Their faces when they saw how huge the ship was were priceless – I think up until this point, Ethan had been nervously anticipating some sort of large canoe.

The Seattle skyline as we sailed away.

Anna right after she spotted a whale!

Our first glimpse of Alaska – Ketchikan.

Creek Street in Ketchikan.

Three very different boats.

Mendenhall Glacier in Juneau behind Mendenhall Lake which didn’t exist 30 years ago.

The ice is really that blue.

Toby standing in front of Nugget Falls at Mendenhall Glacier.

Our family posing as superheros by Mendenhall Lake – that’s how we roll.

Our first bear sighting in the Yukon.

One of many, many eagles we saw – so majestic!

Carcross in the Yukon – this is most of it.

Ethan (and the rest of us!) was in love with these puppies at the Iditerod camp.

Getting a ride on an ATV pulled by mushing dogs – this is their summer training.

By the end of the day, these puppies were worn out!

Our guide in Skagway and the Yukon, Tom, showing the kids how to pan for gold – miraculously, every last child found some (clever, Tom)!

Stunning Tutshi Lake.

Downtown Skagway.

Rinnah and Anna posing by all the ice in Glacier Bay – there was so much in the water, we eventually had to turn back for safety.

Leaving gorgeous Glacier Bay.

The shoreline in Victoria, BC.

The tallest free standing totem pole in the world in Beacon Hill Park, BC.

Beacon Hill Park with a peacock!

Stunning Beacon Hill Park went on and on.

We saw this man playing his erhu so beautifully next to the Empress Hotel.

Fisherman’s Wharf, Victoria, BC.

Victoria Harbor.

We headed back to Seattle and met up with Nathan’s family who had all traveled in from Michigan, and then went to the ship on Saturday morning.

It was really fun to show the kids the ship. They were having the hardest time picturing what it must be like – I think they were all thinking we’d be on some kind of large canoe. Ethan was really worried that we were going on it for a week because in his mind that meant we couldn’t eat for a week! I told him there was a restaurant, that actually there were several restaurants, and he was floored. Their faces were priceless when they saw it down on the docks! It’s a huge ship, 19 floors, and has a capacity over 5000 people with crew. They were just stunned staring up at it!

I’m not actually a huge fan of cruising. I don’t like being with so many people, and I feel like you only get to see the surface of the places you’re going, but even I admit this was a very practical way to both vacation with 23 people, and to see these ports in AK because some of them are only accessibly by boat or plane. We had two rooms next door to each other, four in each room, and they were actually really nice – small of course, but much more comfortable than I expected. Again, the kids’ faces when the top bunk came out of the ceiling and the couch turned into the bottom bunk were priceless! They just thought it was all so cool.

Our first day was at sea, so we just hung around with our cousins and checked out the ship. All the kids went swimming even though it was absolutely freezing. All the adults huddled under blankets and gave them the thumbs up. 🙂

Our first stop was Ketchikan. We had checked the prices on the excursions from the cruise ship, and let’s just say that anything at all times 8 was out of our price range, so I had researched everything pretty thoroughly and this port we decided just to do a walking tour. We went through the main downtown area, and also to Creek Street and up the incline to the top of the mountain – all so pretty. We had amazing weather almost the entire trip which was astonishing since the weather is usually very rainy. We also stopped at the Heritage Totem Center, and that was so interesting for us and for our kiddos. We learned a lot about native culture in this part of the world. Walking back along the pier, all of us were looking over the edges of the floating dock because it was just covered with anemones and sea stars! We all thought it was a great first look at Alaska.

Our second stop the following day was in Juneau. Again, we didn’t sign up for any tours, but I had figured out how to take the bus to the Mendenhall Glacier. When we got off the ship, though, they were booking tours and since it was them trying to fill their last seats (on the exact tour we would have taken through the cruise line) we got on it for about 20% of what we would have paid. Score! We decided to go for it as it was a tour of Juneau in addition to Mendenhall. Our tour was lovely and the driver was born and raised in Juneau, so she knew her stuff. She also went on a mini-rant about classes of salmon and what people “down south” try to serve as salmon which everyone up there knows is just the worst type of salmon that they use for dog food in Alaska! There’s something I never even knew I should be offended by.

