October/fall shenanigans

Amanda didn't want October, our Anniversary, or even Halloween to be uneventful this year and I think she was also trying to erase some of the negativity I still have left over from last year and our wedding disaster. I mean let's call it what it was, a disaster. Nothing worked out right and I was hurt pretty badly and still haven't managed to really get over it. Even with all the good stuff that did manage to happen around our wedding, all of which I am incredibly thankful for, I still have a hard time with the bad. Moving on. 

So, we both planned some stuff to do. Amanda's was more successful and exciting than my idea. I don't think she really liked mine too much. I wanted to drive up Mt. Spokane for an afternoon and see what we could see, explore a bit. I thought it would be fun to find places to have picnics and sit in nature, forest bathe, and so on. She was in a mood that day and when we found out that to go up was going to be ten dollars for a whole day, she was less than thrilled. Mostly because a discover pass is thirty dollars and gets you into all the Washington State Parks for a whole year. So, we turned around and came back down. 

But at least on the way I got to see a few things I didn't know were out and along the way. And I got some cool art reference photos.

On another day during October, Amanda got a groupon or something for tickets to go on a Haunted lake cruise on Lake Coeur d'Alene. Our friend Fiona was coming for a visit, so we went to pick her up and went to the lake early. I put my foot in the water to see how cold it was and decided swimming in the lake in October would be great for thirty seconds and only if I had a nice warm car to run to with hot cocoa waiting for me. 

I love how clear the lakes are here compared to the ones back home in Kansas. 

Rock!

I thought this view was really pretty and managed to catch the sun beam.

A picture of the Coeur d'Alene resort from the boat.

One of the lovely sunset photos I got.

I thought this one was very gloomy and pretty.

And my camera still didn't do the blazing pink in the sky justice.

A zoom in shot.

Some fall trees 

A pretty leaf.

The Twins took us to Silverwood for our anniversary and because they really like going with us. It was a lot of fun and I did get some pictures and even some video, but I think they are all over on my Instagram. Meaning, I was dumb and deleted them from my phone. 

Also during the month we went to see the Hobbit house in town. The owners of this big house and the little Hobbit house put on a free Halloween "come and see" and partnered with some trick or treat group that, if I remember correctly, does a safe neighborhood kind of thing. Anyway it was free to go to and you could see the Hobbit house for free with a donation of a children's book for needy kids.  We took a couple and it seemed that a lot of the people who came did the same.

This is a poster for the group they were collecting the books for.

A ring wraith, this guy managed to sneak up and scare the crap out of me twice! 

Just some of the cute decorations. In fact, each decoration had a little story to go with it. We didn't realize that until after we had seen the Hobbit house and I was cold and worn out. There were a lot of people and we stood in line for quite a while, both of which are hard on me. 

And here is the little Hobbit house. It is so cute and yes, that is a dragon above it.

a barrel!

I loved this metal door decoration they had.

I wanted to get more pictures of the interior and take more time to look around but there was still quite a long line behind us and I wanted to let the kids have time to get in and see the place. It was getting late and a lot of the kids were little, and we all know how cold, tired kids can get cranky. 

Some of the outside. I loved all the little decorations. 

Moving on to Halloween...

Here is some of the Halloween decor we had in our house

Amanda found what she calls her 'opera singer' at walmart this year. It's a tree topper and we kept it out to put on our Xmas tree.

We had candles aplenty and I decorated two jars I found at the dollar tree, not that you can seem them that well.

I found this pretty Witch tree topper at Ross. I've always wanted a 'pretty' witch. People seem to think that witches needs to be green or old or look like creepy old ladies, but that's not the case. So when I saw her for a reasonable price, I snatched her right up and brought her home. She too, was kept out and is hanging out in the office. 

Narcisa was hanging out on the kitchen table with me on Halloween night. This was before dinner and after our trip to the Campbell house here in town. They were a rich family and their house is a historical point of interest and museum. I didn't take my phone with me so I will just have to go back and get pictures another time. It is a beautiful Victorian era house and I pretty much want live there. But back to my house...

My friend Felicia gave me this cute cat and we set him on one of our pumpkins!

Amanda's luminary made from card stock, tissue paper, and a big pickle jar. We made them with our friend Rachel two years ago.

Here is mine. 

I had made little cauldrons for friends for something that got cancelled. So we enjoyed them over a couple of days.

I really liked this project and want to do it again, especially since I know how 

I did have more candy in them, it was just under the cotton candy. 

And here is me, I was a demon. I had black wings, my horns, and had done my make up.

This was just a beautiful display at Fuego in the mall. I loved the masks and would like to use them as inspiration for making some of my own. I've made a mask before and really loved it.

One day I went to work to see Amanda and took a picture of one of the halls in the old chronicle building. I love the decor.

This is a poster Amanda got me of Shiro from Voltron. It was done by Missy Pena and you can find her on twitter.

This was the very last bit of the Halloween Season activities. We went down to Moscow, Id to visit the twins and also go try out a spooky escape room at Puzzle IQ. What we learned was that I will look in a bucket of icky water and know there is something in but not put my hand in and make someone else do it. That Amanda moves stuff she's not supposed to, and that when they say look at everything, Amanda and I take them very seriously and go as far as taking apart furniture to look for clues. LOL! They told us we didn't have to take apart the furniture. Also, that the Twin, Amanda, and I actually make a pretty good team when doing this. We each find things the other miss. So we managed to do the escape room without a single hint with 16 minutes to spare. The total time we were allowed was 45 minutes. It was a lot of fun and needless to say, we are hooked. We've been looking at other escape rooms around, checking prices and themes and such.

