Dad and the Dukes in Town

Just last week Jared's dad spent several days with us. It was wonderful to spend time with him and for him to see what our lives are like here in Vancouver. As always, he was a super handy-man, hanging hooks and making storage shelves for the garage. Really it was a multi-dad effort, with the design for the shelves coming from my dad, and the labor from Jared's. They were a great team! I was able to go on a dinner outing with dad to thirty floor high Portland City Grill. It was quite breathtaking.

On Labor Day, Wally and I went with Jared down to school and helped him prepare for the first day of classes the next day. Neither of us had seen where he was going to be working, so it was a great experience for both of us. The work room at the school was an awesome little craft center... I was able to play with all sorts of fun tools while making hall passes and bulletin boards with the guys.

While Wally was here, the Dukes overlapped a few days on their move from Indo to Idaho. It was great to have so many people connected to Indo in the same place. If we had just had Joan here too it would have been perfect. Jared had a couple mega-gatherings in the house, one at which we played an interactive, lights out game of mafia. He can't wait to play again. Hopefully by then we will have some curtains up to block out the street lights.

Thursday Wally flew out to New York to meet up with Cinda and Matt before conferences in Idaho. As always, the goodbyes were hard, but it is reassuring to know we will see him again this spring.

Kat & Caleb

Kat & Caleb are married!!! We had the pleasure of hosting the newlyweds for a day before they were able to move into their new Portland apartment. Jared and I both had the day off, so were able to help with the move. The trusty Hazel Dell moving truck hit the road again and was once again stuffed full. When we arrived at the new apartment, the most exciting part was that it was Kat & Caleb's first time seeing where they would live! They'd had a friend check it out for them while they were preparing for the wedding in Colorado. Thankfully it is a great place and they are not disappointed in the least. We are super excited for them and have already loved getting to see them more than once a year.

The newlyweds amongst a maze of furniture

A Few Days in Seattle

There is a bit of catching up to do here. It has been almost three weeks now since Jared and I made a short trek up to Seattle. The WRX's need for its 60,000 mile maintenance was a great excuse to go back home. We spent most of the time at my mom & dad's place. We had decided to bring Awas & Samba along to see how they liked travelling (and my parents dogs). On the way up we were starting to wonder if we'd made a mistake... there was over an hour of meowing when we first headed out from Vancouver. Thankfully they finally fell asleep and all was well. On the trip back home they rough housed in the little cage for a while, then slept for almost 5 hours (we made quite a few stops on the way home). They can now definitely be considered car cats.

The first morning at my parents we introduced them to Sadie, my parents cat. Our cats didn't mind the meeting, but Sadie threw a "hissy fit". Samba and Awas responded to that attitude in kind. We had never seen cat tails so puffy. Awas and Samba were very scared of the dogs at first, but slowly became more curious. If we had stayed longer we are certain that they would have started to have some fun.

While the guys did most of the work on the car, my mom took me to a few local nurseries and walks around her garden. Becca came with and helped me pick out a few plants to take back home.

On the last day there, we were able to connect up with a couple of friends. Jannelle had just interviewed for a new job and was offered the position in the interview, so we were especially blessed to be able to celebrate that success with her. After that we headed down to Pike's Place to meet up with Robb for a few minutes at the yummy french bakery. Our last stop was at the Meeuwse's place in Kent. We caught the end of Cris & Amy's soccer game and met some of the Meeuwse relatives from Holland. All in all it was a busy few days, but the rushing around was well worth it to spend time with so many people we care about.