Then we went to Mendenhall, and it was just stunning, and also sad. There’s a beautiful lake right in front of it that didn’t exist 30 years ago. The visitor center was built right at the foot of the glacier at that time, but now because of melting, there’s a huge lake and it’s receded more than a mile. Nathan and Toby decided to speed hike to Nugget Falls (the rest of us explored the paths nearer by since we knew they could move really fast but we thought the Littles might not make it back in time for the bus trip back and we weren’t too psyched about missing the ship). It was over a mile there, and they still weren’t near the glacier – Nugget Falls used to run through and out of the glacier. I’m so glad we got to see it, but it’s tough to see environmental changes right in front of you that are that dramatic.

On the third day, we took an epic trip out of Skagway. Again, since the cruise line excursions were so out of our league, I had looked into a private tour. I found a family-run company with a 24 seat bus. Well, here we are with 23 people! I asked if the other Shaws wanted to be in on it, and we were all in! So the whole family took this private bus with maybe the nicest man ever, Tom, through Skagway, and up the White Pass which is the path the White Pass train follows and also where the Goldrush happened, and up into the Yukon.

Tom was a wonderful guide. He gave us the history of the town and the wild, wild West that was the Goldrush, brought a scope so we could find wildlife (we saw eagles, mountain goats, and even two bears!), and timed our border crossings into Canada so we’d beat the hundreds of people on the train. The scenery was breathtaking and we got to go so much farther than we would have on the train! We went all the way to Carcross, the 8th biggest town in all of the Yukon with 500 people. We went there for lunch because there is a bakery where you can get lunch – there was literally no other place to do that the entire day. He told us they get supplies “pretty close, over in White Horse – it’s only 90 miles.” The bakery looked completely overwhelmed by 23 people for lunch and I think they almost had a panic attack, but it was wonderful. And Tom (did I mention he’s nice??) brought a home-made cake for Mom and Dad Shaw since I’d mentioned it was their 50th!

The highlights of our trip to the Yukon were still coming, though. First, we stopped at dog mushing camp. The owners have both run the Iditarod multiple times, and we got to first play with the new puppies, then hear all about how they do the Iditarod and see their equipment. (Holy smokes, they are crazy people! For example, fun fact, only the brave go to sleep because it is often 60 below and if you sleep, you may not wake up! Haha! So, they average about an hour a night on an 8-14 day, 1000 mile trip, mostly in the dark since there’s only 3 hours of daylight at that time – he told us he routinely has to pour his boiling cooking water into his boots to thaw them enough to get them back on after changing his socks which is necessary to avoid foot rot. Which is apparently a thing. This is a voluntary activity. Just saying.)

After the talk, we got to take a ride! In the summer, the dogs train by pulling an ATV in neutral since there’s no snow. Each family took a turn and I can’t even explain how gorgeous the scenery was and how unreal it felt. What an incredible experience! And our driver, one of the owners, Michelle, guided the dogs with the softest commands, we hardly heard her, and they were just a machine. These are not your average house dogs, they were intimidating, definitely working, and a lot more like wolves than dogs, but she knew all 60 of them, and they loved running. She said they can go through 3000 dog booties on a trip, and she gave one to each of the kids as a souvenir.

Then our last stop was at Tutshi Lake where we let the kids pan for gold. I have a small suspicion that Tom may have come prepared for this, as somehow, magically, every single child found a little gold! They were stunned! And the parents thought Tom was a smart, smart man.

We just had time to walk through some of the main town of Skagway before getting back on the ship. It was one of my favorite days I’ve ever spent anywhere, and that’s saying something!

The next day our ship was supposed to cruise up to Glacier Bay National Park. We started in and saw some incredible scenery, including one large glacier, but there was so much ice in the water, it started getting a little scary. I was wondering if it was normal (and hearing the ice thudding against the sides of the ship is not comforting) when the captain came on and said that there was so much ice, we weren’t going to make it to the main glacier. He didn’t feel it was safe to continue. So we turned around and I felt that was as close to a Titanic story as I’d wanted to come anyway.

The last port was Victoria on Vancouver Island. We had already decided to come back to Vancouver Island after the trip with just our family, so we didn’t feel a lot of pressure here. We did a fairly epic walk up the coast, through Beacon Hill Park (stunning and peacocks everywhere!!), then downtown to the Empress Hotel and Parliament and then onto Fisherman’s Wharf, a totally charming, touristy, floating neighborhood. All the kids were trying to imagine what it would be like to live in a floating house.

We went back to the ship and explained that we were sailing back to Seattle only to get off the ship, rent a car, turn around, and come right back this way!

The next morning was all the craziness of disembarking. I have to say, my least favorite part of this cruise was finding a table for eight people. It was “free style,” so no set times, and no held tables. That is super annoying with a big group, and it was magnified with the insanity on the last day. I really enjoyed the Alaska part, but I was not too sorry to get off the ship after 7 days and so many people!

