WHEWWWWWWWWWWW!!!

Well we hope you had a blessed 4th Holiday. Sorry I haven't posted in a while. We were busy, busy busy. It started with a family wedding on the 27th
(Randi Lynn Noble and Eric Johnson), a family cookout/baby shower/church on the 28th,

piano and Joseph's birthday on the 29th

and then we left for Seattle on the 30th. We got home on Tuesday afternoon.

We flew to Seattle, WA (my birthplace) on Tuesday and got there Tuesday night. We arrived and went and stayed with my cousin and her family. Wednesday, Aaron had to work (from my cousin's house), so my mom, my cousin and I drove around Seattle. We went to see the house I was brought home to (after I was born) and the house my mom lived in off of Alki beach. We stopped for our free sandwiches from Arbys ;o). We then went to Sam's club to pick up things we needed for the reunion, like plates, cups, etc. We also had to meet, mid afternoon with the church's janitor to be able to talk about the set up, etc.

Pictures from Alki Beach:



(My cousin MJ and her kids)

House my Aunt was brought home to and my mom lived in when she was 7 on Alki Beach.

Thursday, there was more running around to do. On Thursday, we were also blessed to be blessed with free tickets to the Museum of Flight at Boeing Field. My grandfather, cousins, uncle and father all have worked at Boeing, so it was terrific. Then on Thursday afternoon, we did a "pre-setup" for the reunion.
We also were blessed that my cousin and her hubby own a boat and invited us all to ride on it at Lake Washington. We had quite a few people there, and my hubby enjoyed himself SO much, that he said if we lived near water, he would want a ski boat ;o)

Pictures from Boating and time spent on Lake WA:






Pictures from the Museum of Flight, Boeing Field, Seattle, WA:











Friday, we got up earlier (as we have most mornings) and got ready to meet several of my yahoo group homeschool families for a get-together. One of those families is in transition from TX to Japan, so it was quite special to get together with them. We had 4 families represented and they all got along great, as if they had known each other all along ;o) It was a kindship. We had so much fun! Between the families, Lee didn't bring her family, so between the 3, there were 17 kids ;o) We had lunch, wonderful smoothies (thanks TIM), and the kids had water balloon fights. The only bad part about it, was that it was so short for us. Since it was an hour or so south of the church, we knew we had to leave, to be able to get to the church to help set up for the meet and greet for the reunion Friday night.

Pictures from our Homeschool group get together. These Moms are from GA, TX, & WA:






We got to the church in time to help set up. We were greeted by a loose English Bulldog and later we found out that he had a name. His name was Brady and we were able to turn him in to his owners. Someone had accidentally let him out. We were worried about the heat, and brought him in with us. Aaron tried to say that it would be nice to get him on the plane to bring him home, but we knew he was well trained. We enjoyed him though. We set up with desserts and thanks to my cousin's, we had pizza. We started at 7 pm and people started to trickle in. It was a nice, relaxing way to get to know people before the "big one" on Saturday.

Friday Night Mingle and the beginning of the Reunion:






Saturday was an early day of course. Had to stop and get ice before it started. We got there about 9:30 am and things were going to start at 10 am. Things got to a SLOOOOOOOOWWW start but most people were there by lunch time ;o). We had over 100 there. What a blessing to see such a large and loving family. Really, it had been 25 years TOO long. Since Grandpa was the youngest of 9 and his oldest brother, was 18 years older than he was, I have alot of older cousins. Some of them in their upper 80's. One, cousin Joe, was just in ICU 2 weeks ago for major surgery. We didn't think he would make it, since the surgery was so tough and he almost didn't make it, but he was there, and so was majority of his family. He lives in AZ with his wife. You can tell that he was so excited to be there. It was so exciting to be there. We had people from Pakistan, Ohio, Georgia, California, Alaska, of course Washington, Colorado, Idaho, Oregon and there might be others. The oldest family member there was 87 years old. He is also the bearer of the coveted Gold-headed Cane, that has been in our family for over 250 years. Saturday night, was the 4th, so after we cleaned up, we went to my cousin MJ's house and we watched the fireworks from their deck. It was cool to see Mt. Ranier from their deck and then the fireworks. It was awesome to be able to visit with them one on one too.





On Sunday, we got ready to go and meet our family for a second reunion. The first one was for my Grandpa's side of the family. This one was for my grandma's side of the family. We went to a camp near Lake Stevens and had a great time. We had 35-40 which isn't bad for a short notice. It was so fun to see my cousins and my remaining Aunt and Uncle that are still living. So much love. Sunday night, we went to my Grandparent's best friends house, which is where my parents were staying. They really wanted to see us and spend time with us. They LOVED it. They especially loved it when our oldest got up and played some good ole hymns on their piano. Loren's eyes lit up, he started bouncing and couldn't get enough. He then wanted to know what else he could play and started asking requests for songs ;o) Not yet, but he still enjoyed what Joshua had done.











Monday was another fun filled day. We decided to drive over to Bremerton, which meant around the lake to meet with a girlfriend of mine, that I went to school with, worked with while in WI and was in our wedding (almost 17 years ago). She and her hubby both work at the Bremerton Shipyard. As we drover over, we stopped off of the side of the road and saw some carriers: Numbers 61, 62 and 64: The Independence, the Constellation and the Ranger. But we were sad that none of them were #63: The Kitty Hawk. They were really far away though. We had hopes of seeing her majesty the USS Kitty Hawk. (My daddy was on her for 4 1/2 years and she was decommissioned the end of January.) Well, it was SO good to see Kathy and meet her hubby Scott too for the first time. I asked Kathy about the KH but she said she was inaccessible and non visible. She was "locked away" and we were unable to get near her to take a picture unless you were out on a boat.... We had a nice lunch with Kathy and Scott and went to the pier. We saw the Destroyer "Turner Joy" and while there we asked about the KH again. We were told the SAME thing. It was locked up and IF we wanted to see it, we would have to take a ferry to Port Orchard, WA to get a "glimpse" of her. So I gave up on seeing the KH. We asked about the Ferry Schedules and the boys were SO excited to get to ride a ferry back to Seattle. We walked around the ferry and started looking around, when Joseph, the 14 yo, said "Mom, look there is a carrier." I looked and the carrier was oh, about 100 yds. away. As soon as I looked up at the top of the carrier, I started to squeal. What do you think I saw??
Oh, How about the NUMBER 63! It WAS indeed, the glorious, Honorable, USS KITTY HAWK. Joshua, the oldest was on the OTHER side of the ship when he heard me say her name, and he came running over. I snapped picture after picture of her and called my daddy immediately! It was no doubt one of the highlights of the trip! We rode the ferry back over to Seattle and how beautiful it was. From there, we went to my uncle's brother's house to have a last "hurrah". My cousin, who is in the US Army and his family were returning to Ft. Hood, TX and so we had a family gathering/cookout. We spent Monday night, packing and getting ready to leave. We had to be up at 4 am pacific time to come home on Tuesday morning, but we didn't get much sleep. It was a memorable, but VERY busy trip. We had so much fun. I hope to update more often now that we are back home.