25 YEARS

It was just by chance that I had gone to a different dinner hall that night. He was sitting alone. I thought he was too cute to sit by himself. I never gave him another thought. Two years later a different school and he was in my physics class. By the end of the semester we started dating. Three years later, almost to the day we were married.

He even smiled. :0)

What a view!

Jeff was a frozen "PoP". He did not wear a coat.

I sure do love this man.

Twenty-five years and four children later I love that man more today than I did way back then. For our 25th anniversary Jeff made arrangements for my dream to come true, to renew our wedding vows at Kerry Park. Sneaking dog, he made the arrangements secretly. I did not know until a week before!  Most of our Seattle "family" braved the FREEZING weather and snow. I thought the light snow made it feel very romantic. It was so funny after the ceremony a small crowd had gathered and they all cheered for us! Pretty cool.

We had a great party at our place following the ceremony. Heather made our 3 layer cake and Sarah Elizabeth decorated it. They cleaned our house, and set everything up. Everything looked so great.
The girls watched Emily and Joseph so that Jeff and I could spend 2 bliss full days together. Our first weekend away since Joseph was born.

My girlfriend Janet, chose my flowers.

Party following our ceremony.

Too pretty to cut!

Present time!

Those ROTTEN daughters shoved cake in our faces!

 It was a fabulous day spent with wonderful friends and family. We are so blessed.

Day 4

Day 4
Nebraska is a beautiful state, but it takes forever to cross! We saw so much corn that Sarah Elizabeth decided to order corn with her dinner. She was most disappointed it was frozen!
We did not get as far as we had hoped today. That’s ok, we will make it up in the coming days. We stopped in the town of Gothenburg. It was settled with Swedish immigrants. It was also one of the stops for the pony express. This was so cool to visit! The girls learned that a ride would ride 10 miles and change his horse multiple times to make the ride. Emily could not get over that the riders only had 2 minutes to change horse at each stop so he arrive on time! Her comment was I cannot even go to the rest stop in 2 minutes! I could never have been a pony express rider! ;0)
They had postcards stamped with the pony express seal and the stamp is canceled with the pony express seal. So we sent one to our selves and should be waiting on us when we arrive in Mountlake Terrace, Washington!
The kids continue to do great. They are really enjoying the trip. Emily loves the fact that we eat out every evening. Sarah Elizabeth has loved watching the sky and the surrounds. She has taken some beautiful pictures! Will upload those as soon as I find the cable!
Off to cowboy country, Wyoming!

Days 2 and 3

Day 2
Day two found us standing beside the mighty Mississippi River bank gazing at the Freedom Arch in St. Louis, Mo. We found out the hard way traveling with a trailer makes for parking VERY difficult. We had to park miles away and walk. Poor Joseph did not fair very well with all the walking and had to sit quite frequently. This made our journey walking to the Arch from the van to take about an hour. After getting stuck in the elevator on the waterfront in Seattle, Emily is now terrified of elevators. She has never really liked heights so thoughts of the elevators ride to the top made her ready to throw up. By the time we parked, walked, sat and admired the Arch the last trip up the Arch for the day was sold out, much to Emily’s relief. I on the other hand was quite disappointed. Jeff and I were going to take turns taking the kids up the arch so that Emily would not feel left out. There is a movie about the Arch as well as Lewis and Clark but that too was sold out.
So, we went outside and talked about how Hurricane Ike had made a huge impact on the Midwest. At breakfast we met a very nice gentleman who worked for Allstate. He shared with us that he had been working in Houston but was called to work in the Evansville, Indiana area due to flooding and wind damage. All of which were results of the aftermath of Hurricane Ike. When we arrived in St. Louis we found the riverfront road to be covered in icky slimy green mud. Part of the street was still covered in water and the statue at the riverfront was partly submerged. In the couple of hours we were there, we could actually see that the water had dropped several feet. The casino’s were using water cannon’s to clean off the sidewalks and entrances in hopes of being ready to open for business the next day.
We spoke with one of the guys working who told us that the area had been closed for more than a week and a half due to the high river~ thanks to Ike and that since spring the water had been at flood stage more 90 days. Emily was so taken aback how instead of the river being a good thing that it could also bring such destruction.
We were going to surprise the kids and take them on a helicopter ride around the city but because of the Cardinals baseball game the airspace around the city was restricted. Grrrrrr!
We almost made it to our goal driving but called it quits about 2 hours shy.
Our motel was a hoot! The room was big enough for two beds and 13 inch TV! Hey, the beds were clean and the room was quiet.

Day 3

A very long day is now behind us. We drove across Mo. And then up to Iowa and over to Nebraska. The weather was beautiful. The children could not get over all the corn they saw and how flat was the land.
Sarah Elizabeth got really excited a couple of times because she saw wind turbines. The were beautiful and massively HUGE!
Sarah Elizabeth had the foresight to pack Joseph’s kick ball. It certain has come in handy. At rest stops we pull it out and have the kids play to stretch their muscles and get rid of some of their energy. I must brag on how wonderfully behaved they have been and such troopers with the long hours of driving.
At one of our stops we ran into a family driving from Washington. They used a different route but gave us hope that we too could make it in three more days! :o)

Tomorrow we finish Nebraska and hope to make it across most of Wyoming

Go west young man, go west!

For the last three weeks we have been blessed with opportunity to go back to West Virginia. Our stay was longer thatn planned. Our new transmission had to be repaired and jeff's Mom took ill following major surgery. As Pastor Bill said in church this morning, God has a reason for where you were yesterday, were you are today and where life may lead you tommorrow.
We have loved spending time with all our friends while we were here. To be honest I think it helped recharge our spirits to face the future, what ever that may be whike we are in Seattle.
So tomorrow with a very stuffed U Haul we are driving west.
Destination: Washington State

I hope you will join us on this amazing journey. One does not get the opportunity to drive cross country and see this great country we call home. I will upload pictures as oftern as I can. sarah Elizabeth has been given a digital camera to also document our journey. I hope you enjoy following us as we head back to our pacific northwest home.

Father's Day

Hope everyone had a terrific Father's Day. After breakfast in bed with a yummy meal prepared by Sarah Beth, Jeff and the girls made a homemade kite to take with us on our trip to Gas Works Park. Jeff and Emily also made the most awesome lemonade. It was good we drank it all before we left on our picinic!

The weather was picture perfect. It actually was very toasty and Sarah Beth and I were sunburned on our faces. The view was spectactular. The Seattle skyline, Lake Union and all the boats criss crossing, and the dozen or so kites that were flying high in the sky. We tried very hard to get our kit up in the air to no avail. To heavy, so back to the drawing board the girls go.

I cooked Jeff's favorite dinner with a twist. Orange Beef Stroganoff. Through out the day the kids gave Jeff several gifts; a Mariner's hat, a big jug to drink from, navy blue crocks, a Greatest Dad t-shirt, and a mini ice tea maker. Jeff loved his gifts including a low key day and nap.

Hope your day was great too!

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