The "Tri" Part of the "Fecta"...

Seattle, Washington

The best part about this part was seeing Thom after all this time!.. and experiencing Bainbridge Island!!☺

The worst part? I had absolutely NO VOICE AT ALL for the first two days! ☹

At any rate, here's my big "blanket" SMILEY FACE to cover this whole last leg of my trip...

It was rather difficult alerting Thom that I'd arrived because I seriously had no voice at all! But I was somehow able to croak out "Honey, I'm home!!!" and in a couple of minutes there he was on his big, beautiful white stallion... er, I mean in his big, beautiful, white car.

I have to say that as much as I adore visiting my family... it's been so many years since I've been anyplace new and different so this was pretty exciting for me! And Seattle is so beautiful! Even if it WAS rather overcast and cloudy when I got there. The ferry ride across the Puget Sound was so much fun!

Goodbye Seattle...

Hello Bainbridge Island!

Ok, first of all, Bainbridge Island is amazing! And I think if I could move there (and convince my entire family to do the same) I would do it in a heartbeat!... with the only problem being... I put my price range in on Zillow (even inflating it upwards by $100,000 yes, that's actually one of the first things I did when I got home) and came up with a big ole' goose egg! But I guess that's neither here nor there, since the odds that my entire family would ever end up moving there are probably next to none anyway.

Moving on...

Thom and Wayne's home is simply out of this world Gorgeous! They call it the Newhouse new house. (Newhouse is Wayne's last name...) haha

I had my choice of two rooms. The main floor room... or the treehouse room.

I chose the main floor room, not only because it was really cozy, but because it was attached to the bathroom that came with this really cool sink...

Love this kitchen!!!

Adore this patio!!

And check out the rest of these views from the inside looking out!



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The other best parts about Sunday:

Seeing the Garden...

The Raspberries...

The Bees...

Driving around the Island...

Having Dinner at SuBi!

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The best parts about Monday:

Fresh eggs for breakfast!

The Bloedel Nature Reserve. We walked since it was just right up the street less than a quarter of a mile away. What an unbelievably gorgeous and peaceful place to spend a morning! Right up the block! And also, right up my alley!

Magnificence!

The Main House...

...Thom

and me...

Lunch at Pegasus!, one of the sweetest, most enchanting little dives I've ever had the pleasure of dining at. I think I had the beef stew or something, I really can't remember, but whatever it was was absolutely devine and simply out of this world and I would TOTALLY spend that much money on lunch again!

A trip to Trader Joe's is always an adventure and, of course, Bainbridge Island has one. It didn't disappoint... Especially since we got to have mussels, broccoli, potatoes and Copper River Salmon for dinner! Plus some delightful peanut butter cups for dessert!... Thank you Thom and Wayne! You are seriously the the most amazing hostes with the mostes!
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The best parts about Tuesday:

First stop The Bay Hay & Feed!, and oh my goodness I wanted to buy every single thing in that shop and then some!!... well, except for maybe the hay and feed... but what an incredible store!

Then a visit to the Bainbridge Island Museum of Art, which I SO enjoyed, and where I snapped a couple of pictures of my favorites.

Next up, lunch at Hitchcock's at a perfect sidewalk table on a perfect day with my wonderful friends!

And finally, The Bainbridge Island Historical Museum which was absolutely fascinating! What a rich and interesting history this island has!

And as if that wasn't enough for one day...

We still managed to walk down the road...

...to the Agate Pass.

And have oysters on the deck at The Beach Club later.

Far from the maddening crowd... ☺
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The best (and worst) parts about Tuesday:

I finally got my voice back! YAY!!! ☺

But it was time to leave!!!☹

Thank you so much, from the bottom of my heart Thom and Wayne for this lovely little getaway! I needed it far more than you will possibly ever know! It was so wonderful to reconnect with you, MY BFF (link), after all this time!.. and also to have finally been able to meet you Wayne! What a pleasure! You are so blessed to have each other and I am so very blessed to know you both. Living the dream you are!... and I am just so grateful to have been able to enjoy a little piece of that dream with you these past few days! Love you so much! And also... you have the sweetest puppy on the face of the planet. Seriously...

