Our Adventures

We left the McLeod home, in Burlington, Washington and headed toward MT... We were anxious to get there to see Paul, Grace and baby Zoe... And were hoping to get there before she was born. We stopped in Ellensburg for fuel and snacks....

Before reaching Ellensburg we had to go over Snoqualmie Pass... "My favorite Pass in the whole world!" Those who know my history involving this pass know that is far from a true statement. Imagine this road covered in snow, a 7 year old girl screaming in terror because we might slide under the semi truck in front of us and die, then two older sisters trying to calm her down. Imagine those two oldest sisters maybe throwing her on the floor and holding her there so she couldn't see... Maybe slapping her around and saying, "Shut up!!!"... Maybe something like that...

I had forgotten how breathtaking the Northwest is... I'm glad I was able to cross this pass again and take in the beauty of this place. I now have much fonder memories... It is gorgeous.

These pictures cannot even do justice to the beauty...

Stopping, just over the border, at a rest area..

My home state.

Some were glad to get out of the van...

Even for just a few minutes.

Duke enjoyed the rest stop as well.

Grandma wanted to check out the "resting" rocks too...

The Shuler Gang... And Grandma.

We traveled all day and into the night, determined to make it to Havre, Montana in one day. We arrived around 1 am and Paul and Grace were waiting up for us. We were so glad to be there and we were sooo glad that baby Zoe had not been born yet. Grace had been on bed rest for three weeks, to keep her from going into labor. Now that we were there, she was ready to get the show on the road... But not then, we needed sleep. We stayed up and talked for a couple hours then headed to bed.

We visited, shopped, walked, cleaned and played for the next 5 days and no baby. Saturday, July 24th came and Grace went in... Her water was broke at 2:20pm. The whole family eventually made their way to the hospital... There were 13 altogether. Grandma stayed at Grace's house, she wasn't interested in the action before the birth... She'd just wait until the baby was here and join in.

The hospital waiting room became the "game" room.

Although Tommy told me it felt like a prison,

since he could not leave.

Internet time... You do what you have to

when Internet is not available, away from home.

Jacob, being his normal self... Goofy!

The "labor" walk...

With the grandparents...

The anxious Aunts...

I had a picture of Grace in labor, but I thought she might shoot me if I posted it... She did real well. She was a trooper... Of course she has the "Wilda" glare down to a tee when she's in extreme pain I would be dead, if looks could kill, and so would a few others, Paul included. She did hit Paul once... She raised her voice at me telling me she WAS NOT tense, when in fact she was :-) but she was polite at the same time as she was snapping at us, she would say, "please" and "thank you". The nurses were in awe... They could not believe a young lady, in this day and age, would have a baby, completely natural. Grace refused all pain killers and she was amazing. She is WOMAN, hear her ROAR!!! Finally at 2:29am, Sunday morning, Zoe entered this world... A perfect little baby girl. 7lbs 1 oz and 19 1/2" of God's amazing little bundle given to Paul and Grace. She is so perfect and so gorgeous... She looks just like her mommy.

The proud daddy.

There is nothing in this world that can match

the feeling of holding your new little baby...

How can I be a Grandma? How did this happen? Life

goes by so fast... It doesn't seem like it was that long

ago that I was holding Grace... Now she has a baby

of her own. I'm gonna love being a Grandma.

A VERY proud Grandpa. Zoe had him wrapped

around her little finger the moment she arrived.

Uncle Jake...

Uncle Philip...

Aunt Sara...

Aunt Megan...

Uncle Tom...

We left the hospital around 3 - 4am and headed back to the house to get some sleep and let Grandma Bunny know that the baby had arrived with no complications. We slept a few hours and headed back to the hospital, with Grandma, so she could meet the new baby.

Grace looked great... She was ready to go home.

Grandma Bunny and Zoe...

This was taken about 8 hours after being born.

Her first outfit, to be worn. Isn't she a doll?

The nurses and doctor could not believe that Grace was ready to go home so soon. They wanted her to stay another night. The doctor asked her why she wanted to go home so soon... Grace told him she wanted to sleep in her own bed and that she had family from out of town... He thought that was a good enough reason. The nurse, on the other hand, did not think it was a good idea... She was concerned about ALL of those people in Grace's home. Little did she realize that we have had some experience in taking care of newborns and taking care of the mommy too. When she came home Zoe was held by everyone, nonstop. We couldn't get enough of her.

While in Havre, we were able to attend Church services with

Paul and Grace. This night was a Singspiration... Colin,

Jacob and Philip helped Paul out with musical accompaniment.

We had to have some pizza... Pizza Pro has the

best pizza in town... And you can play pool too.

I was trying to show them how it's done...

But I stink!

Meet Zoe Isabella...

Zoe and Mommy

Zoe's baby shower...

Four generations in this picture...

Grace was hoping Grandma Bobbie

would be able to come too, but they had other

travel plans....

