An Unexpected Trip

Another catching up is our wonderful trip to Washington State. We had received a much bigger tax return than we expected and after much prayer we used part of it to buy tickets to fly home to Washington, mostly to see my dad who has been very ill but also to see friends and family.

Brenna says "Hi" to the sweetest cat in the world, my sister
Alea's cat Sammy. What a funny cat, loves his armpits
scractched.

After we got the tickets Joe’s health took a sharp downward turn. What with excessive bleeding from his bladder cancer, heart attacks, blood transfusions and a procedure to burn down the tumors a bit we did not think we would be able to go. However, Joe suddenly got a bit better so, Praise the Lord, at the last minute we were able to go after all!!!!!

For the bulk of our time in Washington we stayed at my parents house on the Olympic Peninsula. They live on the hill above Manchester looking out toward Seattle there in the distance. Beautiful

My brothers Jim and Jef came to see us while we were there. Jef came up from West Linn, just south of Portland for a weekend. What a great surprise. My brother Jim, his fiance and three kids came from South Dakota. Well, I don't think they came JUST to see us but it was great timing :-).

Jim and Melissa just had a little boy, Max two weeks before. . . . . . . . As the baby was getting gifts Jef thought the girls would like something also.

Joe is sitting next to my baby brother Jim who is sitting next
to my brother Jef who is holding Jims oldest Modesty.

[below] Arn't these just the greatest purses for little girls????!!!! Jef's wife Heather found these for them. They just loved them.

Kimber and Modesty model their doggy purses