Kissing Cousins!!!

We had the BEST Thanksgiving holiday here in Washington! We thought we were going to be all alone, especially compared to the Mildenhall Soiree in GA, but the Duncans so graciously offered to come for Thanksgiving break to keep us company. We were afraid the kids would be scared of each other or not interested, but we had such fun! They were all so excited to see each other and played so well. Thankfully the Duncan kids are very imaginative too and don't need a whole lot of things to occupy themselves. The weather was gorgeous, so we spent lots of time outside. The kids played in the backyard the first day while we cooked and ran errands. Then Friday, we took a ferry boat ride over to Seattle and went to the famous Pike Place market. We had lots of sweeties and bought some fish and headed home for some leftovers. The next day we went to see the "Salmon Run", which is when the salmon swim upstream to spawn each fall/winter around here. It was really cool to be so close to the fish and the kids played in an old cedar tree and Jack threw rocks in the stream and we hiked around in the state park. Then we went to a Christmas bazaar that was kind of lame, but I did get some cute moose ornaments for my work party's ornament exchange. And Maddie cracked her head - but not open - so she was OK. Then we walked down to the waterfront in Allyn - of course we picked the coldest day they were here to do that - and played outside for a couple hours. Then we got to see Santa at the Allyn gazebo. We had salmon that night for dinner, very tasty, but Maddie said she didn't have much of an appetite because of all the dead fish she'd seen (and smelled) that morning. Sunday we went to church and then relaxed at home and played games one last time. The adults got to catch up on their game playing, which we are really missing out on these days, since we can't go to the after-football game nights at the bishop's any more now that Scott is working nights. Anyway, it was so nice to be with family and have lots of kids in the house. Hope your holiday was great!

Over nights, once a week, and hide and seek

Good news abounds here in the great Northwest. Rebekah is officially out of the Navy, after receiving yet another award for excellence. Plenty of rain, Scott has a job, Rebekah has a job and Robert is still a slob. Jack has begun speech therapy for his developmental delay in that area. Not to worry though, he is still ahead of the curve in his obstinacy in eating habits. Katya continues to grow and grow, always such a big girl. Scott is working the over night shift at an Alzheimer's memory care facility and boarding home not far from home. Rebekah is working labor and delivery/post partum at a small hospital south of our hamlet once or twice a week to fill in the gaps of their schedule. We are, as always, anxious to return to GA, but we are enjoying our time here.