Summer Part VII: Father's Day with the Calls

With Cynthia, Jeremy, Madison, and Ryan gone, today started off very quietly. We were so used to having them with us that it was very, very quiet as we sat around the hotel for the morning. Then Tom arranged for us to go down to the Tacoma area to visit one of his mission buds, Tyler, and Tyler's family.

We had such a good visit with them. It was also nice that our kids matched up well age-wise. Shelby and their oldest Ethan are just a few months apart and hit it off really well. It was fun to listen to some of their conversations. The second children, Taylor and Ellie, were also only a few months apart. The two of them cracked me up because they have really similar personalities.

We sat around and talked while the kids played for a bit. Then we headed off to a local walking trail. It was absolutely beautiful. The weather was perfect, and the walking trail went parrallel to Puget Sound. There were beautiful views everywhere. We had such a good time. The kids enjoyed all of the dogs. Every time someone came near us with a dog, the kids just went nuts. They had so much fun petting each and every dog that we came by, except for the occasional not-kid-friendly dogs.



Here's Tyler and Tom.



Here's the whole gang minus Laura, who was snapping the picture.

Thanks Calls for letting us come crash your Father's Day. We had such a good time with y'all!!!!!! Hopefully we'll be back again next year . . . permanently. (While visiting them, we discovered that we really loved the area where they live. Hopefully, we can find a practice nearby for Tom to buy next year when he graduates.)



On our way home I tried to snap a few pictures of Mt. Rainier, but always seemed to get something else in the picture, so this was the best I could do. It was just amazing to look at.



Poor Payden hadn't had a nap and ended up crashing on the way back to the hotel. She really handled our crazy schedule well.