Joy Among Tears

Happy Sunday to you all.  It's been a good weekend, although mixed with some tears too.  I'm wishing I was with my sister in these hard days for her, and yet Mandy and Piper are here and Jamie, Kyleigh and Caleb were here for a few days too.  Jamie and kids left this morning and Mandy and Piper will fly back home to Omaha on Thursday.  Dennis and I will take them to the airport early in the morning and then set off to drive to Omaha.  Only one ticket was available to fly with them and it was $669.00!  No rental cars because of the College World Series.  Oh well.

We had a few warm days this week and since we have no pool, out came a sprinkler and Piper had a great time running around in it.

 I told her that when I was a little girl there was no pool available so we always cooled off in the sprinkler in the summertime.  She is quite the ham!

 On Friday we went to downtown Spokane to Riverfront Park and she got to play on the big red wagon.  That's her going down the slide and it was HOT from the sun.  After this first trip down she learned to tuck her dress under her legs and slide!  This wagon is quite popular among tourists and residents alike.  It's a radio flyer!

Building blocks close to the wagon and the Spokane River.  The World's Fair was held here in 1974.

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 Another view, this time with the clocktower included.  We have had absolutely perfect weather all week.  Upper 70's and a storm or two in the evenings.  Today is the first day we've turned the AC on in almost two weeks.  I love having windows open day and night.

Then Piper and I rode the 109 year old Looff Carousel.  They just reopened it within the last week or so after building a beautiful new building to house it in.  The timing was perfect because it's been closed down for a quite some time while the rebuilding was going on.  We had a wonderful time!  Just look at that smile. :-)

Lots of geese and mallard ducks roaming freely throughout the park.

On Saturday we took all three kids to a trampoline place at the mall called "Get Air."  I've never been to a place like this before, but I do have to say that it made me feel very, very old. :-)  Those kids run and jump all over the place.  I would break every bone in my body. Ha!

Here's Piper!

Piper in the front, Caleb to the right and Kyleigh in the back.  They would prefer that we not post photos of the two oldest grandkids, but you can't see them clearly here so I think this will be okay.  My goodness they had a great time.

 We took a picture before church this morning on the back deck. Dennis, Jamie and Mandy in the back.  Kyleigh, Me, Piper and Caleb in front.  Sorry about the blurred faces.  Again, no photos online.  I did want to share this picture though because it's the first time we've been together in several years.  It was a great weekend.  

I finished several more pairs of mittens this week.  I am officially sick and tired of them so I'm going to take a break until we get back from Omaha.  I'm planning to make some baby blankets for awhile.  It will be better anyway, because I'll lose dpn's, stitch markers and other small items in and under the seat in the car.  This way, I'll use a pattern that just calls for a circular needle so I can't lose anything!

Please continue to pray for my sister Melanie and her kids.  The Celebration of Life service for Mike will be next Saturday.  Dennis and their son-in-law Tim will be speaking.  I know this will be difficult for Tim especially because he was very close to Mike. My heart just breaks for all of them and I feel so far away.  

Oh, and if you noticed, I have photos again.  I don't know what it was, but our computer genius son fixed it and several other things for us in less than five minutes on Saturday.  I am ever so grateful!

I hope you all have had a lovely weekend and I'll be back soon.

"Let us them approach God's throne of grace with confidence, so that we many receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need." Hebrews 4:16

Blessings always,

Betsy