Cousin Laura comes for a visit!

Cousin Laura came out for a long weekend to celebrate graduating from college and starting up her new adventure teaching 6th grade special education.  She fit us in between teaching gigs, and we did our best to show her the best of the PNW!  We are proud of you, Laura!

Friday evening cruise on Lake Washington - pink sparkling wine, gourmet sandwiches, and a cruise through the montlake cut!

On Lake Union, with the city in the background.

On Saturday morning, we headed out to Columbia Winery to support Ethan's Run and Children's Hospital.  

Ben came in 2nd (out of everyone!) in the 10k run.  Ellie did great in the kids' dash but definitely needed some motivation on the 5k walk she did with me and Laura.

After the run/walk/dash, we had a great brunch at Barking Frog and then Laura and I did some wine tasting at Chateau Ste. Michelle, Delille Cellars, and Januik (then we took a nap ;-).

On Sunday, we took a day trip to Guemes Island which is part of the San Juans, and so small we had never heard of it before.  It has its own little ferry that runs and takes about 5 minutes to cross from Anacortes to Guemes.

We did a nice hike up to the highest point on the island.

On Monday, Laura and I walked Ellie to her new elementary school for kindergarten camp.  Ellie was a bit apprehensive, but also very brave and had good things to report each day of the week.

Sitting in the Kindergarten room for the first time!

Happy Birthday, Grandpa!

We had a birthday party for Grandpa while we were in MN, complete with cake and a competitive crossword puzzle!  Here are some photos of the whole gang and the birthday boy!

After SFO, it was off to MN!

We had a nice long trip to MN where we got to see a lot of people and do a lot of different things...

We got Ellie a couple of golf clubs and Emily gave her a couple of lessons.

All the MN cousins met up for pancake (with chocolate chips, of course) breakfast!

Pedicures with Aunt Joni.

Not too big for a little kid swing, right?!

A bit more fishing!

Super moon!  That's a moon rise over Lake Darling.

Big Ole (and Little Ellie)

Yep, there's the Runestone that "proves" Vikings made it to the US before Columbus....

First dip in Lake Darling.

Meet up with friends (Maggie, Henry, Ellie, Charles, Graham, and Evie) at Lake Harriet

Hangin'  at the bandshell with Emily.

Me, Gretchen & Sara (20 years later)!

The kids really took to Emily ;-)

4th of July trip to San Francisco

We had a fabulous long weekend in San Francisco!

We took a harbor cruise that cruised right under Golden Gate Bridge.

And it cruised around Alcatraz!

We also explored the new Exploratorium which has really interesting drinking fountains ;-)

And we got to see the Giants beat L.A.

and finally, we got to try many of the goodie's at Emily's bakery, Flour and Co.!  YUM!

A bit more on the catching-up front

Finally got a lot of photos off my phone and so here's a bit more from the last few months... in no particular order!

Ellie's friend Harper knew all about building fairy houses, and so Ellie built her own to welcome fairy's to our (old) house.

We met dad for lunch and went to the top of Smith Tower (completed in 1914, and the tallest building on the west coast until the space needle was built).

We went to the science center to see a great 3-D movie about monarch butterflies, and finished off the visit with a hurricane experience!

Last week of school at the JCC - ice cream with friends.

First ice cream cone - any guesses what flavor it was?