Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you, happy birthday dear Sunny, we’re selling everything and hitting the road.
We got Sunny some Japanese TV producers for her b-day. Jenn found these guys while researching RV life on the internet ~ they were looking for a Family that was preparing to hit the road and this was the first day we met with them.
Kesley got concerned, and a little frightened. Then we had cake.
Experience Music Project in downtown Seattle.
For Jenn’s final b-day with a steady income, Greg got her a bouquet of flowers for every day of the week delivered to the kids school where she spent time as a school mom.
He also arranged for baby sitting with the Bass kids after…
A short ride for the kids in the Limo.
Our first Limo. And Savannah’s.
We dropped off our babies and picked up our friends, Amy and Duane for a night on the town. We toured Seattle and some great spots and had dinner at the Space Needle.
And ended the evening spending the night at the world famous Edgewater Inn built on a pier on Seattle’s waterfront.
Easter at Issaquah’s community center was one of our last downtown events as residents. We really miss Issaquah. Really, really.
This was a drive through the foothills near Issaquah on the way to Snoqualmie Falls to meet our friends Shawna and Leland.
They’re really busy and we thought this might be the last time we would be able to see them before we left.
But it turned out to just be the last time we saw this tree before we left. This is a special tree. What happens is a tree falls in the forest (did anyone hear it?), then another tree grows around it as it rots away. When the original tree finally erodes away it leaves the root system above ground. Pretty cool, huh? We really don’t know where this tree is but there are ones like it all over and now you know something we had to learn when we saw this tree and said ‘what the…’. Okay then.
Pretty darn impressive falls. See the people forms on the rocks? These are pretty darn impressive falls. Pretty impressive engineering also happened here in the early 1900’s ~ they built a mine shaft from the top down to generate power. Snoqualmie is a very cool place, go check it out. Now.
Aaaaaghhhh!!! The kids are stuck on the cliff!
Dad saved ’em. Then lifted Sunny up to be stuck on the cliff.
The girls love the falls.
And each other. Still.
So we sold the Bronco. The furniture, and most everything was ready to go. We had purchased the RV about a year before and took it to Texas and back which created a long list of repairs that we mostly accomplished. Bought the VW and repaired everything mechanical we could find wrong with it and set it up to tow. Then we took our new home and belongings all together on their maiden test voyage to Vancouver, BC, Canada. It went well and we got freaked hard when the first freight train passed right behind us in the middle of the night. But we survived.
And tested out some home schooling.
Sunny gets really excited at parties ~ that’s Wren, Kesley, Savannah, Austin, SUNNY, David, and Hannah at a See ya’ party we had. We had already moved out of the house and into the RV because we sold it to David’s parents who turned it into a law office.
Leland was not allowed to pick up Austin.
Greg was allowed to pick Savannah’s nose.
Which made Kim happy and concerned Travis.
Travis and Kim Bass ~ we really miss you guys. They live in Idaho now where Travis is going to Law School.
This makes Hannah very happy ~ she’ll need the fashion diva budget from Daddy.
Leland and Shawna…
Loved to booty shake with us.
Andrea.
Kerrie and Jenn became very close during their time together in Issaquah. One afternoon they decided to add highlights to their hair. After adding extra hair dye to the comb, they realized Kerrie only dyed a huge circle of hair in the back of her head. When she asked Jenn how it looked, Jenn simply replied ‘Good’. But Kerrie knew Jenn too well and knew she was lying, so she dyed the rest of her hair a bright blond to cover it. Jenn still thinks it’s funny. They also used to get in trouble at the kids school for skating in the hallways. Kerrie still makes Jenn laugh today when she remembers Kerrie falling really hard in Goodwill trying to Pogo stick.
This is Wrens first snowman in Alaska. When they moved up there Kerrie said that she had to make really dark curtains so they could sleep during the nights that never got dark with the longer days. They have seen quite a few bears in their backyard and have sent us many pictures of them.
Randy works on these Coast Guard planes and gets to fly all over Alaska and the ocean. He has flown to Wake Island and remote places that only the military can land on.
The Japanese film crew filmed the kids last day at school before we hit the road.
Our friend Madison went to school with the kids.
Before hitting the road, we had to get rid of stuff ~ we took the RV (minus tent) and the VW. Everything else we got rid of.
Remington was the hardest to let go but he couldn’t handle the road (as described in the crapped all over himself and cage story) and he was really mean to the kids in a violent, injurious way. We’ve kept up with him and learned that he’s become even larger.
Our storage before we left. We kept very little and often discuss getting rid of more, but it’s in Washington and we have to get back there. Soon. We really miss Washington.
The last picture we took in our Issaquah home taken on the day we left (5/18/01). It was really hard to leave this place and we were all kind of sad to go.