The House In Reno

On our way over to Mark's grandparents house, we stopped by Mark's old house. :o) My how things had changed!
There was no fence, and less flowers. LOTS less flowers. There were also no window flowers. And there was no driveway on the right ride. In essence: there used to be more grass :o) and mark, LOVES grass. LOTS of grass :o) He was pretty devastated to see the changes (I think it looks pretty!)


Here is a close up of the house. And here is a tree in the front yard that they planted! :o)

Mark liked living in this house :o) Mark's mom said that he was always outside more than inside, and always wanted to be outside more than inside to play. His brother Michael liked to play inside with his toys...and Martin liked to go between the two :o) Marks Mom also said that Michael and Mark liked to try and convince each other to do what the other person wanted to do :o) Boys will be boys!

In the Land of Mark...

Growing up, Mark and I each enjoyed imagining magical lands where we could live and have adventures, like in Lord of the Rings or Narnia or some other fantastical land :o) While my family may still like to tease me about "Teda Town," a decidedly nonfantasy land where the roads have spikes to enforce trafic laws, a feature targeted at "bad" (non-me) drivers, I still can remember thinking of other fantastical lands, too wonderful to be real, that I would love to go and have adventures in.

While, to date, neither of us have lived in another world or have had centaurian neighbors or talking pets, we each have "magical" places in our childhood that we like to reminesce about.

While Mark has many such special childhood places that exists in "The Land of Mark", this blog is dedicated to a specific special place we had the pleasure of visiting this sumer : his grandparents house in Reno.

When Mark was 8 years old his family relocated to Reno for his dads work. They left Lafayette on the 6th of January, his dad drove the moving truck and mark and the boys and mom (becky in her tummy) rode in the motor home with Grandma and Grandpa Coates. Mark LOVED the road trip out; the best way to travel, according to mark, is in the back of your grandparents motor home...with video games :o) When they got to Reno they lived with Marks grandparents for about 5 months while they were looking for a house (and that is where Becky was born!) and when they did move, they almost moved into a different house far far away from gradma and gradpas house, but as fate would have it, they lived only a few minutes away from their house so they got to see them all the time! :o)

And HERE is Grandpas house! :


Grandpa lived on Gross Ranch as a foster child through his teenage years and is one of the only foster children that stayed around and worked on the ranch and was treated as one of the family throughout his life. He woke up in the morning and milked and took care of the cows before school everyday and took care of them when he came home too. While the "Ranch" around the house has vastly changed into a housing development, THIS is the house that grandpa grew up in on the original ranch! My goodness! Grandma bought the house from nanny and grandpa (not marks grandpa David Coates :o) this is "grandpa" George Gross:o) ) in February of 1956. Grandpa Coates has lived in it ever since! That is some of the original rock work on the house that they used from stone in the area, and grandpa used some of the left over rocks to do a beautiful rock fireplace inside the house. The house has changed a lot from the one grandpa grew up in, grandpa did a lot of remodeling, but this is pretty much just exactly how Mark remembered it growing up :o)

One of the most IMPORTANT aspects of the house to Mark is the back yard wonderland!


Mark remembers playing out in the yard and swiming in the little coy pond that they had. It was so lovely to go and visit, and Mark said, "man! it used to be so much bigger" :o) We still havent decided weather the rocks and trees actually shrank...or if Mark grew....juries still out ;o)


There is a rock little "river" that feeds the coy pond, and mark remembers playing and making little dams in the water, and I believe he said that he used to swim also in this little river, and that there was a little water wheel in it also :o)

And the coy pond Mark swam in! I don't think that he would fit in it now ;o)



This is one of my favorite part of the yard was this area under the tree. Mark said that he spent lots of afternoons playing around this tree also.


He also remembers a swing on the porch! His siblings and cousins would sit on that swing when they were young and get swinging really high. Behind the swing was a metal fence that made a wonderful gong and crash when you swung into it. This was the goal for many summer afternoons for the young hooligans.

