Biking Campout

The Deacons and Teachers Quorums set out on an overnighter to the South end of Coeur 'd Alene Lake, followed by a 15 mile bike ride.

The Wardcrew trailer came in handy when the question came up on how we were going to haul almost 30 bikes to the campout in the back of 3 pickup trucks, along with all of the camping gear. So Clay loaded up the bikes and Clay, CJ, and Preston, along with 24 other boys and 4 other leaders set out for adventure.

  The kids had a blast hanging out at the edge of the lake, cooking dinners over, on, and in the campfire, smores, hot chocolate, and general 12-15 year old boy chaos that you'd expect in the absence of motherly guidance.

The bike ride in the morning was fun......windy......but fun. There was a one mile stretch of a bridge that went across the lake where the boys experienced 30 mile-per-hour crosswinds that made the bridge a royal pain in the keester to get across.  Along with the wind was small bouts of rain and a few uphill battles, but at the far end of the ride was a little summer town called Harrison. The promised ice cream shops were closed, but there were plenty of other shops that sold plenty of junk food that satisfied the boys.

Easter

We had fun plans for Easter, so we were sad when Clay got called to work last minute and missed Easter.  But, luckily the Easter bunny still found us and brought the kids Swim Suits, Candy, and an Easter Egg with money inside!!  This year we tried something different and each kid had their own color of Easter egg that they had to hunt for!  It's amazing that we have that many eggs and equal colors, but we do!  Laura's ministering sisters, Jenn & Hayden Bennett came and brought her a lemon merigue cheescake pie...oh my..it was divinely delicious!!!  Laura invited Steve and Sophie to come over and enjoy some of the pie with her.  Later in the day, LeAnn Krohn had coordinated an Easter Egg Hunt and potluck at Pavillion Park.  The sun was shining, we were surrounded by friends, eating good food...It was almost the perfect day, the only thing missing was Clay.

Jr. Bloomsday

Aparri ran the jr bloomsday run with her friend Livvy Terry.  These girls trained and had fun running this race!!!  They got a ticket to silverwood, free pizza, and a metal.  So fun!

Laura's Favorite Time of the Year

The pink trees just make Laura sooooo happy!  She spends every moment possible outside during the few weeks the trees are all in blossom.  She just can't help but smile when she sees them.

Sushi Belt

For Preston’s birthday lunch, he wanted SUSHI!!! But not just any sushi, he wanted to go to Sushi Maru, a posh restaurant in the downtown Spokane Mall that Preston has been eyeing for months.  He has known that this is where he wanted to go for his birthday, so there was no hesitation or doubt when the time came to choose his lunch choice!  There was a conveyor belt that runs all through the restaurant with all kinds of sushi. It was a lot of fun just picking sushi as it floated by on the conveyor, and not worrying about the cost…..until we got the bill after we were done!! But it was worth it and fun to try a new place!

Happy Bday Preston

It was the traditional breakfast in bed...and Preston wanted wheat Rollos, raspberries, bacon and sprite.  Sprite for breakfast??  Well, that's not the traditional juice or milk choice... Mom had a hard time saying yes to that, but in the end she said, "I guess only on your birthday!!" (Erica was pleased with his beverage choice and kept trying to steal a swig every now and again but continually would get caught red handed!!)  Today, Preston turned 12, but with the new church policy on receiving the priesthood in January, Preston has already been ordained and passing the sacrament for 3 months now.  He does a great job passing with reverence and care. We Love You Preston and the great young man you are becoming!!

 

Preston knew exactly what birthday cake he wanted this year... Costco's GIANT chocolate 4 layered cake!!  And he wanted it to say "BIG Preston" on it in blue writing....now this kid knows what he likes.   Well, the request was easy enough to fill, so Laura was grateful she got it right!!!  Preston was very particular that no one helped blow out the candles on the cake (must have had a really important wish on his mind)...with hands out wide Preston made sure the path was clear and no one was sneaking in any extra puffs of air on those candles or spit on his precious cake!!

Preston had high hopes of getting a hoverboard (for the past 3 years he’s refused to buy one, convinced that he was going to get one for Christmas, or his birthday), but was again disappointed...no hoverboard.   But he was happy with receiving a new bike, MP3 player, and a baseball glove. He also got a helmet with a Bluetooth connection that plays music.

