Walking, exploring, and discovering the many beauties in Cheney and Spokane, Washington.

We did a lot of walking, exploring, and discovering while visiting Hailey, Joseph, Clark, and Avonlea in Cheney and Spokane, Washington.

Avonlea and Clark reading with the "kids"!

 The first night, we took a very long walk through Eastern Washington University where Hailey and Joseph work.  What a beautiful campus albeit a bit sparse on people because of the COVID-19 challenge. Of course, that just meant we had the campus to ourselves.

The next morning, we head to the Turnbull Wildlife Refuge, but there was a train parked on the tracks between us and the refuge. We waited more than a few minutes and decided that the train was not going to move any time soon, so we trundled over to Spokane to the Moore-Turner Heritage Center, and that was closed, too. We did do a bit of walking along a few paths outside of the Center.

Clark and Grandma Hammon

Well, since Spokane has lots of things to do, we headed over to the John A.Finch Arboretum, "a botanical collection of trees and woody plants that have been labeled for field study." What a treat that was!

It is an arboretum, 65 acres of flora and fauna of all kinds. We even saw a couple of turkeys with a baby turkey.

Oh, and did I say lots of rocks?

One of the most beautiful flowers was Avonlea!

The next morning, we finally were able to cross the tracks and drive to the Turnbull Wildlife Refuge. What a fun and intriguing place! We walked about. 1.5 miles down and around this particular lake and saw lots of birds and flora and fauna.

Two swans from a far....

We saw a big while pelican that was lounging around the lake. I whistled, hoping he would jump and fly so I could get a better view—to no avail. He knew there was no reason to be worried about any of this.

The early morning reflections of trees, water, and a rising sun made for some phenomenal views.

Early morning reflections....

The wild flowers were pretty and plentiful.

Plus, we saw three red tail hawks. It was challenging to get a close-up view of them, but one stayed still for a moment.

In the afternoon after lunch, we motored over to Manito Park in Spokane, a very pristine and well-manicured place with lots of flowers, more flowers than I have seen for a long time.

We walked through the English gardens

the rose garden, which was finishing its blooming season. If they would dead head them, they would come back, right?

the regular gardens

 

Avonlea loves the water....

Avonlea and Clark playing with ladybugs....a plethora!

We tried the Japanese gardens, but they were closed because of the coronavirus, too close of quarters. But I did peek through and over the fence and took a couple of pictures.

What a joy we had doing all of this. I will post all of the flowers on Facebook so you can see them all—or at least the ones I will post.

Once we were dazzled by all of the flowers, we drove through this residential area until we ended up at The Scoop, a mom and pop shop that sells a variety of ice cream.

Ultimately, when the day ended, I had over 12,000+ steps. Whew, what a day!

Cinnamon rolls, a grandson, and a grandmother: Working together for a delicious outcome!

Cheney, Washington

We have had a fun time with Hailey, Joseph, Clark, and Avonlea in Washington (more pictures to come!).

The first thing that Clark wanted to do when we arrived was to have Grandma teach him how to make cinnamon rolls. So, what does a Grandma do when a grandson asks her to help him make cinnamon rolls? She does it.

Of course, one of the most important parts is to have all of the ingredient ready and waiting. Stirring them in one at a time is equally important.

Then, comes the arduous task of patience: waiting for the dough to rise.

Once you have the strips cut perfectly, you add the most important ingredients: butter, cinnamon, sugar, etc. Then, carefully, you roll it up into a log and cut them into circles and place them gently on the pan to rise again.

Once the rolls have risen sufficiently, you place them in the oven and bake them. 

After they are done, you let them cool a bit before applying the delicious frosting that is a mixture of cream cheese and powdered sugar with a dash of vanilla.

Clark did the slathering--the frosting of the cinnamon rolls. He did slather them beautifully, making sure there was barely a brown spot of roll showing. Isn’t that what makes them good?

We saved for dessert after dinner. They were divine and delicious!

Thanks, Clark and Grandma Hammon, for the delicious cinnamon rolls!

We love you!

The bonding and blending of a granddaughter, grandmother, cinnamon rolls, and strawberries!

What happens when you add a granddaughter who is celebrating a birthday, a grandmother, a host of baking ingredients, some cups of strawberries, and an almost new kitchen? You get the best homemade cinnamon rolls, strawberry jam, and scones.

