Bite of Seattle

On Saturday I met up with some friends from work at Seattle Center for the yearly Bite of Seattle. Many restraunts in the city come and for a small price provide a "bite" of their dishes. We walked around amid the crowds of people and dogs, with live music in the background, trying to decide if we wanted Vietnemese, Mexican or BBQ to name just a few. After making our selections we found a place to sit by a huge fountain and people watched. It is a very interesting selection of people who came. Overall it was a fun way to spend a Saturday evening!

Hiking

The views were beautiful!

Oliver had the best seat!

Ben loved collecting flowers on our hike.

While I was in Montana the Zerbes and I drove down to Wyoming to go hiking in the Big Horn mountains. It was so beautiful hiking up there! Thankfully we did not see any mountain "wions" like Ben insisted he saw, but we did see a female moose and her baby. They were a safe distance away, but the mother looked pretty nervous and we tried to act nonchalant and uninterested in what they were doing while I was snapping pictures with Rachel's camera.

Ben and I went on a little hike further down the trail while Rachel, Dwight and Oliver rested in a little meadow. Ben would run on the trail then stop suddenly, look up toward the big boulders on our right and say "Wion"! After doing this several times I was getting a little nervous looking at the boulders and thinking that it is very possible there were mountain lions that lived up there. I finally convinced Ben that we needed to turn around and when he was safely in my arms he shook his arm at the boulders and yelled, "Go away, wion, go away"! That's exactly what I want to say when the worldly lions try to attack....go away, wion, go away!

Montana

I woke up at 4 am this morning to drive 14 hours to my sister's house in Montana. It's a long drive, made longer by summer road construction, but the views are beautiful! Seattle was rainly, foggy and cool when I left. After driving over the Cascades into eastern Washington the sky cleared and the sun came out. Ahhh...the sun! I've missed the sun! This summer has been cooler and wetter than some year...or so the natives tell me.
After a walk in the pasture with Rachel and the boys I am sitting on the couch watching the local fireworks store shoot off some fireworks. Every night the week before July 4th the owners advertise their wares with a mini fireworks display. You don't get this kind of service in the city!
We are going hiking tomorrow then dinner and fireworks with the neighbors! Happy July 4th!!!

Code Pink!!

I finished a stretch of six out of seven work days this morning with a near Code Pink thanks to a little 5 year old boy clad only in a diaper and nameband (thankfully!) in search of his mother. He looked very innocent as a surgical nurse brought him back in hand asking if we were missing anyone. We weren't until we saw him!
"Where's my mom?"
"We called her and she should be coming soon."
So I left him in the next shift's hand hoping along with him that his mother would soon show up!
(BTW, a Code Pink, for those non-medical, is what we would call on the overhead paging system if a child goes missing in the hospital. Everyone who works there knows what it means and gets information on who went missing so they can be on the lookout. This is not a good way to end your shift!)