We tried to walk to our rental car with all our bags, but man, Seattle, you have some hills! So in the end, we left the kids together with all the bags down on the port (our oldest is 20 before you think we’re crazy) and Nathan and I hoofed it practically up a mountain to rent our cars. We hadn’t been able to get an eight-seat vehicle for this portion, unfortunately, so we had to rent two cars which ended up being almost always the boys car and the girls car. Which one talked more, do you think?

We spent the first part of the day in Seattle. We saw the Pacific Science Center since we have a reciprocal membership to one at home, and it was really fun! Right next to the space needle which we looked at and said, “hey, look! The Space Needle!” and then went and got lunch. Lunch was so cool too, because we just wandered into this area and they happened to be having a Native American Festival and it was awesome! We watched the dancing for a few groups while we ate our lunch. Looked around Seattle a bit more and then had to leave so we wouldn’t miss our ferry to Vancouver Island for the last leg of our trip.

This is what a 24 hour travel day looks like toward the end.

We’re here!

In the Hoh Rainforest.

The Hall of Mosses.

Found some cute critters!

Love watching her with her daddy.

At Hole in the Wall on Rialto Beach – this was fascinating tidal pools but you have to be careful to get through and back before the tide comes in or you can be trapped.

Rialto Beach – the sea stacks were unbelievable!

One of the seals that was following us down the coast – so funny!

At Sol Duc Falls.

Our donkey and horse friends who decided to have a little spat with each other while we were trying to walk by.

Gorgeous and gigantic Crescent Lake.

The easy little trail our helpful ranger told us would be no problem for our child with a heart condition – yes, it went pretty much straight up.

Peaceful Alpine Meadow. You just can’t really see that behind that deer is a drop of thousands of feet.

Anna and Rachel near the Princess-Bride-like hill at a point that was wide enough that I was still comfortable taking pictures.

Background:

About a year ago, my in-laws told us that for their 50th anniversary, they wanted the whole family to be together. They invited their three sons’ families on an Alaskan cruise with them to celebrate, and in a bit of a miracle, we found a time everyone could go! So, twenty-three Shaws set out earlier this summer for a grand Pacific Northwest adventure.

Nathan and I decided that if we were going to go to the expense and time of getting all eight of us out there, we might as well add some time and really show the kids that part of the country. We wanted to see Olympic National Park, and also Vancouver Island. The Littles (our pet name for Noah, Ethan, and Anna – our older kids are the Bigs) were so excited to go to Canada – the first time they’ve been to another country other than China or the U.S. It helps that both Nathan and I travel a lot for work, so we were able to use a lot of points on airfare and hotels to help keep our cost down – traveling that far with eight people can get really pricey!

I started watching airfares, and was so discouraged by how expensive it was to get us all from Columbus to Seattle. I was checking surrounding airports, and stumbled on one amazing fare that showed up for only one day out of Indianapolis. We would have to drive 3 hours, but it literally saved us more that half the cost! That was worth it. And in the end, we realized that between Nathan and I we actually had enough airline miles at that price to cover the entire trip with miles for our whole family – what a blessing!

The night before we left, we had the kids go to sleep in their clothes and packed the van. We had to leave at 2:30 in the morning to drive to Indy to get our early morning flight. I just kept reminding myself how much money this saved us – let’s just say I’m not a morning person, and I didn’t think weeping would enhance the start of the trip. The kids got in the car and went back to sleep for 3 hours while I kept Nathan awake.

We are kind of a traveling machine, so Nathan let us off and went to park the car and take the shuttle back while the kids and I checked all the bags and got our flights checked in. We met up at security and we were on our way! This was the first time the Littles had flown since we came home from China almost two years ago, so their only other experience with planes were the big international flights with TVs in the seats and meals served etc. Let’s just say they were a little let down by no TVs and a bag of pretzels this time. 🙂 We flew to California and then onto Seattle and then rented a car and drove three hours out to the far side of Olympic – it was an epic, almost 24 hour travel day, but they were all troopers!

Olympic National Park:

Olympic is so much bigger than I realized. We drove out on the southern route and made an incredibly quick stop at Sunset Beach which we reached literally as the sun was setting (so beautiful!!) and spent two nights in Forks, the closest we could get to the Hoh Rainforest. We drove back on the northern route, and the whole round trip was 6 hours! But it was so diverse, it was just amazing!

