This morning Susie and Mike took us to a nice trail for our morning walk. The path followed a little creek and we saw some wildlife--snails, turtles, ducks, and cranes. It was fun to walk in a different place. Afterward we stopped at a coffee shop where John got coffee and Susie some tea.

Following breakfast, preparations started in earnest for the open house. I worked in the kitchen getting some of the fruit ready. Isaac and I then arranged the lunch meats on trays. John was busy outside helping to clean the pool, set up canopies for shade, and arranging balloons.


Some of Susie's church friends arrived to take over the kitchen and continue the setting up. Soon the guests began arriving. John's nephew Ben and his wife, Kamy, came to the open house. We spent the entire afternoon visiting with them and catching up on what they have been doing. We last saw them two year's at graduation for Ben's sister, Becky.

As the afternoon progressed, the open house soon became a full blown pool party with water fights and cannonball contests. The party is still going strong, but I wanted to get the blog done early as we are leaving tomorrow morning. We first thought we would head to northern California to see the redwoods, but we discovered that it is much further than we thought. It would take eight hours to get there which is one travel day, and then another eight back to Sacramento. We decided to leave the redwoods for another trip because we want to do some sightseeing on our way home and don't want to spend two days traveling back and forth to the north.



We have certainly enjoyed our time with Susie's family and seeing their new house and visiting with their church friends. Tomorrow we start the next leg of our adventure.