Preston does not like birthday attention... no singing to him at restaurants, no gifts at school, don't even wish him a happy birthday in public...no!!!  So for his birthday, he wanted to have some friends over - but no one could know it was his birthday, so we  pretty much had the entire deacons quorum  over on the 12th to "hang out". Laura made it super fun for them by setting up a bunch of ‘Minute to Win it’ games, snacks, treats, and then we put on a movie (Sully) to end the night.

Hording General Conference

In the car on the way home from Idaho, we listened to the Saturday sessions of General Conference.  We were hoping to be in Tri-Cities for the Priesthood session...but with the spontaneous mini reunion in Twin Falls we were a few hours behind on our plans (but it was worth it!!)  We were able to visit with Brayden, Becky and Max on Saturday night.  Our plan was to watch the first session of conference with the Hords and then head home in between sessions... well we were having such a fun time together we decided to extend our stay and watch the second session too!  We love that the Hords live 2 hours away!!!

Flash MOB reunion

Before we got back onto the road, we decided to make a last minute stop at Bridgeview Estates to visit with Granny Vera Ward. She was awake and talking, and we were able to enjoy some time with her, even if she wasn’t sure who we were. Erica, normally a pretty shy girl when it comes to people that she isn’t used to (otherwise she is anything but shy) surprised us all when she went right up to Gran, held her hand, talked with her, and showered her with kisses. We were just about to leave, when suddenly we were met by Mike and Judy…. Then Penny and Gary….then Kristin (Angie & Mel’s daughter, Clay’s cousin) and her kids. It was like a flash mob family reunion that nobody was planning on, but it was a lot of fun being able to see everyone. We even Marco Polo’d Mom and Dad Ward in Fiji so that they could join in. 

Staying @ Sudik's

After the Mandarin House, all the "Ward" kids (Joslyn & Kelly, Janie & Johnny and kids, Les and Trevor & kids, plus Clay and Laura and their kids) headed to Janie and Johnny’s house to hang out. The kids were in heaven, hanging out with cousins and playing with the dogs.  Joslyn and Les and Trevor headed home, but we stayed the night.  That was the first time staying with Janie and Johnny overnight, and it was a lot of fun just spending time with them….not sure if the feeling was mutual, but perhaps ignorance is bliss in this case. 

Uncle Mark's Funeral

Mark Jeppson Russell

August 13, 1950 - March 27, 2019

Great Story Teller, Loved Kids, always laughing, Fun to be around

The kids described Uncle Mark as:

"Old guy who doesn't feel old"

"Not too old to have fun"

It was sad to see Mark go. He was a significant part of our lives. The kids were always in various states of laughter when he was around, and almost every time that we were in Dietrich we would see Uncle Mark. The service was a nice tribute to his life, and a good opportunity to see extended family members that Clay hadn’t seen in years. The congregation then drove to Twin Falls for the burial which was nice, and the family went on a grave hunt to find Grandpa John and Grandma Betty. Then on to the traditional post-funeral gathering at…..The Mandarin House. It was great to catch up and enjoy one another’s company as well as reminisce about the good old days with camp trips to Corral Creek and Christmas Eve snow storms that were spent together.

Sleeping with RUBY

When we found out that Uncle Mark, Clay’s mom's brother, had passed away after a long struggle with cancer, we decided to split our Seattle vacation in half so that we could drive down to Gooding for the funeral. We drove from Seattle to Boise and stayed the night at Joslyn & Todd’s house where we were able to catch up with them as well as with Kelly/Kastin/Josh. We also were able to get to know Ruby on a more personal basis. We were sleeping in the living room on a blow up mattress, and late into the night we heard the jingle of Ruby’s collar, then felt her jump onto the bed and snuggle in for the evening. Of course she choose the crook of Laura's legs as her resting spot.  Surprisingly, Laura was ok with it (not). 

Bobsy Twim Reunion

It took almost 10 years, but Laura was finally re-united with her high school buddy Becca Spain (Morrell). We were able to spend a couple of hours at the Spain home in the Eastern suburbs of Seattle and just catch up/hang out, while the kids played and …..played.  It seemed like Laura and Becca just picked up right where they left off, discussing old friends, and making memories.  It was the first time we were able to meet Jackson and Lizzy and the kids got along great.  Lizzy even gave Erica a cute doll to take home...Erica was in heaven.

