Celebrating Dad

One year ago today was the memorial service for my dad. It was a celebration of his life, a time to focus on happy memories. We had a really nice service at my parents' church, followed by reception with a popcorn machine (one of Dad's favorite foods) and a cake inspired by his years coordinating the summertime hot dog lunch giveaway at Hope Lutheran. Family and friends traveled to Idaho from California and Washington, along with the many local friends who attended. Dad would have loved it. 

Celebrating Dad (affiliate link)

Instead of a guest book, I put Dad's photo on cardstock and asked guests to sign that. These two pages are now together in the album.   

I miss you, Dad. Thanks for a lifetime of memories. 

Honoring George

In my post about the weekend trip to Spokane Steve and I took last fall, I mentioned that I'd seen my aunt, uncle, and cousins twice already that year, both times for memorial services in Idaho. My dad's service was in July; in March, we gathered to remember George, my brother-in-law Brian's dad. 

I'm not sure when I met George for the first time; I certainly knew him by the time my sister married Brian in 1996. I usually saw him a few times a year at family gatherings and I always enjoyed chatting with him. I remember George as kind and friendly, quiet, but with a quick sense of humor. 

Honoring George (affiliate link)

While George was not technically related to me, he felt like family. I'm glad I was able to be there for his memorial service. 

CHS Band

Steve and I had such a good time traveling to Spokane to watch Aiden perform at the Pacific Northwest Marching Band Championships. 

 

CHS Band (affiliate link)

This was the second layout I made for Game Three of the BYSS World Series. This time, I was inspired by the title of this page by Angie Feldman. I like the way she used the high school's initials on a tag above the rest of the title. I created a CHS banner on PicMonkey, cut it out with microtip scissors, then added it above BAND. 

In addition to the point for the inspiration, I earned points for using a specialty paper (the background is embossed and glittery), journaling, and an outdoor element (the football field sticker). That's a total of four more points for the Banshees. 

Pacific Northwest Marching Band Championships

After not getting together with my cousins since 2019 and my aunt and uncle since 2022, we saw each other this year in March and July. Unfortunately, both times were for memorial services. While it was wonderful to spend time together, it was a bummer that it was for such a sad reason. Steve and I decided we'd make a weekend trip to visit them in the fall. We planned our trip around seeing my cousin Tim's son, Aiden, compete in the Pacific Northwest Marching Band Championship on October 11 in Mead, Washington.  

It had been about 3 decades since either Steve or I had seen a marching band competition and boy, have things changed! But before I get into that, I want to start with October 10, the day we flew into Spokane. It was a beautiful day, with blue skies. The weather was perfect as we enjoyed a walk around the lake where my aunt and uncle live. 

We had dinner at Das Stein Haus. Yum. 

Uncle Don, cousin Tim, Tim's wife Ginger, Steve, me, and Aunt Vickie. 

On Saturday morning, we headed to Mead for the competition. There were 15 schools participating and each school performed the same routine twice. We missed the first few performances driving, looking for parking, and getting settled in our seats, but that was fine since we saw them later. During the preliminaries, the smallest and lowest ranked bands (1A) performed first, working their way up to the largest, highest rank (for this competition, 4A). Then after a break, they performed again in reverse order based on their scores in preliminaries. 

From the first performance we watched (Highland High School performing "Hunger Games"), it was immediately obvious that high school marching band field shows are different than in my day. I hadn't seen large screens and banners on the field like that before, nor musicians in a pit. The pop culture theme surprised (and delighted) me. It was so much fun to watch the show!

West Salem's "Web of Dreams" was stunning. Look at all those cages! And the gigantic 7's. By the way, 

Ginger had gotten us perfect seats: high and directly on the 50-yard line.

"The Wildflower" by Central High School was absolutely gorgeous. I loved the color scheme, the interesting patterns, and the giant flowers that opened. 

Mead High School's "And Still... I Rise" was breathtaking. I loved the staircase props and how they moved and interacted with them. 

It was a fun surprise when they revealed that the stairs spelled out the name of their show. 

Next up was Aiden's school, Cheney High, performing "The Engulfed Cathedral." They also used staircases, but theirs were shaped differently and they interacted with them in different ways. That stage in the front right was for an electric cello solo. The performance was incredible. 

