365 Inspirations—332: Spending Time with Family

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! 

Today, on this gorgeous day, we took a ferry and then drove out to the Olympic Peninsula to my mom and step-dad's house. 

It was so lovely to reconnect with everyone and spend some time together.

I brought two pies, but my brother-in-law cooked most of the meal and everyone else had the side-dishes covered.

We ate dinner early and then we all went for a sunset walk down to the beach.

 It was great catching up with my nephews who I feel like I haven't seen forever.

I was happy to learn about what they've been up. I enjoyed watching them build with blocks and seeing their creativity come out.

Now we are in a hotel down the street. My sister is in this hotel too with her family. There's not enough space in my mom's place for us all to stay over, so we stay close by and then we can hang out a bit more the next day. 

Tomorrow we may go on a hike if the weather is nice.

I heard snow is in the forecast!

Did you have a nice Thanksgiving? Did you spend it with your family?

365 Inspirations—214: Reconnecting with Family

My sister, me and my nephew at our family lake cabin

“Other things may change us, but we start and end with family."—Anthony Brandt

We escaped to our family lake house. My dad is in town and my sister, brother-in-law and two nephews are here. We arrived at around 10pm, so my brother-in-law and the kids were asleep, but my sister and dad were up and it was great to sit around the dining room table and catch up. It's been a loooonnng time and I don't see these people enough!

We are here to celebrate my dad's birthday belatedly and to enjoy the time. We were up late talking and I'm just now typing this post.

One of the things I love about my family is that they are good storytellers. Some of the stories have been told many times before, but I never tire of hearing them again. I think it's one way we all connect.

Tomorrow is supposed to be sunny, so hopefully we can spend the time outside swimming and enjoying the weather. It rained all day today.

We brought food for the BBQ and I brought a cake!

Well, goodnight bloggers and blog readers.

I'm off to have sweet dreams in my cabin bed.

Do you often spend time with your extended family? Where do you go and what do you do?

365 Inspirtations—110: Spending Time With Family

"The bond that links your true family is not one of blood, but of respect and joy in each other's life."~Richard Bach 

I'm at our family lake house with my family. It's so nice to be out in nature here. It's such a wonderful retreat from the city and I don't come out here enough. In June, I'm going on a solo writing retreat to this place. I need uninterrupted time to work on my next book.

We left Seattle at around 7:30pm on Friday, after my husband's last yoga class. We drove downtown to the ferry terminal and learned that we just missed the 7:55 ferry. We watched it leave the dock and head out into the foggy, dark night. The next ferry wouldn't leave until 9pm. Not to fret. We had snacks and good books to read, so we headed into the terminal and plopped ourselves down.

Before long, the next ferry had arrived and we were out on open waters. It was so quiet on that night ferry and I was reading a very good book called The Intuitive Way, by Penney Peirce. It's my workbook for the next year as I delve deeper into operating completely from a place of intuition, which has always been the best place for me to operate from. Everything great in my life has come from listening to my inner callings and bringing those to life.

It was a mystical evening aboard the ship out on the foggy sea. My husband wandered off to get a coffee. It was an hour from Seattle to Bremerton where we would dock and then drive another 40 minutes or so out to the lake.

When we finally arrived, we wandered into the main cabin and I was so happy to see all my family there on the sofa chatting. They got up and gave us hugs. My nephews were already asleep. We chatted for a good half an hour about our lives and funny traveling stories and then Yoon and I wandered over to our little cabin and had a very sound sleep.

The next morning, we had breakfast at the main house and then we all took a walk around the lake together.

 Even my nephews were good sports on the walk. I'm happy to be out here with everyone. It's been a very long time and we don't get together enough. We will all meet again for lunch in a bit and celebrate my sister's birthday!

Do you get together with family often? How do you spend the time together?