In the front of the house there was a big, big pine tree. From the outside it looks like any other unassuming pine tree, but once you got beneath the canopy of the needles... you saw it was really a magical climbing tree! Grandpa had cultivated the inside, cutting away the inner branches and needles so that the inside was hollow! The branched were quite close spaced for really easily climbing! The effect was so amazing, and I can easily see why Mark has a love for that tree. Heck, I saw it as an adult, and I wanted to get up and play in the tree! It was so cool! :-D We didn't get any good pictures of the tree :o( But perhaps it is best to leave the wonder up to your imagination ;o)

In addition to his childhood, Mark got to live with Grandma and Grandpa the summer after he returned from his mission, working and having a lot of fun. I got to try some of grandma's delicious raspberry Jam that Mark is always talking about as his favorite and see the house that he loves so much and the people that make it what it is: his grandparents.


The best part of visiting were the stories that Grandma and grandpa told us about how they met and their courtship and some of the many adventures they had in their lives together. Grandpa told us also some of his conversion story and the difference the church made in his life. Grandma and grandpa are such wonderful people and showed us such love and kindness, it was so good to visit with them and hear about their lives. We also got to visit with Mark's Uncle Mark and Coleen and two of their children, Mark and Justin, Justin's wife Candice and their new son Vincent! It was really really nice. Mark and Justin are building a house next door to grandpas house, and we got to go and see it. We also got to see Grandpa sisters Aunt Dot.

We loved visiting so much, when we had packed up to leave and were driving in town...we turned back around, drove back, and asked if we could stay another day and postpone our trip :o) Gladly they allowed us too and we pushed back the rest of our journey by a day.

What a wonderful family and how grateful we are to have spent time with them, and got to retrace some pieces of Marks childhood! Living so near to his grandparents played a very important part of who he is, just as living close to my grandparents played a very important part in who I am! It was something we shared a lot on the phone when we were getting to know each other, about the places and people that were important to us, and it was good to go back and visit.

On The Road Again...Again... ;o)

Yep! You may have noticed that Mark and I are on the road....a LOT. So! After we packed up our house (thanks to the help of our guardian angels!) packed up the car (again, thanks to our angels!) we headed out to Reno!
We left later than we had anticipated (by about....6 hours :-O ) and so we had our first pit stop dinner at Wendys on our way out! Mark is so handsome!

Our boss at PNNL has a motor cycle and loves to drive around with his wife in the Washington/Oregon area; before we left we chatted with him about the route we were taking to San Diego. We decided to not go on the interstate, but to take 395. It wound up through the hills and the forest and stuff, it was a really nice drive :o) VERY beautiful. VERY remote.



It was very beautiful :o) The trees were SO tall and majestic, and the setting sun bathed everything in the most lovely light :o)

here is a funny story though :o) So! we were trying to make hotel reservations :o)We learned our lesson on the way to washington about driving all night so we decided we would get a place to sleep. Iwalani can do that sort of thing :o) so we thought, "OH! lets call nani! she can help us!" Oh man were WE being proactive or WHAT!

....oh no...

so we called nani, and she told us that we should call the choice hotel office ourselves and talk to them. so! we were in the middle of nowhere, weaving in and out of the hills, and in and out of service. When we called the company, we had to be on hold for a long time to talk to anyone, which was fine, and then when you were talking to an agent, you went though about 10 more minutes talking about where you were, where you were heading, what kind of room you wanted, etc. Then you had to give them your card number and wait for a confirmation number. I was waiting for the confirmation number when I lost connection! OH NO!! I called my sister, and she said that it is a rule, that if you don't give the people the confirmation number, then they HAVE to cancel the reservation so I needed to call them back. So I called back and waited on hold 3 times, and kept dropping the call before we got a hold of someone. Determined to talk to someone, we parked at the top of a hill in the middle of nowhere and waited for like 30 min... before we decided we needed to get going. Finally I talked to someone and explained the situation to them and they checked to see if the previous reservation had went through. They said no, and so we proceeded to make another reservation. Again, after giving them my number, we lost connection. I texted my sister, and she said that she would just go online and make the reservations for us.