The silly girls....

I have to tell you a little story, going along with the previous picture. The girls had been dancing around in the living room... Then Tiny Tom (Mandie's son) decided to dance along. He was dancing and having a good time. Some pencil drawings on the wall were noticed and Mandie knew who the artist was, so she grabbed Tiny Tom to show him that was wrong... As she picked him up, he never missed a beat... He was still flailing his arms and legs and saying, "I'm dancing , Mom"... It was so funny, seeing him dancing while she was being carried off to... Well... You know...

Nap time with Aunt Sara...

Colin trying out the Rip Stick...

Zoe, on dedication day... Aug. 1, 2010

We are so blessed to have Zoe in the Alexander/Shuler

family... It is now time to dedicate her to the Lord...

Parents and Grand Parents

The whole family...

Grandma Shu and Zoe... She was sun bathing...

Megan was able to celebrate her 13th birthday in MT.

Aug. 4th... We went to the lake and had a pic nic

and some did a little fishing...

Megan fishing, with Jim Alexander looking on...

Then we went back to Kirby and Nancy's for

cake and ice cream...

And gifts...

Getting ready for her first bath... Poor baby...

No privacy in this family...

I won't post pictures of the bath...

Duke decided that the bottom of the coffee

table was a great place to rest.

Watching something scary...

Finally the time came, that were all dreading...

The day we had to leave. Everyone had to say

goodbye to this little one that had stolen

all of our hearts...

Parting is such sweet sorrow... Bologna!!!

There is nothing sweet about it!!!

Papa took it real hard...

Grandma Bunny had to have her turn...

We hated to leave Paul and Grace and this tiny little human that we all fell deeply in love with. we all cried... The van was quiet for a while except for the sniffles that could be heard. Then we bagen to look to the future of the next time we will get to see tham all again.

And now begins the journey back to AZ... And it was a doozy... Stay tuned...

We were fortunate to be able to take a short tour up through the NW... Singing and visiting with family and friends. We had a GREAT time and a crazy time. I have tried to document what I could remember... Up to the day we headed to MT... That will be another post.

Day One - July 8, 2010
We left town late in the afternoon, around 5pm. We met Paul and Bonieta at the QT gas station to fill up and get some drinks… And off we went. We were chugging right along… Our goal was to make it through LA so we didn’t have to deal with the morning traffic. That did not happen. Somewhere in CA the motor home, that Paul and Bonieta were driving, just decided to die. Paul coasted to the side of the road and he and Colin got out, to try to figure out was going on. They came up with different reasons of why it would have lost power. After several minutes, Paul tried to start the Mo and it started, so we were on our way again. That ended up happening several more times as we tried to get down the road. After one of our stops, someone realized that the freezer was not working, so everyone started consuming as many fudge bars and ice cream bars as they could, before they all melted. Our chances of making it through LA this night were looking pretty dim. As we were arriving close to the Chiriaco Summit I was beginning to feel some anxiety about my kids riding in the motor home while going down the other side of this mountain… I was concerned that if the Mo lost power, they would have no brakes and my kids were in there. The Mo lost power again before we reached the summit. I sent Jacob up to the Mo to get the kids to come get in the van with us. As he was walking to the Mo, he heard some noises in the bush, but couldn’t see anything in the dark. He opened the door to the Mo and started herding the kids out… Tommy was first. As he was standing there waiting for the rest of the kids, Tommy starts yelling, “SNAKE! SNAKE!” Jacob looks and there was a rattle snake slithering into the bush. He grabs Tommy and they jump back into the Mo… So, they end up riding in the Mo down the other side of the mountain… I prayed the whole way. Thank you Jesus, for your protection! We finally were able to make it to Indio, CA where we left Paul and Bonieta at a Truck Stop and we went and found a Motel. And this was the first day of our great adventure to the North West.

Day Two - July 9, 2010
After waiting for what seemed like hours and hours, a mechanic finally showed up to take a look at the Mo. One of the things Colin thought was wrong with it was the fuel pump… But what does he know, he’s not a mechanic. These two slimy guys show up and start looking at the Mo and long story, short they say we need to get it to their shop. We got it over there and Colin and I took Paul to go pick up a rental car while Bonieta and some of the kids started packing up their stuff they needed to take along. There was no way the Mo would be fixed in time, to take it the rest of the way. When we got back, with the car, we started throwing their stuff in the car and packing as much stuff form their fridge into our cooler. They were packed to the ceiling and so were we. We drove about 30 minutes down the road and stopped to get a bite to eat. After ordering and going to pay I realized that I had not received my credit card nor my driver’s license back from the motel. Panic set in… That was Grandma’s card… She was going to REALLY panic. She never lets her card out of her sight and now I had left it with strangers at the motel. I began making the phone calls to locate it and make arrangements for them to FedEx it to Lori’s house. What a nightmare. Since we didn’t want to deal with LA traffic, Paul knew of a way around LA. While on this little detour we missed our exit. There were no more exits to turn around so we went WAY out of the way… Adding more time and mileage to our trip. I didn’t even want to look at a map to see how far we had gone. We ended up staying the night in Santa Nella, CA. We rented three rooms… Jacob and Philip got a room to their self, Sara and Megan stayed with Grandma and Tommy stayed with us, and Duke.

