End of Vacation

Well, vacation had to end some time, but before we left Seattle, we took some time to visit with Grandma, Raquel's Aunt Georgette, and Neil's friend Chad. It was good to spend time and catchup with all of them.

Family Get Together

While it was unfortunate that everyone couldn't be together for Christmas because the weather, it turned out well that Grandma, Dave, and Jeannette were coming down when Rebecca, Ryan and the kids drove up from Cathlamet so we could all have some time together. We got to catch up with them and they got to see how much the kids have grown. A good time was had by all over a nice lunch.

Snowboarding Baby!!!!

Of course John and Neil had to get out and go snowboarding while we were in Seattle.

We made the 3 hour trip up to Mount Baker (the only place to board).

John sums up the excitement of the day . . .

Can't you tell he's excited?You can see I am.Some shots of the beautiful scenery. This one looks down from the slopes to the top of one of the chair lifts (the clearing furthest down the slope).From the same basic spot looking up later in the day (it was cloudy most of the day).Looking up at Mount Shuksan from the bottom of the slopes.
We were tired and sore at the end of the day, but what a blast! Can't wait until next winter to do it again.

Back to Seattle

After spending Christmas week in Cathlamet, we went back north to spend New Year's week with John, Amy and Grace.

We got out some.

And stayed in some and played with Grace and "Kerbit".

Astoria & Cape Disappointment

We got out and visited Astoria, specifically the maritime museum and Cape Disappointment at the mouth of the Columbia River. (It was named for Lewis & Clark's feelings about the location).

We got some fun shots of the girls looking out of a porthole from ship mock up.

While the older ladies did some shopping, Dad, Ryan and the younger girls went to Cape Disappointment. It was pretty windy at the top. It was blowing my glasses around on my face and you can tell that Lila didn't have much success keeping her eyes open in the wind.

Time with Family

Of course, the best part of vacation was spending time with family. Some shots of time with Mom, Dad, Rebecca, Ryan, Emily, Alaina, Lila and Rylan.

Dad, Ryan and I getting the church ready for services the Sunday before Christmas.

Everyone on Christmas Day.

Raquel found another family member in the guest room.Some shots from Christmas day . . .

A Blizzard

One of the cool things of our vacation in Washington was all of the snow. We definitely had a white Christmas. It had snowed before we got there, and it was actively snowing through about mid-day on Christmas. No one had seen so much snow for so long in Western Washington for years. Praise God we made it safely to Ryan and Rebecca's house and were able to stay toasty warm close to the wood stove. (Thanks guys!!)

Here's a shot of some particularly heavy snowfall. This is from Rebecca and Ryan's front porch.

Of course we had to get out and play in the snow. See Rebecca's sledding post on her blog for more pics of that day.

Neil enjoyed playing with Ryan's tractor, clearing the driveway. Here Neil is learning how to lower the blade to prevent the tractor from sliding backwards all the way down the driveway. (We built up a little speed before I figured that out - that made for extra excitement).

Below is a series of shots to show you how deep the snow got over time. This first one was taken Sunday the 21st (the day after we got there). Notice how much space there is between the snow and the bottom of the umbrella.

This shot is from Monday morning the next day. You can tell the snow is much closer to the bottom of the umbrella and is measuring about 12" on Ryan's measuring tape.

This shot is from Christmas morning (3 days later). Can't even see the bottom of the umbrella now.