Washington Love

In March I went to visit Roland, Sofia and Elisabeth and Vivian. They live on an island, that has a ferry to the mainland. I loved everything about it. I enjoyed being in a more rural area. I enjoyed eating Sofia's delicious food (she said I needed to stay longer because we only scratched the surface of the things she wanted to make for me). I enjoyed all the beautiful places we went.
I loved spending time with Roland and Sofia--I love them so much and I live entirely too far away from them. They are so wonderful. My one and only big brother--and the relationship is just different than all my little ones. Every day after family prayer, Roland would hug me for a long time and discuss how he could convince me to move closer. I can't even tell you how wonderful it was to feel wanted. I also had so much fun visiting with Sofia--she's been my sister in-law for 10 years now (10!) and I'm so grateful that we're family. :)
And of course, I loved, loved, loved being Tia Ruth. (tia = aunt in Spanish) My lovely sobrinitas fill my heart with love. We played and cooked and had a joyful time together. Elisabeth is growing and SO much fun! She's a lovely age and she still loves me. I met Vivian for the first time and she is so cute. I cannot get enough of her curls! And her cute little "shi" (si) or "yes" for everything. And both of them--just cute, fun, energetic and loving.

R&S went on a couple of day "anniversary trip" and I got to mother the girls. I loved it so much. I want to be a mother. I mean, I really, really want to.
Coming back to Boston was the only hard part of this trip. The whole time I was coming back--including when I was flying in, riding to my house--I kept thinking, "I live in Boston? Really? Boston, MA? That is so weird, first of all. And second, why do I live thousands of miles from my family?"
A couple of months ago there were a million more things to say about this trip, but now the important thing is to get this posted. So without further ado, I will post more pictures than you probably want to see. :)  (I need to learn to make the collages like Deanna has.)

Playing with Grandmother's Christmas gift (which I delivered, because I'm a good Christmas elf).

At Mt. St. Helen

Good thing Pa brought his boots!

She loves skirts, as you'll soon note. And it was SO pretty up there!

Love

This one LOVES to throw things. Especially if it's throwing it into the water.

Pa's truck. Doing donuts in the snow. Some things never change.

We're brown osos in the snow.

On the ferry.

 

 

Heaven = an hour or more on the shore where there are gazillions of rocks (and a few sticks) to be thrown into the water. I think she could have spent the entire day here.

One of my favorites about this little series is watching Ma in the background.

And Pa, making cakes for the chickens. I love him!