Trip to the Coast

About a month ago my family went to the coast for a day. I finally got around to posting pictures from our trip! It was very fun. We had a great tme at Newport. First we went to the lighthouse

We climbed up a couple hundred stairs, spiraling up to where lighthouse keepers had kept their lights burning.

Right after that we walked down to the tide pools, and spent about a half an hour looking at the sea animals in them.

It was a stormy day, windy and raining hard, but it was amazing to look out at the ocean from our view.

The next day we spent a wonderful morning at the coast, before we had to head home. We flew our kite, laid in the sun and had a picnic.

Pictures from the Wedding!

Well, finally I'm getting around to posting some pictures from our trip in Seattle. These are from Galen and Hannah's wedding.

Below is Emily and Ashley reenacting Galen and Hannah's ceremony.

Seven in Seatle part 3

Our family left the hotel, and headed downtown, to brave the streets of Seattle, Washington.
I'm sure there were over a million hilarious things that happened during our one mile walk but since I can only remember a few of them this may be short. (And then again, maybe not.)
We toured Pike's Place Market and browsed through a few shops along the way. One store in particular was a Seattle Seahawks equipment store. Now, as you may know we are 49er fans and so Cade was wearing a 49er sweatshirt. The very next day there was going to be a big game between the Niners and the Seahawks. So he went into the equipment store and walked up to the clerk and asked if they had any 49er gear in stock. Now this poor sales clerk kind of looked at him and then muttered, “Um no, but there's probably some down at the stadium.” The rest of us were laughing as well as the other people in the store and the other clerks. And the first guy still didn't really get it.
We left that store pretty quickly.
When we arrived at Pike's Place Market and we looked through the different displays until we stopped at the fish throwing thing. All I'm gonna say is that we got some pretty sweet videos. And then all of a sudden this random fish throwing guy in an apron that looked like it weighed about 50 pounds starts pointing at Cade, “We got a BIG game tomorrow!” And then he got down in a quarterback position and mimed like he was hiking the ball, “Yeah, that's right buddy! You're going down!”
We are definitely not in Albany anymore.

Mission: Possible

My Grandpa works with the Union Gospel Mission in Spokane, Washington. He disciples men, meets for lunch with them, works on the Mission board and goes downtown every week to feed the homeless. He has been writing a lot lately about his experiences, and my dad and I decided he needed some sort of outlet for his writing.

That's how we started Mission:Possible.

Mission Possible is a look at the homeless of Spokane through my Grandpa's eyes.

There is a link to it on the side of my blog, but if that doesn't work here is the web address if you want to visit it.

http://vbmissionpossible.blogspot.com/

Seven in Seattle part 2

The rehearsal dinner was held in a incredibly fancy room, at the very top of the hotel with an amazing view. Smiling waiters walked around, balancing delicate trays with appetizers on them. Soft music played. It was beautiful. As a waiter walked over near our family, he offered us an appetizer from his tray. There were about six or seven dainty bits of food resting on the tray and when we’d each taken one, it was empty. The waiter took back his tray, smiling awkwardly as he retreated from the room to fill his tray again. Although he might have tried to avoid us there wasn’t much he could do, with five hungry kids who hadn’t eaten since 11:30 (it was close to 7:30) stalking him. I think we kind of forgot the meaning of the word appetizer.
There was a small room, where you could go to get a drink made. While some people were drinking wine, our family opted for soda, (with the promise that we could drink some champagne the next night at the wedding.  Everybody was dressed in fancy dresses, slacks and shirts. They walked around, chatting softly, sipping champagne. Guess where my little sisters had planted themselves? On the floor, doing pushups. “No, honey, we don’t need to be doing pushups at the rehearsal dinner.”
Dinner was delicious…rare steak, light mashed potatoes, and sautéed zucchini. No biscuits n’ gravy there. It was a very nice evening.
The next morning, we had all day before the 6:00 wedding so we decided to sightsee around downtown Seattle. We walked across the street to a small café for breakfast. After ordering, our Chinese waiter began arriving with steaming plates of food. Holding a mug of tea, he angled himself behind Cade, muttering a warning in his accent, “Hot behind!” he said to Cade.
We managed to choke down our laughter until he left…I think my dad milked that one for as long as he could. After breakfast we went back to the hotel to directions to Pike’s Place Market. The concierge unrolled a map.
“It’s a good one mile one way,” he said, “It might be too hard for your little ones to walk, but it’s pretty hard to find parking. I would take you in our car but…” he scanned the seven of us warily, “but our car only seats four.”
“Yeah…” my mom said, “We’ll walk.”
And we did.
Until next time.