I hope we don't get fined for this!

I started this post back in October...procrastinate much? Anyway, it's a follow up on our friends memorial service & the excitement that followed.

~~~~

Well, despite our reason for traveling we had a really great weekend catching up with friends.

The drive was awesome, sunny & clear the whole way. When it's that nice you can see the top of Mt Rainer from the Moses Lake area - a simply stunning sight even from that far away!

The memorial service was beautiful, we worshiped together & praised God for Dave's life. Pastor Greg did a great job speaking on dealing with grief as a Christian & we heard memories of Dave & hope for the future from his family. There was a great video Cascade Productions put together from pics of Dave's spanning the years. And of course, a TON of great food! The kids did very well through the service, it was about an hour long & they are not used to sitting that long. We stayed in the back & other than excessive wiggling from Eli & having to take Adah out 2 times, they did great. Once it was over they could run around & get their energy out - but more about that in a minute.

I got my love-tank filled by my friends, oh I miss those crazy ladies sometimes! There's a group of gals I got to know very well during a prayer group & they are like sisters to me. They are the people I can bare the ugly parts of myself to & they still love me & accept me for who I am, icky parts & all. Becky, Dave's wife was a part of that & it was good to just hug her, tell her I love her & I'm praying for her & the boys. She was quite surprised to see us there - as were a lot of others. Chris enjoyed seeing everyone too. He hasn't been back for over a year so it was great for him to connect with the guys again. We were just starting to think about leaving when this hideous noise began sounding throughout the building - the fire alarm. It took me a minute to figure out what was going on & then I had one thought 'where the heck is Eli?'

You see, Eli has been notorious for turning lights on or off & touching things he oughtn't. In fact he did this numerous times at our old church in Cle Elum - the lights would go out & immediately Chris & I would holler 'ELI!' And it was always him, the little stinker.

We found Eli & the other kids. They were all scared & holding their ears. Sam & Eli in particular have sensitive ears & the noise was hurting them quite a bit. Chris questioned Eli & after lots of reassurance he was not in trouble he admitted that he did it.

He felt so bad the poor guy, I asked him about it later & discovered that he knew it would make a noise but he had no idea it would be that loud (did I mention this building has all wood floors?) or that it would be throughout the whole building.

We were very lucky it happened at the very end of the evening, a lot of people had already left & clean up had begun. Everyone was very understanding, especially as many of them already know Eli & his talent of getting into everything. I just felt bad Becky had such a turbulent ending to her husband's memorial. The police arrived about 10 minutes later to shut the thing off & they were nice as well. Chris was worried that we would get fined or something but I think they know that accident's (& 5 year olds named Eli) happen & were glad it was nothing.

He got a big lecture about not touching things etc & we decided that his 10 minutes of pain & shame was punishment enough. Every time we mentioned the subject he was so embarrassed he hid his face. He wouldn't look at anyone other than us for anything! We still refer to it occasionally, it serves as a good reminder for him & has been useful to Chris & I as a deterrent.