Family retreat: other pictures

I found some other pictures on FB from our family retreat that other people took. 

Holly and Emma

Holly, Emma and me

Praying after the evening sesssions

Just playing in the redwoods

We squished in the train seats...Brittney drove the car with Oliver, so they didn't come with us. We sat next to Landon and his daddy, across from Ch. Tangen and Holly. 

Cheese!

Surprise!

We got homestead 1 AM Sunday morning, and were at chapel at 8 for a long Sunday. Steven's flight was supposed to have left Seattle early that morning, but got deployed 24 hours. That night he called and said it had been delayed another 48 hours, and he was contemplating getting a hotel room instead of staying in the airport. I check hops out of Travis and there was one Tuesday night with more seats available. He said he was coming home, and would take that one. (After my super depressing last post, you can imagine our excitement.) So we picked him up Sunday night, got home at 1 AM Monday morning. We got to spend a couple of days with him at home, completely unexpected. It was such a gift. We went swimming, ate a normal family dinner, saw a friend who just got back from deployment, and relaxed. Anyway, right before left for Travis, we heard that the flight had been cancelled. We checked and there were no more commercial flights to Korea that night, so we just went ahead and booked one for the next morning. He did finally get there....26 hours after he left our house.

Head Stands! 

Snuggles

Tickles

Kansas Trip part 12: Saying goodbye

Emma and I needed this vacation badly. It was so nice to get out of our routine, get help from family and time to play and be around other people. It was really hard knowing we were coming back to six more months by ourselves. The first six months were exhausting, that is the only way I can describe it. Between my adrenal fatigue, Pepper dying, and starting my job and her tummy issues, it ended up a lot harder than I thought. I'm not trying to sound depressing, but neither of us was looking forward to coming home.

Since we changed our flight, we ended up being at the gate right next to Steven...it was so nice to see him a little longer and have him help with Emma inside security! But we said our sad goodbyes, and got on our plane. 

Backpack buddies again. :(

Getting her last Daddy snuggles before getting on the plane. 

Fake smile.

Sad, tired little girl. Not happy to leave everyone behind. 

Shaun the Sheep to the rescue!

Our flight out of Denver was delayed, and it was just too hard to stay awake. 

She slept the whole last flight. 

Kansas Trip part 11: Pool party

While we were there we found out that Steven's side of the family was have a pool party. Steven was able to make it with out changing tickets, but Emma and I had to change out tickets...thankfully it wasn't too expensive. We enjoyed getting to see everyone...Emma had never met some of these people, at least that she remembered. We got nice and exhausted before our trip home. When it was over we got some dinner and went to the airport.

Just chillin with Grandma Connie.

Taking a snuggle break.

Back in the pool with Aunt Suzanne. Emma did a great job swimming. It was nice to finally have Daddy get to watch her swim, and to have so many people to play with! My pictures don't do it justice...I think we were pretty exhausted by the end of our trip..and not looking forward to having t o say goodbye.

Coloring at the restaurant

Kansas Trip part 10: Roller skating

One of the things Emma wanted to do with Daddy was go roller skating. She and I went last year, and she had a blast. The rink is right down the street from my parents house,and we made it just in time to get in enough skating for a 4 year old. ;)

❤️❤️❤️

Kansas Trip, part 9: Aunt Grace's cats

Emma has been dying to see Aunt Grace's cats ever since Pepper died. She really misses having a pet. Sowe finally made it over to see their cats after dinner and ice cream. It was fun to take her to the house we grew up in, too.

Petting one of them...it took them a while to warm up. 

Giving Bruce (?) catnip.

They started warming up to her, with help.

Playing with a belt

Kansas Trip, part 8: Dinner with family

Thursday night we went to Herman's Meat House for dinner....Mmm, although we missed Faith and Alan who had already moved down to Texas. Afterward we went out to Sheridans for some ice cream. 

Dad's first selfie!

Nice Emma

Crazy Emma

Hungry Emma

Happy Emma