To start with we flew standby saving us about $500 in airfare.  Thank you Marty.  I’m not sure I’d do it again.  On the flight out we got the last four seats on the plane. All middles and all in different rows.  We weren’t supposed to get on at all, but somebody didn’t show. The flight back was better, but we still had to trade around to get seats next to the kids.  We did learn a few things: 1) Alaska’s non-stop flight is awesome.  2) Sitting one parent and one kid in one row while the other parent sits with the other kid 10 rows away is great. They can’t fight, fuss, or want to switch parents.  Made the ride easier than I expected. We’ll be buying tickets like this in the future.

The first few days of our trip we just kind of lounged around. We did visit Amber’s mom on Thursday and my dad  Friday. At my dad’s the kids chased chickens, fed fish and generally went back to the land.  It was good to see my dad after almost 2 years.

All photos from 2009-10-08

All  photos from 2009-10-09

On Saturday morning I took advantage of the good weather (and the threat of coming rain) to hike Sauk Mt.  I was all alone during my trip with a few people pulling into the parking lot as I got ready to leave. It was gorgeous up there. I took way too many photos with the plan of combining them into panoramas. Here is one shot of Mt Baker made of 20 or so photos.

Tons of photos of/from Sauk Mt.

Later that day we visited Molly, Casey, Ari and Cecily in Ferndale. We ate, played and did a little sword fighting.  I’m still recovering from my injuries. Amazing that Ari was Jillian’s age when we first met him.

More Ward Family Photos.

Sunday the 11th was the day of the big event: Kathleen and Dave’s wedding!  We chipped in as best we could to get everything ready.  Everything went off without a hitch (well, they got hitched, but you know what I mean).  Wesley was a ring bearer and Jillian the flower girl. Jillian decided to stop and pickup the flower petals midway down the isle so she’d have more to throw later.

Our photos from the wedding.

It is at this point (cleaning up afterward the wedding actually) that I started to get sick. By Monday morning I was sick and spent pretty much all of Monday through Friday in bed with a fever.  Because we didn’t have too many fixed plans and because I was sick, Amber and the kids mostly hung out for the next few days. Hoping I’d be better soon.  We didn’t want to visit people with me this sick (not that I was up to it anyway) so we didn’t get to visit Grandpa Joe or anyone else really.  They did visit the new children’s museum at the mall a couple of times. Quite nice I hear.

Photos from 2009-10-13

Photos from 2009-10-14

On Friday Night Susie came over and we carved a few pumpkins. We’d wanted to go to a pumpkin patch (since we don’t have real ones here in Texas), but it rained so hard all week they were all t0o muddy and wet.

More photos from 2009-10-16

Saturday we payed another visit to my Dad.  We even caught a half dozen frogs and a salamander. Then we headed to Seattle where we were staying the night. We met Pat for dinner at U-Village and got some treats at Starbucks.

Photos from 2009-10-17

Sunday was our last full day in Washington. We ate breakfast on Alki and then had lunch with Jessica, Nic, Kailyn, Derrick and Aidan.  Baby Grace was still a few weeks away from arriving. Finally we had dinner with Janette, Lisa and Stelanne.

Photos from the morning of 2009-10-18

Photos from the afternoon of 2009-10-18

My apologies to all the people, places and activities that got slighted by this blog (eg, the wedding, Corey’s house, Dave’s family, etc).  There is just too much to cover if we ever expected to get anything posted.  If you want to see all the photos head to our Washington Trip collection on Flickr.

 

In a recent care package my mom enclosed the above Baby Blues cartoon. Ah, the memories.

When I was a young lad I had a dead hamster. Well, it didn’t start out dead, but then it was. For a while. My mom brought it back to life. She is still my hero. Someday I hope to do the same for Wesley or Jillian. Maybe both. The hamster is deceased again. I think it is easier the second time around.

PS: Please don’t tell the fine folks at Baby Blues that I have a copy of their cartoon. They did their darndest to keep me from downloading it, but I’m sort of stubborn and managed to get it anyway.  If you’d like to visit their fine site to see this cartoon click here.