Summer trip to Seattle

When I was last in Seattle in Feb., I had a talk with the Lord, and I prayed, "Lord, the next time I know of that I will see my kids is in Nov. You know I can't last that long!! I am leaving it in your hands to bring us together before that. I will be ok with whatever your will is." Well, He brought us together, not once, not twice, not three times, but 4 times!!!! Not all of us all at once, all the time, but close enough!!! I saw the kids in March in Chicago for Mom's 88th birthday, Nate & Shell came out to see us in June, and Matt & Callie made it to Lander for the family reunion, and now this trip!! God is so GOOD!!!

So, on to our trip, Dan had a couple of meetings in Seattle over the time frame of July 20th-28th, so I flew home with him. We stayed at the Residence Inn in Lynnwood which has become our stayover place of choice:)

The kids all came the first night to join us for Bar-b-que night and Kacie said she had a surprise...Boy, was it a surprise!!! She came with a 6 week old golden retriever puppy!!! He is SO CUTE!!!! His name is Duke, and he won all our hearts!!

We had a small hot tub right outside our unit, so Carlos, Kacie, & Callie joined us that first night for some relaxing time!!

Our nephew, Matt, wife, Laura, & girls, Claire & Alyssa were also in town to do soccer camps in the area with their ministry, Ambassadors in Sports. They live in Ohio, so it was wonderful that we got to be together while we were there. While Matt & Claire were at camp, Kacie, Carlos, & I decided to take Laura & Alyssa out to lunch at Red Robin.:)

Another blessing from the trip was being in town for Matt's 30th birthday Party!! What great fun!! Matt had lots of help opening his cards & presents:)

The weather was beautiful while we were there, and Kacie & Carlos love to go to Green Lake, so we all joined them. Of course EVERYBODY wanted to pet Duke!!!

We of course loved spending time at Matt & Callie's to take advantage of the view over the Puget Sound and the Olympic Mts.

It was not only Callie's Matt's birthday, it was also Matt & Laura's!!! It was fun celebrating!!

It is always hard to fit in visiting with friends while we are home since we are trying to spend as much time with the kids as we can, but I was able to go to lunch with Shirley & Mary (co-worker & principal from the school I used to work at), and dinner with long time friends, Bob & Lisa Jones.

Nate & Shell have a pool at their condo and Matt & Laura's girls loved their time there!! Alyssa loved Nate & Shell's bunny, Bella!!

And of course we had an evening at my brother, Bruce & wife, Joellen's house. Time to eat, play games, and be silly!!

Family time. There's nothing better!!!!