Sunday, June 16, 2013

Seattle & Joy's Graduation - Day 2


The light shining in the windows in the living room woke me around 5:30.  Though annoying, it was a partial blessing, because light had been streaming in since 4a.  I had anticipated this and slept with a towel over my face.  So as frustrated as I was to be awoken so unnecessarily early, I had received more than I normally would have gotten.

I had borrowed Joy’s laptop to get my seminary homework done that weekend.  My IT department was working on mine and so I couldn’t—and didn’t want to—bring it to Seattle.  I typed out my forum post which I would post later when I got over to Joy’s house with internet access.  I knitted some more rows on my square and worked on memorizing a few more verses of Psalm 139, another class requirement.  Amy woke up and made us some hot chocolate.  Yes, Amy is such a chocolate lover, that there are no qualms about having it for breakfast.  After Heidi woke up a little later, we started to figure out the day’s plans.

Joy wanted to run with me while we were both up here.  Amy was open to running, but since Heidi’s knee issues prevent her from running, they were planning to power walk.  Amy’s uncle lives in striking distance of Green Lake with a running route of its perimeter, but Joy also had a route near her school to consider.  It ended up that Amy and Heidi walked around Green Lake while Joy and I ran the canal route by her school.

I was so glad Joy and ran her route.  It wove a little through the Queen Anne district and ended with us sprinting up a short hill opening to a beautiful view of Puget Sound.  And it was so great to get some solo time for the two of us.  It’s amazing how we’ve bonded over our road and air trips to Seattle, and being the two kids that went away to school.

After showering and a lazy slow late morning breakfast, we ended up late on the road to the big family dinner at Gram Helen’s apartment.  Thankfully Gram has never cared about people being punctual.  We arrived and greeted my grandma, uncles, aunt and cousins.  We had a wonderful afternoon with all of them.

I had told Amy and Heidi to bring walking shoes to Gram’s place.  I hadn’t told them the plan, but Joy remembered as we walked into the complex.  As we left, I made sure we left ahead of Mom and Dad.  This was a thing that started 11 years ago between my sister Rachel and me.  We went exploring one day while visiting up here over Spring break my senior year of high school.  We discovered that the access to the roof was not secured in this complex and took much delight in being able to get up there and goof off atop a 3-story building.  I come up here every visit for a beautiful view of the surrounding landscape, and was glad to get to share this ridiculous tradition with Amy and Heidi.  I had showed it to Joy on our road trip here four years ago.  We took pictures and then climbed down to leave.

Joy directed us to a game shop, where they not only sell games, but have hundreds of open games and about 15 tables available for people to play the games free of charge.  Before we started, we walked down the street for some frozen yogurt.  The game store had Dominion, so I taught the game to the girls, and I think they all liked it.  Heidi won, just barely ahead of Amy.  Then we played a few rounds of Legretto (similar to Nertz) before packing it up.  Joy took us on a short walk out to a beautiful vista looking out at the night skyline of Seattle.  We stopped by the grocery store for Amy to grab supplies for a family dinner she would cook at her uncle’s house tomorrow after the graduation, and then we went home to again crash after another wonderful but long day.

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