Singles Ward Reunion

Saturday, August 2nd---Nate, the kids, and I went over to Waterfront Park in Silverdale, WA, to meet up with some old friends from the singles ward I attended from 1995-1999. I had a blast in my singles ward, perhaps, even too much fun! The ward wasn't a stereotypical "meat market", where barely-out-of-high-school girls come in hopes of getting married ASAP. No way! The majority came to strengthen their testimonies and hang out with single peeps their own age. I met some of the most amazing people and am so honored to have been friends with them. I miss the activities, testimony meetings, FHE's, and dances. It was wonderful to meet up with some of these people and talk about old times and find out how they're doing now. My sister, Amanda, attended the ward then too so she came with her husband, Ben, and son, Keven.

As I was catching up with friends, Nate took the kids to the beach. This area of Washington doesn't really have "sand", it's more like dirt and small rocks mixed with tons of clam/oyster/muscle shells and large rocks with barnacles all over them. It's a young explorers dream! The tide was out quite a bit so the kids had a blast picking up rocks and finding many little baby crabs underneath them. Elise giggled when she picked the little crabs up. There was lots of seaweed all over too. It made for messy shoes and feet but it was worth all the fun they had. After exploring the beach they walked the long pier and then down to the boat dock. The views from Waterfront Park are breath-taking. On a clear day you can see Mt. Rainier and the Cascade Mountain range. If I can ever convince Nate to move us up to Silverdale I would LOVE to own a waterfront home nearby this park so I can have the view right outside my back door---of course, a house with this view would cost, at least, 1/2 a million dollars. Pocket change, right?

On a side note: Poor Elise, as we were packing up and getting ready to leave she got her very first bee sting. The bee was checking out the inside of her hand when she closed it. She didn't know the bee was there and, needless to say, it hurt a lot. While the whole thing was quite dramatic for her I was relieved to discover Elise is not allergic to bees. Since I am, I got a little worried. To get her to calm down we went over to Dairy Queen and got her an Oreo Blizzard. I think the cold cup helped the redness and slight swelling to go down so she was fine and all was well again. Phew!