July 18

This past week was really fun.  Cade started swimming lessons again.  He is doing well.  He wasn't even nervous to go with his class and he actually swam by himself for a few feet today!

Wednesday Melissa was off work.  We decided to go up to Leavenworth.  It is a pretty long drive, but I thought she would like it.  Leavenworth is a little town at the base of the mountains.  It is based on German/Swiss villages and is really pretty.  We stopped at a petrified ginko state park on the way up to see a few fossils.  Then we made it to Leavenworth around 11 am.  We hiked for a bit and played in the river.  We had lunch at the park and let the kids play at the playground.  Melissa really wanted to walk around the downtown area.  Ellie and Cami were getting really tired and fell asleep in a 10 minute drive to park over there.  So, I sat in the car and read and Melissa and Cade walked around.  Then we found one more hike and drove home.  We were gone about 13 hours and it was a long day, but was really fun too.

Thursday Kirk was off.  We were home most of the day.  He did some yard work in the morning.  I took Cade to swimming lessons.  I went visiting teaching and it ended up being almost an hour and a half with one lady who really needed to talk.  She is going through a hard time.  I was grateful that Kirk was home and I had left the kids with him.  It was a blessing.  Kirk took Cade and Cami shopping in the afternoon and I made dinner and then took Ellie to a couple of stores.  It was a pretty good day.

Friday evening we left right after dinner for Spokane.  Some of our good friends from dental school, Jason and Katie Scott, recently moved there and started working.  We each have 3 kids within months of the same ages.  We haven't seen them for a while.  We got there about 8:30 and let the kids play and run for a bit then got them to bed and talked for a while.  Saturday we mostly hung out at their house and played in the backyard and with the hose.  We did go for a little hike and eat lunch while we were out.  We had a yummy dinner and watched part of a movie and then got the kids to bed and talked for a while again.  Melissa came with us and I think she was a little bored.  I enjoyed seeing our friends again.  Someday we will hang out with them and do more stuff, but with 2 babies and 4 others under age 5, life is pretty slow.  We came home Sunday morning and made it to most of church.