A Little More Prayer

I'd like to ask for a little more prayer from those of you who wish to add some to your prayer lists. It has worked out so that I am able to attend my cousin's funeral this coming Friday. I need to say a huge thank you to everyone who has done something to assist with making that happen. It means so much to me and I cried a bit this afternoon from feeling so blessed with friends and family who are willing to help out.

Here are the prayer needs:

-For safe travel for me on Friday and coming back on Saturday. I fly out Friday morning at 6:45am (yuck) and return the next afternoon around 3pm.

-For John, who will be taking his engineering licensing exam on Friday while I'm away. He will be in testing all day and then is on his own with the boys until the following afternoon.

-For my cousin Bethany. She is having a very hard time emotionally since the accident and is missing her brother very much.

-For my aunt and uncle. Obviously they have had so much on their plate since the accident, and setting up funeral arrangements today was extremely difficult for them.

-For the person who caused the accident. This is hard for me to ask for - I have a lot of anger towards the individual (who I do not know), but I can only assume that this has had a huge impact on him and his family, and that they are in need of prayer as well.

Ben

Thank you to everyone who is praying for my family after my cousin was killed in a car accident last night. Prayers are still needed as we work through the grief, especially for my Aunt Robin and Uncle Kevin as they deal with the loss of a child.

At about 8pm last night, my cousin Ben Morse (23 yrs old) was driving with his sister Bethany (13 yrs old) in Nampa, Idaho. A driver in a pickup truck ran a stop sign and collided with Ben's Kia, hitting it directly on the driver's side, flipping it multiple times. Ben, Bethany, and the other driver were all transported to the hospital. Ben was not able to survive his injuries and passed away at the hospital. Bethany is bruised and has a cracked sternum, and is struggling emotionally very much now that they've told her that Ben didn't make it. As far as I know, they will be releasing her from the hospital today.

I am hoping to make it over to Idaho for the service, but things are complicated with John's work and the boys' school schedules.

Thank you all again for the prayers and to those of you who have offered assistance in various ways. It is all greatly appreciated.

Prayer for a Loss

I received a call this evening letting me know that my cousins Ben and Bethany were in a car accident. Ben was driving and he did not survive the accident. Bethany is in the hospital, but I don't know the extent of her injuries. My uncle was overseas for work and is being flown back immediately, but won't get back until tomorrow. Obviously, my aunt is not doing well and my other cousins are overwhelmed with grief. Needless to say, we're all a little numb right now. Please keep my family in prayer.

Easter and Seattle

We had an amazing Easter weekend in Seattle visiting my dad and doing all sorts of tourist-y things. I am so happy we decided to make the trip and give ourselves an extra day (John took Friday off so we could so a day early). I don't think we would have gone wandering around Seattle for an afternoon if we hadn't had the extra day, and it really made it feel like a mini-vacation.

Friday started off, well, not so great. It took us over an hour to get out of Portland because of a stalled semi on the Interstate Bridge. I was not sad to leave Portland behind as we finally got into Washington. Grrr. A little over four hours later, we arrived at my dad's and relaxed for the rest of the day - eating and watching movies.

On Saturday morning, we went to my dad's church to take part in the Easter egg hunt. It was fantastic to see so many people who I don't get to see very often (I attended there as well when I was younger), and the boys had a wonderful time. The field was cleared of eggs in under a minute! Nathan had his picture taken with the Easter bunny, but Aiden refused to go anywhere near it (I don't blame him - those costumes are terrifying).

There was a bouncy house and I somehow managed to get a picture of just the boys bouncing and Nathan in mid-air!

After lunch, we headed to downtown and after dealing with some Seattle traffic (they needed to close three lanes of I-5 because why?), we paid a very tourist price of $12 to park right next to the Space Needle. The weather was SO beautiful!

 Nathan was thrilled to be there, can't you tell?

 I made sure to have John take my picture with the Pacific Northwest Ballet sign. I saw my first ballet there when I was three.

The boys ran back and forth from us to the fountain many, many times.

It was honestly so relaxing to walk through the Seattle Center and show the boys all the spots where I spent a good portion of my childhood. It made me really miss Seattle.

After we were done walking around, we took the boys on the monorail. They had never been on a monorail before and Aiden was extremely excited (he is very into trains).

Nathan was....indifferent.

We took a round-trip ride on the monorail and then hopped in the car to head to Pike Place Market where we all suddenly became quite hungry. We hadn't really planned on having dinner in Seattle and it was only 4:15, but all that walking around had worked up an appetite. We walked through and randomly chose a restaurant. As we waited for the host to check on a table, I looked over at the counter and saw a little sign. "Tom Hanks Sat Here: Sleepless in Seattle". I squealed with delight (I love that movie!!) and ran over to have my picture taken.

The host came back and took us upstairs where we were greeted with this view from our table. This was to our left:

And this was to our right...

What a gorgeous, gorgeous day! We gorged ourselves on a calamari appetizer, the boys on grilled cheese and corndogs, me on a HUGE double decker club sandwich (I ate the leftovers for two meals following that one!), and John on salmon. So delicious.

Then we headed back to my dad's (after getting stuck in some more traffic out of Pike Place trying to get to I-5) where John and I scrapped our plans to have my dad babysit the boys so we could go out for our anniversary. It had been a perfect afternoon (minus the traffic) and a wonderful way to celebrate our anniversary with our boys. We were happily exhausted!

 We celebrated Easter at my dad's church on Sunday morning (I took no pictures), had lunch and watched Wreck It Ralph before packing up and heading back to Portland. The drive was a lot faster this time. We really couldn't have asked for a better weekend.