The first day, we hiked in the Hoh Rainforest and also did the famous Hall of Mosses which feels like Jurassic Park with giant pine trees covered in moss and the sun shining through. We weren’t able to do one of the trails we’d planned on because there was a mama moose and her baby on the trail so it was closed, but we discovered another trail that was just stunning as well. We went home for a late lunch and rest and then went to hike Rialto Beach down to “Hole in the Wall,” a famous rock formation.

You have to time Rialto to be there for the low tide so you don’t get pinned behind the sea stacks (giant rock formations) as the tide comes in which can be very dangerous. It was actually really hard hiking because the beach is very soft and rocky and you shift with every step, but it had a wild, powerful beauty to it that took our breath away. We saw our first eagles here, at one point seeing one dive bomb another at the top of a giant spruce. We were very under-dressed as it was much colder and windier on the water than we were prepared for, and all the other hikers were in full gear and clearly worried about us in our shorts with a hiking sandals and hoodies, but we were working so hard to hike we warmed up. The tidal pools all around Rialto were just fascinating! We saw sea stars and anemones everywhere, and also sea otters. While we were walking back, a seal literally followed us down the shore line for at least 20 minutes, popping up to watch us from the waves, and eventually a second one joined him – it was hilarious, and amazing! We all agreed that was one of the most incredible hikes we’ve ever done.

Our second day in Olympic we packed up because we were sleeping back in Seattle that night. We headed back on the northern route, driving through some of the most incredible scenery imaginable, especially along Lake Crescent. We hiked out to Sol Duc Falls, and it was another stunning hike.

When we parked, we saw a huge horse trailer, and they were unloading at least 20 horses and mules. I just assumed there was some kind of trail ride, but as we were approaching the falls, all the horses and mules showed up too, and we realized that this was how they transport building materials to sites that are not accessible any other way. They were redoing some of the bridges in the forest – I had wondered who in the world was carrying all those materials miles into the forest! They had them all gathered in one spot, and at one point one of the mules crowded another one which ticked him off and all of the sudden we had a bit of a mule smack-down which scared us all a bit, especially Anna, as we were pretty close to them! But the rangers got them calmed down and told us when we could pass. Pretty interesting job, I’d say.

Olympic is so interesting partially because there are so many ecosystems represented. Our last hike was to see that last type, called alpine meadow. That sounds so peaceful and safe, and yet this turned out to be one of the most frightening things I’ve done. We were going to find this ecosystem at the top of Hurricane Ridge – we found out later it’s called that because of the Hurricane force winds that come over the top of the mountain. Oh, how sweet. And slightly less peaceful.

Not sure how I missed it in my mind, but to get to “alpine” level with snowy mountain tops, one has to get to the top of the mountain. We went through a perfectly safe looking national park gate and then started a fairly terrifying, 15 mile, twisting-road-on-the-edge-of-a-death-defying-cliff-with-no-guardrails trip that had this afraid of heights mama testing the imaginary brake on the passenger side of the car the entire time. There was no turning back once you started because there was literally no place you could turn back! And while I was hyperventilating in the front seat, we were watching some obvious insane people BIKING down this road. Down. For 15 twisting miles. With no guardrails and drops of literally thousands of feet. Did I mention they were on a bike? Eiyiyi.

We got to the top (finally) and it really was so beautiful. And peaceful. Well, if you didn’t count the hurricane-force winds. And we thought, “hey, we made it up here, let’s see a bit.” So I asked the ranger what easy, safe, short hike she would recommend for a family with children, one of whom has a heart condition. And she sent us on a hike pretty much straight up a mountain. At one point the trail was only 18 inches wide which would have been totally fine if it hadn’t FALLEN OFF ON BOTH SIDES TO OBVIOUS DEATH ala the scene in the Princess Bride where they fall down the hill into the Fire Swamp except in both directions. Oh yeah, and then it was covered with snow. And ice. And I was wearing 10 year old Sketchers with no tread because, you know, I didn’t realize I was defying death today in an alpine meadow. Easy peasy.

When we made it back to the lodge (and I was done dry heaving into the bushes), the guy at the gift shop told me what a sweet job it was. Are you flipping kidding me that you drive that every single day?! And he said, no, they send a shuttle, it’s actually really peaceful, he does his crossword every morning on it. Of course. May I just say, YOU COULDN’T PAY ME!!!

