The Wedding

On August 26th my baby brother got married. The photographer did an AMAZING job and just posted some of the photo's on her blog:

Lifesong Photography

I still don't think it has fully hit me that he is married but I am so excited to have Carin for a sister and to watch them grow as a married couple. The whole family was in the wedding and the kids did great as flower girl and ring bearer (along with their cousins). It was beautiful and a fun day full of celebration. We love you Uncle Justi and Auntie Carin and can't wait for you to visit!!

Bellingham

After our trip to Seattle our family headed up to Bellingham where John and I both got our degrees and lived prior to moving to North Carolina. Oh.....we love Bellingham. It has a special place in our heart, both the people and the town itself. We took the kids to Western to show them where we went to school (mostly to reminisce ourselves because as you see from the next photo, Johnny slept through the whole thing). We were also able to meet with the amazing campus pastors that mentored us while at Western; Brady and Shirley and Dave and Shelly. It was so encouraging to meet with them and hear about the ministry and also to share with them what was going on in our lives. What a great way to recharge before heading to another college campus......
We were also able to meet up with some friends we hadn't seen for three years. We had all added children to our families since the last time we got together. It was great to see everyone and catch up on their lives...

As you can see...the kids got along quite well..


This is an attempt to get a photo of all of the kids. Johnny was NOT HAPPY!

Then he got to throw rocks in the water and all was well.......


While in Bellingham we stayed with the Belleme family. I realized I didn't take any photo's while at their house but stole the one below off of Facebook. They brought their daughter Elyanna home from Ethiopia six months after we brought Johnny home and then were surprised with a son a year later. We got to meet Titus for the first time and spent the evenings catching up with Joe and Janet. Thanks for being such great hosts!

Seattle with Forrest Family

We spent a few days in Seattle with Uncle Nick, Aunt Heidi, Hannah and Hailey. We strolled around Seattle.....
Pikes Place.....
Ate Lunch on a Pier......
We were one stroller short so Emma and Hannah cuddled up and rode together....

Johnny insisted on wearing Emma's sunglasses for a large portion of the day....
And fell asleep while shoe shopping....
Hmmmm....difference between girls and boys while shoe shopping...nature or nurture??
And then the next day we headed to the Woodland Park Zoo.....


Johnny insisted this was a shark and was fascinated with the "shark" swimming by him over and over again....

And we got to feed birds again much to Emma's delight...
This time Johnny got brave and joined in....

It was our first trip with just the Forrest family and was so great. With the cousins so close in age it has been really fun to see their relationship grow even though we have always lived far away from them. Now, they live in Tanzania so these moments will be few and far between. We can't wait for 2013 for our next Forrest/Pell adventure.

Weekend at Point Defiance

We headed over to the west side for a few days with Papa and Meemaw. Meemaw had a class she was taking so we spent the first morning at the Tukwilla Fun Center. I didn't think the kids were going to like this Frog Hopper but they LOVED it. It went really high...you can't really tell from the photo.

Emma driving her first car. Johnny was very distraught that he was too short to ride himself....

A trip to the Rainforest Cafe.....

Petting the sea life at Point Defiance. We had such a great day. The weather was unbeatable and the animals were all out showing off...
Johnny kissing a fish....

There was an exhibit where you could buy a stick with food on it and feed the birds. We had to drag Emma out of this one....




And to end a great day...a carousel ride. We had so much fun on our trip with Papa and Meemaw. Thanks for all of the fun!

The Lake

A few days after arriving in Washington we headed to the lake house on Lake Roosevelt. It was a week of fun in the sun with the Stagge/Forrest family.

Some playing at the beach with the future Mr. and Mrs. Stagge

Some napping on the front porch.....

Did some fishing.........

Some floating.......

We found pollywogs....


Drove the boat......

Celebrated birthdays......





And of course some tea parties........

Yes, the girls got ahold of Johnny....I think he might have been the cutest one...