Family Vacay...Summer 2013

By -
We took a lovely, albeit simple, family vacation this summer. Sometimes, simplest is best. :)

It started with a trip to Grand Coulee Dam. It's only a couple hours from our home, but what a world of difference! It's situated in the desert of Eastern Washington across the Columbia River. We checked out the visitor center...





Took a "dam" tour into and across the dam...











Relaxed poolside at our motel...





And watched the laser light show on the dam at night...


The next day, we continued West on Highway 2 across Washington, and we saw...

Spacious skies 

Amber waves of grain

Purple mountain majesties

And fruited plains

While visiting the fruited plains, we decided to tour the Aplets and Cotlets Factory.






Then we stopped in BEAUTIFUL Leavenworth for lunch...





And finally to my parents' house in Tacoma. Whew!

The next few days were spent relaxing and enjoying family. We got to spend a day at the beach--Grayland and Westport. The Gs LOVED that!!











Our last full day of vacation was spent at my sister and bro-in-law's for a BBQ and play time with their kids. We were having too much fun to get any pictures.

All in all, it was a wonderful family trip. :)

Comments

quilt'n-mama said…
Looks like an awesome Vacation my friend! Praying for you and your family and realizing that in a few weeks we will be celebrating two years with our beautiful girls! What a blessing!
July 31, 2013 at 8:44 PM
Annie said…
Looks like an awesome vacation! Loved all the beautiful pics!
August 4, 2013 at 7:16 PM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

It's official--We are now the Millers 4!!

By -
Image
Today was adoption finalization day. When we adopted Gracie, we had Gotcha Day and the adoption finalization on the same day at the same time. Now, China often gives families a 24 hour "honeymoon" of sorts. This was the exact spot when Gemma's first adoption was disrupted last November. We were afraid that she would have flashbacks to that time. Also, we had to go back to the same office where we received Gemma yesterday and where she had, ahem...a meltdown. We were really terrified that she would definitely remember the fear she expressed there yesterday. We were praying HARD all morning and all the way to the office. Well, once again, God proved himself faithful (like I really need him to prove himself again and again, right?)! But he continues to show himself faithful and merciful--Gemma was absolutely FINE at the civil affairs office today. No flashbacks, no meltdowns, no sadness. It was as if God wiped her memory clean of that fear, just like we tried to wipe her t...
Read more

GOTCHA!!!!

By -
Image
Whew! What a day! In the words of the wisest 7-year-old I know, today was "tough--tough but good." Having gone through a Gotcha Day before, you'd think we would know what to expect, right? Well, right and wrong. We knew she was timid, introverted, and shy; we knew she had a previous disrupted adoption; we knew she was scared of foreigners. What we didn't know was how that would all manifest itself. Well, it was something. There were lots of tears...from Gemma and from us. There were a LOT of prayers. And the biggest thing I can say is THANK GOD FOR SIMON! He was my rock, and he was Gemma's rock too, even though she didn't know it at the time. We arrived at the Civil Affairs Office with 1 other Lifeline family. We saw Gemma before she was handed over to us, and she looked happy. After she was given to us, it was mayhem for a while. To preserve Gemma's dignity, I won't go into details. Let's just say our hearts were breaking for her. The fear in he...
Read more

Chrismas Eve

By -
Image
Well, I am not doing so well keeping up in the "Blog-o-sphere" so I figured I would try to post more regularly during the CHRISTMAS holiday. Yes that is right CHRISTMAS. That is what I celebrate and believe wholeheartedly in. So if you are offended by that, I guess this isn't the blog for you! I have many fond memories of Christmas Eve all the way from childhood to recent years. Some of my favorite memories are how we used to spend the day out at Grandma Donna and Grandpa Bud's with the Van Vleet side of my family. We always had a really fun time, both kids and adults. One particular Christmas Eve we had what we firmly believed was a real encounter with Santa. It was evening and all the kids (Me, Sarah, Paul, Dawn, Danee) were anxiously waiting to open our presents when outside we heard what sounded like sleigh bells! We immediately went into a frenzy and when the adults joined in. "Is that Santa?" they said with excitement. Immediately Paul and I rushed out...
Read more