UNFORTUNATELY, when we arrived at the hotel...the helpful clerks HAD placed TWO reservataions for us, and the check in lady didnt know how to cancel one of them witout being automatically charged for it. OH NO! So they charged us twice, and my sister for not being there when she made the reservations ..oh NO! but, after making several phone calls, everything worked out :o) BUT! Mark and I decided that we were not "reservation" type of people on road trips anymore :o)

In addition to the hotel mix-up deterring us from making reservations, we also decided we're not "reservation" people so that we can stop where ever we want when we're tired. Poor Mark and I were driving REEEEALY late, in the middle of nowhere, to try to get to that hotel with our reservations. We saw a lot of deers while driving that long, looong night. I had heard about people hitting deer with their cars and people in my family have hit deer with their cars, but I, thankfully, had never had that pleasure. Mark and I got to see deer MUCH closer to the car than we wanted, and we almost hit a few (pretty scary). We even saw one in a TOWN, and almost hit that one too! oh NO! Man...you know you are in the hills when you see bambi hanging out in the piggly-wiggly parking lot and it seems totally normal ;o) Sorry we don't have pictures, due to the surprise nature of the deer sighting situation ;o)


All in all, it was a lovely drive, and we would recommend it to people who are heading between Washington and Reno :o) Another perk, we got to pass through the 45th parallel, half way between the Equator and the North Pole!

Pretty sweet!


We also met a certain celebrity look alike... ;o)

I LOVE YOUR MOVIE MAN! ;o)


We also met a horsie! Mark got out to check the bikes in the rack that had come loose (they came off when we hit big bumps), and he came over to visit! It was the ONLY living thing we saw for MILES :o)
"hey mark come quick!"
"look! a horse!"
"...where?...""there! see? there is the horsie!!"

We drove and drove...and drove...and drove :o) When we crossed into California, it seemed like we were going into another country! They stopped us at the state boarder and even asked us if we had any fresh produce that were we're brining across.
...and don't you think this cloud looks like a monkey?!? :-D


a monkey with really long lips! :o) I couldn't help but take this picture :o)

and we drove, and drove, and drove some more...



... and then we were in reno!! :-D

We drove through the town a bit where Mark grew up and it was really lovely :o) We stayed with Marks grandparents when we were there in Reno, and it was wonderful. Keep reading and We will tell you all about it in another blog (this blog is much too long!) :o)

All I need to know, I learned in Primary...

...especially in regards to social skills ;o)

Mark and I were able to substitute in the Columbia Ward Primary while we were in Richland Washington :o) We started out subbing for older kids classes, around about the CTR 12 boys classes, which was lots of fun, and THEN we got to sub for the CTR 5 classes and we LOVED it ALL :o) I especially loved working with the little kids. We were subs every week in CTR five for the last month or so that we were there while the second teacher was getting replaced so we got to know the children very well. It was a pretty typical class, some of the girls were super duper hyper, some of the boys were extremely shy, and all of them were completely adorable :o) The Haringtons eldest girl was in our class, along with her cousin :o) They always sat next to each other and held hands ("We're BEST cousins!"--SO sweet ;o). I think one of my favorite parts about primary is being in sharing time. Kids do the silliest things, I feel like we fit right in! For example, the Pettersons youngest grand-daughter licked her sister in the face with great regularity--to which I attribute the start of Mark and my's lick fights ;o) Another of my favorite stories was a little girl in sunbeams who came to visit, and it didn't seem she enjoyed the friendliness of the boys in her class :o) They kept scooting closer to her, and asking her what her name was, she kept scooting her chair further and further away scowling at them. They would say, "hey, want to sit by me?!" she would scoot away, "no, this way, scoot THIS way, by me!"and then the little boy, gesturing by his side, would scoot his chair in her direction. When we looked back again, the little girl was sitting as close to the wall as she could, scowling, and the little boy--looking completely dejected--was at the teachers side, practically on her lap, pouting at the little girl. :o( POOR THING! He looked so heart broken! Then one of the little boys in our class asked if she wanted to sit next to him (more scowls) and finally I asked if the little girl wanted to sit by me--to which she broke into one of the most winning smiles I had ever seen :o) *sigh!* oh the DRAMA! :-D

