Home Again

Greetings to all.

I have come to the conclusion after 4 plane trips in 2 1/2 weeks that traveling with young children is hard! Fun (for the most part), but hard! I can't say that I want to get on an airplane with them again any time soon. It's stressful trying to keep them quiet and entertained. At least Jake is old enough to understand that he does need to be quiet and sit in his seat, but Warren is another story. Let's just say we were very thankful that he slept for a good portion of the flight coming home from Seattle.

This was on the tram from the parking lot to the terminal in Ontario.

Ah, Seattle. We loved visiting you. What a beautiful place with perfect weather. In case you think I'm crazy, Ryan and I are both cold weather lovers! We got to bundle up last weekend and wear coats! Amazing.

So a little about our "super fun" trip: We arrived Friday around noon and drove down to my sister's new apartment in Tacoma. What wonderful timing that she and her family moved there for us to be able to visit with them. She and the kidlet and just arrived the night before we did, and Isaac had already been there a week or more, I believe, because he drove the moving van cross country. We had a very fun, yet way too short, visit with them. At least we are all on the same coast now, instead of them being in Georgia.

That night we had dinner with Ryan's entire side of the family (minus a few cousins who were unable to make it) which was really fun.

Saturday morning, we drove up to Seattle with Ryan's parents and sister, Natalie, for a tour of Nat's school and home, plus some of the city. The city was so gorgeous with all the fall colors blooming. Natalie showed us some of her favorite spots and some of the famous touristy spots, such as Pike's Market (I think that's what it's called-it is where they throw the fish around in movies).

This is the park where Natalie runs, the gasworks. Poor thing having to take in so much beauty when she's exercising.

In the afternoon, it was back to the airport where we left Ryan's backpack in the rental car garage to retrieve it (we gave much praise to God that it was still there because there was very important stuff in there-Bibles, Ryan's study notes, etc.) and then back to Tacoma to get ready for the wedding. The wedding was nice, but again, stressful trying to keep the little guys occupied and quiet for the ceremony. Ryan and I took Warren back to the hotel early, about 8 p.m., while Jake stayed with Grammy and Papa and danced the night away, or so we heard!

We stayed in the Marriot hotel in downtown Tacoma and had a great view from our room as you can see from the pictures. Tacoma, like Seattle, is a beautiful city.

On Sunday, we had the great joy of going to the church that Ryan's good friend from seminary, John LeProhon, is now the pastor of. He just started about a month ago. The church is in Kent, WA, if anyone in the area is looking for a fantastic church with a great preacher.

After church, Jess and Isaac drove up to Kent and we had lunch with them. We spent another couple of hours with them, which all the boys were happy to do.

We stayed with the LeProhon's that night and left Monday morning for home. When we left Washington, it was in the 50s. When we arrived back in Ontario, it was 90. Yuck.

So that's about it. Traveling over for now. If you want us to come and visit you and we must take a plane to get there, don't ask. At least not for a while.

Hope everyone is doing well, drop me a note to say hi!