After just a few way too busy days at home, I’m back to work. Since getting home last week, I mostly caught up on the 700+ email backlog I had at the end of vacation, did some ‘chores’ (bills, laundry, etc.), made a campaign appearance on Current TV, and otherwise enjoyed a weekend at home. Now it’s time to catch up on the last part of vacation.
I left off on the general visiting with Marshall’s update. There are more developments with him since then, but I don’t have the very latest so I’ll cover that another time. I’ll also cover the Northwest Church 50th anniversary in a separate post.
On Sunday the 28th our godson Gideon was dedicated. That’s the third son that Paul and Tracy have asked us to be godparents for. It was an honor to be there for his dedication. His grandfather (Tracy’s dad) made a really neat video chronicling his life so far. There was a variety of friends and family present. After the dedication, Paul and Tracy hosted lots of friends and family (some of whom weren’t at the dedication) for lunch at their place. Was great to see some of them who we hadn’t seen in quite a while. Paul and I have been friends now for 25 years. Scary…..
Monday night, Edi and I and the kids, and Paul and Tracy and their kids, and Devin (another long time friend and former coworker) and his girlfriend all got together for pizza and games. Devin also showed us a business that he’s involved in. Was nice to get some time to catch up with him (and more with Paul and Tracy).
All day Tuesday, we visited again with Gloria (Edi’s step mom). We did lunch at John’s Incredible Pizza (affectionately called the Pizza Store in our family). The kids had a blast playing all the games. For the first time, we noticed they appear to be catering to the obviously growing Muslim population in that part of town. We also hit the ‘gift’ store (the dollar store) so the kids could enjoy some fun (and economical) goodies from Nana.
Wednesday, we did breakfast at the Orbit Cafe. It’s been sold since last time we ate there, but everything was still pretty much the same, including the mickey mouse pancake for the kids upon arrival. Fun stuff.
On Wednesday evening, we had another fun installment of the Sugar Group. It was just a social fun night. The kids played a lot outside and the adults talked a lot inside. The Van G’s came. That was the first time I had a chance to see them since Jerry passed away. They seemed to be doing well.
Finally, Thursday morning, we climbed in to an airplane and made our way back home. Despite a few tense moments (both on the way there and on the way back), all the transportation went pretty much as planned. The whole vacation was quite busy, but we managed to squeeze in everything we really wanted to do and a good time was had by all…
V-