Pictures of Days Gone By

I'm on my laptop killing some time today and I decided to go into my picture file and see what was there. As it turns out, a lot because it would seem I never transferred over my photo files from the five weeks that the kids and I lived at The Hampton Inn and Suites in Lynnwood back in 2007 when my mom was dying.

I took some time and looked through all the photos. Bittersweet, that's for sure. There are some of my mom but mostly ones of the kids as we tried hard to keep life as normal as possible for them. Well - normal as possible when you are living in a one bedroom suite at a hotel for five weeks and spending time with a parent who is dying. I remember one day when James and Cara took the kids for the entire day so that I could just sit with my mom. She wasn't awake anymore by that point but it was nice to just sit there and be there with her. I think that is the day I read through a bunch of her old journals (not nearly as exciting as it sounds).

I found a few of my favorite photos from then. Kaylen was 2 years old and Kelton was a brand new 5 year old (we actually drove up on his 5th birthday and then stayed for 5 weeks).

This was from the day that James and Cara took them for the day. They had such a great day!

My goofy boy. He loved all the medical supplies that were around for my mom - especially the gloves. :)

Kaylen loved my mom's wheelchair and, in fact, for a good year after that experience, she would turn almost anything into a wheelchair. Kelton's truck? No problem! It made the best wheelchair of all. Even her dolls had wheelchairs.

This is Kelton and me on the ferry. One of the first days we were there we took a round trip ride so the kids could have the experience. It was fun and they loved it!

I love this one of Kaylen - she looks so little! We spent many, many hours in the hotel pool and even had pool parties with family members. Staying there for so long sure made it seem like home to the kids and me.

Seriously one of my all time favorites! James and the kids messing around at the Spaghetti Factory on the night we went with Lannon, Arne and our cousin and his family.