And then we had to get back down. So much worse. And we’re in a rental and now I’ve worn out the carpet under my imaginary brake, the whole time wondering how the maintenance is on this rental car and if they take care of the real brakes as I picture our whole family flying off the side of the cliff. Let’s just say that I had abs of steel by the time we got down because I had my stomach clenched in terror for such a long time. Don’t need to do that again anytime soon!

After that, we had a relatively uneventful drive back to Seattle and prepared to board our cruise the next morning.

One of the Aspire events in NC.

With Debbie and Vicki after Sunday’s event.

Sally on Saturday night before her fall.

Setting up at Maranatha Baptist

Sound check at Messiah Lutheran.

I just finished up my last few events of the spring which is always a little bittersweet – it’s closing the door on another season, but also frees up time to deal with the busiest end of the school year stuff for my kiddos.

The last weekend of April was in NC and SC with Aspire. It ended up being one of the crazier weekends I’ve been on because of a freak accident. Here’s what I wrote on Facebook:

One of the craziest weekends I’ve ever experienced, and definitely a professional first! I was in the Carolinas this weekend with Aspire, and our first two nights in High Point, NC, and Simpsonville, SC, were wonderful with Sally Baucke and Debbie Alsdorf, but Sunday morning, Sally had kind of a freak accident and broke her arm badly. She is just precious (and hilarious!) and we felt so bad for her! We all ended up in the ER together until we finally had to leave and do the Sunday show back in Conover, NC (one of our tour managers stayed with her). Fortunately, Vicki Courtney was coming in to do Sunday night as well, so we were able to cover, and then we all went to see Sally that night in the hotel – pray for her, she’s having surgery tomorrow to repair it, and she’s been such a trooper!!

Even with all the craziness and confusion, God showed up and took care of all the details for all of us, Sally included. Wonderful ministry, wonderful people, and an absolute blessing to see people loving and caring for each other even in an emergency.

Then this past weekend, I had a few local events. Saturday night I did the annual women’s tea at Maranatha Baptist, a church I’ve been with before, and I’m just always so impressed with their team. You can tell the church really supports this event! I shared some about our adoption jouney and on the topic “Nothing to Fear” and had some wonderful conversations with women afterward about how they are seeing God moving in their lives!

Sunday I shared a similar message at a regional women’s event at another local church, Messiah Lutheran. I hadn’t been here before, and it’s always good to see all the different ministries in the family of God in our city!

And now I have some time off from ministry, but it’s actually really good. This has not been an easy year and life is very, very busy. I’m happy to have the summer to focus on my family and dive back in in the fall!

The first Aspire stop in WA – Lighthouse Christian in Puyallup near Seattle.

Northshore Church on our last Aspire night in Everett, WA.

Ways to recognize that you are in the Pacific Northwest – totems and fish tacos, baby!

Apparently I totally forgot to take pictures at my conference in PA last weekend. This makes me sad because we had a great time, and it was such a wonderful group of women! I did a three day conference with the ladies from the Eastern PA district of the CMA, and it was on the topic “U-Turn: Trusting God when Life Changes Direction.” We were at a lovely conference center in Amish country, and just had a lovely time together looking at God’s word, and eating lots of Amish food!

The following weekend I was with Aspire in the Pacific Northwest, and we did three events. Friday night was in southern Seattle, Saturday night in Portland, OR, and then back to Everett (north of Seattle). This was a great weekend of ministry, but it is also pretty exhausting to move everyday – so thankful for a great team!

First event in West Palm Beach, FL

The team after the event

Well, after an airline adventure involving delayed flights, missed flights, rebooked flights, luggage traveling the world without me (including all my books and CDs and shoes, darn it!), and, yes really, Air Force One, we actually made it to the Aspire Event in Palm Beach (Melissa Spoelstra and I were on the same flight and therefore, on the same disaster, um, I mean, adventure). Aspire, however, was great, and it was so fun to work with such amazingly talented ladies and the people from Extreme Productions!! Loved sharing the Lord with such a great group! So looking forward to our next adventure in WA and OR and hoping it’s maybe slightly LESS of an adventure getting there!

Noah and Toby were pretty much instant friends, and it’s been beautiful to watch them become brothers.

Three years ago today these two met for the first time, and our family got one of the best blessings we could have. Who could imagine how seamlessly you would fit into our family, and how very much poorer our lives would have been if we had never known you? Happy Family Day, Noah!! We can’t imagine our lives without you!

Our homecoming picture – you might be able to tell what decade it was from the hair.

