Still Out Here!

Hi Everyone,
I am sorry to be so long b/w posts... I have been on a techno break, as my mom doesn't have internet access over the summer (teacher tech break). In some ways we are going back in time about 15 years, no internet, no Wii, no Nickelodeon. But it's all good - we are all finding tons of other things to do. For the most part we have been kind of power-visiting with our friends and family back in the Seattle area and then east of the mountains as well.

In addition to visiting, since Elle is a big fan of the Twilight series, we took a Twilighters tour of the Olympic Peninsula seeing Forks and Port Angeles. These little towns were catering to teen tourists and MANY small tshirt and gear shops had popped up all over the towns. It was crazy, but fun to see. We also squeezed in a 1.5mile hike with Hans, my mom, me and Elle through the Hoh Rain Forest while we were out there.

Hans has just completed Round 8 of his ABT 751! He was able to take it pretty much in stride even though we are on the road. It has just been a little crazy tracking down his food requests (aka demands?!?) on the road. But we are getting it done. Hans got a counts check up at Seattle Children's Hospital last week, and all was well. I admire his flexibility with his appointments. He just dropped into Children's and let them access his port like it was no big thing.

We have arrived just in time to welcome many many cousins into the world. We've already hit 2 baby showers while out here and said hello to even more newborns! I think something is in the water. On my side Colleen and Critter (Christopher) welcomed Claire, Peter and Patricia welcomed Savannah, and Matt and Tia now have Gibson and Maggie...Hillary is still expecting, so is my cousin Coleen! On Kevin's side his sister Anna and Matt are expecting in October (Hailey), and his step brother Chris and Kyle soon to adopt their first! It's CRAZY! I think our kids' cousin population is doubling. We also met an honorary cousin from CA, Desmond, our friends Megan and Phil's one year old, as our visits to Seattle overlapped and we were able to spend Wednesday together at the zoo.

Did I tell you Elle golfed a 50 (on 9 holes) at golf camp? (She tees off from the 100yard line!) I guess it's not bad for a ten year old.

And, Kevin and Honey have been holding down the fort at home. We had hoped he could come up this week, but he wound up having the culmination of a huge project at work. The good news is that his great intern, Travis, has been offered a job and will now join Kevin at work. He's a good one, and Kevin has enjoyed showing him the ropes of the industry. We just wish it would have worked out for him to come up and hang out!

Oh, and last night we had a tres successful lanyard workshop in Ellensburg! Kathy had invited a bunch of girlfriends, and I invited some friends in town... and we wound up with 27 beaders and wound up with 40 lanyards and some good fun!

Next I owe you pics... we return home Monday, and then have two weeks before Kindergarten. We got scan dates of Sept 29 and 30 for Philadelphia.

Thanks for checking up on us!

Lara