whidbey | The Overall[s] Adventure

Lily LOVES Grandma and Grandpa! They are her best pals when they come down to visit. But she has never been up to their house. I imagined that she would love to run all over their huge yard and have buckets of fun. I knew I wanted to take her but hadn’t figured out the best time to make the trip.

The conundrum was solved when brother Kevin emailed and said he and his family were planning a trip up to Whidbey and those of us in that neck of the woods should come up if we can. I already has some time off scheduled, so I signed us up. But there were a few challenges: First, Maren is allergic to dogs, Second, Lily doesn’t really fit on the front seat of the truck. Tried to solve problem one by having Lily groomed the day we left. Good theory but the grooming knocked loose all of her fur and she was shedding worse that usual (at least it was “clean” hair that was coating everything.) Tried to solve the truck problem by building out the front seat with my duffel bag and laid a blanket across to make it even. It sort of worked but was still pretty uncomfortable the whole way up.

But once we got there, look at all this lovely yard to run in:

A panorama of the view from the porch.

Mom and Dad’s house on Whidbey Island.

Lily checks out the potting shed. Still wearing the scarf from the groomers — so pretty and puffy and unfortunately shedding like crazy.

We spent Friday being lazy and then Saturday, Mom and I worked in the yard. Lily had a great time running around and then relaxing, watching us dig. Grandpa was weeding the driveway so she made regular trips up to see him and lick his nose.

Kevin’s family got there late Saturday night and Sunday after they went to church, we all walked down to Uncle Al’s place. Bridgette was cute and wanted to hold Lily’s leash on the walk down and got along just fine. Vivi was pretty timid about Lily but that was fine too cause Lily is pretty timid about kids. No drama yet.

Vivi likes the zipline at Uncle Al’s place.

Grandpa helps Bridgette do the zipline while Kev swings with Vivi.

At Al’s, the girls had fun playing on the zipline, swing, etc. There was a tense moment when Bridgette was screaming on the zipline and Lily got over excited. Bridgette ended up with a scratch and both Lily and Bridgette went and hid is separate trees. They were both pretty gun-shy after that for a bit. But no blood, no foul as far as I’m concerned.

Anyway, that night we all chilled out, Grandma made crab legs and we play with trains.

After a day of lots of running, Lily chills out with Grandpa and Uncle Kevin.

Lily and I left Monday morning as I had to work on Tuesday and wanted to get all the booty Mom gave me planted ASAP. We said our goodbyes and off we went. The trip home, Lily was pooped so she found a way to get comfortable on the blanket pretty early on. But she was pretty thankful to be home! Especially when neighbor Charles appeared with a treat while I was unpacking the truck.

I inherited my love of gardening from my mom (and my love of overalls from my dad). In fact most of my phone calls with my mom consist of: “How are you?” “Fine.” “How are you?” “Fine.” “But the deer and slugs are wrecking the south bed.” “I know, slugs are trashing my hostas. But my lilies are being fantastic.” Etc. It can go on for hours. My siblings think we are both weird.

So digging all of these new flower beds, I knew it was going to be crazy expensive to get plants to fill them. But my parents have an lovely 5-acre spread up on Whidbey Island and I knew that Mom would have a ton of stuff that she could give me that would just end up in her compost pile if I didn’t go up and fetch it. So I planned a trip — get plants and have a nice visit with my folks. Perfect. But I needed to go sooner than later because they were going on a cruise for most of the month of May. After juggling my work schedule, the dates were set. Then by cosmic chance, I found out that most of my aunts and uncles would be there at the same time — a nice surprise since I only get to see them every few years. This is all working out swimmingly!

I headed up on Monday morning early and met Mom, aunts and uncles in La Conner — a cute little town known for its annual tulip festival. We spent the afternoon wandering around town and then went to see the flowers — one of my favorite little adventures.

Aunt Debby, Uncle Al, Aunt Linda, Uncle Larry in the tulips in La Conner

Tulip fields in La Conner. The lines of blooms is one of my favorite things.

Mom as a tulip angel — quite fitting, I think!

The next day, Mom and I got to work. She basically let me go shopping in her yard, which was great for her too since I was basically helping her clean out some of her beds.

This is the house they built a few years ago. It has an amazing view across the Skaggit Bay over to the Cascades and Mount Baker.

We filled the wheel barrow up with all sorts of fun for my yard.

After some other fun with the relatives that night, I left Wednesday morning. But I snagged a cuddle shot of them first.

My Mom and Dad — aren’t they cute. Even with the raspberry on Dad’s head from falling over. He needs to stop doing that.

Made it home with all of my bounty without any drama — not single pot tipped on the ride. Hurray for not driving like a yayhoo — as my dad would say! Thanks for the lovely little weekend, Mom and Dad!

There is a whole lot of cute packed into the back of my truck.

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Lily’s Whidbey Weekend

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