washington

joel and i went to washington for about a week to visit with friends and family. we stayed at joel's parents house in tacoma. they have such a beautiful yard and i love staying there. i am starting to feel more and more like family each time i visit with them.

the first friday we were there, joel, daniel (his brother) and i met up with ben (a friend from pepperdine) at a great rib joint. we had a wonderful time and stuffed ourselves with excellent food. we then went back to joel's house and spent the night with his parents.

we spent the weekend with his parents. this was their main time to visit since wanda (joel's mom) still had to work. so we just hung out and went out to eat. on saturday we went bowling which was a blast. although, i found out rather quickly that joel hates bowling and wanda wasn't so fond of it either. but ben (joel's other brother), steve (his dad), and i all had a great time.

on sunday we went to church (which was wonderful) and then went home and had a great sunday meal with the family (steve, wanda, ben, daniel, rebecca - daniel's wife, joel and me). it was great to spend time with them. somewhere in there we watched the last king of scotland which was so wonderful.

on tuesday we visited with hope (my friend from biola) and her boyfriend nate. we went to a great mediterranean restaurant and then to our favorite bar, the monsoon room. while we were there, joel received a call from his best friend mark. turns out he had arrived back into tacoma from his trip to ohio and wanted to meet us at the bar. it was great to see mark again and i could tell joel was in seventh heaven. he really misses mark a lot and was so excited when he finally got back to tacoma.

mark, joel and i ended up going back to joel's house where we played games (which we do a lot of) and watched movies. i then went to bed but the boys stayed up talking and scheming. scheming for what you ask? for my engagement!

on wednesday joel asked me to marry him...i said 'of course.' i'll write more about this in a different post.

later that day, mark, joel and i drove to south colby and visited with my family. my uncle pat, aunt susan, and cousins jeff and jessica live in south colby washington. we had a great time visiting with them and had a wonderful dinner. later that evening, jeff, jessica, mark, joel, and i went to the cabin on harstine island. this is where my family has been going for the last 15 or so years. we have a cabin there and it always proves to be a great trip. usually when i go with jeff there tends to be more alcohol than beach trips or hikes. some of jeff's friends also joined us while we were there. mark used to be a bartender so he kept us plied with drinks the whole night (but they were more sophisticated than beer or rum and coke). joel and i went to bed earlier than the others (he was exhuasted from staying up the night before thinking about how he would propose).

the next day we drove back to tacoma. however, we had to make a detour and went by bellevue to return my ring for a smaller size. once that was finished joel was able to rest a bit easier.

on friday, our last day, joel's friend (and mark's cousin), beau, came over and played games with us. we then had dinner with steve and wanda at red robin and then went to the airport.

overall it was a wonderful trip. it was also great to spend so much time with joel since we don't see each other all that much during the school year.