Arrived back home tonight around 7 pm. How nice it was to have my car waiting at the airport and being able to drive home rather than waiting for a shuttle…and then waiting while same shuttle dropped off 4-5 people on the way to my house. And the cost for parking was less than what it would have cost for a round trip shuttle ride! Definitely the way to do it for a short trip.

Robin was amazing! He has changed so much since I last saw him 6 months ago. He jabbers, smiles, and laughs! He’s able to hold toys and play with them–and chew on all of them as well. He has one bottom front tooth and bites on everything, including fingers that he grabs! And did I mention how cute he is?! I had a great time playing with him and will certainly miss that a lot. I took lots of pictures and hope to have them uploaded to my website soon. It takes awhile, and I’m just too tired to deal with the pics tonight.

The weather in Seattle was unbelievable and seemed to change from hour to hour. We had a little bit of rain, a little bit of sunny and clear weather, a little bit of snow, a little bit of fog, and a massive thunder/lightning storm that produced almost an hour of non-stop hail!!! I’ve never seen so much hail at one time in my life! The hail must have been 1-2 inches deep when all was said and done. What’s amazing is that I was only there for about 3-1/2 days and all this variety of weather happened during that period of time! It was chilly most of the time and I was extremely happy to get back to the warmth of So.Cal. Don’t think you’ll ever be able to convince me to move to Seattle.

We went out to dinner Saturday night and I agreed to be the designated driver. Not only did I have to drive a stick-shift car (for the first time in years) but I also had to drive it on snow-covered hills! Everything was fine when we went into the restaurant, but it started snowing while we were eating and stuck to the streets just enough to make it slippery. Actually it was probably easier to navigate in the snow with the stick-shift than it would have been with an automatic. Thank God I remembered what to do from my days in Ohio!

The rest of the trip was spent doing lots of shopping including a trip to Lowe’s where Kevin and I managed to fit an 8-ft stepladder into their Civic and I rode home sitting on the folded down back seat next to the ladder! Good thing they don’t live too far from Lowe’s!

All my animals seem to be fine and are happy to have me back with them. I think Murphy had a great time staying with Patrick and Veronica (and Floyd and Jack) but I think he’s happy to be back home–just like me! It was great seeing Kevin, Soula and Robin, but it’s nice to be home. I think I’m going to have to see about getting a webcam so that Robin doesn’t forget his grandma.