Sunday, July 16, 2006


She even acessorizes Posted by Picasa

Isn't she lovely girls?? Posted by Picasa

Thursday, July 06, 2006

More Visiting!

Pa-pa Frank, and Shari came to visit this week. Despite both Dad and I being under the weather, we all had a good time. We visited the beach and window-shopped in our favorite little town. Of course, we had to get ice cream there too.

We all wanted to go see fireworks on the 4th, but with Dad and I being sick and it being very COLD that day (in the 50s), no one wanted to stay up late to get cold. Andy and I ended up sitting on the floor of our computer room watching the neighbor's very own show across the street.

Carolyn, of course, had a ball playing with Pa-pa and Shari. She got quite spoiled with all the attention lavished upon her.

Carolyn in her July 4th Outfit Posted by Picasa

Playing on the beach Posted by Picasa

Shari, Pa-pa, and Carolyn at our favorite "Illinois with a view" spot. Posted by Picasa

Pa-pa, Carolyn, and I. Posted by Picasa

Friday, June 30, 2006

3 Years...

Yesterday was our anniversary. We celebrated three years of marriage, and our first anniversary day together! Since we had to make up for the two that we missed, we went all out. Andy booked us for an "introductory flying lesson" (read sight-seeing tour) with the flying club on base. The on-base connection plus the slightly skewed language made it a pretty affordable little splurge. And it was well worth it. We had a fantastic time.

We flew all around the San Juan Islands. It was really our first look at most of them--our own island has enough to explore, so we haven't had time to venture out to the others much. Our pilot knew quite a bit about each of them. He was fairly obsessed with the 'ginormous' houses strewn throughout the more secluded ones (we even saw the island that the Oakley sunglasses guy owns. Apparently he has his very own Island out here, complete with a few buildings, a road, and an airstrip! Now there's an interesting tidbit!), but we also got to see a couple of lighthouses, our own bridge onto the island (which is a sight to see in itself), Mt. Baker, Mt. Ranier, and Mt. Constitution, and of course... just the view of the beautiful green landforms jutting out of the water everywhere we looked. We hoped to see some whales, but when our pilot radioed to others to see if there were any out, the radio went nutty each time the location was given. Oh well.

A bit of Val-silliness: I was slightly intimidated by the head-gear we had to wear. I guess I got used to the Illinoisian farm-flyers and their 'just shout' philosophy. Other than that it was an absolutely amazing thing to do. I always loved the patchwork-quilt look of Illinois, but flying over the islands in the sound was really something beautiful.

Once our feet were back on the ground we headed to the middle of the island (the one we live on), for a bite to eat at our favorite restaurant. Since we were a little early we wandered around the wharf, and snapped some photos there too.

All in all it was a wonderful, wonderful day.

One of our local mountains Posted by Picasa

View of the bridge to our island. Posted by Picasa

Feet on the ground Posted by Picasa

That would be my husband.... Posted by Picasa

3 Years! Posted by Picasa

Tuesday, June 27, 2006

Picking Strawberries

Today, Carolyn and I, along with our friend, Jamie, went to a strawberry patch nearby and picked strawberries! (What else would you do in a strawberry patch?)

I was amazed at how quickly Carolyn picked up on the concept. We hadn't been in the field for five minutes, and she'd picked a strawberry and put it in our basket. With a little coaching, she even did a good job of picking the Red ones!

She had a blast and took it all so very seriously. There was work to be done--a whole basket to fill up!

After the exercise of strawberry picking, we indulged in some ice cream to reward ourselves. Carolyn enjoyed sharing a cone with me.

I just had to share some pictures from our trip.

Our trip to the strawberry patch Posted by Picasa

This one looks good. Posted by Picasa

My little strawberry Posted by Picasa

Putting them in the box. Posted by Picasa

Have a strawberry. Posted by Picasa

Sharing a cone with Mommy Posted by Picasa