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IT'S FRIDAY, MY FAVORITE DAY!!

We started our weekend by driving into the Rock Creek Community College campus in Beaverton to watch our granddaughter Paige play soccer. We have wanted to get to one of her games all summer but something has always come up or the games were too far away. This worked out perfectly. We love watching her play too. She is so athletically gifted and watching her out-maneuver the goalie to score is fun. We don't call her "happy feet" for nothing! She scored twice and assisted with another goal during the game but the other team also scored three times so the score was tied at the end.

I had promised to take Ashtin out shopping and dinner for her birthday after the soccer game. So we dropped Dave off at his scotch-tasting party and off we went to Washington Square. It is hard to buy clothes for her because she has her likes and dislikes. It is easier to let her pick out what she wants. We ended up at three different places, Forever 21 where she found a cute sweater, H&M where she found a plaid shirt and then to Nordstrom where she was shocked at the prices and decided not to buy anything. That was a plus for me! We then found the Red Robin where we met her mother and sister and had a birthday bash where she ended up with a "free" sundae because it was her birthday. It is hard to believe that my first grandchild is fourteen years old! I remember the day she was born and how proud I was to finally become a grandma. She is so special and such a wonderful person and it has been a joy watching her grow up to be this little lady.

After the birthday dinner, I picked up Dave and we drove back home. It was around 11:30 by the time we got to the coast. Since Dave had sampled a couple of "wee drams" of single malt whiskey, I drove. He probably could have, but we both thought it would be safer if I did. The drive home was horrific as there was a lot of traffic heading back to Portland. The Hood-to-Coast run was over and it seemed like thousands of people were headed back home after that event. Dave counted 50 cars in a row at one point and looking into that many headlights and trying to staying on the road was a challenge. I don't like driving at night anyway.

We have spent most of this week working on getting the rest of the pavers in place for our walkway. There are three sizes of stones and we came out with too many of one size and not enough of another - think of a giant jigsaw puzzle with no right or wrong way to assemble it. Also, some of the pavers were in worse shape than we were willing to accept, so it was back to Home Depot for exchanges and a refund. But we didn't calculate exactly right this time either (we were two pavers short of our goal) and so it was back to Home Depot - again. We made three trips to Home Depot in all, and it's a two hour round trip each time. This paver job has turned out harder that we thought. Or at least harder than I thought - Dave had a better idea of how much work it was going to be, but I think a two-day job turning into two weeks made a believer out of him too! He got all the pavers in place and then took the compacter to them before it started to rain. They are now covered with a tarp to keep them from getting soaked by all this late August rain that we have been having. As soon as we have a couple of sunny days we will be able to finish with the project. We have to put "poly" sand on the pavers which is like a grout that will keep them in place but since it's water-activated, the pavers have to be dry in order to put it on. This has been a real learning experience for us.

We have been watching it rain for the last few days. Old Stanley has been relaxing and taking it all in. He loves to be outdoors on the deck sunning himself and doesn't like the rain much. So when it rains, he sleeps a lot and only wants outside to do his business. He and the feral cats have an understanding. They no longer run when they see Stanley coming as they have it figured out that he isn't going to chase them. The cats just glare at him and give him the evil eye, and he does a pretty good job of ignoring them. He's actually more interested in their food dish than them anyway!

We spotted the herd of elk over on the island the other day. There must have been around 40 of them. They were a little cautious with the fishermen close by and we noticed that they were only there that one time. We also spotted a spike deer eyeing the Escalonia hedge that we had planted in front of the house. He probably thought he was in the Garden of Eden but we managed to chase him away. I hope he doesn't go and tell all his friends what he discovered.

We have the family down over the three-day Labor Day Weekend. Lara's family arrived on Thursday evening and Leslie and her girls will be here Saturday night. We will celebrate both Ashtin's 14th birthday and Dave's 71st birthday this weekend since they are only a few days apart. I hope we have some decent weather so everyone can enjoy their visit.