We loved being in Primary, and I hope we will have a chance to serve there often :o) There is such a sweet spirit there. I loved serving in sunbeams when I lived with my parents, and it was there that I was first struck with the power of the primary songs and lessons. It is so great to serve with Mark and I cant wait until we can be parents and teach our children :o) The lessons you learn in primary and are so simple and pure, so full of love, faith, and strength. They really help me to remember what is important in life and the gospel. The world would be such a different place if everyone knew they were children of God, that they were loved and important, and that everyone is special and deserves respect and love.

What we did this summer!

Mark and I worked at the Pacific Northwest National Lab as interns for the summer :o)

Mark worked primarily on a coal gasification project where he tried to develop a kinetic model for a gasifier in matlab.

I primarily worked on criticality safety for a project called PDCF, (Pit Disassembly Conversion Facility). Pits are the parts of nuclear warheads that explode; the plant is being designed to take them apart and put the Pu into MOX (mixed oxide fuel) to be burned in nuclear reactors. I hope it gets built someday! :o)

The part we liked about the lab is that you are encouraged to network with people and find projects that you would like to work on, and then work on them. Mark and I got to work over time driving truck around in slow circles for testing portal monitors (monitors to be in ports to scan cargo for nuclear material). I also go to work researching Burn Up Codes (computer codes that model how nuclear fuel burns up in reactors, and what kind of waste you are going to have to deal with after you are done). Mark got to work with people also on a helicopter project :o)

We had a lot of fun at the lab :o) and are very grateful that we got to work there :-D It is a place that is so full of history; it was very cool to work there and go on tours and learn about what an important role Hanford played in U.S. History and in the advancement of nuclear science in the world.

Tales of our Friends

We made so many lovely friends while we were in Richland, it would be impossible to tell you the tales of all of them, or how much they mean to us. We will try to tell you a little about some of them :o)

The Greer-Short Family

The Greer-Shorts were a very cool family. Brother Greer-Short was a nuclear engineer and worked at the labs. Sister Greer-Short was the primary president. They had four kids, their oldest daughter started her first semester of college and was away there for the summer getting settled and working; their next oldest girl was in high school; their next was a boy I believe in mid school; then their youngest was a sweet little girl in grade school :o) We met the Greer-Shorts at the ward picnic and sister greer-short asked us if we wanted to sub for primary the next day. We LOVED subbing in primary and we got to do it a lot this summer. I will tell you the stories about it later :o) The greer-shorts invited us over for dinner often, and it was always wonderful; Mark loved playing video games with their boy, and he thought it was sooo funny that and "adult" knew how, and was GOOD at playing video games :o) (HA! WE'RE ADULTS!) I loved coloring fuzzy posters with their youngest daughter (me and her were tight, she gave me a page of her favorite stickers); We all played "dodge ball" on the trampoline which was lots of fun. The greer-shorts loved to play, were very accepting, and very loving. They accepted us as part of their family. Sister Greer-short AMAZED me. She and her children came over to help us paint two days before we were leaving, and we had family night with them and cake. Then sister greer-short came over the day before we were leaving and helped us clean for HOURS while we packed to leave. We would never have gotten out of that house without her help; she and her family so lovingly served us, be friended us, taught us, and touched our hearts forever.

