Katie's

We all love Katie's ice cream and were pleased to discover she opened on May 1st. We headed there Sunday afternoon for a break.

They have created 'Flavor Bursts' that swirl into a vanilla cone. Lot's of yummy options!

Naomi, April, Andre and Lois

Keith & Lisa

After the funeral on Wednesday, several of us changed our clothes and headed for some comfort food - Ice Cream.

Naomi, Lauren, Michael, Ken and Emma

Rachel knows how to put away a cone!

Emma is no slouch either!

Aunt Dorcas and her clan before heading back to PA

Urbane and Dad

Phebe, Urbane, Me with Rachel. I might add, she's eating my cone after polishing off her own!

Aunt Rachel's Funeral

It was a beautiful spring day to lay Aunt Rachel to rest. One she would have enjoyed the day, the singing and the flowers greatlyThe service was meaningful and a reflection of her life.

The flowers outside the church were in full bloom.

She loved Dogwood and all spring flowers including Lily of the Valley and Tulips.

We laid a single sprig of Lily of the Valley on a purple napkin at each place setting for the meal following the service.

A collage upon entry to the basement where the meal was served following the services.

Rachel loved candles and we had some floating among the flowers on the tables.

Uncle Monroe and the immediate family were the first to use a shovel in the symbolic ending of the grave side service.

Rachel now has joined many other family members.

A Life Filled With Love

As our Aunt Dorcas said "today our homes are places of mourning". Last night we unexpectedly lost our Aunt Rachel at 9:35 PM. Although her life was full of love and laughter, 71 years doesn't seem long enough to have her with us. Rachel & Monroe at Cousin Joel & Stephanie's Wedding

November 2007

Sliding

1950

Rachel at Age 21

1957

Monroe & Rachel Wedding Day

April 29, 1961

Monroe, Rachel, Naomi

1964

Monroe's Graduation from EMU 1965

Monroe, Keith, Rachel, Naomi

1971

Thanks to Lois & Naomi for putting these pictures together in an electronic album for Grandma which she gave us all as Christmas gifts in 2002, and Mom for the recent photo.

Final Seattle Installment

Space Needle

Notice how this picture is in the shape of a take out coffee cup. Of course this is a scanned picture - I wasn't able to get a good shot of it.

Seattle sure has a long history of good coffee with Seattle's Best Coffee and Starbucks getting their start there.

One of the views from the restaurant at the top of the Space Needle. It is a revolving restaurant that gives a 360-degree view of the city. Our reservations were for 5:45. There is a 2 hour limit for dinner so we went to the observation deck after that to watch the city lights come on. It was the most dreary day of the 5 we were in town. We actually had a lot of sunshine and cool temperatures.

I remember being on the RR tracks about 15 years ago when Naomi and I were in Seattle on our long train trip around the country and we saw the Space Needle on our way out of town.

Me, my terrific boss Kathy, Jennifer - the "Young Punk" with a PhD and only 32, and Amy another co-worker.

An interesting light on the table.

More of the Market

The Public Market was established in August 1907. Celebrating over 100 years!

North entrance of the market

The flowers are breathtaking!

Peppers

More produce

To Market, to Market....

South entrance to the market

Wonderful pastries!

Rachel, the famous bronze piggy bank

Look out for flying fish!!

Gorgeous fruit

Conference in Seattle

This weekend I was at the American Organization of Nurse Executive's annual conference. We were fortunate to have a poster accepted for display that showed some of the work I've been doing over the past year and a half. There were about 1,700 nurse execs in attendance.

Jennifer, one of my coworkers who helped put the poster together, and me.

The view from my 9th floor window.

The cherry blossoms were in full bloom.

The original Sur La Table!

http://www.surlatable.com/category/company+info.do

My favorite place to sit with a cup of coffee in the morning at a Seattle's Best Coffee store.

http://www.startsampling.com/sm/100198/captureAddress.iphtml?item=100198&source=google&p=

Signs of Spring

We were at the cabin this weekend and noticed the first signs of spring.

Grape Hyacinth

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grape_hyacinth

We also decided to step back in time and go to the Supper Club. It's just like you would see in the movies - a dance floor with couples dancing (not us of course, being the good Mennos we are!) and live 'old' music. The trumpet player was featured recently on The Today show. His 102nd birthday party is scheduled for the first weekend in May.

http://www.pcisupperclub.com/

...and all that jazz

After the ballgame we stopped by the Jazz and Blues festival for some music and good food. Love that kettle corn!

Take Me Out To The Ballgame

We spent the afternoon at Chase Field where the Diamondbacks royally beat the Colorado Rockies 10 to 3. The temperature hit about 90 in the late afternoon but we were in the shade and it was a perfect day to be out.

Great score board with lots of information

We had terrific seats right behind home plate

Baxter, The Bobcat mascot

Fireworks after a home run. Not as impressive during the day as at night time.

The only MLB stadium with its own pool

The Day God Spilled the Paint

I received this in an email from my mother-in-law and thought it was too pretty not to pass on.
The east side of the Carrizo plain, in the Temblor Range, about 50 miles due west of Bakersfield,California.
Photo taken by Barbara Mathews May 14. 2005

Nothing man can do could ever equal the glory of God's creations.

Spring

This may be the last bloom of the citrus trees this season. This is on an orange tree that produces great tasting oranges. The end of the cycle for this year happened yesterday when I juiced the last batch of orange juice.

Lonely orange blossom.

The Pomegranate tree is in full bloom now.

You can begin to see the forming of the bulb in this bloom.