Hello again ... it's been a while since the last post, because, as you'll see, we've been very busy! I spent the first week and a half of September at my parent's house in North Bend (see previous entry). It's so beautiful there - here's Mt. Si at sunset.

My sisters and I took a lot of lovely walks around the neighborhood. The horses and donkey in one of the neighbors' fields are very friendly (or hungry!).

It's so nice to be back in a place where there's a piano. It was my great-grandmother's and we all love playing it! Here's my sister Gillia giving a private concert for her cat, Henry (who's lying in the brown chair).

Meanwhile, Chance was at his family's home in Bremerton. I visited for a couple of days too - his grandparents live right on a beautiful beach on Puget Sound. Here are Chance and his Grampa feeding the ducks ...

Grandma enjoyed the company of the grandkids, plus a visit from her daughter Nanette, mother to cousin Gabe who visited us in Berlin!

It was fun to see the cousins together - of course, much silliness ensued when I insisted on a family photo shoot --

Finally last week we made our first foray back into Seattle life - we visited the University of Washington to take care of some bureaucratic things and also took a very pleasant walk around the beautiful campus.

Here's our new street - lined with chestnut trees. They're beautiful but the nuts fall quite fast and unexpectedly from the trees and it actually seems quite dangerous sometimes!

Of course a trip to Seattle wouldn't be complete without a stop at our very favorite cafe in the whole world, the Joe Bar! They've added a few new things to the menu and put up a very attractive price board, but otherwise we are very happy to say that absolutely nothing's changed. And that's as it should be.

When it's sunny in Seattle, you can see Mount Rainier, one of the nation's tallest peaks, quite clearly. Here we are on the aptly named Rainier Avenue...

Last Saturday we took on the task of moving all of our stuff out of storage and into our new living quarters in a big house in the University District. Luckily all of my siblings were along for the adventure and made everything incredibly easy and enjoyable! Here's my sister Gillia showing off her incredible rope tying abilities.

Here's my brother Kyall making a terrible face for the camera as he and Chance move our mattress upstairs. I think there was a lot of shoving in the stairwell, but it made it up two floors!

Now we're pretty much settled in in our new home ... here's our wonderful friend (and housemate and landlord) Paul, channelling Jackson Pollack as he gets creative with the basement floor. Love it!

Hello! Well, we made it home. And customs and everything went so smoothly that we were almost out before our families got there to meet us! My sisters painted this lovely banner for us.

First thing we did was have a great family dinner at our favorite Ethiopian restaurant. From the left - my sister Gillia, me, Chance's sis Jeanette, her friend Lee, Chance's mom Kris, Chance, his sister Elyse, and my sister-in-law, Candace.

I'm staying at my parents' house in North Bend, which is about 25 miles east of Seattle, in the foothills of the Cascade mountains.

I went for a nice walk around my parents' neighborhood and noticed that the leaves are already turning ... is fall really that close?