Day Three - July 10, 2010
When we got up Saturday morning, Colin went to wake up his folks, since for some reason their phone in the room was not working (They asked Colin, before they went to bed, to wake them up in the morning) Anyway, when Colin came back from waking them up he told me that they said they were going to go on because they could travel faster without us and they wanted to make it to the Oyster Fry at Bonieta’s cousin's house. We had left early enough to get them to their Oyster Fry and us to Lyndi and Devin’s house with plenty of time to visit. But it just didn't work out the way we had planned. We made it to Springfield, OR in time to have dinner with Lyndi and Devin and Devin’s mom. We went to the Sizzler and enjoyed some good food and fellowship. The kids went home with Devin and Lyndi. Colin, Grandma and I went to get a room at Motel 6. Lyndi and Devin have a cat, so we couldn’t stay with them. When we had packed, we had “Motel” suitcases and the rest of our stuff was in bigger bags in the trailer. I had told the kids that we wouldn’t get our big bags out until we unpacked the sound equipment at our first singing in Centralia. When we got to our room, after dinner, and the kids had gone on to the Cabales home, Grandma says she needs her big bag. I told her that we would unpack it tomorrow when we got to Centralia. She insisted that she needed that bag because it had her Sunday clothes in it. She asked me if I was going to dress in my Sunday clothes in the morning and I said “No, I was going to change when I got there”… She continued to insist that we get her bag. Colin had to unpack most of the trailer, including the stand up bass that was right on top, to find her bag. After getting it out for her and repacking the trailer, we were on our way into the motel and she says, “I guess I could have waited until tomorrow”.

I know I did not pray for patience but this was the trip of all trips to begin that journey. :-0 It was FUN!

Day Four - July 11, 2010
We got up early Sunday morning and went to the Cabales home. We ate some donuts for breakfast and loaded up the family. Devin and Lyndi decided to tag along and we were very happy they did. While driving through Portland, Jacob decided he needed to buy some guitar strings, so the Cabales van load (which included Devin, Lyndi, Jacob, Philip and Sara) went to Old Time Music in Portland and we drove on to Centralia. When we were almost to Don Keene’s house (Bonieta’s cousin) Colin talked to his dad and he said come straight to the house lunch is ready for you… We were starving. When we got there… Where’s the food? They were jamming in the backyard with old friends and there was no food waiting for us... So we left and went to Bugerville USA with Colin’s sister, Patti and the Cabales van load met up with us there. After eating we headed back to Don’s house. Paul was ready to go to the church and get set up for our singing scheduled or that night… We got to the church and started unloading and setting up the sound system. While setting up we got a call, telling us that Marcia Brooks was appointed to be our new pastor. Boy, were we shocked! We had no idea. This will be something new for us. After we were all set up and did a sound check we went back to our motel room, that we had rented, and changed our clothes... Then back to the Centralia Christian Church for our singing. We had a great night... Great crowd and saw some old friends.

We were able to talk Devin and Lyndi into staying the night and we were glad to be able to spend some more time with them. Jacob and Philip stayed in their room and there were some crazy things that went on, as they usually do when the Shuler's and the Cabales' get together.

And now I will share some pictures with you...

After we left Centralia, we headed towards Burlington

to the McLeod house... We would spend the next three

days with them. We HAD to stop in Mt. Vernon...

Our first Taco Time stop of the trip.

YUM!

At our singing, in Centralia, we had these two handsome men

come to see us. Rick and Lee Bear have known the

Shuler's and Wilda's for years. I had a crush on them

when I was about 7.

At the McLeod's house we had a great time,

as usual... You can't help but have fun

when you get this Shuler bunch together.

Lots of music...

Ton's of food... Ken is a great cook and keeps us fed.

This night we were blessed to have the Doran family

join us. You can see Bro. Jacob D. back there

standing by Colin.

During the day, lots of Wii golf...

At night... Karaoke

Here is Grandma Bunny... The NON-animal lover.

A bunch of Shuler's in Darrington...

This was the drive from Burlington to Darrington...

You can't get much prettier scenery anywhere out side

of the North West... It always takes my breath away.

Skagit River

We were scheduled to sing at the Darrington Church of God of Prophecy

Sunday night after the Festival... Tommy was sick... He didn't get to sing.

Day 9 - 11 July 16 - 18, 2010

The next three days were spent at the Darrington Bluegrass Festival. We sang Friday morning and Saturday morning. What a blast!!! We had a great time and met new people and saw old friends.

Here is Sara with "Rhonda Vincent and the Rage".