Air and Combat Museum

There was another airplane museum that CJ mentioned that he’d wanted to check out, so we headed up to North Seattle to the Boeing Air and Combat Museum. It was pretty cool with lots of airplanes, but it also had a lot of other war machines and historical timelines & facts that we were able to explore.

                       TOP GUN in the Flesh!

The Ferry

After a day in Seattle we decided to take the long way home via the Southworth Ferry. It was just a ferry ride, but the kids thought it was the coolest thing ever to be able to drive your car onto a gigantic boat, go for a ride to an island, and then drive your car off of the boat. While there were hundreds of people on the ferry catching a ride home at the end of the day most were just sitting down relaxing, while we were running around exploring the boat, eating our Pikes Market Treats and taking pictures of everything. You could definitely tell that we were the tourists on the ferry.

Museum of Flight

Meanwhile...over at the flight museum, Clay, Preston, and Detric has a blast looking around and checking out the space shuttle replica, and a bunch of other planes and jets that were on display like JFK’s Air Force One, and a 747 Air Refueler test prototype. It was a good museum, but the boys were a little disappointed in it. There weren’t nearly as many planes as they had heard, or expected. On their way back to the car they were passing through the lobby area when they noticed another hallway that led to a skyway(walkway) across the street, so they decided to take 5 minutes to check out what was over there. They then realized that the museum that they had been exploring for the past 2.5 hours was just scratching the surface. So they quickly called Laura and told her they needed 30 more minutes...well that 30 minutes turned into an hour...and at the end of the day, they had thoroughly gotten their fill of everything imaginable in the field of aeronautics. It was Awesome!!!

Pikes Market

There were no flying fish today, but we found an amazing Russian Bakery.  

Oh my goodness, I think they were pumping delicious smells out the exhaust into the street lulling people in... and it worked.  There was a huge line, but it was sooo worth the wait!!!  Right after we were done getting our treats, we got word that the airplane boys were done and coming to get us.... Laura had a brilliant idea...rather than have Clay navigate down the streets of downtown Seattle to pick us up...we would walk away from the touristy area of the waterfront and find a more quiet area.  As we were walking...a homeless man started yelling at CJ.  "Why are you living with your mother?  You should start your own college?  It's time for you to be on your own"  And he kept yelling at poor CJ for a few blocks.  Finally, Laura just turned around, stared him in the eyes and point blank told the man, "That's enough".  He kept yelling things as they walked away but he didn't follow them anymore.  They quickly went to the next block and called Clay to tell him where they were...and low and behold a whole street of homeless people everywhere...feeling instantly vulnerable and unsafe...Laura told Clay...change of plans.... we are going back to the touristy waterfront...pick us up by the huge farris wheel.  So we started walking in that direction..didn't look too far... HAHA, that was an understatement.  It really wasn't that far...but there was like a bazillion stairs between us and the farris wheel...and Erica had fallen asleep in the stroller... So, Laura got to carry the stroller with a sleeping Erica down TONS of stairs...talk about a work out!!!  Feel the burn.  But luckily when we got to the bottom of the stairs there was her knight in shining armor with a white minivan ready to pick them up!!!    

Infamous Gum Wall

After we left the aquarium we called the flight museum boys to see if they wanted to join us for dinner...they said yes, but they needed 30 more minutes...oh goody...just enough time to walk to:

 1428 Post Alley, Seattle WA 98101

What initially appears to be just a common alley in downtown Seattle is actually anything but that!!!  In  1999 it was declared an official Seattle attraction....what makes it so famous??? GUM And Lots of it!!  People come see the "art", contribute to the "art", and just enjoy the mass beauty of the "art".  The kids were grossed out by it and couldn't wait to leave, Laura was intrigued and loved every part of it... the colors, the gum as it hangs down from the sills...thinking of all the people who contributed..Laura could have just stared at it for hours.  

But at this point we got another call from our flight boys and they are delayed... needing more time with the airplanes... so now these 3 munchkids were really chomping at the bit for something to eat... so Laura didn't make them wait any longer and we headed to Pikes Market to see what we could find.

Seattle Aquarium

Laura, CJ, Aparri, and Erica visited the Seattle Aquarium.  Our visit began with a huge tank full of fish, creatures, and a scuba diver!  It was fun watching them swim around the tank, waving, and interacting with all the sea life... but the experience went up a notch when it came to feeding time!!!  The scuba diver was swarmed with eels and animal life waiting for its lunch!!