talked, a lot has gone on here. Malcolm is working full-time this week. To better coordinate with those back in Nashville, he has been working normal hours for there, which means 6:00 AM to 3:00 PM here. That worked out well. Nana got to visit with the grandchildren, then pick up Pa so he could visit the rest of the afternoon and evening. He plans on working full-time again next week, then part-time off and on the rest of our visit here (four more weeks after this past week).

Our birthday gift to both granddaughters was to pitch in on building a playhouse for them. Cole’s family pitched in some money towards the effort as are Cole and Elizabeth. On Tuesday evening, Cole and Malcolm went to Home Depot to pick up the first load of lumber and concrete footers. On Wednesday evening, they put together the entire floor.

The four sides leveled up

Floor joists going in

The deck going on (with help)

Finishing up

On Thursday, we took a break from construction and met at the park in downtown Puyallup for the last of their summer concerts. We spread out blankets, ate sandwiches for dinner and listened to music until it was getting too chilly (we work shorts and short-sleeved shirts). We had ridden our bikes to the park (about 3/4 mile) instead of trying to park the truck downtown (it was a crowded concert).

Concert crowd

Familiar looking concert goers

Speaking of riding bikes, we rode bikes to lunch a couple days this week. One day we all rode (Val, Malcolm, Elizabeth and the girls) to Don’s Drive-In just the other side of the fairgrounds (about 3 blocks away).

Don’s Drive-In

We also rode bikes up the street (about 4-5 blocks) another day to Spark’s Deli.

On Thursday evening, Malcolm, Cole and Elizabeth all came down with colds. Malcolm worked part of the day Friday after getting up late. The rest of the crew came down to the trailer for dinner (steaks on the grill). After dinner, the girls headed up to the house and the guys went to Home Depot to get framing lumber.

Today, Malcolm and Cole were very busy framing up the playhouse. Cole first painted the base with a couple coats of sealant paint. They took a break at lunchtime to meet the girls at Taco Del Mar, then stopped by Home Depot to pick up some more supplies on the way back to the house. By early afternoon, they had all four walls framed and installed on the base. Then it was on to making roof trusses, which was a slower process and overlapped dinner. They had two trusses in place and put in the porch supports after dinner and decided to call it a day.

Assembling walls

Walls assembled

Putting up the last wall

Obligatory structural testing

Putting on the first two roof trusses

There may be more construction on the playhouse tomorrow. Church is up in the air since the majority of the congregation went on the annual church weekend campout. They are having one service, but we’re going to see when it is and how all our cold sufferers are feeling in the morning.