This is How it Went on the 16th...

Thank you for thinking of us and Katie, caring about us, and praying with us all this month, and especially Saturday. I felt peaceful; I know that your love and prayers were part of this. The inner comfort felt as it did when we were in the hospital for all of those months with Katie; I knew we were being held and carried in Love.

Gregg, David and I went to our favorite beach and walked from 9:30 in the morning until after 2:00 in the afternoon.

We walked 8 or 10 miles, had a picnic out at our favorite place, and looked for beach glass (Note to Nurses: look closely at the bag I'm using. It's the kind of zip-lock that we used for "icing" before shots; do you see the "biohazard" symbol on it? I found we had a few lying around the house, and purposely chose it for this day, in Katie's honor!).

David climbed the cliffs, as he and Katie used to do together,

and we all talked, thought and enjoyed the sun, and the gorgeous view.

Then we went into town, had ice cream and bought candy at Katie's and David’s favorite ice cream store, and sat on a dock and ate while enjoying the view. We saw some HILARIOUS sea gulls that were gathered on a roof nearby. They had the strangest calls I’d ever heard; we thought they sounded like monkeys. Katie would have loved it, and would have laughed at them.

We came home, showered, and went to the restaurant called "San Carlos," on Bainbridge Island for dinner. We all enjoy it (we have eaten there many times over the years). Katie especially loved their chips and homemade salsa. Kaitlin (Taylor's friend) was working there, and Katie would have so enjoyed seeing her and Lauren, who was also working. [Kaitlin went on a trip with us and the Hinderers in 2005 (to the Gorge Amphitheater at George, WA) to hear James Taylor. We stayed in Leavenworth and went inner tubing the day following the concert; Katie did have such fun with her older teenage friends.]

After a wonderful meal, we stopped by the Ginder's house, to pick up David’s jacket (left behind at Winthrop). We all sat around the fire pit and talked until it was pitch dark outside. The kids made s’mores. Katie would have loved that. She and their daughter, Caroline, were bridesmaids together in Andrea and Mike's wedding last summer, and their daughter Meghan was the flower girl.

We were able to enjoy a day that we feel Katie would have enjoyed, too. It was in her honor, and I know she would want us to be happy. We didn’t dwell on her passing, but on things she loved doing. It was a good day.

Thank you again for your love, kindness, compassion, thoughtfulness and unselfish concern.

Yesterday, Gregg and David went kayaking, and then Gregg and I went kayaking. As we paddled out past Kiana Lodge (where Katie had wanted to have her wedding reception, and where we held her Celebration of Life), I saw guests gathering for something, masses of flowers growing in riotous color, and a father on the beach with a toddler. I thought how blessed we are to live in a place where we can get in a little boat on our own property and propel it with our own hands past places that folks plan to visit as a destination. It was peaceful and beautiful on the water.

Here is a beautiful prayer, a gift for you, shared on Diane Walker's blog, from the Compline service in the Episcopal Book of Common Prayer:

"Keep watch, dear Lord, with those who work, or watch, or weep this night, and give your angels charge over those who sleep. Tend the sick, Lord Christ; give rest to the weary, bless the dying, soothe the suffering, pity the afflicted, shield the joyous, and all for your love's sake. Amen."