Some ingredients for cinnamon rolls and strawberry jam!

 Emiline, our oldest granddaughter, recently celebrated a birthday. When her mother asked what she wanted for her birthday. Her reply was simple: “I want Grandma Hammon to teach me how to make cinnamon rolls and strawberry jam."

Emiline and her ingredients

So much for a new Barbie doll or anything unicornish!

So, Emiline and Joanne gathered up the necessary ingredients, and we drove to their new home in Draper.

Emiline and Grandma Hammon

Soon, Emiline and her grandmother put their heads together and read the recipes, and then organized the ingredients for both the strawberry jam and cinnamon rolls to make sure everything was there.

First the strawberry jam…

They washed the strawberries and then carefully cut out the green stems. Grandma showed Emiline a slick way to save as much berry as possible as you cut out the stems. Then, Emiline sliced and placed the sliced strawberries into a glass bowl.

Let the slicing begin!

Now, the work began for Emiline as she began smashing and smushing the strawberries. Soon, with a bit of elbow grease and effort, that was done, she added the pectin and let the berries sit.

"Smashing these strawberries is pretty hard!"

"Let's try with both of us smashing berries!"

Now, on to cinnamon rolls….

Grandma told Emiline how important the yeast was, so they needed to be careful how they created it.. Grandma showed her how to measure the warm water, using a thermometer, so it was just the right temperature as not to “kill” the yeast. They used the thermometer to make sure the water was not too hot.

Checking the temperature of the water.

Then, they poured the yeast into the warm water and mixed.

Measuring and adding yeast to water...

While that was working, Emiline went back to her jam where she began to add the sugar. Her comment was, “Wow! I didn’t know you had to put in so much sugar!” And that is the reason everyone likes jam—six berries and five cups of sugar. Delicious!

Adding sugar to stawberries--an awakening!

Once the strawberries and pectin were mixed, sugar added, Emiline poured the jam into four plastic containers to sit and gel and then to the freezer for safe storage--for a time!

Emiline and her first jam!

3.25 cups of strawberries + four cups of sugar = strawberry jam!

Now, on to Round 2 of the cinnamon rolls making….

The mixing of the dough

Emiline began adding the ingredients: the yeast mixture and then began adding cup by cup of flour all the while the mixer was mixing until the mixture was just perfect for rolling out and continuing the process of making the cinnamon rolls. Once the dough was ready, it was set aside to rise.

Once the dough was ready, Joanne began to show her how to select the ingredients for the filling.

 Grandma directed her to “punch” the dough to deflate it. They Emiline spread some flour on her new countertops and begin to roll out the dough into a square.

"So, how flat shall I roll this dough?"

Basting and sprinkling: the art of making cinnamon rolls.

 She rolled out the dough, cover the dough with melted butter and sprinkled on the special ingredients of sugar and cinnamon.

Poof! Cinnamon rolls ready to rise once more before baking!

 After basting it with butter and sprinkling all of the dry ingredients on top, she cut out the dough into strips, and rolled each of them up until they looked like a folded flat cookie and placed on a pan to rise some more.

Almost there....almost!

 Not long after, the cinnamon rolls came out of the oven, sat for a moment or two, and then Emiline and Grandma began to frost them with a powdered sugar frosting.

Butter + powdered sugar + creme cheese + vanilla = the topping for a divine cinnamon roll!

 Before too long, they were ready to be eaten and enjoyed. And they were delicious!

Bonus round: Scones!

Then, the bonus round of baking and cooking scones for dinner. They made some more dough, let it rise for a moment or two, rolled it out, and then cut it into strips--and a couple of circles.

Scone dough

Cutting the dough for scones

While Emiline was busily rolling out and cutting the dough, Grandma was carefully heating up the grease so they could fry the bread, thus making fry bread for dinner.

  

Cooking the fry bread....

After dinner, Emiline opened up her presents.

Emiline and her new headphones

Who said birthdays had to be filled with presents? Emiline’s favorite present for her birthday was working alongside her Grandmother Hammon while they made strawberry jam, cinnamon rolls, and scones, all in one afternoon.

Emiline and Grandma Hammon (Joanne) making jam together!

Happy Birthday Emiline!

Grandpa and Grandma Hammon