We left Keechelus Lake and decided to check out some place new. We heard Teanaway River road was pretty with camping along the way.


We ended up on the Teanaway Road North Fork. The road was narrow for the camper, but it was a smooth ride with tons of spots to pull over.


It seemed like around every corner was another beautiful view.




We reached the end of the road at Gabriel trail head. There were 3 trails. and the view was breathtaking.

We went camping this past weekend. We started out at keechelus lake on Snoqualmie Pass.


As expected the lake was high.

Sunrise

Suzi had a company picnic to go to a couple of weeks ago. It was nice on Friday, and Monday, but rained the weekend of the picnic. Very few showed up. Here is a shot of the group.

We had fun, the kids started up a baseball game which we (the adults) joined in.

The ducks seemed to enjoy the weather.

This heron even made an appearance.



The puppies were exhausted by the end of the day.

Last night we saw this little bear just down the block from our house.



Looking close at this shot the bear has a tag on it's ear.



The neighbors 2 little dogs came running and barking and the bear scrambled into the bushes, which was nice to see they affected the bear that way.

We went and checked out the Great Blue Heron nests at the Kenmore Park and ride a couple of weeks ago.


We were surprised to see babies still in the nest. Looks real crowded they are so big.


Here is a video of one flying.

On a side note from the graduation. You may have noticed little Ginger in some of the shots.
This shot is Shandi and her step sisters with Ginger whom I brought as an only dog.


Well, Suzi had to work in Bellevue getting off at 5pm, the graduation was at 7pm in Bellingham. No problem, it is about 1½ hour drive. I would pick up Suzi at work with dinner in hand. We chose Thai food with Medium spice from Crossroads.

Suzi ate about 1/2 of her dinner on the way. I figured I would eat when we got there... well, since it was rush hour, or as the guys on the radio like to say "the drive" we acually got there at 6:59pm thank goodness for carpool lanes or it would have been worse. We raced in and got seated just in time... well, upon sitting I remembered the food... my thought was I sure hope when Suzi was in the trunk that she put dinner in there... oops, I figured it was probably already too late if it was out.

After the graduation we went out to the car, and sure enough, that little Ginger dog cleaned every last grain of rice, noodle and drop of sauce! Leaving only the packaging (some of which I think may have been missing). I don't know how she did it, that was ALOT of food! But, she looked happy.

That night she smelled interesting and kept me awake with threats of throwing up, although it was all false alarms.

In the morning Ginger acted like she was old and hung over, too much fun!

She looks much chippier this morning!

Congratulations Shandi!
She graduated from the Bellingham High School Red Raiders this past weekend.


I circled Shandi in the shot below for easy reference on the videos. She was easy to find, very few blondes, and in the middle of the graduating class.


Below is a video of Shandi walking across the stage:



The video below is of The Bellingham, WA Red Raiders Chant, tassel move, and cap toss.



Here is a Video slide show of family shots after the graduation.

I heard there were twin fawns hanging around, and I finnaly got to see them.

I think they don't spend as much time in our yard since we got the puppies.

Here is a video of the fawns following their mom.

I have been procrastinating on mowing the back yard because the non fruit bearing apple tree needed to be pruned. Before we went to Montana, I was able to ride the mower under it. Thankfully the pruning troups showed up.

At first I did not recognize the boy, but it is one of the twins from last year. His bald spot on his side is growing back in. He is the one dancing in the tree. Must be a good leaf!



here is a video of the pruning. The bottom of the tree was uniform all the way around just a couple of weeks ago.

It was good to get home.
below: left: Bailey Right: Gator

I mowed the yard the day before we left, as you can see behind the dogs, the yard was in need of a mow when we got back. Grass sure grows fast around here! In some spots the previously mowed grass was up to my knee!

We stopped at the overlook just before Vantage, WA.


It is across the freeway from the Wild Horses Monument that we stopped at on the way East.


Even saw some wildlife.


There are more flowers than just a week ago.

We went looking for the off leash doggie area at State Line.
We are not sure if we were in the exact spot, but it worked great for us!


Gator and Bailey took a much needed run.


This little young barn swallow even greeted us back at our truck when we were done.

My nephew Justin recently joined the punk rock band Scatterbox.


Scatterbox was playing the same night that Zoe broke her arm, and just down the block from the hospital.
We decided to check it out.

Justin is on the far right.




Click here to see a recent article in the local COEUR d'ALENE, ID newspaper.

The mosh pit was interesting. The guys took it over, and just pushed eachother around.



At one point Suzi fell on her face in the middle of the floor. Sorry, I did not get a shot, Myrna and I were busy peeling her off of the floor. I found if you put out a sharp elbow, they avoid you quite nicely.

Suzi, Myrna (Justin's mom), and Tasheena(Justin's wife)

We thought we would stop by for a quick lunch with Ken in ID. While we were there Apryl called (My neice) her daughter Zoe who is 2 had broke her arm and was in the hospital.
April with Zoe and Dominic.

Dominic (7) was very upset that his little sister was broken. Zoe had broke her arm just above the elbow. The doctor said it was above the growth plate. Zoe needed surgery to put a pin in. Turned out she needed 2 pins which they will remove in a couple of weeks. They originally were going to keep Zoe in the hospital over night, but she was doing so well after surgery that they sent her home.

What happened was Zoe was playing with a little boy about her age, but much bigger than her. She climbed ontop of the coffee table, and the boy shoved her off.

Here is the dreaded coffee table, which evidently was the culprit of another toddler accident not long ago.

Looks like great kindling for a bon fire to me.

Cataldo Mission: Cataldo, ID


Suzi took the tour while I fed the dogs.




Ginger got to go for a quick walk after dinner.


The grave yard there has lots of unmarked graves that at one time had little wood buildings around each one.

We ended up leaving early. We saw in the weather report that there was a high wind warning for several days. I have been there during a high wind, and it is hard to even stand. So we packed up and left in the morning just hours before the strong winds started.

It was a foggy morning


We got to Eureka Reservoir and noticed the mountains were hidden.


We first spotted a pheasant, which scurried away upon our truck pulling in.


Then we saw some geese with their babies in the lake. This is more impressive here than Seattle, since they do not spend the winters in Montana as opposed to the year round pests in the Puget Sound area.
As like the pheasant, the geese moved on upon us pulling in.


As we approached Choteau, MT, we came across this herd of Elk.



We next stopped at Freeze out lake in Fairfield MT for 2nd breakfast.


We headed towards Simms and got this great shot of one of the Butte’s on the horizon.


We had some snow flurries going over Rogers Pass, it was pretty, but did not stick to the road.
We next stopped at Clearwater Junction for lunch and a nap. It felt windy, but nobody seemed to be struggling to stand, so it was not that bad. I got concerned when I saw trailer after trailer coming in, thinking the wind was so bad they needed to stop, but then I looked, they were dumping their sewage tanks. The wind was a non issue. I called and found it was good we moved on.
We parked in the same spot we had slept in on the way over.