The very first Starbucks!

We headed to downtown Seattle to the Public Market/ Pikes Place (I'll post on that later) and got to go to the first Starbucks! How fun!It was crowded in there (or maybe that was just our group of 15 invading! LOL!), but fun to see! My Auntie J was so sweet to treat us all to a drink!

 

Rob even got to get a special Pikes Place mug for his drink!

What a fun treat! Thank you!

Camp "K"

We went up to visit my Aunt and Unce in Seattle (my mom came with us too!), and my Aunt had Camp "H" (or should that be Camp "K"?) all set up! What a fun time!

There were plenty of outdoor activities.

 

Plenty of fun play stations.The camp counselors were amazing.

We had a camp fire with s'mores!

 

The camp cook did a great job supplying us with yummy food and drinks!

They even had camp t-shirts for the kids!

*is that Miss J sharing her testimony?

Ft. Lewis

We left Portland for a visit with my Aunt and Uncle, but on the way we stopped to see some family stationed at Ft. Lewis.

We had lunch at the park, and a nice visit too!

The boys had a good time following "little Mr. S" around.

Purple cat photography and a day at Gram's

My cousin G AKA "Purple Cat" does photography and was so sweet to be willing to do family pictures for us after tea when we got to Gram's. He did a great job, and his sister was a wonderful assistant. They are so good with kids, so the whole session went well even though everyone was a bit tired. I can see so much of their Mom (Auntie B) in them!

After pictures the kids all changed into play clothes so that they could go explore freely. The boys headed down to the creek with Cousin A and Purple Cat to find hermit crabs. They each got one and brought them up to show us.

 

 

Miss E stayed inside and helped Great Gram make funnel cakes. Mmmm.... they were so yummy! Gram picked up a funnel for me, so now I'll have to try making my own funnel cakes with a real funnel!

Miss C and Miss J took naps.

The kids found the marbles. These have been around for a LONG time. I know I played with them, I'm not sure if they once belonged to my mom and her siblings.

As always Gram had plenty of yummy food to eat and we all just enjoyed a lovely afternoon of food and fellowship!

A down day

So with all the fun and running around we were doing on vacation it was time for a down day before we headed on for more fun. So we took a day off from fun. ;)

We spent the morning just hanging out at Nana's playing, which they loved. The kids got to have hot dogs for lunch, the poor dears.

Then we took them back to the fountain to run around for a while.

 

Our favorite Starbucks barista was working (my cousin A), so we stopped by to say "hi." Oh yea, she had given all of the kids gift cards, so they all placed their own orders. What fun!

OK, so I guess that was quite a bit of fun we managed to cram into that "down day", but it seems like a slow and restful day at the time!

The Wintons Concert!

We had the privilege of helping to facilitate a concert at our friends' ranch given by The Wintons last night. It was an outreach event for the Kids' speech group - The Institute for Cultural Communicators (formally Communicators for Christ).

The Wintons are an amazing family who are following God as he has led them to come together as a family to tour America singing Blue Grass music, spreading God's vision for Fathers and sons/family, and most importantly sharing the Gospel!

*they are touring now, and will be in Oregon, California and Colorado in the next couple of months in case anyone is interested in having them play at your church or even a "living room" concert.

We had a wonderful time setting up for the event. Miss E helped clean the bathroom and Mr. R was constantly helping or in search of a new job to do! There was some time for playing out there too though!

 

We enjoyed a bit of fellowship time with the Wintons before things got going (and after too!). It was great to get to know them a bit better! Their testimony is awesome!

 

The concert itself was great and Miss J enjoyed getting to hear her favorite music in person once again (we first got to hear and meet them at Jenness Park for Family Home school camp). She was a bit shy though.

Rob did the sound for the evening, and Mr. S "helped" him.

back to real life....

I'll finish blogging about our vacation soon, but real life is busy right now! When we got home from our vacation we came home with a sick baby (who is just now recovering), and what seems to have been a mild bug going through some of the kids.

I'm in need of a vacation. :) However we've had busy days and sleepless nights with the baby since we've been home, so I'm going to try to have a couple of down days before I get back to my vacation blogging.

On a silly note- Mr. S was heard yelling "Come see! You've got to blog about this! It's so funny!"

Yep, the cat in the linen closet was the cause of such excitement!

Tea time!

Tea is a big deal in my family. I grew up with tea at Gram's. As long as I can remember she has had a tea tray set with little tea cups for all of the grandkids to use and we always had a great time fixing up our tea with sugar, cream, lemon drops, and red hots! I don't remember any of us ever breaking any of the tea things. I can still remember hearing Gram say "oh well, if they break it they just won't have one next time." I think it helped us all learn good manners and to handle delicate things. My kids have come to enjoy tea parties too and it is something they look forward to when we go visit Great Gram.

This time Nana and Great Gram took us out to a lovely little tea room -Lavender Bleu- for a special treat. Uncle T and cousins G and A joined us making it an extra fun and special day!

The kids were all sweet as can be.

 

 

The food was great!

A day out on the town!

Nana had a fun day out on the town planned for us, my cousin joined us too. The first thing planned was to ride the light rail train. The kids were all looking forward to this, but it was a big hit for Miss J since she loves trains so much. Our first stop was Nordstrom Cafe for lunch. Auntie Ellen met us there since she had just moved back to Portland that week! Yay! Her sister Sally joined us too! How fun, it had been years since I'd seen Sally, it was so nice to see them both.

Nana took the kids to the toy store and they all got to pick out a little something. Miss J didn't seem to think she really needed anything until she spotted the candy by the register. That was what she wanted, she held on tight to her bag!

We stopped to let the kids play in the fountain and cool off. Mr. M had fun playing with his new toy.

Another cousin joined us at the theater (my kids all call him "purple cat", my brother and Mr. S started it.) The kids were so excited when they found out Nana was taking them to see "Toy Story 3", they had such a good time. Even Miss J and Miss C did well in the movie.

 

Next we went out for Thai food. Hey, the kids had so much fun all day it was time to do something a bit more grown up. They did have good attitudes and I think they all found something they liked.

 

Then we were back to Nana's for some much needed sleep!