Portland Weekend

My parents flew up to Portland for a ministry related conference this past weekend so we decided to drive down and see them. We were able to spend time with all our extended family as well. It was a wonderful visit, but too short as always.

Saturday we had lunch with my Dad’s side and then spent the night with Dean & Beth in Canby. Sunday we had a home church service, which I loved because I got to hear my Dad preach. We then went antique shopping in old town Aurora. I had a lot of fun taking pictures in one of the shops. Afterwards we spent the afternoon with my Mom’s side.

That night we stayed with Lamar, Cathy & Brittany. Monday we had breakfast with the family then headed for home.

IMG_2102-2

Lynden Walk

My friend Julie and I walked a pretty trail this past Friday in Lynden. We brought our cameras even though it was overcast and had fun shooting random things. My darling husband bought me Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2 for Valentines so I have been playing around with different looks and downloadable presets. It’s a lot of fun. I do appreciate the art of good pictures straight from the camera, but this program will help me be a little more creative.

Going Home

I suppose I should finish my vacation posts, sorry to drag them out. This is the last one from the trip, I think 🙂

We decided to take a different route home so we could stop in Boron and see where they make Borax. It was very interesting and the desert was beautiful. It was really simple getting there from Mentone (breakfast with Mom & Dad), all we had to do was take the CA-38 to the I-10W to the CA-30/210/CA-330W to the I-215N to the US-395N to the CA-58W and then we were there! Pretty easy, right?!

We got to see my cousin Sarah again on the way home, it was a fun vacation!

Click above to see a larger picture of the Borax factory and mine

Dinosaurs!

The following Monday we went back to the dinosaurs because I really wanted to. I am a big kid with a unique love for weird things. I love animatronics and they had fun robotic dinosaurs. The giant dinosaurs are cool too because you can go inside of them. The Brontosaurus is a gift shop. The T-Rex had been closed since we moved to the area back in 1994 but they finally opened it and you can go all the way up into his mouth. I was super elated!

If you have ever seen Pee Wee’s Big Adventure, the T-Rex will look familiar.

I also had to make a couple pictures black and white, they remind me of those 1950’s cheesy B movies.

Everson Walk

Yesterday afternoon I took a lovely stroll through Everson with my camera. The sun was shining, the clouds were billowy, and the birds were chirping (maybe only in my head)…a beautiful day the Lord had made. I knew I wanted to get the flags lining Main Street for Veterans Day, but it turns out there are other cool things in Everson to photograph.

Oh, the tractor picture. I had to take it because it has my current last name and my maiden initials…only if you know me 🙂

DPP_00018068

DPP_00018141

DPP_00018175

Dylan’s Birthday

I am interrupting the Sinclair posts with the birthday of a cute little boy. My little neighbor just turned 2 on Monday. He had a John Deere/farm themed party complete with his own sized automatic John Deere tractor.

DPP_00015919

Logos Picnic

This past Saturday was the annual picnic for Todd’s work. It is fun to see what they add every year for free entertainment and food. This year, along with the rock wall and bouncy house, they had a bungee run. Todd had fun racing a couple co-workers down the lanes. I didn’t get a clear picture of Todd, but you get the idea. From the picture I can’t tell if the guys purposely did not race him, or if he was doing a practice run by himself…hmm. For food, they added a a yummy Dutch poffertjes booth which normally you have to wait for the county fair to get.

I spent the afternoon catching up with a few people and hanging out with my friend Julie. And as usual I photographed mostly animals and flowers. I love the sheep picture, looks like she is singing (Mom & Dad, I hope you think of me :)). I did get a couple cute pictures of Julie’s daughter Elise.

Sunny Weekend

The weather was amazing this Memorial Day weekend. Those of you who live in the Northwest I hope you were able to get out and enjoy it.

Sunday marked the annual Ski to Sea race in Whatcom County. We got to watch the bikers come down Main Street and pass the “baton” to their fellow teammates who then canoed down the Nooksack for 18 miles. Last year the river was too high so they canceled the canoe leg. It was neat to finally be able to see the boaters. We then grilled out (a term I learned from my midwest friends) and tossed a frisbee around. A couple Canadian friends later stopped by, it was a fun day!

I painted my laundry room too. I was tired of white so now it is a greenish color. The paint color is called Brown Buzz but it is not brown, which is funny. It looks like a different color every time I see it. I don’t have much luck with paint colors either (Julie :)) but I think I like this one.

Memorial Day next up….

Graduation

I got home on Tuesday from a fun filled week in California. My brother graduated from Police Academy after six hard months of training. He had perfect attendance and ranked high in his class of sixty-five recruits. I have never been more proud of Matt, he truly earned his badge!

Thursday the 9th was his graduation ceremony and on Friday we witnessed his official swearing in at the police station where he will be working. If you would join with us, we will be consistently praying for his safety and that he would glorify the Lord in his work. It is especially dangerous for the officers who put their lives on the line for ours everyday.

So, I didn’t get the best indoor pictures, but I wanted to share them with you anyways 🙂 I also had to blur his badge and city for legal reasons.

Happy 29th Birthday!

Oops, I got so busy yesterday I forgot to post a happy birthday wish to my beloved. Hope you got EVERYTHING you wanted 🙂 (you’ll have to ask him about that). Love you Todd!

A fun picture from last year