September

September is a great month

I'll show you a few pictures that explain what we experienced this past month or so. The weather this month was outrageously beautiful, so we were outside a lot. I love Washington for so many reasons. The beauty of autumn is just one of those huge happy gifts that make it so marvelous to live here.
Anyway, Bill and I took a little "camp" trip to Ocean Shores early this month and picked up a couple of darling kites. Also, we had our sweet grandchildren visit us a couple of times, so there are pictures of them.
I had a birthday (no gray hairs, but definite differences going on with age). Heather and Evan took me out for great Thai food lunch.
Then, the last week of the month, I was in Utah for a number of days visiting the folks, family and cousins. My BYU dorm friends from my freshman year had a reunion. We were all young girls of 18 years old back in 1971-72. That was also the year that I found and fell in love with my Bill, thanks to my roomates. Now, we are grandmothers. There were 41 of us that made it to the reunion! We re-bonded so easily that it was really tearful to say goodbye again. I was amazed at this experience and will cherish it. These sweet women are incredible mothers, professional musicians, dentists, missionaries, business leaders, principals, teachers, and my friends. They all are active members of the church with firm testimonies. Imagine the odds of all that.
Anyway, I just thought I'd share that with you. It makes me realize how important all our choices are throughout our lives. This was a really wonderful thing to experience.
Love to everyone.
Mom/Michelle

Summer joys

Here are some wonderful pictures taken this summer. There are pictures of the MacKay reunion, a little gathering of our sweet family right before Peter & Brooke left for Germany. Liz & kids have been around for a visit or two, so we snapped some quick pictures of them when we could. And, to top it off, there are a couple of pictures of new, beautiful Merrick on his Birth Day! Hooray for a delightful family summer. I love you all!. Mom/Michelle

Pictures from June

Hello everyone,

here is a collection of pictures taken recently. We're so glad that Peter & Brooke shared a couple of days with us so we could see Benson. Also, we had great fun with Ben & Jen's family visit so they could see Peter & Brooke before they fly away to Germany. We had fun with Eric & Julie for an extra day or two of family time. We had fun with Heather & Evan's family for graduation celebrations. And, Bill and I went on a charter boat out of Westport for a cold day of fishing. I've never caught such big fish so easily. We just put the lines in the water with two hooks on and waited on the rocking boat. Fish just bit the hooks that had little plastic bait and didn't let go. There wasn't really a strong bite feel or jerk. The rod just got a lot heavier, so we just rolled it up and there were the fish. The deckhand ran around the boat grabbing our fish for us each time and then threw them in the plastic barrels. Bill caught a very large ling cod (I didn't get to take a picture of me with my fish). That big fish was biting the other two fish he had on the line. The deckhand ran over with the large net to scoop it all up. That was amazing! So, that was how we spent our 33rd wedding anniversary. On the way home, Bill took care of an emergency patient and we had a very late dinner at the local cafe. Not the most romantic celebration, but it was unique. Love to you all. Mom

Our recent adventures

Bill and I have had a great time getting acquainted with the Denali this past weekend. We took a quick trip down to one of the most beautiful places of Washington called Fort Canby/Disappointment. It's called Disappointment only because an early American explorer was trying to find the mouth of the Columbia River from the Ocean and didn't. Later, Lewis and Clark took their first view of the Pacific from the Columbia at this place. So, lot's of historic things to see happened to be the highlight of the trip. We took our bikes and hiked/biked all over. We still didn't have time to see everything, so we'll obviously be going back to this great place many times over the years ahead. This is one of the fabulous things we love about living in wonderful Washington. The other pictures are of cute Conner sitting on the porch bundled up because he was "chilly". We watched the birds and trees fly around in the wind. He said the trees looked liked chickens or roosters flapping their wings in the wind. Pretty clever little fellow. Sorry you have to scroll down through the pictures, I'll find out how to make a slideshow soon and post things that way to conserve space. Love to everyone, Michelle

Oh, I also thought it might be fun to post a couple of pictures of Bill's graduation from dental school, plus little Peter.

To Boston and back again

What an amazing experience it is to see Peter graduate from Dental School and proudly put on his handsome uniform as a new Army captain. Now we have two dentists in the family and three army men. Of course, Benson wearing his little suits and green scrubs was the cutest of all. He was absolutely the main attraction everywhere we went. Boston was fabulous and we had great fun. It sure seems a short time since we were the ones graduating from dental school in Chicago with three adorable little boys and Heather "on the way" Wow! Such a strange feeling to see this all happening again. Congratulations to you, Peter and Brooke. This is marvelous! Love you all. Mom

May has been very busy

We have had great fun taking care of Liam and Anna while Eric and Julie went on their grand European trip. As you can see from these pictures, we played outside on beautiful spring days. Aren't they adorable!