Olympia Washington

Saturday morning we said our good-byes and headed to Olympia to see where Lorissa and Vince live. They took us for a tour of downtown Olympia and the farmer's market, not as big as Seattle but WAAAY bigger than our little town of Victor! The kids found a park they just had to try out. We stopped in to The Youth Connection where Vince is working and Lorissa volunteering. We were really impressed with the place and with the ministry that they do there. Mentoring kids, most of them are living on the streets, tutoring them, giving them a very cool, safe evironment to be in. We had lunch and dinner with them and went to church with them in the morning. The middle service, which we went to, is held at the local high school.
Right from church we said our good-byes again, by the way we have seen Lorissa and Vince more this year than we have in the last four years put together and I'm not complaining here I LOVE IT!!
We headed to the Portland area where we were to meet Emily Thompson's family(Joel's girlfriend) for the first time and have lunch with them. We found their remote house without too much trouble and had a fabulous lunch and enjoyed our visit very much. It was nice to see where Emily grew up and to meet her incredibly fun family. No photos there, sorry! We were having too much fun talking.
From there we went to visit some old, well THEY aren't old just the friendship, if I said they were old I would have to admit I am old, won't do it!! Anyway we met them the day that Joel was born, that's how long the friendship is, we have not seen them since they visited us in North Carolina before Drew was born!! Too many years without seeing each other face to face! We joined their family for their oldest son's, Mark, birthday, old friend of Ryan's. It was so good to see one another and they were so gracious to let us join the family celebration and open their home to us to spend the night. This of course gave Sheri and I the chance to talk until 2 am! We have a very rare friendship that is not hindered by the few times we see each other, or not talking on the phone very often. We seem to be able to pick up right where we left off. However, the last time we saw each other our faces were a lot younger! How the years slip by! Maybe now that we are only 12 hours apart instead of the great distance to NC we will see each other more often. Thanks for the hospitality Hellwegs.