A post just for Randi

Yes, I'm a slacker!

The visit with Chiara and Elena is going great! Our two airport runs Friday were complicated by heavy traffic and a certain lack of flight information, but by midnight, we had two Italian women tucked into our house and family. Yay!

Saturday was for sleeping off jet lag, settling in, and making contact with friends we haven't seen in two years. Saturday evening, C&E went over to Jared's house in downtown Everett to visit with buds from Everett High.

Sunday day was for family. We had a little festa out at the beach, letting everybody get acquainted with Elena and reacquainted with Chiara. Sunday evening, Ryan came over to show off his newest tattoos and entertain us all (we love Ryan). We finished up the day by watching "Love Actually," which C&E had never seen.

And yesterday, I dropped C&E off in downtown Seattle 'on my way' to work. They spent the day wandering through Pike Place and other shopping meccas, talking to "weirdos" down on the waterfront, and trying out the express bus home.

As for us, well, we're just happy. Our family is whole again. (If we could shake off the dregs of the cold that's been beating us down for more than a week, we'd be even happier.) And I'm loving all of the language-and-customs conversations we've been having. Chiara has lost just a bit of her English—she says she doesn't think in English any more and has to translate from the Italian—but all the slang is coming back to her quickly. She's a fricking genius! (that's an inside joke) And Elena's English is almost as good, so we're doing lots of talking.

Tomorrow, C&E are going to join us at our STUN gathering on the Pilchuck River. It's supposed to be 80, so we picked a good day for it!