My Dad just emailed some of the pictures he took while here. The first eight are from the Logos picnic. The next couple are the scooters at the office and the last is our disc golf day. Todd was pretty fast at rock climbing, I was too embarrassed to try it 🙂
I’m sad that my parents have left, but we had a great time site seeing and catching up. We packed a lot in during the four full days they were here, it was just too beautiful to sit around 🙂 My Dad took all the family photos with his camera which I forgot to download before they left. I’ll try to get them later.
We started the weekend with the Logos picnic at the beautiful Hovander Homestead Park in Ferndale. I love this place, mostly because of the gorgeous flowers and farm animals 🙂 The food was yummy too and it’s always fun to see Logos people! My parents came along to enjoy the scenery and to meet a few of our wonderful friends.
On Sunday we went to church and Mom & Dad got to meet our pastor and some of our friends there. We played disc golf and collected sea glass near downtown Bellingham. We then toured Todd’s office and played on the scooters there. I’ll try to get pictures from my Dad since I did not have my camera 🙂
Monday we headed up to Mount Baker because it was a beautiful, sunny day. We stopped along the way at Heliotrope Ridge and Nooksack Falls on the recommendation of our friend James. The views were spectacular from there! After that we drove to Artist Point to view lovely lakes and Mt. Baker from a different (closer) angle. On our way home we drove to Silver Lake and saw a bald eagle fishing and thousands of baby toads at the edge of the lake. The toads were making their transformation from leggy tadpoles into land living creatures. It was pretty cool to see, but easy to step on the little guys.
Tuesday, the last full day for my parents, we took a ferry to Lummi Island. Todd & I have been there before, but this time we explored a couple beaches and farms. One of the sites, Windy Hill Art Sculpture Park, was fun to explore. The sculptures are interactive but work best when it’s windy, we only had a slight breeze 🙂 We saw another bald eagle on our way home.
I found this crab spider while trimming my roses the other day. What’s really neat is that its side stripe matched perfectly to the color of the rose it was living in (its easier to see if you click the photo). Quite pretty for a spider, don’t you think 🙂
I’ll be away for a few days…my parents are in town…yay!!!!
Solanum lycopersicum! Well, not really, but I am excited that my tomatoes are almost ripe! They are the Bush Early Girl variety which claimed to be ready in around 50 days. I honestly don’t remember the exact day I planted, but I did blog about them end of April. So it’s been way longer than 50 days, but at least they are ripening 🙂
On Sunday I volunteered at Camp Horizon for a couple hours with the horseback riding. The camp is held every summer in Blaine (closer to Birch Bay) for special needs kids & adults. The people running the horseback riding go to our church and that is how I heard that they needed help. Since I love to be around horses, I thought it would be fun, and it was 🙂 My job was to walk beside the rider as a spotter so they didn’t fall off… though most of the riders had great balance. I used to volunteer at a therapeutic equestrian center in Canada while attending Trinity Western University. It was neat to be able to have the experience again.
The two girls pictured are my friends Janelle & Krista from the Christ Group Todd & I are involved with. We all were helpers.
I forgot to post this awhile back. Most of these flowers have finished blooming, but I still wanted to share what was in the yard a few weeks ago 🙂
 
 
 
 
On Friday we drove down to Shelton/Olympia area to spend the weekend with Todd’s family. Todd’s brother, Keith, flew up from Arizona for a visit, the first in two years since we last saw him. On Saturday we went to Tommy (Tom’s son) & Krista’s house on Black Lake in Olympia. We had fun on the giant water trampoline with the water being surprisingly warm! Afterwards, we gathered at Tom & Cindy’s in Shelton with Kali & Brandon (Todd’s sister and her husband who live nearby) and played the Wii that we brought down. We all crashed at the house which I think is the first in a long time Cindy has had all her kids under one roof.
While we were there I took pictures of four baby birds in a basket next to the front porch. The next day they had moved out of the nest and were preparing to fly. The parents were encouraging them to get moving through their chirping. One of the babies didn’t quite get the hang of it after he flopped out of the nest, so the mom flew down to get the baby to follow her to safety. It was neat to see!
On Sunday, after church, we walked down to the creek behind the house and watched Jasmine (their dog) entertain us. She was cleaning up the creek by pulling out all the sticks she could find and laying them on the embankment, then going back for more. She’s a funny dog. We packed-up soon after but stopped in Olympia to play a few holes of disc golf with Cindy & Keith. It was nice to get away for a couple days and see family, hopefully we will get together again soon!
I get about this many raspberries (large tray) every few days, so I have to freeze them or use them within a day of being picked. The golden raspberries are pretty good, but I think red is my favorite flavor 🙂
My friend Jessica and I were walkers in the Chuckanut Footrace this weekend. Jessica encouraged me to sign up and walk with her, so I did (it was capped at 1,000 people). The walk was beautiful through the trees and overlooking the bay. We were on the Interurban Trail for most of the 7 miles which started at Marine Park and finished at Larrabee State park. It actually was pretty fun, mostly because I had Jessica to laugh and talk with. It took us about 2 hours, which is not too bad for this being our first race. My feet were extremely sore afterwards but now I know to buy a better pair of shoes for next time. You can see our action shot by a professional photographer by clicking here. We took the one below after we got back to Jessica’s a couple hours after the race.
La Casa Blanca 