October Seattle Trip

October has been a busy month for the Johnson family so far.  We packed up the Jetta and traveled around in the Seattle area for two weeks.  I think we put over 1,000 miles on the car this trip, it is safe to say that I am pretty sick of the I-5 and the 405 by now!  You don't know stress until you are stuck in Seattle rush hour traffic in the middle lane and you hear the request for a pit stop from your 4 year old.

For those of you who don't know Mike grew up in the Philippines as an M.K. (missionary kid) and the big fast food chain there is Jollibee.  To have a taste of home we decided to grab Mike's cousin, who also grew up in the Philippines, and go to the South Center Mall where they have a Jollibee.  It feels a lot like the Philippines when you step inside, you can actually order your food in Tagalog (well I can't)!  They also serve the dreaded "Halo-Halo" here.  If you ever want to eat ice cream mixed with red beans, corn, the weird fruit that comes in fruit cakes, and who-knows-what else, this is the place to have that happen.  We opted for the Mango Peach Pies instead.

Jollibee!

After eating lunch we went next door to the Asian market to find some snacks that Mike grew up eating.  We also wanted to see if we could find some Indonesian goodies.  While cruising the ice cream isle we found some weird flavors such as:  Corn and cheese, avocado, and once again the dreaded Halo-halo.  It only takes a little while in the Asian market to figure out that the American palette is different, to say the least!

Gross

Grosser

Grossest

The second week we stayed with Great Grandma on Whidbey Island.  Grandma's house is great!  The coffee is always on and there are retro toys to play with (for the kids of coarse).  There is no internet at her house and only 3 t.v. stations, so we felt "off the grid".   I actually read 3 books!  Kind of sad to see what I could be accomplishing without all of the distractions we have at home.  Grandma has shelves of books and many are about the pioneering missionaries that went into Papua back in the 60's when the tribes people where still head-hunting (yikes).  It is amazing to see the transformations the tribes had after the missionaries shared the gospel with them.  Before the missionaries shared with them they were living in fear of the spirits and each other.  Imagine living in a world where you thought God didn't love you and you had to appease him at all times in order to survive.  After reading the trials the first missionaries went through in Papua it makes all of my fears and worries about moving overseas seen trivial.     

Hanging out at Great Grandma's beach

Another great thing about Grandma's house is that she lives by the beach!  The kids loved throwing rocks into the Sound and climbing on the driftwood.  Colton cracked me up too because every time before he threw a rock he yelled, "Fire in the hole!"  I have no idea where he learned that.

After staying at Grandma's for a week we drove home and dug out our winter clothes.  Next stop:  Alaska.

End of Summer

Colton and his nameless new best friend for a day

It is getting to be that time of year again in the Pacific Northwest where one gets a sneaky suspicion that this very day might be the last time you get to see the sun again for a very long time.  Not to sound like the kind of person that is a "half empty glass" type, but the sun does disappear on us for MONTHS at a time behind grey, rainy, endless clouds up here.  Us native Washingtonians don't take the sun for granted is all I am saying, and when that ball of burning gas is out in the sky we make the most of it!

The other day I packed a lunch, Colton grabbed his big Styrofoam airplane and we headed to the park with Macie to play.  It took Colton about 5 seconds to make a new friend and they ran around the softball field flying his airplane for quite a while.  When they were done playing I asked him what his friend's name was and Colton responded by saying, "I don't know but he has a helicopter on his shirt and he likes airplanes."  If only it was so easy to make friends as adults!

It has occurred to me that this will be the last rainy winter I am going to live in for a long time since our family will be moving to Indonesia next November (not this one, the next one).  I am very excited to be moving to a place where the sun will shine year round!  I do wonder however, how long will take me to get over the feeling that the sun is going to up and disappear on me like it always has in October?  (Watch in a couple of years I will be blogging about missing the rain and cold weather).

   

Nothing tastes better than a PB&J enjoyed at the park