Par-tay!

What a busy weekend, but we have had a great time with family. Several bon voyage moments, as those around us are sending us off with love and well wishes.

Saturday my mom came up to visit - a chance to see us before we go, and to spend time with Catherine to help make the transition easier for both of them. Catherine is so lucky to be have her Grandma Trudy take care of her for part of the time while we'll be gone, and we can't be more grateful.

That afternoon we went to a wedding reception for a very good friend of ours (congrats again, Mr & Mrs Cook!), and then my mom and I got to do some girl-time shopping. That evening a few family came over and we had a litle BBQ. Catherine got to play in the kiddie pool for a bit because it was HOT! Time hanging out in the shade in the early evening was what we needed to cool down.

And even better was when Jen, Phil and Toby came home. They had just returned from an extremely long trip for Phil's nephew's funeral. After being emotionally and physically exhausted, it was so great to help them chill out and take some stress off their minds.

My sister and her beau Jason came over early Sunday morning and we had a nice little brunch. It was a little stressful after a while when we were all trying to get ready for our concert in Seattle that afternoon. Keys missing, kids crying, people coming and going, forgetting music - arrgghh!!!!

The concert itself was great, musically speaking. Otherwise, it was totally miserable. It was 95 degrees outside and we were singing in a big stone church that lacked any kind of air circulation - that meant that it was about 120 degrees where we were standing, trying desperately to keep our intonation in check and preventing ourselves from passing out. I've never been so close to passing out in performance in my entire singing career. And thank you to our director who kept saying "OK, one more" at the end. Uggh! ;) Well, in all seriousness I need to mention how fabulous our director was in protecting us - he cut out much of the second half and let us where what we could to be as cool as possible. No one passed out, and all in all it went well.

But wait - there's more! I wasn't kidding when I said it was a long weekend...

After the concert we all headed back to our place again. We got to spend some great time with my dad, and my sis and her beau were there again, along with Jen Phil and Toby. Watching Catherine and Toby together is always immensly entertaining!

Also thanks to my dad for bringing us our first ever air conditioner! I was really hoping that it would work right away, but we still had to suffer through muggy heat indoors - trying to sleep was near impossible.

And after all that... here we are at our departure week. Today is my last day going into work, so I'll have the next two days to finish packing and spend more time with Catherine. And then off we go!