After the BBQ Sunday we went to the Quinault Beach to release the ashes. Mark said a beautiful speech and several people shared warm memories. Then Justin carried the urn with both parent's ashes inside a backpack and walked out into the ocean to release them.
Jason had a family reunion on Ocean Shores to release his parents ashes on the beach. Jason, Connor, Kaiden and I drove the motor home 4 hours on Friday, stayed in a parking lot then finished the trip Saturday morning and met Sue, John, Justin and Cameron for breakfast. Connor wore a long haired Halloween wig with a cowboy hat to try to trick them. Dave, Carolyn and their new little dog, Holly came to visit. Lauren also drove over to visit. Kaiden did some fishing. Sue and I about had a heart attach when a family of 4 otters popped their heads up by the dock. All of a sudden there was a face popping out of the water! Sue and John rented a house right on the finger canals (waterway system) in Ocean Shores for a month. They had a RV spot next to the house so that's where we stayed Saturday-Thursday. Saturday evening we all played mini golf (Carolyn was tired so she skipped golf). There is local deer in Ocean Shores that just roam the neighborhoods. More people arrived Sunday: Mark, Steph, Breanna with her husband Daniel and their 2 boys, Taylor with his wife Aleigha and their 6 kids and Ron. Sue hid little toy turtles for the kids to find in the yard and also had a scavenger hunt for the kids, which they all enjoyed. We had a BBQ with burgers and hot dogs then later went to the beach as a group to release the ashes. We had 5 dogs there: Piper, Brody (Sue and John's older dog), Henry (Justin's 8 year old lab), Holly (Dave and Carolyn's new puppy) and Pumpkin (Taylor's dog). Surprisingly they all got along great and we didn't have any issues at all. Piper is normally scared of other dogs due to her being attached so many times, but she did fine!
I work for Spokane Cardiology and one of our cardiologists- Dr. Hollenbaugh is in the band Wasted Genius. He's asked our nursing staff to come watch his band play a few times so a group of us decided to make a night of it and watch them. We met for dinner and drinks before and then went to the Barrister Winery to watch the band play. They are really good and we had such a fun time!! Hopefully we can watch them play again. Dr. Hollenbaugh talked Rachel into coming up to the stage to play the cow bell during one of the songs. We all ordered a wine and had fun dancing (except Rachel who got a leg cramp running across the street to meet for dinner). We all ordered the band shirts too and wore them to work when Dr. Hollenbaugh was our reader that day. He loved it. It was Rachel Wilkes, Emily Oliver, Laura, Rachel Johnson and myself.
Krista bought a new ride! I gave my 2003 4-runner (Erv) to Connor. I bought a 2025 Toyota Highlander Hybrid XLE in Heavy Metal paint color. I've named my new ride Kluger. Toyota is not able to label the Highlander as "Highlander" in Australia, Japan and China due to Hyundai owning the copy rights to the name, which they use for some interior trim options. So, Toyota chose the name Kluger instead for those locations. Klug is the German name for smart or wise and Kluger means "smarter" or "more wise." I thought this would make a fitting name for my new car. My car had 24,000 miles on it when I purchased it. I bought my car from Parker Toyota on Friday while Jason, Connor, Rachel and Kaiden went tubing on Silver lake. Then Saturday the 4 of us drove back to Idaho to pick up the 4-runner ( I had to leave it there and drive the Highlander home on Friday) and we took Connor to Texas Roadhouse for his birthday dinner in Idaho.
