The Relatives are Coming!

I apologize for my lack of posting in the last three weeks. We have been diligently working on the house to prepare it for company that arrived last Friday. We made lots of progress--none of which I have pictures to share-but did not finish everything. I think we will be working on it bit by bit for many months as horrible as that sounds. We made incredible progress on the trim, but did not get to the windows. However, all of the baseboards are done as well as the door trim. It all still needs puttied as well as touch up paint. It is completely livable and we officially moved in about a week ago. A friend helped with the 3 or 4 very heavy and cumbersome pieces one day, but everything else has come a little at a time in trips back and forth across the dirt yard. I promise to take some pictures to share.
So, my dear mom from the northeast and sister and brother-in-law from the South arrived on Friday. We were blessed with gorgeous Pacific Northwest weather for that day as well as the weekend. This morning we awoke to rain. We spent our time sightseeing the area, wearing them out with roadtrips to the lake and downtown for the open air market. It was wonderful spending Mother's Day with my mom and sister. My family, the girls and Bob, blessed me with the entire series of the Love Comes Softly DVD series AND a wheat grinder for my Vitamix. I am so excited to be able to grind wheat for bread. Here are some pictures of our time together. It has been so nice to take a break from the house and RELAX. We had forgotten what that felt like!

Yesterday's adventure took us to the lake where we walked through old growth forest to this waterfall. My mom had been unable to join us on our long walks so one of the girls have graciously stayed with her each time.
This is Bob with my brother-in-law (We will call him Chas) standing beneath/beside one of the HUGE trees.
Three generations from tallest to shortest!

Bob with each of his girls. Hey, where am I? Farmer Girl said, "I would have dressed nicer if I had known we were taking pictures!" The lake was an incredible blue/green yesterday and calm mostly. She wanted to jump in! After driving around the lake and after our hike, we visited the lodge for some quiet time on the bank, enjoying the warmth of the sun.

I like this natural shot of Bob and The Scribbler.

And, here is my brother-in-law with my sister, GV. We walked to this spot, another 1/2 mile through forest again, to arrive on this 5 mile stretch of beach, full of drift logs and rocks. We considered the hike to the lighthouse at the end-NOT! (although we have done it before). I think this is a great shot of the two of them. I am so glad they are all here to visit. May our time to blessed and may we bless them.
Thanks for sharing!
Love, Ellie~