half dozen cuties

The Three Amigos!


For some reason I can't figure out how to space my text with my pictures so I'm going to continue my beach trip blog in this entry. Nine years ago Jason and I moved to Spokane and met Tony & Kelly and James & Betsy. Kelly and Jason had gone to high school together and Tony was in Spokane for one year doing a residency. In 2000 James was transferred to the midwest. It's rare to find such great friends and even more rare that three women can be such good friends. Even with the distance between our families we have made great efforts to stay connected. It was a happy day when James was transferred to the Northwest so we established the tradition of meeting at our lake cabin in the summer and at the Oregon Coast in the fall. All the kids look forward to these get togethers. Yesterday I volunteered in Emma's class and her teacher said that Emma had told her that she had a great time at the beach with her cousins. We definitely consider each other family.

We arrived in Portland on Thursday night and headed to the beach the next morning, stopping at James and Betsy's nice new house on the way. We met John Chunliang, their new son from China, who just got home in August. When we got to the house we discovered the key wasn't in the lock box so we had to wait for the property management company to bring it to us. The kids had a great time playing in the sand. It was quite chilly so we were relieved when the key arrived. We settled in quickly and nestled in for the weekend. The big kids had fun playing air hockey, pool and dance dance revolution. After we got the kids in bed we headed down to the beach for a moonlit stroll. The next morning we started the day with some conference viewing and then headed to the beach. The two hour break in between sessions was the perfect amount of time for the kids to play so we headed back to the house to watch the afternoon session. When the guys got back from the Priesthood session we played cards and headed back to the beach for another moonlit stroll. The next morning was conference again. We loved watching conference together and discussing all of our favorite talks. It was the perfect way to spend the weekend. It was over too fast. We drove home on Sunday afternoon and Monday morning it was back to the usual. I miss the beach! Can't wait for next year.