Day 3 in Washington

On Thursday we decided to take a Ferry to Vashon Island

 It was a very short ferry ride of about 15 minutes but it was fun to drive the car on to the ship and then get out and look at the Pugent Sound.

 We went on a very short hike down to the beach so that we could beach comb for treasures.  This is Stacey's favorite thing to do... and not mine but it was nice to get together and the girls really enjoyed it.

 The best part of the day was seeing a baby seal on the beach.  I know you can't really see it but down there on the sand is the baby seal.

 I also liked the long romantic hike Cameron and I took on the secluded rocky beach.  It is nice to once and a while get a chance to do something alone.  On our way back we saw this cargo ship that was so huge.  It was amazing to see such a big ship coming in to the Tacoma Harbor.

 We ate at a place called Dukes.  It was amazing.  It was so amazing that we went back again before we left.  The clam chowder was great, the fish was fresh and what was even more amazing is that they had the best cole slaw ever!

 This is the view from our window where we ate.  What was cool is that you can see the olympic mountains although the camera did not catch them like we could see them off in the distance.

The Rehearsal and The Wedding

Friday was spent in the morning preparing for the Wedding the next day.  Ali and Cameron went over and helped while I spent some time cleaning the house for the rehearsal dinner that night.  I then met them over at the venue after picking Mom up from dialysis.  We put all the table cloths on and also worked on putting the center pieces in the middle of the tables.  

After that we went to Dad's house and enjoyed a little down time before the rehearsal.  Since I did not need to be in the rehearsal I went home and finished getting things ready for the rehearsal dinner.  The dinner was wonderful.  A lot of different people brought food together and Cameron barbequed a lot of meat for everyone to eat.  We had delicious cheese cakes for dessert.  It was fun to see family and friends who came from out of town and to meet some more of David and Samantha's close friends.  

The day of the wedding we woke up to a light to moderate rain.  I was a little worried but David wasn't as he insisted it was blowing off later.  I enjoyed a nice run on David's country roads in the rain.  After  I got back we started doing the kids hair which took nearly the rest of the time until it was time to be dressed and arrive at the venue for pictures.  

The venue was The Tacoma Sportsmens Club and it was perfect for David and Samantha's wedding.  We enjoyed some pictures and then it was time for the ceremony.  Samantha looked beautiful and she picked the best song to march down the aisle to.  I loved their ceremony which they had tailored to fit their needs.  The dinner was wonderful and the company was the best.  The best part of the evening was dancing.  We all enjoyed dancing quite a bit and I decided there will be dancing at my girl's weddings so I better start saving for a DJ now!

Hiking to High Rock and the Last Day

Sunday we went to Church in a Ward that had more crying babies than I could ever imagine.  I know that kids can be loud but I think if your kid is loud you should take them out.  All of them together made it very difficult to listen to the speakers.  We did our best and eventually filtered out all the noise but I hope that if you have a loud crying baby you will know that is a good time to take them out so others can listen to the meeting.

After church we went to Dad's house where he was having a barbique for his birthday.  It was a delightful spread of every imaginable kind of food including critter balls (these were meatballs of 4 kinds of game meat, kabobs with different kinds of game and also plenty of seafood.  The food and the company was delicious and we really enjoyed ourselves.  

On Monday we went hiking.    David has been telling us about High rock for a couple years so we were excited to try the hike to it.  We got up pretty early because David had to work in the afternoon (remember he didn't get any time off even for a honeymoon.)  It was a great hike and it was pretty steep.  The views were great from up there and we enjoyed the time hiking together.  

 Our flight home was just as easy as the flight there.  I love flying and hope to be able to do it as a family more.  (Maybe I will have to get a part time job just so we can fly places instead of driving.)

We bought a House!

We made a 3rd offer on this house and finally had one accepted.  It was a long road to finding the right house for our family but we found one that met most of our needs.  I feel like the selection of this house was very inspired and I am grateful to a Heavenly Father who takes the time to guide our family in buying a house that we will raise our children to adulthood in.  I am also grateful that we found a house right in our budget and that we will not have to sacrifice in order to live here.  We closed on this house 33 days after putting in our offer on September 14th!   This house will be perfect for our needs and will give us a nice place to live and play with each other.  It is a great place for us to entertain our friends and a good place for our family to enjoy.  

Here are some pictures of the house as it was listed on Realtor.com

This is the backyard of the house.  The previous owner did lots of work to the house and this backyard is one of those upgrades that we will really enjoy! 

 This is a bedroom.  The 2 kids bedrooms in the house are very large (12 by 16 feet) 

 The dining room

 The family rooom

 The front of the house

 The kitchen was recently remodeled and was a big selling point as was the nice pergo flooring that was installed.  

 This is the livingroom

 Master Bathroom

 The Master Bedroom

Disneyland for a Minimum Day

With the new minimum days in our school we decided to take the first one to go to Disnyeland since we had been blocked out all summer.  I let Annika and Ashling dress up and we went with our friends to make for a better day.  

 Here are all the girls in the double stroller.  It was better than having to bring two but a little hard to push.

 Ashling waiting in line to see Tinkerbell.

 Annika is a little fairy here.

The hardest part of the evening was that we waited to see fireworks despite the late hour and the tired kids who had to go to school in the morning.  At the last second they canceled the fireworks and we were so sad because we waited for so long.

Back to School

The kids were so excited to go back to school.   I think it helped that I bought them new clothes that they loved.  I have the tradition of not wearing any new clothes until school starts so they sit in their closet just waiting for school.  The girls were happy with their teachers and Ashling has her second year of a male teacher, (something that doesn't happen too often in elementary school.)

 Annika started her second year at the Whitaker Learn and Play preschool.  She loves it there and she will still be doing one more year of preschool after this.  She is going to be very ready for kindergarten by the time it starts!