That's Aiden at the top of the purple staircase. 

We were mesmerized watching AC Davis High School set up that loooooong raised platform for their performance, "Seize Your Moment." 

Watching it transform during the performance was neat... 

... and it was a total surprise when the final piece opened up to make a star. 

The performance from Mt. Spokane called "Love, Ellie" was really neat. 

It was such a fun surprise when a single red balloon floated out of Carl's house and the band formed into a giant red balloon. I didn't catch those on camera, unfortunately. 

Lewiston High School performed "How Wonderful Life Is" - a tribute to Elton John. 

Ridgeline dazzled with "The Drop that Contained the Sea."

At the end of preliminaries, Ridgeline was in 1st. Aiden's school (Cheney) was 4th.

During the break, Ginger gave us a tour of the 'backstage' area. 

Most impressive: the Cheney band boosters raised enough money to buy their own semi, which is outfitted to carry instruments, costumes, and props. 

  

Each show they've done is on the wall inside the semi. The graduating seniors sign the panels. 

The boosters also have their own food truck to feed the students. A team was busy preparing huge amounts of yakisoba when we came by. It smelled delicious.  

This is where the band eats. Buckets and boards provide lots of seating.  

There's also a trailer for hauling gear. The students ride in three buses. 

After our tour, we used the rest of our break to find food... and shelter. You probably noticed the grey skies in all of my photos. We had had light rain - mostly sprinkling - on and off until this point, but then the rain became more steady. 

During the final round, we saw all of the bands compete, including the ones we had missed earlier. There were some fun themes: the Northern Lights, farming, coal mining, and the California Gold Rush. I didn't take a lot of photos due to the rain, but here is a sampling:  

There's Cheney again. They ended up placing 5th out of 15. If you're interested in seeing the scoring, including the 8 categories in which they're judged, you can see that here. 

On Sunday, we all gathered to celebrate Uncle Don's 75th birthday. 

Dessert was one of the famous apple pies that the Cheney band students make each year as a fundraiser. It was SO good. I'm disappointed they have to be picked up locally, but if you happen to live near Cheney and haven't had one, you should definitely order one. Or ten (they freeze well). 

Card games are a must when we get together. By the way, that's my godson Teagan standing to my left. He's a future member of the Cheney High Marching Band. 

All too soon, it was time for Steve and me to fly home. We had a wonderful weekend with family. And, despite the rain, we loved watching the marching band competition. We now have plans to watch one locally. If you have the opportunity to go to one, definitely do!

Family Fun in Ketchikan, Alaska

Our cruise ship docked in Ketchikan, Alaska on Tuesday, June 28. If you're visiting Ketchikan for the first time, a guided tour is a great choice. But this was my fifth time in Ketchikan, not my first. It was Steve and Trevor's third time. During previous visits, we'd seen the outstanding Great Alaskan Lumberjack Show, visited the fabulous Southeast Alaska Discovery Center, and been in and out of all the shops along Creek Street. They're my top recommendations when visiting Ketchikan. 

Ketchikan is a very walkable city, making it perfect for an Urban Adventure Quest. But there aren't any Quests in Alaska (so far). We've completed Quests in 20 cities, so we have a pretty good idea of what one entails. So we thought it would be fun to try to write our own. The three of us set out, along with Mom, Uncle Don, and Aunt Vickie, to start making up questions. 

With all the experience we've had, it was easy for us to identify the artwork, buildings, signs, and other permanent features that would work well as questions. 

The hard part was actually writing those questions. 

  

    

We grossly underestimated the amount of time it would take to map out a route, write challenging questions, and test and retest those questions until we were sure they were accurate. We also grossly underestimated our interest in doing all of this in the rain. I have even more respect for the folks at Urban Adventure Quest for the work that goes into creating each one! 

As the rain increased, our success at thinking up challenges decreased. We popped into the small museum at the Ketchikan Fire Department to look around. 

Then we made a much longer visit to Tongass Historical Museum. What a neat place!

  

The rain got heavier as the day went on. This wasn't a surprise, but it dampened (haha!) our interest in taking extensive notes and photos. 

  

We had a really fun time in Ketchikan. Our next port of call was Juneau, another city we'd visited many times before. Tomorrow I'll tell you what we did there.