Michelle Comes Home

Michelle got to come home from the hospital today.  Another miracle.  I helped Jon break her free.  They were so cute holding hands on the car ride home that I had to snap a picture.

 

Michelle Gets To Go To Beauty And The Beast

Miracles happen. Michelle was able to get out of the hospital today (technically she was discharged and reamitted, but the fact that they were able to save her room for her was another miracle) and go to Sadie, Ike, and Scarlett's play Beauty and the Beast.  

She's made it back and got her room back!

 

Welcome Home Katie

Flying home from Panama (through Atlanta and Seattle) to Spokane.  Katie's first time home in 18 months.

Walking to baggage claim

First Katie sighting!

First hug with Grammy

So many people came to show their love! Grammy, Pompa, Jon, Nixon, Sadie, Ike, Scarlett, Cam, Rachelle, Maddie, Ollie, Ender, Finn, Marsha, Shauna Crandall, Olivia Tolley, Craig and Carrie Wilkinson, Sarah Hawkins and Karen Hawkins all came to welcome her home!

Grammy made a poster with cinnamon bears for Katie

Olivia, Katie, and Mady (on the phone)

Grammy decorated the house

 

Panama Trip Day 11

Today Kirt and Katie got up and took the metro from our hotel to downtown Panama City.  We were staying in a Courtyard Marriott out by the airport.  Garret and I decided to stay and go to the gym and the pool.  Katie and Kirt walked around downtown Panama City and they ran into one of Katie's mission companions.  Katie was so excited to see sister Rhodes. They came back and we went to the airport and got our flight to Atlanta.  Then we caught a flight to Seattle.  We had to spend the night in Seattle.  We didn't get in until after midnight and had to get up at 5 so we didn't get much sleep.

 

Panama Trip Day 10

 Today was a rough day.  We got up at 6am and drove the hour to the David airport.  We were in line to check in and they announced that our flight would be delayed until 4pm and possibly not fly our at all today.  We were supposed to fly the 1 hour to the Panama City Airport and arrive around 9am to catch our 3pm flight to Atlanta today.  So we knew we were definitely not going to make the flight.There is only one flight out of Panama a day to Atlanta, which is the only place that Delta flys from Panama, so we had to rebook to the same flight out of Panama the next day.    We debated staying the night in David, trying to catch the 8am flight from David to Panama so that we could get our 3pm flight to Atlanta.  But after the awesome experience we have already had with Copa Airlines, we decided to rent another car and drive the 7 hour drive to Panama City.  We were hoping to get the same car back, but it was already rented.  So we were able to get a car, but it was much smaller.  It was a pretty cramped ride with the 4 of us and all of our luggage, but we made it in.  Katie had her 2 huge mission suitcases, so that's why we had so much luggage. Kirt got to fulfill one of his dreams and drive on the Pan-American highway from David to Panama.  It was beautiful.  We got to Panama City and rented a hotel and walked over to the mall for dinner and then crashed.  It was a long day.

We drove by the church in David that Katie attended while she was serving there.

Our 1st rental car

Smashed into our 2nd rental car

We almost had to take a huge detour on our drive to Panama City because there had been a huge road slide, but they had just started to divert the traffic across the highway into the other lane

In Panama City during the busy commuter times, they open up one of the lanes of traffic on the opposite side of the highway for traffic going in the direction that is most congested.  That car on the left is going the "wrong" way on the divided highway.

When we were eating dinner at the mall, Katie ran into some elders from her mission.

Garret wanted his picture taken with this car. Not sure why he's holding up his left over pizza box.

Panama Day 9

Today we got up early to go to the Lost Waterfalls hike.  We got up early because Katie says that it is less likely to be rainy in the morning.  It wasn't raining when we got up but by the time we got to the hike about 7:15am, it was misting.  We got up to the gate of the hike where the entrance is about 7:35.  The gate was locked and said that it didn't open until 8am.  We decided to wait but no one came.  We were just to leave at 8:30am when someone came.  It was raining pretty steadily by this time. She told us the hike was closed because of the rain, but Kirt did his magic and talked her in to letting us do it.  I'm so glad he did.  It was so awesome.  We saw 3 amazing waterfalls.  The rain made them have so much water in them and made them that much more incredible.  

Bridge across the river.

2nd waterfall (They recommend that you go by the 1st waterfall that is off the trail a bit and then see it on your way down, so we did.)

On the way to the 3rd waterfall.  It was super steep.  Thank goodness they had ropes to help us climb up and down.

3rd waterfall

Katie, Kirt, and Garret decided they wanted to swim in this pool.  They wanted to swim in one of the waterfall pools, but there was so much water coming over the waterfall that it didn't seem safe.  This pool was down a bit from the 3rd waterfall.  They are crazy.  The water was so cold.

The trail was very muddy and wet

Back down the ropes from the 3rd waterfall

1st waterfall

When we were at the 1st waterfall it started absolutely pouring.  We were soaking wet when we finished.  There were streams of water running down the trail by the time we were walking out from the 1st waterfall. 

We went to lunch at a pizza place in town.  Kirt said this was the best calzone he had ever had.

Pictures of the gardens at our hotel The Garden Inn

Dinner at Tacoholics.  These Birria tacos were so good.