Lastly, on a more recent trip down to visit the twins, we stopped in Potlatch, Id. Along I 90 there is a little dinner called Dad's Diner. It didn't used to be called that. Back in the 1940's my Grandmother's Dad's cousin worked out in the area and his wife worked in the diner. At some point the cousin died and eventually his wife bought the diner and ran it for many years. That was the cup "Ireland's Inn" that was in another blog post. Anyway, her son, my Grandma's cousin, apparently still lives in Deary. Which is kind of cool. The family doesn't own the place anymore, but it's really neat to see where my family has been and walk where they walked. 

Eventful weekend, Haunted Hillyard, and grad party.

View of Hillyard (in Spokane) from Mt. St. Michael's.

We kicked off the weekend with giving our friend Chris her birthday gift a little early. She's into the paranormal like us, so we took her on a Haunted Hillyard Bus Tour. Actually, she's part of S.P.O.T. Spokane Paranormal Observation Team. Our guide is a history professor at Spokane Community College and has written a couple of books on Hillyard and its paranormal/ serial killer history. I was pretty tickled to get a little history lesson along with the ghost stories. I was a little freaked out by the serial killer stuff and seriously unnerved by history of Mt. St. Michaels and its now Catholic School. The tour was a lot of fun, Chris enjoyed it and said she'd always wanted to go on one, and it was storming that night which made it even creepier! 

The view in the picture above of Hillyard looks a bit industrial. That's because some of it is. A man named Hill built and brought in a train line and a town kind of grew up around it. You can find out more about Hillyard here. It is just a brief overview. 

Anyway, Amanda, Fiona, and I decided to revisit some of the stops along the tour yesterday, in daylight, so we could get some pictures. We also wanted to go up to the school on Mt. St. Michaels to sate some curiosity,  because a friend of ours went there, and I wanted to see the architecture. However, while we were up near the school, around the back side, I didn't feel very well. I had a headache that seemed to get worse when on the on the back side of the main building and some nausea. It was weird. When we left, I felt fine.  Now I didn't get any pictures of the buildings up there, mostly because it was eerie as fuck and it felt like we were being watched. But I did get some nice landscape pictures of the area around. I also saw pheasants, in person, for the first time in my life and they look like tiny raptors.

A doe on the school grounds.

It was such a lovely, cloudy day with a beautiful view.

  

Down in Hillyard we stopped by a Vietnamese Buddhist Temple that's we'd seen on the tour as well as a building situated beside the old Masonic lodge/ temple (?). We also picked up some Rowan branches and berries. It seems the Druids believed that Rowan trees were protective and planted some around Hillyard. 

Kwan Yin outside the Buddhist Temple! 

Happy Buddha

There was a man doing some landscaping and told me what time the services are, that they are having a little celebration this Saturday, and that I can bring my children for moon cakes. Since my child is my cat, I think I will leave her at home.

I love this dragon!

And this lion. 

On to my Graduation party. It was really fun! Amanda themed it as a Paranormal Romance party and asked the guests to dress up. It was fantastic! There were two cakes, one round with green icing and black roses just like I asked, and the other was in the shape of a book. One of my friends and his wife brought two kegs of home brewed beer. One was an Irish stout and the other was a Maple something.

We bottled what was left in the kegs and put it in the fridge to make sure it didn't go bad, but there wasn't much left because we drank a good deal of it. 

We talked, I met my friend Rachel's new boy friend who apparently likes YA novels, and is a big fan of Rachelle Mead, an author I like. She wrote the Vampire Academy Series. He even wore a t-shrit he had made that's inspired by the series. 

Now I didn't any pictures because I was busy eating, talking, laughing, and drinking. I think Amanda's Mom got some of the cakes and I know she got one of me, but those pictures are on her camera.  I also haven't gotten a lot of pictures of the wonderful gifts people gave me. Fiona gave me a cat gargoyle statue. Felicia made me 4 dozen homemade tortillas most of which I need still need to freeze for later consumption. Chris said her gift is coming but honestly it was gift enough that she and everyone else was there. One of my friends made me two loaves of bread, one of them Zucchini, which is one of my favorites! Rachel gave me three paranormal romance novels. Amanda's parents gave me a beautiful homemade card with a promise to do something with me at a later time. Tsuki gave me Fullmetal Alchemist and Bleach figurines. She'd been wanting to find new homes for them and when she learned that I like those anime, she bequeathed them to me.  And Amanda gave me a board game, Coven.

This game is rated 14+ and I think when everyone knows how to play it, it takes about an hour to play. However, the first night we tried to play it, we spent over 2 hours trying to figure out the game mechanics. On the second night we actually played. It is a challenge and there is a lot to remember. The winner isn't wholly certain until the game ends and there is a lot that goes into it to determine that. Still, I really like it and would love to share it with my game loving friends. Coven was put out on Kickstarter and there is already an expansion out, which is pretty cool.