Docking back in Seattle...
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Grand Rapids, Michigan

How can I even express what a fabulous vacation that was? Trips like this don't work out very often, but I just love it when they do!☺
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Click here for the First Parts of the "Fecta."

Trifecta!!!...

Planning a vacation is always so hard! Limited time and limited money... but the hardest thing of all being trying to figure out a way to visit everyone I want to visit, using the same plane ticket!... especially since nobody lives in the same place anymore!

But somehow this time I was able to make it work out and with only the slightly higher cost of a multi-stop itinerary along with the fine services of the Salt Lake Express! :) And it all worked out great!.. at least for the most part.

So here's a little journey through the highlights (and just a couple of lowlights)... in a nutshell!

Grand Rapids, MI

All my planning went as planned and I was good to go by 11pm the night before my 10am flight.☺

But when I went to check-in on line, somehow my flight had been changed to 6:30 that next morning! Somehow I was able to get them to change it to the more Godly hour of 8:30, but still! Geesh!.☹

Driggs, Idaho

Whitney and Jade picked me up in Idaho Falls and we went for dinner at Red Robin. ☺

Then we went to a random dance recital in Rexburg (which I'm sorry to say just wasn't that good..) ☹

But when we got home and those 3 little boys started jumping around like crazy and hugging my legs, well... ☺ ☺ ☺

And of course TV night after the kids are all tucked into bed is always one of my favorite things when I'm out there because I never, ever get to watch TV with anyone else back home! ☹ So that always gets a big ☺from me. And Aaron's gourmet popcorn cannot be beat!.. especially when accompanied by orange soda! ☺

Next up, Bangkok Kitchen ☺for Ondrea's birthday, just the grownups and Lochlan since the rest of the kids were at school, but pretty much as soon as we got our food Lochlan began having a major meltdown. So thank goodness for those handy to-go containers...

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Lets see...

Then I got an iPhone! ☺ (Epic! You have no idea! Thanks Aaron!)

And took the first ballet class I have taken in nearly 25 years! ☺ (And it felt so good! haha *Not!*)

The McKee's have a wonderful little path that runs near their home that meets up with a little stream... and in the springtime there's even water in it! So we spent alot of time walking down to it. ☺

Unfortunately it was just too steep of a climb down for gramma...☹

We all got to go see Jade's end of year gymnastics program, all 4 generations of us!.. and Jade was fantastic! Could not have been more proud of her! ☺

And Big Hole BBQ to celebrate afterwards was delish! And the traditional "Game Night With Gramma" went off without a hitch. ☺

And I almost forgot about our traditional drive out to The Teton Ranch! ☺

But all good things must come to an end and before I knew it I was saying goodbye to all these guys...☹ ☹ ☹ ☹

Salt Lake Express

They did a good job getting me from Driggs to Boise.

The drivers were great!

Even though there were some really stinky passengers on board... and we were all crammed into a really, really tight space! ☹

But still, all in all, I'll give it a ☺ but only because the cute gentleman sitting butt-cheek'd next to me thought it was pretty stinky as well...

Boise, Idaho

I always love going to Boise! I mean, who wouldn't love visiting these precious little girls!!.. and taking that semi-annual excursion to Costco (and Walmart)!

And it's always so much fun to be able to hang out with these girls and watch them play! ☺

And play along...

And we always do lots of photoshoots! ☺

And "Selfies"...

I got to see Rachel's end of year preschool program! ☺ ...and let me tell you, she is just the most wonderful little performer! But I am SO sad that I didn't manage to capture any video of her singing Tiny Bubbles! ☹

We drove out to Mountain Home to see Jon's new practice and to drive by their new home... and to stop by the local Carny. (Don't you think that cute little blue elephant looks a little bit like Shaylee? ☺

We took a lovely stroll out at the Birds of Prey Nature Preserve.☺

And stopped for icees. Oh my YUM! I had the Pina Colada! ☺

And I almost forgot to mention the new mattress topper on the futon which was just so amazingly comfortable! Seriously, a couple of the best night's sleeps I've had in years!☺

But once again... all good things... yada yada ☹

Love you guys! See you next time!

Stay tuned for the "Tri" part of the "Fecta"...☺