First Days of School

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Crane Beach (Aug 21)

We always try to get in a few good beach days in August before heading back to school. Last Sunday we spent seven hours at Crane Beach.

Carol and the girls also went to Plum Island in the middle of the week to spend the night at a beach house rented by one of Charlotte's friend's families.

And we're going to Crane Beach again tomorrow with friend!

Seattle - Richland Vacation

We had a wonderful vacation in Seattle and Richland from July 26 - August 9. Last year we didn't take this trip because we spent all our money and vacation time going to Italy. So it had been two years since our last visit home.

Audrey flew to Seattle a week before the rest of the family and had a lot of fun visiting with family and going shopping, swimming and sightseeing.

When we arrived we spent our first 24 hours in Seattle. We happened to overlap with good friends Kathy and Mark and their kids, who live in Myanmar. So we enjoyed a dinner gathering with them at mutual friends Britt and Ken's house.

The next day we drove to Richland, to Carol's homestead.

Our Richland visit this year was especially good because:

1. We got to spend a whole day on the river with Carol's childhood friend Kim and her family, and Grandpa Dennis.
2. Both of Carol's brothers, and sister-in-law-Torii came over to celebrate both Dennis and Mary's 80th birthdays. And as a bonus they brought Niece Kristen.
3. We enjoyed three boat outings on the river, including one at sunset and another with Grandma Mary, too.

Back in Seattle we enjoyed evenings out with good friends and lots of hanging out with family. Whenever it was warm we went swimming in Greenlake. Audrey learned how to dive!

We spent the last weekend at Aunt Tricia and Uncle Frank's house in Puyallup. We got to see their old school bus that they plan to turn into an RV; we helped Tricia prepare for and serve at a cancer program dinner at her house and just enjoyed hanging out with them.

We had a tourist day in Seattle visiting favorite sites: the Fremont Troll; the Ballard Locks and Seattle Center. We just missed being able to go up in the Space Needle (we timed it wrong).

We enjoyed another visit with Kristen over lunch, and we got to also see Nephew Ross. We also had dinner at Alki's Pegasus Pizza with Kristen and Cousin Alex and his new wife Jade.

We ended the trip with a Methot family tradition: dinner at the Old Spaghetti Factory. We first ate at this restaurant in Portland, OR in 1969, so this family tradition is 47 years old and going strong.

It was a wonderful trip. Can't wait until the next one!