Our Seattle Trip...

I told several people what I was getting to do this week --- spend about 40 hours with students heading to Seattle!! Almost all of them thought I was crazy. Honestly, I'd choose to do this if I could too. I think it's a great and fun and amazing trip.

First, (once we got to Seattle) we got to Ride The Ducks (a tour ofSeattle in a refurbished WW2 land/water vehicle that took us past the piers andthe stadiums and a cool architectural district and on to LakeUnion where we saw sea planes land and take off, and saw 3 of the ships from Deadliest Catch in dock and the Sleepless in Seattle house...it was fun to watch the students

have a first time experience like this!! They were cracking me up!!

After the Ducks ride (a good thing for an Oregon person to do - sorry Beaver fans...), we headed to the mall that's adjacent to the Space Needle for dinner, before heading to the Mariners game at Safeco Field --- WE WON! They haven't had the best season, but it was great to watch the Mariners win --- 2nd year in a row we saw a win! YEAH!!! I can still smell garlic fries. Our group made it on the big

screen twice so that was so fun.

We started the wave through the stadium. And we were shocked by the number of seagulls that came swooping in and around the stadium once the game was over helping the cleaning crew pick everything up...

We left the stadium and headed to a church to sleep... I woke up the next morning and was wrapping up my sleeping bag when someone comes in to tell me a toilet is overflowing. Josh is outside getting breakfast set up (he's such a good guy to do the early morning get breakfast run...and bring me a Coke!! Thanks to him and whoever else made that breakfast run, and let me sleep a little later!!) Anyway - I rush into the bathroom w/ a mop, to find not just 1 toilet but all 4 overflowing AND the water seeping up through the overflow drain on the ground. That's just the girls bathroom. Ditto scenario in the guys bathroom (ok, someone else checked, I never really went in that one)...and also in the bathroom in the toddler room. Needless to say we were a little late leaving for Wildwaves while we cleaned, mopped up as best we could, contacted their church contact (and then I finally raced to get dressed and brush my teeth). Oh the things that you never know will be in your job description!! Thanks again to everyone for patience and for pitching in that much more to mop, clean up, run interference, and to all of those who had to wait to go to the bathroom til we got to Wildwaves!!! (That was a true challenge, huh!!?)

Then...Wildwaves! If you're not from the area, it's a combination amusement/water park. Roller coasters, fun

rides, corn dogs, plus lazy river, water slides and wave pool. Last year it was 108 degrees, this year just 78. The lazy river was a not-so-lazy river as we had a race with about 10 of us going around 2 times...we kept adding more rules because we knew we'd all break em... I was sooooo tired when that race was over. It was pretty cut throat...

The best part by far though (that I eluded to yesterday) were the hours (literally) of conversations and getting to know you's and answering questions, and sharing with each other stories of life, joy, hardships, and faith. I was grateful for deep conversations and hysterical conversations, for music and singing, for quiet moments, for silly questions or sharing lots of stories... it is and was an honor and a blast to spend time with these students.

So... who wants to go with us next year!!!!???? It's a BLAST!!! and soooooo worth it!