Where to Start?

First off, I haven’t posted in DAYS.
Life. ☺️

We are in the midst of the three day Memorial Day weekend here in the USA. 🇺🇸 Like Rembrance Day, Memorial Day is a day to honor fallen soldiers and those serving or who have served in the military. Additionally, the weekend is considered the unofficial start of summer. People often spend the three days camping, hosting barbecues or watching newly released summer movies.

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So what’s been happening here?

We saw HAN SOLO! 😃

source

I am a child of the 70’s, so the original Star Wars was the first movie I saw in the theater. As a little girl I was obsessed with the franchise. I had books, soundtrack albums, action figures, Barbie style dolls, posters, board games and I dressed as Princess Leia for Halloween in kindergarten. From my twenties until now, I have seen all the new Star Wars movies (even the crappy prequels) on opening night.

I loved this new film.

No spoilers, but I really enjoyed the new Han Solo movie. There was so much doom and gloom surrounding the film’s production that it seemed like a guaranteed flop. But it is good! REALLY good! It took me a scene or two to accept this new actor as Solo, but Alden Ehrenreich totally pulls it off. There are a couple of fun cameos in the movie and an unexpected character returns. (Really you need to see this movie before the internet spoils the whole thing). Plus, Donald Glover kills it as Landon Calrissian. 8/10 on the @dfinney movie scale. 👍🏻👍🏻😊

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Mini Family Reunion

I (half head at front) am the youngest person in this picture by 10 to 37 years. ☺️

My dad’s father (my grandpa) was one of five children. He and his siblings each had many of their own kids. Before the older generation started to pass away, we had quite the clan spread from coast to coast of the USA. This week my father’s eldest cousin, her sister, daughter and son-in-law came to town. They were here to celebrate the cousin’s 80th birthday and to embark on a cruise to Alaska.

We had a family dinner (parents, aunt, uncle, cousins, second cousins, second cousins-in-law) at a Doubletree Hotel by the airport. Apparently willingly eating hotel restaurant food is a thing you do in your 70’s/80’s.... 😄😂 I hadn’t seen one of the relatives since 1990 or 1991, so it was a fun night. It always feels good to spend time sharing stories with family.

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Farmer’s Market

Gorgeous Peonies

Every weekend from the Spring through Autumn our little town north of Seattle has a farmer’s market. Fresh pastas, cheeses, pies, vegetables, fish, meats and prepared foods are on sale. The market also features made to order meals as well as a variety of hand crafted wares.

However, my favorite part of the market... the flowers.

While no bouquets were purchased today, we strolled through the market and enjoyed alfresco lunch at a local restaurant.

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Walk with Me

Though today was overcast, temperatures were still pleasant. In the late afternoon we took our pooches for a walk near a spot called Lake Ballinger.

Lake Ballinger is a 100 acre lake located within the cities of Mountlake Terrace and Edmonds. The lake has a maximum depth of 35 feet and an average depth of 15 feet. The lake's watershed is approximately 3250 acres. Source

Views over the lilypads towards the lake.

The little fellows loved running through the grass.

Meandering deeper into the park

A small pond to the side of the larger lake.

Peeking out from under the trees.

My Boys

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Baking

After a big walk it seemed like a good idea to bake cupcakes!

Though the cupcakes look the same, we have three different varieties. One half are your basic chocolate cupcakes with rich chocolate frosting. The other half (on the tower) holds some surprises. I used a corer to hollow out each cake. Half are filled with strawberry jam, the other half with a coconut pecan mix (basically mini German chocolate cakes). Mmmmm delicious stuff.

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Some Silver Business

One of the members of Steemit’s SteemSilverGold community,
@buggedout, has suggested the idea of a community mega raffle. The proceeds of the raffle will be used to fund SP leases for the community’s voter account.

The original post can be seen here.

My contribution to this raffle is a Perth Mint 2017 Silver Kookaburra Coin.

Love the mama plus baby

More details on how #ssg members can win this coin (and many others) will be available the first of June.

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And the weekend is not even half over! 😄

Hope my American friends are keeping busy and having fun this three day weekend.

CHEERS!!! 🍻

🇺🇸 ❤️ 🇺🇸 💙 🇺🇸 ❤️ 🇺🇸

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Proud Member of:

steemsugars, steemusa and steemsilvergold