Seattle

This past weekend I was able to go to Seattle to visit with my little sister, Laurie. She was graduating from Mars Hill Graduate School with her Master of Arts in Counseling Psychology. This was a very big deal for her, and we are all very proud of her.


So my sisters and mother and I all decided to make the trip up there for her graduation. In addition to being there for her, we all were a little excited about the "Bevell girl" time we were able to have.

On Friday, we went to visit her school at their open house, then on to Pike's Place Market for a little shopping, although it was quite overwhelming with all the people there. There were a lot of beautiful flowers that smelled wonderful, although they didn't really offset the smell of all the fresh fish!

Saturday was graduation day. We celebrated after that with lunch at Chinook's, which is a very yummy seafood restaurant at the Fisherman's Terminal. You know it's fresh! After lunch and naps, we ventured out again for some second hand store shopping. It's amazing in Seattle! We all found lots of things we liked - good quality, name brand stuff. We were all buying "birthday presents" for each other too! It was great fun!

Sunday we slept in a little, and then went to a great little French bakery for breakfast. It was one of those tiny, family-run places that only those who live there could tell you about. It was really yummy!

Then, the 5 Bevell women went off to see the movie "Babies." If you haven't heard of it, it's basically a documentary about 4 babies from different countries during the first year of their life. There is no narration or dialogue, or even any translation of what the parents of the babies from other countries are saying. Basically, we observed pieces of each of their lives during their first year. We really enjoyed it. And for those of you who know the Bevell women, it's quite fitting that we would all see this - together! Our husbands were also appreciative that we went together - and not with them!

A funny thing about going to the movie is that we ended up sitting in "order." Completely by accident, we sat in order of our age. Then we noticed that we also were sitting in order of number of "babies" we currently have, including my mother (5,4,3,2 & 0). It was very amusing (to us anyway)!

From there, we did a little more second hand shopping. There is just so much of it there and we were all really into it! I had to stop looking or I would have run out of room in my carry-on. We did a little "souvenir" shopping for a few things to take back to the family too.

We also went on a hike in Carkeek Park, which was only about a block from Laurie's house. There were some very pretty things to look at, but a very nice place to go just to "get away." Laurie says she goes there at least a couple of times a week, and I can see why. We ate at a picnic table and talked and laughed about "The Office" episodes for a while. :) Then we drove down, although it was within walking distance, to the beach. By this time, the sun was about to set and it had gotten VERY cold, so we ended up not staying too long, but I really wanted to see it! It was beautiful at sunset!

Everywhere we went we were seeing different parts of Seattle and taking it all in. Although we didn't visit the Space Needle, I did see it. We passed the Mariners baseball field and the Seahawks football stadium. We saw downtown, farmer's markets, cruise ships, fishing boats, the Puget Sound (everywhere), some beautiful scenery, and lots more.

Although I really missed Jeremy and the boys, it was really great to get to take this trip and it just be us without our kids for a few days. It was precious time, and we are all glad we did it.