The Petersons

Sister Peterson and her husband lived around the corner from us. She had one son and their family in the house on one side of her, and another daughter on the other. They called it the "compound" :o) They were SO wonderful :o) Sister Peterson played the piano in primary and her daughters were in primary as well. They were SO fun. Sister peterson worked at the library and we got to see her there a lot (we didnt have internet, so to check our email we went to the public library) and she would also walk home from church with us at times and talk. She was a very interesting lady and I loved her stories. They had a black cat that liked to go on walks by the river :o) Sister peterson and her daughters LOVED to cook, and they invited us to go over to their house for the fourth of july and bring a friend with us. We were always allowed to use their herb garden, and visit. When we were leaving, sister peterson brought us their ward cookbook that she had compiled to give to us; it is the most AMAZING cookbook in the WHOLE world and I LOVE it. They are great people also, and they always made us feel welcome as well :o)

The Cates

Brother Cates was in the Bishopric. He is probaby the most talkative man I have EVER met :o) Je is SO FUNNY! and always made us laugh. I think we talked to him more at church than any other people :o) He always has a story about something, and he is very very nice :o) Sister cates is a really interesting lady, she is much more down to earth, and would always have to get her husband to finish talking and leave to do things :o) We ALWAYS saw them at the store, shopping, saturday night, at about 9 or 10 at night :o) We joked about the fact that we were both shopping for food at the last minute before sunday :o) We took them cookies when brother cates hurt his back. We walked down the street and took cookies to them and ended up staying and talking for quite late :o) They let us use their ladder to paint the house we were renting; brother cates volunteered sister cates to help us back our car :o) and we accepted their offer! That women, is amazing. I dont know how we would have packed the car without her help. Our car was full driving out, and we had all our stuff, PLUS two new bikes. We took one of the bikes to NM to give to goosie (my old bike) and so it was packed into the back of the car. She also brought over towels to help us clean, and ALSO took our boxes to the post office to mail to marks parents house AND refused to let us pay for the shipping. She was another of the angels sent to help us leave Richland in one piece.

The Haringtons

We have already talked about Jason and his wife and his children :o) They were great :o) They were so kind to befriend Mark from the moment they met him, I was so grateful for their kindness! Like I said before, they are wonderful people, and we loved working with thier kids and spending time with them :o)

In essence, we were OVERWHELMED by the friendship and kindness that welcomed us in Richland. I think that some of the nicest people in the world live in the North West; such nice nice people! They opened their arms, their homes, and their hearts to Mark and I, taking care or Mark while I was gone, making sure we had places to go for the holidays, befriending us, sharing with us, and taking care of us. Their example I will remember always, and I hope that Mark and I can emulate their kindness in always being mindful of the people around us who may need a place to go. :o) WE LOVE YOU ALL! THANKS SO MUCH!

The Temple!

Mark and I lived around 15 minutes from the temple, VASTLY DIFFERENT from the three hour drive to chicago from purdue, so we tried to go as often as we could. it is SUCH a beautiful temple, and I think it is one of out favorites ever! Here is a picture! So pretty :o)

One day, I was REALLY tired and we decided that we wanted to take a short little nap before we went. When we woke up, FIVE HOURS LATER...we had missed our temple appointment, and all the remaining sessions. :o) We ate dinner and sat out on the porch and talked to our neighbors. It was a very lovely evening, and while we were sad that we had missed the temple session...we were REALLY glad to have taken a nap.

Molly and Rager!

A bike shop down the street was changing locations and they had a 50% off sale. Mark and I liked to ride our bikes to the labs, and we decided to "just go in and look" after work one day.

We ended up staying for upwards of an hour (AFTER closing..oops!) and after riding several bikes, we walked away with TWO matching road bikes! :o)
My bike is named "MOLLY" (from tourmalet) and Marks bike is named "RAGER" (from bontrager). They are Le Mond marqe and FANTASTIC.

We LOVE our new bikes, they LOVE to go riding and they practically pedal themselves. :o) I like to see how far I can coast; Mark likes to see if he can break the sound barrier ;o)

Now, back at school in Indiana the bikes stay in the house with us :o)

BIRTHDAY BREAKFAST!!

