Something Special in Spokane

FRIDAY:

Over the mountains and through the woods....


...to Gracie's house we go!


We got stuck in Mariners game traffic on the way out of town, so Jonathan drove fast...and even faster!


I enjoyed watching all the bright green Spring has brought out.


It helped that I was knitting on my bright green sweater!
We still got there pretty late and talked with Jen and Jon till even later. Jen gave us coffee cake to sustain us. Mmmm!

SATURDAY:

That's us at 6:30! Playing with Grace is the only happy incentive that I can think of for getting up that early after going to bed so late!


Jen was a blur of yummy good cooking....


Mmmm..bread puddin'!


Gracie and Mommie

Peek

A

Boo!

A back porch full of early morning peace and Grace (notice the pointer)


Jonathan experiences the many uses of the pointer finger.

Lucy is waiting to see if she will get any bread pudding.


Yup, this look says it all...Breakfast was DEee-licious!

The Project of the Day:

After breakfast, Grace went down for a short-lived nap--her only sleep of the day, but we didn't know it at the time!
Jen and I put our heads together for a little dresser refurbishment. The plan was to paint roses on the front of Gracie's red dresser.

We measured...


We painted...


And we...?
a) procrastinated by taking funny pictures
b) heard Grace wake up
c) were ready to stop before the project was done
d) were slain prematurely by paint fumes


Here is Grace giving us some color direction from her play pen. She, by the way, was amazing at entertaining herself. I was very impressed!


Here's Grace, still not sleeping. (I love this picture.)

The finished project.

After painting, Jen thought Grace might fall asleep if we went for a car ride, so we drove through Taco Time and picked up some lunch for the guys. They were working on a vanity at Jon's shop. Grace did not fall asleep.
Jon's shop is very cool, with neato equipment that has the capability of severing all sorts of anatomy parts. I'm sorry we didn't take any pictures of it.
While we were there, Jon and Jonathan and I practiced singing "I am Trusting Thee", since we were going to do it for special music at their church the next morning. It was very pleasing to make great music together. We discovered that the shop has fantastic acoustics too!

After lunch we visited some really cool gardens. We thought surely Grace would fall asleep in the stroller, but she didn't.

Grace and Da-Da do some free-style strollering!


Jon and Jonathan in the formal garden.


Jonathan set up the timer and then had to run about 40ft to get in the picture. You can tell Grace was astounded...as were we all!

"Sheesh, are you still following me around?"


Jonathan and Keren in the Japanese garden

Cool pic of Jon.

It's my very own tree-seat!


Jen took this beautiful picture of the dogwood tree.


My toes.


Jonathan was skulking in the bushes trying to take our picture without us knowing...but we caught him in the act!

On to the Lilac Garden!


'Grace' seems like a good title for this one. (notice the pointer)


Get it, Get it, Get it!
On the way home, Grace finally fell asleep! We made chicken kabobs for dinner and dragged Jen out to the movies, against her will.

SUNDAY:
After church we all took naps. Then had ciabatta sandwiches by Jen. I'm telling you, there was no shortage of good, good Food!

The family.

"I do declare!"

"I love my mommie's hair!"

"It's true, we are a pair!"

So much fun!

Grace showed us her walking moves.

Petting Rosie.


"hanging"out


We had such a wonderful time! Thank you Jen and Jon!

Happy Mother's Day Mom!

I wanted to take the time to post some of my favorite pictures of my mom. I believe that they demonstrate some pretty darn cool mom things!

I love this picture because it is of my mother with her mom and dad. I never got to meet Grandma Frieda, as she passed away from breast cancer before I was born. But I have inherited a few valuable things from her through my mom: Cooking, bread making, sewing and loving. I just don't even want to imagine how dreary my life would be without these things!
My grandpa re-married and so I'm very lucky to have three grandmas, and an amazing heritage of God lovers in my family. My second grandma, Grandma Ruth, never fails to tell me that she and grandpa are praying daily for me. I hope to be as faithful to the Lord as she is and that my home will be filled with the same kind of loving prayer theirs is filled with.

This is my mother at age two or three. It is hands down my favorite picture, because of the look of joy and love in her eyes. My mom is good at loving!

I can't help but notice the same look of love and joy in her eyes as she holds me in this picture. No matter what we did growing up, my mom always believed in us. I think I owe a lot of my confidence to her confidence in me. Thank you for treasuring me, Mom!

OK, so this is a funny picture to include, but it really made me laugh out of pure enjoyment! Sometimes we do just let our underwear show, even if by accident. Mom and Dad demonstrated to me the treasure of vulnerability and honesty.

My mom still laughs this way--deep belly laughs that consume her ability to stay vertical. We, the children, used to take great pride in bringing out this quality in her laughter!

Isn't she beautiful? I inherited this pin on my wedding day, and love it all the more for this picture.

"Yep, that's me and my mom, she taught me most things I know!"

I sure do love you Mom!