Our Washington Trip

When we heard that our friends Erik and Whitney were getting married, we couldn't resist the chance to go to their Seattle wedding and take the chance to visit Aaron's mission.

Aaron served in Spokane, Washington from 2007-2009. He loves the people there but hadn't been able to visit Spokane for the two years that he had been home.

It was wonderful for us to catch up with all the people that he had taught, see the sights where he worked, visit some sites that he couldn't as a missionary and then spend time with family and friends in Washington.

Here is a picture tour of our trip!

Driving through Idaho on the way to Washington we passed this cute taco stand.

Getting closer...

And we made it! First stop was the beautiful Coeur d'Alene, Idaho where Aaron served 6 months of his mission.

We went straight to the Coeur d'Alene church building and saw this piece of exciting news. Aaron is pointing to a recent convert that he taught who is now serving a mission in Australia!

We happened to get to the church just as a Zone Conference was ending and got to meet the current missionaries serving in Coeur d'Alene. We had some extra time so we grabbed some lunch with them at the classic Mexican restaurant in Coeur d'Alene

Then we went on to experience the side of Coeur d'Alene that Aaron didn't experience on his mission.

And ate at the restaurant the Aaron has been craving for the past three years. Yes those are animals on the walls. Aaron wanted to show me what eating real game was like...and I loved it!

We then headed over to Spokane and got to catch up with Sister Lowe.

Sister Lowe and her husband were serving as senior missionaries in the Mission Office while Aaron was on his mission. Aaron lived with the Lowes while he was serving in Spokane.

Sister Lowe was kind enough to let us stay with her during our visit.

We woke up to a wonderful breakfast on that Friday morning with Sister Lowe and Sister Jameson (another great sister in the ward that had looked after Aaron while he was there).

Sister Lowe, Sister Jameson and Aaron

We toured around Spokane and then got to see the Spokane Temple!

Then we started our trip over to Seattle for the wedding. We stopped in on Moses Lake on the way, another one of Aaron's areas.

(I'm sad that this is the only picture I have to show of Moses Lake but it was a great place nonetheless!)

And finally made it to gorgeous Seattle. It really is as green as everyone says it is!

Aaron's Uncle David and Aunt Stacie were kind enough to let us stay with them for a night.

They have a beautiful home right on the lake. Uncle David and the boys even took us out on nighttime a ride on the lake!

Saturday morning we woke up and headed over to the Seattle Temple to see Erik and Whitney sealed.

It was a beautiful sealing ceremony and we were so grateful to get to be there!

They had a delicious lunch at Salty's. Look at that view!

The night ended with a great reception and of course some car decorating.

Congrats Erik and Whitney!

We then headed back to the Spokane area that Saturday night.

We had a wonderful Sunday in Deer Park where we attended church with the Deer Park Ward.

We were able to visit a lot of families and had a great dinner with the Aaron's old Ward Mission Leader. The missionaries even came over for dinner too and we got to help them teach a lesson to one of their investigators!

It was great seeing the small town of Deer Park and all the people that Aaron loves so much there.

We finished our trip by visiting one last family on our drive back through Coeur d'Alene and onto Provo.

Aaron taught the Platt-Kuhns while he was serving in Coeur d'Alene. The Platt-Kuhns story is really a miracle story for Aaron.

It was great to see that the kids are doing well and that Heather Platt-Kuhn is loving life.

We loved our trip to Washington and can't wait for a day that we have another great reason to go back and visit!