Taffy Pull

Alanna and I decided to try to make taffy. I had tried several years ago here and it didn't turn out because it's to humid. We found this recipe and decided to give it a try. We made strawberry and orange flavored. It turned out really good. So I think when Thomas and Spring comes to visit we will have to have a taffy pull.

Coulee Dam

Over Father's Day weekend we went to Eastern WA. to Coulee Dam. It was a beautiful sunny day as we drove there. Eastern Wa. is a lot different than here. It's pretty flat and no trees. Theory has it that an ice berg broke in Canada due to the force of a lake in Montana backing up against it and it caused a huge river of water that ran through Eastern Wa. down to the Columbia river and out to the ocean. That is what caused the deep ruts in the landscape. There are many lakes and rivers where a lot of people were fishing. As we were driving we thought about Matt and how he would enjoy fishing there. From what we heard fishing is really good there. When we first got to the dam the water was flowing over the side and it was really pretty. We went on a tour of the dam and was quite surprised that we couldn't take a purse or any other type of bag. Including a camera bag. A camera was OK but no bag. We had to go through security just like at the airport. On the tour we found out that Coulee dam produces enough power to supple most of the United States. It then made sense as to why they had such tight security. Just as the tour started they had gotten word that the water spilling over the dam had been closed off. Most of the time the water isn't spilling over, so we were lucky to see it. However when we drove by it, we didn't know that so we didn't get a picture of it. At 10:00pm they have a laser light show over the dam. Just before it started they opened the gates again and the water started spilling over. It wasn't as magnificent as it had been earlier when we first saw it. The laser show was interesting to as they told the story of Coulee Dam with lights. Pres. Roosevelt had it built to help put men back to work during the depression.

Visit with Wally

The first part of June, Wally and Gwen came up along with my cousin Billie and her husband Paul. They arrived on Friday late afternoon and on Sat. we went on the ferry to Seattle to drop them off for the Alaskan Cruise. The following Sat. Gary and I picked them up and we went to the Space Needle for a late lunch and looked around that area for a while. They wanted to see the temple so we drove to Bellevue and walked around the temple grounds and visited. Wally especially enjoyed it since Gary drove and he could sit back and relax. They spent Sat. night with us and we had a fun time playing Hand and Foot. (yes, that's right! Even Dad enjoyed it.) They play a little differently than we do. They don't play out of turn so the game is much slower and Dad could keep up. We enjoyed visiting and hated to see them leave on Sun. morning.