April

April has been a strange month around the Nyland family and I haven't had a chance to update the blog much. I have pictures to download from our Eastern Washington Scout Outing and I meant to update the Jess election but I haven't gotten to it. (Jess lost by 10 votes).

This is a long story and I will try to keep it short.

2 weeks ago Grandma Lois (my Dad's mom, 96 years old) was walking on the sidewalk and a car coming out of a parking lot hit her. She ended up breaking her pelvis in 2 places and messing up her shoulder. She spent a few days in Tacoma General and then was transferred to the Lutheran Home( a nursing home with some physical therapy). She has been improving and is able to walk 30 feet with a walker so she actually joined us for a while at our house on Easter.

1 week ago Sunday my Grandma Genny (Mom's mom, 87 years old) was getting out of her car at church- slipped and fell. Broke her pelvis and her foot in 2 places. She spent a week in the hospital and was transferred to the same Lutheran Home 2 doors down from Lois. After Genny was moved to the nursing home, her condition worsened and she seemed like she was in constant pain. She ended up passing away Tuesday morning. It was quite a shock because we thought the worse was over. But in retrospect, the family is relieved that she didn't have to go through any more pain. Her body and mind were just worn out and it was her time. My mom is hurting but she has accepted that was the best thing.

My mom, dad and my brother have spent most of the past couple weeks visiting my grandmothers, moving them, closing on selling Lois' house, and a ton of other Grandma things and they are just worn out. Now we have funeral arrangements to take care of and a bunch of relatives converging this weekend. I am looking forward to seeing a lot of those people but I am also really ready for all this to be over. I will try to update the blog better to keep folks posted.

Vote YES for JESS

Monterey Trip

Meg and I had a great weekend trip seeing Monterey and Carmel by the Sea, California. We landed at the same time as the big waves hit from the Japan earthquake. As we drove down the coast, most of the beaches were closed to keep the surfers away from the potential tsunamis. We had lunch in a small town and then did some wine tasting in Santa Cruz before we made it to our hotel in Monterey. We walked along the waterfront to the wharfs and Cannery Row where we had dinner.

Saturday we started at the Mission before we drove in to Carmel and did some window shopping. We then did some hiking at Point Lobos which was really cool and saw some sea lions. We had lunch at Nepenthe which was on the cliffs overlooking the water. We then drove further south to Big Sur and did some more hiking to a waterfall. We ended up eating dinner back in Monterey at an old Roadhouse.

Sunday, we had breakfast at Clint Eastwoods ranch restaurant. Then we did a few wine tastings as we drove through the hills back to the airport. Took lots of good pics. Check out our Flickr

Lunch at Big Sur

Waiting for lunch at Nepenthe in Big Sur. Tucked into trees high above the coast. Sun is shining, and I've got a glass of rose. Life is GOOD!

California coast

No tsunamis here. Flew into San Francisco today and started driving south. Went through Santa Cruz and did some wine tasting. Ended up in monterey and now we are having dinner on cannery row.

High Fives with Chris Ballew

I got a vid of the boys high fiving Chris Ballew of the Presidents. They were pretty excited.

Presidents of the United States of America

The whole family went to the presidents show last night at the Showbox. It was a packed house and they played most of our favorite songs. We got there early enough for the boys to be on the rail in front the whole time. Everyone had fun and we will remember this concert for a long time.