Watching Our Children Grown: It's about the Parents This Time

Last week came with great anticipation, excitement and anxiety for Travis and I were headed to the Seattle area for 6 days and 5 nights WITHOUT the kids. His work was sending us out for what they call "President's Council" which really is the yearly meeting for it's administrators and headquarter staff.

We had never left the kids overnight before which caused me great anxiety. Admittedly I stressed for weeks (okay, maybe months) about it and worked hard getting them ready for our absence. I talked about it with Samantha often. I made a list for while we were gone of the little things about our kids, I made menus and put together gifts for the kids to open each day we were gone.

The kids were in great hands, Grandma Linda came for the first three days and BeBe was here for the last three days. After the first night Grandma Linda said that things went better than she had anticipated. Each day I called I was reassured that the kids were doing great and everything was going well. At the end of the week Samantha got to "busy" to talk to me which I considered a good thing.

The time with the Grandma's was priceless and we are forever indebted to them for all they did while we were gone.

Travis' company really went all out for us as they put everyone up in a great lodge in Snoqualmie, WA which is about a 30 minute drive East of Seattle. We flew out with friends of our who are also working for Adventist Care Centers (ACC) here in Kansas City. When we got into Seattle we all went to Pike's Market for a quick tour and got something to eat. After walking around downtown a bit we headed to check into our hotel.

Wednesday Travis had meetings all day and I took the morning to relax. In the afternoon my friend Kathy and I went out window shopping. It was fun to get caught up with her and see some beautiful shops.

Thursday was our free day so Travis and I headed back into Seattle. You can see our day outlined below in pictures. It was great not to be on a timeline and do what we wanted. We took advantage of it and didn't get going to early.

Friday was meetings again. I actually sat in on their afternoon meeting presented by Ridley Barron which has touched me like I haven't been touched in some time. His family went through terrible tragedy in their lives but he has picked up the pieces and continued to move on. Instead of hating God he came to terms with it and uses his tragedy to help others. That evening he had our vespers and talked about how God picks up the pieces and gives us something even better. I think the thing that really hit home was that he lost his 17 month son which is nearly Blake's age.

Sabbath was a worship service (we had great song services both Friday night and Sabbath) followed by lunch. After lunch Travis and I headed out to meet up with a friend of his in Olympia. Dan was Travis' best man in our wedding and it had been several years since we had seen him. It was great to get caught up and meet his girlfriend, Jamie.

Sunday morning we were up incredibly early to catch our flight. We had it back to Kansas City by 4:00 p.m. to have the kids act like we'd only been gone a few hours. It was great to get back and see them, hold them and hear them laugh.

We stayed at Salish Lodge in Snoqualmie, WA...