Trip to Spokane 2011--part 1

Well, for those of you who haven't heard, we are planning to move to Spokane this coming August. David's job will be the same as they have an office in the Spokane area, so that is one thing that will remain the same. We had been looking to get back there for a while now and the timing is now right to do it. David has to travel to Spokane periodically for work anyway, and so on one of his trips we just drove (instead of him flying) and went to meet our new landlords as well as some other friends and family. God has really been working in the situation in that we happened upon the new house we are to rent and the time frame is right in the same time that we were planning to move. We knew them prior to moving because I taught lessons to two of their girls for a short time as well.

Pictured above is Josiah on the way to Spokane. He was looking through his Adventure Bible and picking out words he knows.

The house we will rent is just four blocks from my friend Janeen and a short walk to our old church, so there are lot of things coming into place. We had a nice visit with our landlords and a yummy dinner there on Thursday evening, followed by dessert with our friends the Graham's (Janeen and her family) there also. Janeen is obviously friends with our landlords. It turns out too that Steve (our landlord) is now the full-time the pastor at my Aunt's church in Cheney (hence the reason they are moving). So there are connections all around and it was actually through my Aunt that I heard of the rental.

Naomi on the way over kept putting her little blankie bear over her head. Too cute! We also had lunch at Chili's right after we arrived in Spokane and had a taste of what life would be like with kids spaced by 5 years apart (the twins were with Grandma and Grandpa and then later my friend Sarah while we were gone). We missed the twins, but it was amazing how much easier things were to manage without them present. The other side of the story was though that the twins were NOT that easy to manage out of Mommy & Daddy's presence. But to be fair, it was the first time they had ever been away from us for that long (Wed. afternoon through Saturday afternoon). That story can be told another time.

On Friday night, we had dinner at David's Uncle Terry and Aunt Pam's house. David has never really known his uncles all that well as they live all over the country (and so did his family growing up) and only recently met his Uncle Terry on a visit to Spokane a while back. Terry & Pam have a beautiful home tucked away in Coeur d' Alene, Idaho and he has all sorts of fun "boy toys" that kept Josiah's interest while we were there. He runs a tractor business and goes on- site to various places he is hired to do various jobs during the spring through the fall and then in the winter he does shop work at his home repairing farm vehicles, snow mobiles and other machinery. Josiah actually got to DRIVE the tractor (with assistance of course) and unfortunately I didn't get a photo of him doing that, but he was really excited.

Later, Pam took him outside to see all the peacock feathers in their front yard where some coyotes made short order of a peacock. They took the meat with them, but the feathers were left behind and Josiah was fascinated with the feathers. Amongst all the peacock feathers, he also found a turkey feather (pictured above) and he kept correcting us that it was a "wild" turkey that was just walking around and left his feather there.

Josiah is proud as a peacock here about finding his feather. He was also fascinated with all the wildlife we saw while we were visiting. From far off we could see some elk grazing & some California quails over by Terry's shop as well. He also had a stuffed moose head on his wall and Josiah asked, "How did that moose get up there?" A short lesson in taxidermy was in order and he got one. Afterward, Josiah was non-stop talking about all his adventures at Uncle Terry and Aunt Pam's house. I am sure taking the twins there someday in the future is in order. Josiah told the twins all about his adventures when he got home and it was cute to hear him relate all the details to them.

Aunt Pam had a great time holding and playing with Miss Naomi girl while we were there. Their dog (I forget doggie's name right now) was interested in baby and she was VERY interested in their little dog. Doggie barked loudly though at Naomi once, and she got very scared and gave us her tomato face right quick!

Aunt Pam had to tie Josiah down for this shot, but I am glad we took it, such a cute shot of them both. Pam was very sweet to show Josiah around and was the one that talked to him all about the peacock, coyotes, and turkeys out in the front yard.

We didn't get the tractor shot, but we did get a picture of him sitting on top of one of their snowmobiles. I am pretty sure it is obvious how pleased he is here!

We posed briefly also for a family photo minus the twins. Thanks Terry & Pam for the fun time!

And making one cameo appearance (just barely) is Uncle Terry with David and Josiah. They weren't the most willing subjects, but I managed to capture at least one shot anyway! David cracked a joke so they would all smile for the camera.

While we were there, Pam's daughter-in-law and granddaughter came also. She and her husband live in England, but she was back in Spokane to visit her parents and her in-laws. They have an 18-month old (pictured above) named Jaelynn and Jennifer (her mom) is also pregnant with twins (both girls we found out later) and so we had some great discussions about twin stuff and made some connections there. Jaelynn wasn't too keen on having her Tigger played with by Naomi and after giving it to her promptly wanted it back. It was cute watching them play together!

And lastly and sadly, I did NOT get any pictures of where we spent most of our day on Friday with my friend Kim and her kids Colton and Kylie. For some odd reason, my camera never surfaced. However, we had a nice time hanging out with Kim (and Chris also for lunch) and her kiddos at her home. Josiah loves playing with his buddy Colton and kept calling Kylie "KAYlie." Kylie was really sweet and kept watching me as I was crocheting and was very interested. Colton came over and said, "I have a hole in my sock." I looked up and said, "OK?" Kim said, "You know where your socks are silly, go get a new one." Colton replied, "No, I need to you make me a sock Miss Heather." I was making granny squares at that time, but it was so funny he thought I could just whip him out a sock right then and there. Miss Naomi was fascinated with Kim's stairs and though she could climb them, she wasn't too steady on them and took a couple of tumbles down them, but thankfully with no injury. We will have stairs in our new home also, so I will need to gate off areas to keep her safe.

We also visited family in Cheney on Saturday on our drive home, but those pictures and stories will be in part 2!