Greetings from the west coast! Sandi 2L here with a little news from our neck-of-the-woods. I have been remiss at adding to the blog at Aunt Sue and Aunt Rose's invitation and am delighted to actually have some time to contribute. I hope my entry here will be interesting as I try to recap some of the recent highlights with our branch of the family.

We have had such a fun and busy summer with lots of family events. In April Tammy hosted a deck party at her home in Olympia which was a guise for a surprise birthday party for brother Mike. I understand he wasn't really surprised, but we all had fun thinking we were keeping it all a secret. Any excuse to get together for our family is usually well attended! Thanks Tammy for rolling out the red carpet once again!

Mom and Dad with Steve and his boys, Dan, Aaron and Matt.














Cyndi and Sandi with their Dad at Tammy's home in Olympia.

















Mike with two of his three sons - Leland and Quinton.

The next big event for me was going to St. Louis with Cyndi to meet Mom and Dad and the rest of the clan to celebrate Grammie's 100th birthday. There is so much to say here. We had a blast. Aunt Margret and Uncle Norm generously gave us their RV to stay in so we could hang out with Mom and Dad. We had so much fun meeting family and getting reaccquainted. Everyone pampered us so much we felt spoiled. One of Cyndi and my favorite memories was going out to lunch on Monday after the big weekend with Mom and Dad, Aunt Rose and Aunt Sue. I loved hearing my dad tell his sisters stories of growing up and filling in some of the blanks for them of their childhood from their big brother. I so enjoyed being a fly on the wall and watching the siblings reminisce. I treasure this memory and am so thankful for being included. Thanks to all who made our time there so enjoyable.

Next came 4th of July with Carrie (Peggy/Shirley's oldest daughter) and her family visiting Portland and the Oregon Coast for their second annual trip. Austin, who is now 10 and my "twin" since he was born on my birthday told me his dream vacation if he only had 3 days to go somewhere would be to Aunt Sandi's house! Carrie - take that boy on a vacation! He clearly hasn't been many places in his life if my house is a dream vacation! I loved it!















Carrie and Katie!

We had a campout at the farm in Spokane with a weekend on the lake with Mike's boat in July.
The 3rd Annual Aunt Camp adventure in August.
We celebrated Steve's 50th birthday on Labor day.
In mid-September we enjoyed a great visit with Nate and Danielle (Kaye's oldest son and his wife). We traveled from Portland to Olympia to Seattle and then to the San Juan islands where we traveled around the beautiful island of San Juan via mopeds!
Most recently Mom and Dad's 55th wedding anniversary party.

I will post more later with these pictures. Enjoy!
Sandi