Washington Highlights

Our second trip to WA is winding down to the last few days…  I realized I really haven’t written much about our visit here, mostly due to how busy we are when we’re here, but we took photos of the highlighted moments and I want to share them with you.  Forgive some of the randomness…or don’t.  I have a few photos from Idaho, harkening back to this post.

Rest stop photos during sunset on the way back to Idaho the first time

What kid doesn’t love a dump truck in their front yard dumping rocks!?  Also, it’s loud.

Sliding down the rock pile during our two weeks in Idaho working on the yard

Our first Sunday here, the 4th, we had a lovely time presenting at Family of Grace Lutheran in Auburn.  This church has been so supportive of our ministry from the beginning.  We had a lovely time with the congregation and presenting our newest updates of the ministry and our role with MAF.

Sibling love!

We had a few days of phone calls and planning of our trip, but we were also gifted a Family Day at the children’s museum in Olympia.  It was a fun trip – we even solicited Grandmom Lind to watch Axel so we could focus on the big kids and the exhibits.  Also, a stop at Cabela’s was a special treat.

The boat exhibit at the children’s museum was Matthew’s favorite part…

Levi built this boat all by himself while we weren’t looking!

The children’s museum in Olympia has a fun outdoor exhibit

Cabela’s is like a zoo…

Then we had a super full day Wednesday.  By “super full” I mean, at 8pm Tuesday night we had no plans, then we suddenly made lots and lots of plans.  We had lunch with a family in Kirkland at a park, we stopped by Matthew’s honorary grandfather’s apartment on Mercer Island at the last minute, we met another family for dinner in Tacoma (planned by calling them on the way and they invited us for that evening), attending the prayer meeting at our “home” church in Tacoma, then stopped by a very good friend’s house at the perfect time to catch up and scheme with her.  It was a lovely day.

Papaji and the great grandkids!

That weekend Matthew attended a men’s breakfast, then we borrowed my parents’ RV and towed it to Vancouver (WA), right near Portland, OR.  We planted ourselves in a crowded RV Park – but it was cheap! – and invited some friends over who have a sweet girl STUCK in Congo that they are adopting for a white trash hot dog dinner.  They were great sports about it, though.

Sunday morning, Mother’s Day, we hauled ourselves and the RV to Westminster Presbyterian Church and got to share about our ministry for the Sunday School hour.  This was rather momentous because, after making a similar presentation about a thousand times, this is the very first time Levi and Amelia have had to sit through it without anyone supervising them.  So they sat, with granola bars and paper and pens…  It actually went well, and the congregation was full of families, so all was forgiven when Levi interjected his memory of snakes (we didn’t actually see any snakes while we lived there), when he walked up to us and informed us he “had to poo!!!!” or when Amelia just began to wander.  45 minutes is a long time…no worries.  (Axel was fine, by the way, because he slept through it all.)

After church and lots of wonderful conversations (including meeting people who are related to home office staff and long time friends of friends), we headed out for lunch with the pastor and his wife and family (who are friends of ours).  We ate ice cream sandwiches in the parking lot next to the RV in the hot sun and said goodbye.  We jumped into the truck and headed north to Puyallup (if you’re not from WA, please practice pronouncing this…it’s fun) for a small group that we got to attend during our last visit and were excited to be able to catch them again.

After great fellowship with that group we headed north up the peninsula to do some real camping.  Ok, “real” camping with an RV.  Basically not crammed in an RV park.  It was a lovely state park just between Silverdale and Poulsbo and we loved it. Not only was it on the water and perfect weather, but the best part was that we were one of only two families in the entire park!  It was awesome!

A perfect spot!

Crab found!

Mommy and Axel camping

Monday was Axel’s six month birthday – wow time flies!  We played and spent time together and even got to see an awesome event of nature: a couple of herons were catching and enjoying their fish breakfasts.  One small heron had caught a fish that was too big.  It stabbed it, played with it and was generally perplexed about its predicament.  Out of nowhere, an eagle swooped down, screeched at it and flew off.  The heron was spooked, not only by the eagle, but also by the several sea gulls that flew in to fight the eagle, since they were also apparently hoping for the heron to give up on its breakfast.  The eagle watched for a few minutes before swooping in again, much more aggressively, the startled heron dropped its fish and the eagle grabbed it out of the water.  It was a great display of nature.

Tuesday it was time to pack up and leave the campsite.  We drove into downtown Poulsbo and met two families for a fun park and dinner date.  The weather has been sunny and in the 80’s – you really can’t beat that – so the park on the waterfront was perfect.

Poulsbo has a wonderful bakery – this viking cookie was unavoidable

Wednesday and Thursday we spent time catching up from being away from communication and laundry and spent extra time with family.  We were excited to see Axel’s great uncle, his namesake (though the name Bruce has been used several times in the Lind family).  We also made the ultimate trip for any missionary family preparing for the field: IKEA.  We did well, only buying what we were planning on buying, but it’s always a fun trip to IKEA.

Ducks and more ducks!

Lind Men – Uncle Bruce and his nephew and great-nephews

We have a few days left here and are hoping the day or two of rain predicted can just stay away.  We are sad to leave WA for the last time, but also excited to get back to Idaho and continue the work of wrapping up life there.