Aug pt 2

Monday the kids started their last 2-week round of swim lessons.  Afterward, my friends Cali and Alyce came over with their kids, and we just caught up on life.  Cali moved a few cities away and is due any day now with her long awaited 3rd child.

Tuesday Michael turned 5!  He woke up to open presents, and enjoyed talking to all of the grandparents.

That afternoon a group of us met at a park to celebrate Shannon, who used to live in Seattle, but moved to Utah last year.  They just built a house out there, and she is still amazed how much cheaper it is to live in Utah compared to Washington.  She called Seattle a joke!  Ha!  I brought cupcakes to celebrate Michael's bday, but it turned out that 4 kids had August birthdays, so we sang to them all.

That night we celebrated Michael's 5th birthday at the park near our house.  Because of the wind at that park, I bought a bunch of kites at the dollar store.  The kids flew kites and had cupcakes.  That was my simple plan anyway... But Elena, the party planner, built a pinata out of a cardboard box, and made party poppers out of toilet paper rolls.  It was really cute to see her excitement, and it's so fun to see that no matter how low maintenance I am, my kids have a personality all of their own.

Wednesday-Monday my old mission companion Corinna visited from Idaho.  She is working on her PHD in english literature, and escaped Idaho during her break to come to Seattle and enjoy some good Korean food.  (After our mission, she taught English in Korea for two years.) 

Thursday I took her to the Chinese/Japanese district of Seattle and she went to a museum while I wandered with the kids.  And Thursday night just Corinna and I went to a baseball game at Safeco Field.  We decided to bus down, where on the bus, a mentally ill woman screamed at Corinna and threatened to kill us both!  The bus driver kicked her out, we enjoyed the baseball game (Angels beat the Mariners 6-3), and we took an Uber home.  EEEEK!  I will not take that specific bus downtown anymore.  EEEEEK!

Friday my friend watched the older 3, and Corinna and I took a safer bus downtown.  We meandered Pike place market, then hopped on a ferry to Bainbridge Island, where we meandered shops and talked to a "beautiful" foreign man selling really expensive Turkish rugs, hahaha.  We didn't buy anything.  After busing back to the car, we drove to Federal Way where we bought Korean groceries and ate bibimbop at a hole in the wall.

Saturday, the older 3 stayed with Dan, while I took Corinna to Bellevue to visit an old friend.  While she was visiting, I went to the Bellevue's downtown park, where I walked by a group of Kenyan women dancing and singing in a circle. When they saw me sway to the music, they called me over, and before I knew it, I was part of their church's women's retreat. It was so enjoyable to sing, pray, and listen to an inspiring message, which reminded me how similar we all are, and how dearly Heavenly Father loves all of his children.

Afterwards, I took Corinna to both Twin Falls and Snoqualmie Falls, we ate MORE korean food, then returned to West Seattle at night and watched North and South at a friend's house.

Sunday we went to church, and Corinna made us JopChae for dinner.  Then we finished the day with a long walk on Alki, and we were pleased to see that the smokey skies had finally cleared.