SC and Seattle Family visits

Well we had a busy few weeks!! We celebrated more birthdays and family reunions from the East coast to the west coast. I am going to post a ton of pictures ---feel free to skim---I wanted to put quite a few pics for myself to remember! First we celebrated Greatgram's 80th birthday.
She got a nice break from the nursing home and was able to visit with friends and relatives.

She has been having a difficult time and so feel free to ask God to give her grace and peace at this time.

After the birthday celebration my daughter and my granddaughter came for a week visit. Here I shared my approximately 50 year old doll with them. My daughter was showing her how to do diapers, since my daughter is due to have a baby boy in July.

Next we had a little tea party to celebrate a joining of old friends. My daughter's best friend from childhood and my friends as well!

My daughter's friend Heather has a little katelyn ;-) and her mom (my friend) is here taking pictures. We really enjoyed getting caught up on kids and life.

When Greatgrandpa heard we were having tea (and coffee), he stopped in for a nice visit too!

Here you can see that my daughter is pregnant ;-)

Of course Rhianwen (pronounced REE ON' Win) had to treat me with putting her hat on in various angles--she is so much fun.

Then after a very full week my youngest son dropped in for a quick visit with all of us as we were getting ready to depart. He came home for his confirmation at our church (which we unfortunately had to miss!!! Also I don't have a picture of him here---I'll have to post one later).

Here are minkey and Zephir packed and ready for their trip to the Seattle area! Below is their reuniting with their brother and buddy in Redmond at my oldest son's place.

We had a wonderful time in Seattle and experienced all kinds of weather within minutes. Snow , sunshine, clouds, rain---it was really fun and wonderful!!! The thing I really enjoyed was all of the COFFEEEEEE SHOPS---everywhere---I have never seen so many in my life!! I loved the cool cloudy weather. Just watching the clouds and their beautiful movement was enjoyable. (I must admit, I had a hard time adjusting to the warm humid weather when I returned to SC).

I loved watching the morning mist--it was breathtakingly beautiful. OH--YOU CAN CLICK ON ANY OF THE PHOTOS FOR BIG VIEWS.

Walks near my son's home were refreshing--1/2 a mile from him is a lake with a great path that goes for a distance (probably 30 miles or more). We took a walk there and were surprised by the deer.

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We got to take a ferry to Bainbridge Island--That's my oldest son driving ;-)

The ferry ride was enjoyable and very very windy--lots of nice views as we were leaving the harbor of SeattleOf course my hubby had to brink the monkeys!

The two of us enjoying the ride and the wind!
On the island we ate on the water at a nice little restaurant--I had my fill of sauteed shrimp, clams and scallops. It was nice to just relax together. They even had a nice fire going!

We enjoyed going to a tulip festival on our way to Canada. Don't mind the sideway pic--my hubby likes taking them this way--but I didn't bother changing it --ha!

The flowers were so brilliant against the gray skies---really wonderful. There were also some daffadil fields.We also had some opportunities to do some climbing!Below is a partially dry lakebed that was on the start of the climb. This is the climb we did--on Rattlesnake ledge

Moving into the forest was gorgeous with the light filtering through the towering trees--many of which were covered in a greeny mossy type thingy!

Who is that old lady with the weirdo hat?? We had nice views of the lake and mountains around the area.

Oh, and on the way to Canada we stopped at this little park on the bay---and we saw something we had never seen before-

Purple starfish----way tooooooo cooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooool!!!!!!!!!! They were everywhere---tons of them.

My son had some kind of airy sneaker that has air holes on the bottom; needless to say they were not good for walking here!The water had made really pretty holes in the rocks

We spotted this blue jay---I can't remember the name of it--on the way to Raineir/ We saw a beautiful Dam too.

Mt. Rainier was great--we didn't get to actually see the mountain itself while we were on it!! We did see it afterwords!! Funny or what!

Someone else made these--but it made for a photo opportunity!

The snow was awesome and this was only about 1/2 way up the mountain! We ate at a little lodge pictured in this last photo. The pictures above were of a lodge that opens later in the year that is about 1/2 up the mountain. All in all we had a wonderful time visiting with friends and family the past two weeks. Hard to get back to all the things we need to do now!! God surely has blessed our country with much beauty that reflects an awesome God! IF YOU WANT TO MAKE ANY COMMENTS YOU HAVE TO SCROLL WAY DOWN---SORRY--IT IS DOWN THERE!