Well, we're back from our whirlwind vacation to Washington. We had a great time. I saw that dad's writing you a much more detailed letter about all our activities, so I'll just give the highlights. I'm sitting here chatting with Jan and Heidi. They're staying here because Jeff's father passed away last week and the funeral was yesterday. So it's fun having them here for just a little bit. They've been staying in our house while we've been gone, so it was nice for them to have a place. David came, Jeff's brothers Steve and Chris were also here in the house. They're all leaving tomorrow afternoon to go home. Heidi looks very cute in her pregnancy state. She's 31 weeks along, expecting a boy, Cameron junior most likely.
Kirk just sent me some pictures from his safari he just went on. I've attached a few
Sounds like he had a really good time.
I talked with Sean earlier this evening and he is starting his last week of summer semester. He'll be taking his finals this week. I'm proud of him that he stuck with his Arabic class, because taking a language in the summer is extremely difficult and he's managed to pull it off. Hopefully he'll be able to take some time off work and come home for a little bit before the next semester.
Seattle was a fun city to explore. We took a city tour with the Duck boat/bus and Kristina kept saying she could see you having a job as the bus driver. Every driver was a little crazy and managed to whip all of us into a tourist frenzy along the trip. We were all singing, yelling, semi-dancing throughout the whole tour. Then the bus goes into the water and that was lots of fun. The music museum was fun and it had several recording studio rooms that you could use with keyboards, guitars and drums and other various instruments. Lots of fun experimenting and pretending to know what we were doing.
We stayed the first night in Seattle and walked all over the place despite Nikki's objections. Pike's Market, of course, is always buzzing with activity. We bought gum so we could add to the collection at the bubble gum wall, which I found very disgusting yet intriguing at the same time. The girls would like to start a gum wall of our own down in your room on one of the walls. ;)
We took ferry rides several times to get back and forth from Kingston to Seattle, one time it was in complete fog. Speaking of the weather, we were so lucky. It was beautiful weather the entire time we were there. I mean it was actually sunny every day except one. Everyone kept mentioning how exceptional the weather was. We went deep sea fishing one day and it was a lot of fun despite the fact that our fish count was extremely low and dad has yet to catch his elusive salmon. We all caught fish though and even had enough flounder for a yummy little meal the skipper made for us.
The house we rented was very nice and cozy. We took 3 kayaks with us thanks to Dave Callister. I didn't think Nikki was going to get the hang of it, but by the second day she was doing great. Since we were in a little cove, there were tides to contend with and the cove itself wasn't very deep which made for warmer water, so it was pretty pleasant. When the tide was out, the girls went out and literally played in the mud. They loved it. But what the girls liked the most about the house was the fact that it had Netflix. I lost count on how many movies they watched, but they were loving it.
We also loved that we could just walk to the downtown area of Kingston where they had little shops and cafes. One day we had crepes for dinner and most days we went into town to get ice cream cones. Believe it or not, there was even a quilt store! I had to go in and support small businesses.
On our last day, we went into Seattle and ate at a little bistro on Lake Washington. After lunch, we went out on the dock by the bistro and watched the Blue Angels perform over Lake Washington. There were literally hundreds of boats all sitting out on the lake together watching the show. It was really an impressive sight to see-the blue angels and the crowd. From there, we went half way home to Kennewick where we stayed the night, went to church this morning and then came home.
We got you some fun trinkets from our trip, so we'll send those out to you tomorrow. And of course you should be receiving our smattering of post cards from Seattle.
We enjoyed getting your letter while on our trip. Thank you modern technology. It's great to hear all about your new companion. Are you in a 2-some now because that's how the new mission president wants it? How is Steven coming along with the lessons? Today in the ward we attended they had a convert confirmation of a young girl in high school. It was so cool to see her walking up there in her pants. There was something so fresh and exciting about seeing someone new accepting the gospel message and having such a strong desire to be part of Christ's church. Later a man got up (probably about 60) and bore his testimony about his own conversion 20 years earlier and how he felt and how seeing this young girl join this weekend has brought those strong memories back to him. He bore a powerful testimony to her and to all of us about the truths that he now knows in his life every day and the influence that the Holy Ghost has been in his life. I loved listening to him.
So I hope Steven and many more youth will open up to your message. My friends who joined the church while in high school and in college are still today very strong members of the church. I sat in on many many missionary discussions as a young adult and it made probably just as big an impact on me as it did on them. Try to have your discussions with other young people present.
Better get off to bed. It's getting late and I need to close up the house. We have tons of weeding to do tomorrow :( It looks like we've been gone 1 month not just 1 week.
Have a miraculous week. There are miracles granted us every day and remember to be generous and genuine in your compliments. They magnify someone else's soul.
love you,
Mom xoxo
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