gobetween

    This page is going to be used as a go between page, meaning it will be the page that holds the link to other pages. I just figured it would be easier to have a page with all the links on it rather then have to navigate the pages endlessly. Just click on the all caps words to get to the pages.

     When Mikayla was around 18 months old, Grandpa Michaels' oldest daughter Lucy came over from Gurnsey with her two children, Louise and George. While they were here, we had a great time, riding a diner train, well it was brunch actually, and going to a winery, going to Seattle Center for the kids, and before they left, we went to the King County Fair in Enumclaw. Click HERE to see those pictures.

     In September of 2001, Mommy and Mikayla finally moved back to the Western side of Washington, to a townhouse in Des Moines. Daddy had been staying over here since March because he got a job over here. By this time, we had 3 cats, so we had quite a time finding an apartment that wasn't going to cost us a fortune to get into. The one we found wasn't the best, but it was livable and it got me out of small town Pullman. Now I miss it every day and want to go back, the traffic here is disgusting. But anyway, back to business. HERE are some pictures of Mikayla in the town house the year we lived there. She turned TWO shortly after we moved in, so most of the time she was two years old. Here are some pictures of EASTER, HALLOWEEN, and CHRISTMAS.

   Sometime that summer, Michaels' brother Clive and his wife Margret came from England to visit. Mikayla of course loved them and I think they pretty much loved Mikayla too. We all went to SNOQUALMIE one bright beautiful day and had a blast. I didn't want to walk down the path that lead to the bottom of the falls because I knew what walking up was like, but no one else listened to me. They braved it, then regreted it. I'm not just lazy, sometimes I'm just smart. LOL!

     In March of 2002, we had the distinct pleasure of going to England for an entire week so we could attend the wedding of Jen's best friend Adam Todd. This was Mikaylas first airplane ride ever, and oh man did she love it. On the way there, she did not sleep at all until right before we landed, which was not so good for mom who was totally sleep deprived at that point, a 9 hour non-stop flight. When we arrived at our destination, Adams parents house, I slept through diner and all the way into the next morning. I had a blast, it was so great to finally visit the country my husband grew up in. We even visited STONEHENGE, a place that I have been dying to see ever since I saw pictures of my cousins there and did a project on it in the 9th grade. I was blown away at how awesome it was, even driving up on it and not even being there. They have put up barriers so the public can not get close to the stones anymore, and they have stupid little listening devices that tell you all about the history, but despite all that, it was a dream come true and now I can say I have been to Stonehenge. I took extensive photo's, made Mikayla a scrapbook, and just had a great time. I will post a few PHOTOS, but putting all of them up would just take up too much space.

     Shortly after Clive and Margret,, or before that, I can't remember, Michaels' middle daughter Rebecca and her family came from England to visit. Again, we had a blast, you just don't know how much I enjoyed meeting Michaels daughters, having heard so much about them. HERE are some pictures that I took when we went to the Boeing Flight Museum and when we went to Cirque Du Soleil. Some of the evenings the adults just kicked back and played games and had fun while the wee ones were asleep. Georgina, Rebecca's oldest, turned 7 while she was here. What a birthday present.

     In September, we went on another little airplane trip, which thrilled Mikayla to no end since she was just fascinated by airplanes, living so close to the airport and all. We went to Ohio to visit one of my best friends from high school that I hadn't heard from for 8 years, Emily. Again, I had a blast. We sat up all night and talked and laughed and reminisced. Shes got 3 great kids now and Mikayla had a blast playing with them. We did all sorts of THINGS, went shopping, went to the zoo, and laughed at what dorks we really were in high school. LOL!! We also celebrated our birthdays together, hers is on the 11th, and mine is the 14th. I believe we all went to the Olive Garden, one of Em's favorite eating establishments. It was so fun, I can't wait to do it again.

     Then in December it finally happened, we bought our first house. It was a good thing we went looking for a house to buy because the owner of the townhouse we were living in aparently wasn't paying his mortgage and they reposed it and told us we had to move anyway. Phew, there's a bullet dodged well. Mikayla obviously got to celebrate her THIRD BIRTHDAY here, and make sure you look at those pictures closely. That's how our family room looked before we remodeled.

     We bought new windows in March for the house, so while the windows were all tore up and needing to be fixed anyway, I said lets just do the whole house. Little did I know it was going to take 7 months to complete. But it's done, and it's gorgeous, and it is now finally MY HOME, decorated just how I like it. We still have projects we need to complete, like a new deck and additions to the back of the house to make the rooms bigger, but we will wait on those for awhile.

     In late August, Michaels' youngest, and finally the last, daughter Kate came from England. Mikayla instantly loved her, the two got along so famously you would think they had known each other from day one. We went to SEATTLE one day so Kate could go shopping, we again went to Cirque Du Soleil, a different show this time, and just hung out on a few occasions. While she was here, Kate had the distinct privilege
of going to a MARINERS game with Gayle and Michael and found she can't get enough of them. I am now happy to say that she is addicted to the Mariners and we email back and forth during the season so I can keep her updated. I remember her telling me that Edgar Martinez was her favorite player, whom she affectionately calls Ed. The link above does not have any pictures with Kate, we weren't at that game, but it does have pictures of Mikayla with Willie Bloomquist, my personal favorite Mariner, and pics of her at other Mariners games.

     For Mikaylas 4th BIRTHDAY, we celebrated at Northwest Trek, a wild animal refuge that has all native Northwest animals. At first I thought it would be too cold to do something like that, and it did rain most of the time we were there, but December is an awesome time to visit. All, and I mean all, the animals are out in the open, having no reason to go and find shelter from the sun. One of the most elusive of Northwest Treks animals, the moose, was out and in the open. Not only was the huge head male out, but all FIVE of them were out sitting on the side of the tram tour route. I was so excited, I could hardly believe I finally go to see the one animal I have been trying to see for years. Mikayla's best friend Jordan ended up being the only one that could make it, but they had a blast together. I took as many pics as I could, but the camera batteries died right as we were doing the cake, so there's not many of those left. When we got home, Rachael brought over BABY RAY. Mikayla had a great time, and I think we might just have to do that again someday. Later that night we took Mikayla BOWLING. We went with Emily and the gang when we were in Ohio and she loved it, so we decided to do it again. Again, she had a great time, even beat me one game. Sad, I know.

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