The picture says it all

Easter Weekend in Washington

It was supposed to rain Saturday and our plans for the day was a trip to one of their local tulip festivals. We kept our fingers crossed that the rain would stay away until we were done. All I can say is BRRRR....no rain...just a very chilly wind. But no complaining here. We were able to find a lovely Tulip farm to stroll around and take a 100+ pictures (well mostly Jenna did) and actually have a few really good ones.

Sunday brought the always AWESOME Easter Bunny for Jake and Jenna....and a text from Nathaniel that sounded oh so sad...."I didn't get a Easter Basket". OR so he thought...mommy easter bunny had it delivered to grandmas house...to make sure her sweet son received it. But, I must say, how good it felt to see that Nathan does still want some fun traditions in his teen life. I must say though, that the holiday felt a little odd, as I had never been away from Nathaniel for a full holiday before. Sunday seemed to fly by....can not say for sure what we did, but the day seemed to be over far too fast. Jodie and I cooked up a feast for the five of us. Easter eggs were found and the mentos and diet coke experiment was repeated with far better success.

Jodie was in the mood to revamp her wardrobe, so we had shopped whenever the opportunity presented itself. Monday was my flight home and only left a couple of hours to share. So off to the mall we went. We were able to conquer a few stores, acquire a few more pieces and enjoy one last lunch together before I had to go to the airport.

My mini vacation was fun and I think we both wanted it to last a little longer. I will miss Jodie and the kids deeply. It is sad to have such a bond and live so far apart. However, my little family is here and I needed to get home to both of them (sorry guys...party time is over).

Time in Washington

This week my sister and her kids were on spring break and I was able to come and visit. This was a last minute trip that just happened to work out....well except for having to call in to work for two shifts. Oh well...well worth it. I flew in on Wednesday and will be here through Monday. This will be the first holiday that I did not spend with Nathaniel. He was okay with this one. I will be able to enjoy the traditions to which younger kids love....yay!

Wednesday we did not do much...just hung out, ate and watched some tv. Thursday, we treated ourselves to pedis and had yummy pastrami (almost as great as The Hat in California). Later, enjoyed a nice walk before the rain decided to rear its ugly head. The night ended with the kids doing pranks on George and their awesome aunt Kelly. Friday, we helped Jenna and Jake with some bath salt making and attempted to do the diet coke and mentos test. It went OK...but we are planning one more attempt. For dinner that night was teriyaki (they do not make it the same in Texas).

So in a nutshell...so far a lot of hanging out and eating. With another post later on the rest of my time in Seattle.

A Surprise Call

Sometimes one receives unexpected calls right when it is needed. While at the airport this morning, I was talking with a young girl about her name and how I had a daughter with a very similar name. Well the day progressed and the conversation had faded....until my phone rang later that day with a number I did not recognize. To my surprise, the voice on the other end of the phone was my Miss Kalista. We chatted for about 20 minutes getting caught up (I do not think the call was mother approved). Kalista assured me that her and mom were doing good, that her grades were good and about some of her plans. She had to go but told me she would send me a recent picture and asked if we still had our foster care license. I proceeded to reassure her that we do, told her that we loved her and said goodbye.

Not long after the call, she sent me a picture. It is crazy the timing, as our license is about to expire and I was not going to renew. I do not know if she will ever be placed back with the state..but who would we be to let her down if she needed us. I guess we will torture ourselves with renewing it at least one more time.

Thank you Miss K for the call!

Random pictures from Spring Break

Spring Break = College Search

Nathaniel is coming up to the end of his junior year and the topic of colleges has been a focus to our family the past couple of months. To my complete sadness, we have raised a very independent minded kid, who wants to venture quite a bit away. Nathan has decided that he wants to attend a small liberal arts college to study polical science. His main college of choice is Cornell Colleged located in Mt Vernon, Iowa. He was also been interested in Augusta College in Rock Island, Illinios. So for spring break this year we decided to travel through five states in five days while staying in five different hotels.

After a 14 hour drive over a day and a half, it was time for the first school meeting. Nate attended his first political science class and jumped right into the discussion. While he was learning, Steve and I met for a reality check, with financial aid. A meeting with his recruiter that we met at the his initial interview. Followed by a campus tour and lunch in the main eatery. The campus is a historical site and is beautiful. The physical structures of all the buildings are original and can not be altered since being on the registery. Cornell has approximately 1150 students a year and on average gets 1000 applications a year and accepts around 300. Cornell is unique as the school system is one class at a time. One class every 3 1/2 weeks. As of now, this is his number one pick, and he has a good chance of getting accepted. This would be my first choice (if my one and only is going to leave) for many reasons.

                                  

This same day, we toured Coe College (Cornell's rival). This campus is located about 20 minutes away in Cedar Rapids. The physical appearance of the school appeared a tad more traditional. It is intermixed with old and new buildings. Definately has more of a city feel, with a selection of services close by. Again, Coe had around the same number of students, applications and acceptance.

                        

Augustana College, located in the Quad Cities, lies in the forest. This was the biggest of the three schools, around 3000 students this year. They had buildings listed with the historic society, but many old buildings that they were converting with modern technology. The campus was sprawled all over the place. Augustana was completely into the green movement. Between the trees and being very green...Nathaniel was turned off. At least they were nice and we did get a free lunch.

After the college tours were done for the time...and we were in a part of the country that was new to us...it was time for some site seeing. So off to Carthadge, Illinois we went to tour some church sites.  First stop was Carthedge, Illinois to tour the jail where  Joseph Smith was martyred. We awoke the next day to snow which put a damper on our day planned in Nauvoo. We were able to drive by all of the buildings, but due to the weather, many of the homes and activities were closed. However, we toured the bakery, the craft building, brick and gun makers. We also drove up to the temple and then drove back along the road leading out while watching the river rise.

This was in front of the temple and a funeral home

We enjoyed driving through most of the states...well not so much in Oklahoma or Kansas. Had a few laughs along the way, toured some beautiful campuses and church historical sites, ate far too much fast food and hopefully helped Nathaniel with his college choices that will soon have to be made.