MARK MADE ME BREAKFAST IN BED!! :-D He brought me a conglomeration of all my favorite foods!! :-DEggs! Broccoli! and cottage cheese!! this picture is sideways, but he shaped the eggs...into a heart :o)

aaaaaaw, how sweet!It was a WONDERFUL birthday! Mark also had planned on making me a cake, but we had already HAD a ice cream cake in the freezer that we needed to eat that we had made for when Marks cousin Spencer and Alyssa James and their new little baby Cooper had come through on their way to Reno...and so Mark made the very wise executive decision that we should wait on the cake. HE IS SO SWEET!! :-D I married the BEST-EST in the WHOLE WORLD!

Shooting Glocks with the Haringtons

Apparently, a glock is a sort of gun.

Mark made good friends with Jason Harington, a police officer in Kennewick (the town next to Richland). When we were in Richland, the town of Kennewick was in the process of finishing the new, ENORMOUS Kennewick police station and Jason offered to take us on a tour. I don't know how many of you have been to a police station... but this was first for me! :o) It was SO COOL!

The officers were allowed to take people through before they brought evidence into the station. There were a few areas that were tagged off, but we got to see a lot of the station! Interestingly enough, it was beautiful... and scary. It was very well designed for the work of the police, and Jason showed us a lot of the functionality. Like for example, in the evidence room, the police officer who collected the evidence tags it and stick it in a locker; after it is shut, the locker can only open from the inside where the evidence techs record it. Only two people can get into the evidence rooms (the two techs) and the doors are coded so they know who is in the room and what they touch. Jason said that process reduces the people who have access to the evidence, and that you can prove the trail of the people who have touched it.

Jason had a really different perspective on life and bad things that happen in the world (like crime and bad people) and it was really interesting to hear him talk about things. Mark and I liked spending time with he and his wife and listening to their stories and talking with them. They have three great children. We got to teach their little girl (and her cousin--they were SO CUTE!) in primary. (I will have to tell you stories of our adventures in primary later :o) Anyway, they are really interesting, and really funny people! This is one of my favorite stories about them. When he proposed to his wife, he got frozen oysters and put a ring into them and then buried them; they went on a date to "dig for oysters" in hopes that she would find the ring, and "oh! why look at that!" etc, etc. Well, the oysters were just frozen... not dead. When they warmed up, the wild blue yonder called... and lets just say it was a good thing Jason didnt put the REAL ring into the oysters ;o) They have this great picture of them standing in a three foot hole :o) She was like, "uh, Jason, I'm not having fun digging anymore...can we go?" he he! They left, and then the next day they went on a pick-nick, and Jason got a little pile of oysters and set the ring on top and told her the whole story and they had a good laugh about it :o)

Anyway, Jason invited Mark and I to go shooting at the police shooting range with him, his wife, his wife's two sisters, and his wife's sisters husband :o) We went shooting with them, and we shot some glocks and black powder rifles. It was a lot of fun! Jason gave us all a few shooting lessons, and then let us take turns shooting off rounds at the targets. I didnt think to take pictures until it was all over, so we have a few pictures, but none of the targets or anything :o) We drove off into the hills of Kennewick to the shooting range. It was cold in the morning, but it warmed up when the sun came up. I was really scared at first and I would close my eyes (NOT good) but I got better. Mark was really good :o) He also shot the black powder rifle and he got a really good shot! I shot it too...we wont talk about how accurate it was ;o) The black powder rifles were Adams (Jasons brother in law) and they go deer hunting with black powder rifles.

They are all really, really great people and it was such a blessing to get to know them as friends :o)

Here are some pictures from our adventures!


Here is Jason and his wife with Mark next to the scary police sign! :o) It says, "WARNING: POLICE FIREARMS RANGE, NO TRESPASSING"


Here is Mark and I by the sign


This is the range; those cement blocks are places where you stand. Everyone has to stand on the same level when you shoot, and move at the same time. You have to wait to move till everyone is done shooting. The officers qualify at the first set closest to the hill, like 10 feet or so. Jason says that is because most gun fights happen close range. Jason said we were REALLY good marksmen and that we did better than some of the police qualifiers (granted, we got to stand there and take all the time we wanted to shoot; they have a time limit when they qualify :o)



This is Jason opening the range


You have to put the yellow flag up when the range is active :o)