Fox Hollow Farm

Mike, Emily, Graysen, and I spent a couple of hours at this place, and it's so neat.

It's planned to look like a real farm with barns and animal pens and a pumpkin patch, but there are other things to interest children (and adults), like the maze, a couple of bouncy houses, and pony rides.  There is also on the second floor of the barn a huge bin of shelled corn for children to jump in and play around.  It was too crowded for Graysen to get in there, but one day she can enjoy it.

There are horses, cows, goats. sheep, and pigs in the outside pens along with chickens, roosters, and peacocks running around everywhere.  There are bunny rabbits and cats and kittens in cages in the barn

When we got there, Graysen was too busy looking at and pointing to other children to notice pumpins or stay still for a picture.  She did better on the way out.

I don't have too much time, so I'll just post a bunch of pictures I took that day that are pretty self-explanatory.

Looking for chickens - bok-boks.

 Watching the cats and kittens was so much fun.

Until two of them started to fight.  Guess that kind of living situation kind of takes it's toll on cat moods.

We wanted to spend the afternoon here.

 Graysen had been in a bouncy house before and loved it but not so much this time.  Just a little crawling around with another little boy.  I think she liked it better when it was full of children.

Mom had a pretty good time though.

 Goats were not so charming this time around.  They were a little big - and chewed your hands and shirts.

 We were trying to figure out how we could copy this room.

Yay, a slide without a big of big kids on it.

This is the interactive pen where you could actually get in the pen with the animals - old and lazy ones.

Emily and I laughed at this chicken with the dirty legs.  She never stopped running and pecking.

The best part of the day for Graysen - and the only one to cause tears - when we made her leave the wagon pulling and go home.

We couldn't have asked for a more beautiful day and enjoyed every part of it.

MRI Day

As I mentioned before, we were able to get to the place we were supposed to be with no trouble.  We got there in time to have lunch.  It was a beautiful sunny day - but chilly.  Emily had mentioned a Mexican restaurant and a sandwich shop across the street that were close by.

We decided on the Blue Water Taco Grill.

I'm not too adventurous with my choices and usually order cheese enchiladas, which I did, and they were about the best I've ever had.  Half the plate was lettuce, sour cream, and guacamole, and the best fresh-tasting salsa.  Yummy.  Mike had steak enchiladas.  We found it interesting to people watch - and people listen.  We hear a couple of different language up here, Russian and Chinese (or maybe several versions similar - we have no way of telling!) besides Hispanic.  The only negative was that the door was open, and I was freezing.  So what's new!  When we walked out into the sunshine, we decided it would probably have been warmer outside even with the breeze.  

The radiology department was in a building in the next block, and we found it okay.  Ninth floor, beautiful view - for me.  Mike went on in pretty quickly and was there for a long time.  He doesn't talk much about his "procedures," but I think it went well.

There were only a couple of people at a time in the waiting room, and I worked on my cross-stitch a little.  I did have an interesting encounter.  A man had been sitting across from the me whole time I was there, and I heard him tell someone on the phone that his wife was having an MRI.  She came out and almost lightheartedly mentioned that they would have to wait because they found that her lung had been punctured during her biopsy the day before.  

She was on the phone to various people, so I didn't pay much attention, but something later on got us talking, and she told me that she had just been diagnosed 2 days earlier after she had an "incident" at work.  A sweet pretty lady probably in her 50s.  Turns out she has lung cancer with metastasis to the brain, and they're figuring out how to treat the brain met first.

She was so comforting to talk to.  Even with her situation being much worse than Mike's, she was offering upbeat plans.  She gave me her name and the name of a book to read that had helped her so far.  The book is by Billy Graham, "Nearing Home."

Her name is Christine, and I'll never know what happens to her, but with that one encounter she is on my mind daily, and she has one more person praying for her.  She also took Mike's name for her church prayer group also.  

I truly wasn't expecting (nor was Mike) for me to get a hug in the waiting room in a strange town where I know no one.

Fox Hollow Farm next, then Salmon Festival, and then shopping with GG.

This Week

Looks like I'm going to have to just list things and hope to find time to talk about them or post some pictures.

Mike had a pulmonary function test one day - Tuesday, I think.  He was able to have it done in Swedish in Issaquah instead of Seattle, so that saved us a lot of miles and time.

This is a beautiful hospital.  The first time we saw it was the day after Graysen was born, and it was really beautiful then!

Emily works just across the parking lot from the hospital, so she is able to meet us for lunch easily.

The test went well and quickly, and waiting for Emily was not problem, since there is a Starbucks right outside the cafeteria.

No problem at all.

We got the MRI moved up and went there Thursday (again, I think, the days just kind of flow together).  We have got this down now, driving to the hospital - or at least he has the driving part, and I have the riding part - without holding on too tight.  It's really very easy, and even getting home is easy when you know where you're supposed to go.

This was in front of us as we left Snoqualmie and headed to Seattle.

It's time to "go somewhere" so I'll add more later.  This always happens.