This past week has been crazy. We had our Chinese New Year and Rinnah headed back to school with her roommate only to call us the next night from the ER in terrible pain. After a lot of craziness just to figure out what to do, misdiagnosis, ice storm, transfer to another hospital in our state which necessitated Nathan traveling to IN to get her, and then major miscommunication and mistakes at our hospital here, it was 2.5 days before she had surgery. Almost as soon as she was discharged, I had to leave for Chicago with Rachel for a string quartet competition and college visit. It’s been cray-cray. Fortunately, Rinnah is okay, and recovering well. Hopefully she’ll be able to catch up all the work she has missed, but we’re just so relieved she’s okay.

With all that, though, one hilarious story did happen, and I’m copying it here from Facebook:

Okay, didn’t think I was going to share this, but then I thought, whatever, we both had epic hair, own it! So, here’s the weird, pretty hilarious coincidence that happened in the middle of this terrible time with Rinnah’s emergency surgery.

Put yourself in my shoes. We’ve just spent a day and a half trying to get our daughter diagnosed and switched to another hospital in another state while also covering several things that were really important to our other 5 kids – it was terrible timing. Rin and I had both been up most of the night with pain and procedures, etc, and I had JUST fallen asleep hard for about an hour.

So, I’m literally passed out face-down on the worst hospital cot ever when I realize that there’s a doctor in the room talking to Rin. I wake up, sure I have pillow creases across my entire face, and he turns around to introduce himself to me as the surgeon. I reach for my 10 year old glasses since the other ones coveniently disappeared as I was racing out the door to the hospital, and my blind self realizes as he turns around that the surgeon is…

The guy who took me to homecoming a hundred years ago. Hahaha! What a strange moment! And exactly how you’re hoping to run into an old high school friend!

So, maybe I’ll continue the trend and rock the old pjs, unshowered, no makeup, ancient glasses look for my next class reunion! Or maybe not. ?

But at least I instantly remembered that he was kind and brilliant and wanted to do good in the world. Which he is apparently doing! So thanks, Dr, for being so good to my baby! Ironically, I found this picture so quickly because my mom got bored when she came to help me after Rinnah’s birth and put all my highschool pictures in order.

PS. He still has good hair.

Somehow we got everyone at the table! 19 people, woot!

Everyone pitched in – here we are making dumplings on the left (for Noah’s northern region) and rolling spring rolls on the right (for Ethan and Anna from the south).

Braised tofu, voted (shockingly!) favorite dish, spring rolls, and dumplings done pot-sticker style.

Whole fish symbolizes prosperity and abundance and is both very traditional and Ethan’s most, most, most favorite thing. This American mom was challenged, but this year we got it right, and it was definitely delicious (even if they are looking at you).

Happy Chinese New Year! One of the things we’ve found to be so important with our “littles” is to try to support them in continuing to celebrate and know their home culture. Our adopted kiddos came to us older, and they have lots of memories and many years of living in China. We don’t want them to lose such an important part of their history, lives, and identity, so we’ve been learning SO much about Chinese cooking, holidays, and culture, and we had our second annual Chinese New Year dinner together last night.

One thing that really hadn’t occurred to me before is that our kids had not really celebrated this in China. CNY is a family holiday, and our kids did not have family. So, they had seen it and been around it, but had never been a part of it. As Ethan said, “Now it’s our turn, mom!” So happy to celebrate with them!

Two of my brothers and their families were able to come, along with my mom, Rachel’s best friend, and Rinnah’s roommate from college came home with her for it too. We cooked forever, and then had a fabulous time!

Anna drew this picture of us for me.

Just didn’t want to lose this sweet story I posted on FB:

Here’s your “sweetest thing!” post for the day.

Anna is still afraid to go to bed alone, so I’ve always sat with her until she falls asleep. She gets very chatty at this time which I enjoy, but a couple nights ago it was just going on forever. I finally told her she had to stop talking and go to sleep.

A: Okay, mama. (Silence for 10 seconds.) This is so hard!
J: I know, but you have to sleep, hon.
A: Okay, mama. (Silence for 5 seconds.) But I really like to talk!
J: I know sweetie, and I love talking to you, but you will be so tired at school. You really need to sleep now.
A: Okay, mama. (Pause.) But there is a lot to say!
J: Okay, hon, let’s do this. Think about all the things you want to tell me and pick the most important one that you really, really want me to know about and tell me that one. Then you can tell me the rest tomorrow. Deal?
A: Deal. Okay, I’m thinking. (Humming, thinking.) I got it! I love you, mama. So, so much. Okay, good night!

Cue my heart melting. I love that girl.