My family and I attended the Feast this year in Kellogg, ID - a great change of pace! :) It was wonderful being reunited with Luke, Alina and William for 10 days - but it definitely wasn't long enough! We picked up Ali and Will at the airport in Seattle, and Luke met up with us the next day in Kellogg. We were sharing a very large suite with my family - it had a 1 bedroom (for Mom and Dad), Alina slept on an air mattress in the living room, and the boys shared the loft. Attached to that suite was a studio apartment suite for Luke and I - it was perfect! We all shared meals and snacks and everything, and had tons of fun playing games together and spending lots of time with one another.
I tried to take as many photos as possible, but I was also just enjoying being with Luke again, so the camera went on a bit of a back burner from time to time. But there are definitely enough to give you the vibe of our visit I think - plus I stole a few from Dad's camera as well ;)
These first few were taken on the drive from Monroe, WA to Kellogg, ID - these ones were as we were coming up to and going over the Snoqualmie Pass.
Our fearless driver and navigator (Dad and Mom ;)
And then we have the awesome flatness of Eastern Washington:
Here's our suite!
This is the studio that Luke and I had...
Our little kitchen...
This stairway was just to the left of the attached doors between mine and Luke's room and the rest of it - it led up to the loft that the boys shared.
This was our view from the attached doors between the rooms - lots of room for the family to congregate and eat delicious meals and fellowship with people. The living room was to the left, kitchen to the right, Mom and Dad's room straight ahead, next to the very large bathroom!
Dad checking to make sure we can fit everything in the fridge... we did ;)
William, what a dork ;)
Huge bathroom with two sinks and TONS of space!
Mom and Dad's room.
Our first family dinner in Kellogg! :)
After our Costco trip - a necessity with 8 of us! :)
Boys and their computers ;)
Sorting all the baby clothes that Luke's coworker Christina gave us - what a blessing!!
At least half of these are in Missouri now, keeping Sacha's baby Emma nice and cozy! :)
The view outside of our suite - so lovely!
The tram that goes up the ski hill - more on that later!
The boys made paper planes (yes they are all over 20 years old) and were trying to fly them up into the loft... of course I had to capture this ;)
They eventually made it work ;) haha!
We were in a gorgeous, open and bright space for church every day - it was lovely!
The adorable children's choir practicing for their big day (they did an awesome job, so cute!)
Luke and I had a fun afternoon in Coeur D'Alene - we went to a great antique mall (I found an awesome 12 month sized crinoline for $10!), checked out a great toy store, walked around the cute little downtown area, and saved the day when we found that someone had left their credit card in the outside US bank ATM (Luke called and we dropped it off at the local Wells Fargo bank)
Some weird creatures/scarecrows in a local park.... odd!
Luke talking to Wells Fargo about the credit card we found!
Quite possibly the largest gumball machine I've ever seen! :)
We had a really fun family dance one evening - lots of fun :)
Haha, look who's in the middle of the chicken dance! ;)
This is Luke's boogie/dancing face! haha!
William had been "challenging" Dave to random contests and challenges - one of which was an arm wrestling competition. Luke joined in....
And then they had a beer guzzling one....obviously...
On 3...
And away they go!
Dave's done!!
Luke's done!!
William was having a tough time ;) LOL!
He eventually did finish ;) Just a wee bit later than everyone else! haha!
We went to the historic little town of Wallace, ID one afternoon - we hit up a couple of antique stores, went on a mining tour, checked out the local brewery, a pawn shop (where they sold many stuffed creatures, bears, cougars, etc), and enjoyed the old architecture.
Luke testing out his sampler platter of local beer :)
Ali getting in on the sampler action...
I liked how they named these things ;)...
We got the GREATEST shakes here - everybody else got huckleberry, and we got blackberry... SO good!
Our serious face....
Luke's creepy face, HA!
My "bump" is getting bigger and bigger! :)
One afternoon after church we went for a ride in the gondola that was part of our resort - it goes all the way up to the top of the mountain where the ski area is. It's apparently one of the longest gondola rides in north America - it was quite pretty!
All of us! Luke wanted this picture taken because Dave, Ali, Will and Jordan were going hiking for a couple hours, so he wanted a photo to show the search and rescue team if they got lost! :) haha, good idea baby ;)
On one of our last nights we went to a great pub/restaurant for dinner called
Capone's - it was featured on Diners, Drive-ins & Dives, so we thought it would be worth it to check it out. Was it ever! Delicious food, and lots of fun :)
That was also the evening that Luke and I received possibly the best news ever.... His Permanent Residency paperwork has been approved and he can FINALLY move up to Canada to stay!!! I will write more on that tomorrow, as I know I need to do an update post as well! :) but let this photo sum up how overwhelmed we were... it was absolutely surreal :)
We had a great farewell lunch on the Last Great Day - it was a really nice way to sum up the Feast and visit with everyone one last time.
On our last night we had a big "eat and drink all the leftovers so we don't have to take much home!!" party! :) It was a lot of fun - everyone brought their leftover food and drinks and we are and drink til we were very much stuffed... and still had some left over to bring home the next day!!
It was a really wonderful Feast - inspired and uplifting messages, lots of great company, and of course lots of wonderful moments with just me and my man :) It was a Feast to remember for sure - our last as a family of two, the one where we found out we would be reunited SOON! Great memories, and of course over way too fast!
Love it! It was so nice to meet you and the clan a the Feast! :)
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