Last time I posted we were finishing up our trip to California. We had to get back home, first of all because we missed Kade and Ryne and secondly because we had a nice string of visitors line up. The first of those visitors actually met up with us at the airport the morning we flew in and gave us a ride home.
It was David, Kyle's cousin from Texas!
He had some business on the other side of the state but was cool enough to fly into Seattle and rent a car so that we could spend some time with him.
Here are the boys with David having some yummy Farrelli's Pizza. Guess who's idea that was? Kade's, of course! That was to finish up the day after Kade and Kyle took David to Seattle for a little Lewallen sight-seeing tour. I volunteered to stay home with Ryne and just rest a bit since this trip to Seattle took place the very same day that we flew home from California. Oh, we did have a nice nap that afternoon.
I sent the camera with Kyle and Kade to take pictures of their adventure.
They came back with one picture.
Here it is.....
The guy at the fish market gave Kade a fish to hold.
Nice. I'm trusting they remembered to wash his hands before lunch.
David headed out the next morning for his business trip. It was a quick stop. He did return for another night before he had to fly back to Texas. This time an early morning trip to Mt. Rainier was on the agenda. Seriously early! Early enough that we just let David and Kyle make that trip by themselves. Here are a few pics from that trip.....
They had a beautiful clear day!
And this was their travel companion...
DeDe!
She belongs to David's little girl Charity and he brought DeDe along to take pictures of his adventure. What a fun idea!
Here are David and DeDe making the hike up at Mt. Rainier.
A great shot of Kyle with a spectacular view.
Guess it was worth them getting up so crazy early to see such a magnificent reminder of what an amazing Creator we serve! I seriously think I remember them heading out at like 4:30 am. Yikes!
Well, to be honest, the early morning wasn't the only reason we skipped the trip. At this point we actually had another visitor show up to spend some time with us. So, we had somebody else to hang out with that day. Look who it was....
MONK MONK!!!!!
Yes, my kid sister came for a visit!!!
Cannot tell you how much I was loving that!
Of course, you can probably guess how much the boys were loving that.
She played with them like crazy. She also helped me out a ton with getting things organized for Tesa and Tyce. Who even knows how many boxes of clothes we went through figuring out what would fit and what would be the wrong season, etc.
We did get to have a little bit of sister time, too.
We always like to go for a pedicure!
Monk's toes were really sparkly, wish you could tell how cool they were in the picture. You'll just have to take my word for it.
Another thing we always like to do...
Cold Stone!
Mmmm...two of my favorite things in one place at one time.
My sister and a "peanut butter cup perfection" Cold Stone treat!!
I was one happy girl!
We also got to do a little bit of shopping. Mostly just for baby stuff, but it was fun times just the same. Speaking of baby stuff, I was super thrilled that Monk was here to accompany me to a baby shower for Tesa and Tyce.
It was so much fun having her get to be there!
I'll post more about the shower later.
Just look at that big tummy of mine, would ya? I was about 30 weeks pregnant here.
We did take one little family outing while Monk was here. We took her to one of our new favorite places to visit. I've posted about it before. The Nisqually Wildlife Refuge that is just a few miles from our house.
I think Kyle was pointing out some ducks in this picture.
Lots of geese.
We do like when we get to the boardwalk and can let the boys get out of the stroller.
Of course, I still like to keep a "leash" on Ryne. He's a fast little joker and doesn't always like to stop when we say "stop."
We saw lots of birds that day.
A couple of cool looking barns that are visible on our walk.
Our goofy Kade.
Socks and sandals were his request that morning. I'm telling you we have a little Northwesterner on our hands.
Ryne has become our happy snacker. Meaning that if we need to make him happy, just give him a snack. I go nowhere without a nice supply of snacks!
The end of the boardwalk lets you look out at the sound.
Monk enjoying the view....or just taking a break from chasing boys down the boardwalk.
Looks like we were all happy snackers on this break!
The only thing I wish we could've changed about our visit from Monk Monk would be for it to have been longer. Seemed like she was gone in a flash. But SO glad she got to come hang out with us for a few days. Thanks, Monk, for taking time away from your work and life in Arkansas to come see us crazy people out in Washington! We love you!!
Ready for more visitors?
Good!
This is Jordan and Jacob.
Not visitors per say but Jordan came back to us from studying in Africa for a semester. Felt like she was a visitor but actually she is a returner!! And boy are we glad! We missed her!
And Jacob, well he's all dressed up for a reason....he had just graduated from college!
Congrats Jacob!
Graduation from college tends to bring visitors....and in Jacob's case, it brought lots of them.
We are having a picnic at church here for Memorial Day and Jordan, Jacob and Connor are hanging out with Ryne. Connor was one of Jacob's graduation visitors.
The rest of them are huddled around the far table in this picture....
The cool thing is that Jacob's visitors were our visitors. Kyle grew up with much of Jacob's family living in the same town. They all stayed at a house around the corner from us so we got to spend a lot of time with them while they were in town. I was looking back and couldn't believe that I didn't take more pictures while they were here.
I found this one...
A trip to the park with all the kiddos and Connor is helping Ryne on the spin-around thingy.
Jacob's family is super sweet and we really enjoyed having them in town.
Can you handle one more set of visitors this post?
I hope so, because we have one more to go.
This one will take a little bit of explaining.
Check out this picture....
See the little boy and little girl?
That's Ash and Lucy, they were our ring bearer and flower girl for our wedding.
I was their nanny when Kyle and I met.
Well, guess who flew into Seattle to go on an Alaskan cruise???
Ash and Lucy!!!!
They've grown a bit in the last 7 years, huh?
What? Not enough to be hanging out in Seattle alone? You're right. That's why they had their Dad, Frank, with them.
We made a trip to Pike Place Market with them and enjoyed the sights and sounds of the famous market in Seattle.
Here we are headed to show them Kade's favorite spot....the gum wall.
And here we are waiting for another of our favorite market treats...a giant chocolate chip cookie. They were in the oven so we waited!
It was so good to see Ash, Lucy and Frank. Just wish that Jinny would have been able to make the trip with them. Maybe next time we will get all four of the Hurdle clan and the visit can be for more than just a few hours. But for now, I always take what I can get and enjoy every minute of having people visit our beautiful part of the country!
So, what are you waiting for????
Come on out and see us!!!
Come on out and see us!!!
1 comment:
So I'm catching up on blog reading tonight and Oh my do I ever want to come for a visit...but really I think i'd rather move out that way.
Post a Comment