My dear friend, due in December, at her surprise shower!

We made it to Poulsbo, WA, literally hours before my dear friend Angela’s surprise baby shower. Her friends did a beautiful job hosting it and she was totally shocked. Malia did a great job staying quiet and maneuvering Ang to Poulsbo for the shower despite the fact that she recently moved 2 hrs away to Anacortes.

I managed to get to the shower by the skin of my teeth – the hostess had arranged for her daughter to come over and watch the boys for me, and I managed to get them both asleep precisely as the car pulled up to the door with the babysitter (Maggie) inside. Whew! I ran to the door, hair wet, and said “Hey! I’m Alli! There’s two of ’em, they’re downstairs, asleep!” In retrospect it was like a briefing on a 24 episode. As I was driving up to the shower, I only had a vague notion of where I was going from checking the map a week ago. The Garmin took forever to find satellites (thanks Washington grey skies!) but the sun broke through and the little Garmin lady’s voice beamed up at me with directions just when I needed them. I sprang into the house, having been beaten there by Ang, who had arrived early, and was delighted to surprise her. I really enjoyed catching up with friends from Poulsbo past, and Ang’s mom and aunt. Neat people.

The boys did great playing with Maggie when they woke up (after a brief bout of shock and disbelief that Mom wasn’t there by Ben). Then we went to the playground and ended the full day with the best clam chowder on the planet at JJ’s Fish House (Dave, are you jealous?). I am off to bed. I’m really tired – we got in this morning at 4am after a 6 hr flight to Spokane (where my cousin lives, but we weren’t even on the ground for an hour before heading out to Poulsbo via jam-packed minivan!). More on that miraculous coincidence in the pictures…click photo above. I still am having trouble believing I made it here after all the bumps in the road trying to catch a flight then the logistics of getting to a final destination over 300 miles from where I’m landing and no one who wants to do a one-way rental… Anyway, we are blessed upon blessed every time we travel, and I try to reflect on those blessings when I’m losing sleep the night before we leave stressing about how in the world am I going to do it. It’s a leap of faith every time. Maybe my faith will strengthen with all this exercising it? Good night world…going to snuggle in with my little men. Love you, hubby…miss you but enjoy the pics.