Seattle Vacation

Janice, Rob, and Ashleigh in Everett, WA watching the sunset

Playing at the park in Everett with our friends

Ashleigh and Abby modeling their raincoats
(we never used them - yea dry season!)

We visited our friends, Ann and Josh, in Seattle last week and had a great vacation. It was Ashleigh's first time on an airplane and she did great! She got a little bored at times, but used her 'inside voice' quite well. Here are some pictures or her going to the airport and in the cockpit of the plane.

Waiting for the train at DIA

Ashleigh and I inside the cockpit

I think the best parts of our trip were getting to walk to floor at Boeing, where Josh works (no cameras allowed) and our overnight trip to Vancouver where we went to the Vancouver Aquarium. Anyone who knows me knows how much I LOVE dolphins! They had a show with dolphins at the aquarium where we were only 10 feet away from where the trainers were standing, so front row seats. They also had a whale show and shark feeding show, but the dolphins were definitely the best.




Ann and Josh have a daughter, Abby, who is 2 and 1/2 and the girls played great together. Ann watched Ashleigh for the day while Rob and I took a ferry to Friday Harbor (about an hour and a half ride each way). Our friends laughed when we told them we took 20 pictures on the ferry ride, but for a land-locked Coloradan, it was quite an experience. We walked to a beach about a mile away and found some large jellyfish along the shore line.





We also had fun driving around seeing views of the sound, spending time on the beach, and going to the Pike Place Market where they throw around large fish and yell a lot. We visited the first Starbucks, which is also there. I took lots more pictures, but am having computer issues posting the rest, so I'll leave it at this and if you are so inclined to see the other 350 pictures I took, just let me know. I won't subject you to it though - you'll have to ask. On a side note, Rob left for China the morning after we got back from Seattle and will be there for a little over two weeks. I'm sure he'll have some good stories and pictures when he gets back...

Playing on the beach in their dresses

Ashleigh in front of a lighthouse on Whidby Island

Ann, Abby, Ashleigh, and Rob at Pike Place Market in Seattle

I was able to post a few more pictures from our camping trip with Ann and Josh's small group from church. We went for one night northeast of Seattle and camping in Washington is much warmer and softer ground than in Colorado. We didn't even need sleeping pads there and we slept fine without them (except Ann). We also went wading in the lake and boating the next day where Rob, Ashleigh, and I did a little tubing. I was sore for two days afterwards and I wouldn't exactly call it fun - guess I'm starting to feel my age. I think 10-15 years ago, it would have been a lot of fun, but trying it for the first time now probably wasn't a great idea.

Ashleigh carrying the cooler to the tent


Sunrise at the campsite

Daddy and Ashleigh wading at Lake Roesinger

Rob's Birthday

The birthday kids - Carissa, John, and Rob

Today is Rob's birthday! To celebrate, we had his family and my family over for a lasagna dinner on Sunday and also celebrated my brother-in-law and sister-in-law's birthdays too. We also went to Chili's for lunch today before he left for work. It was too early for them to sing, but he did get a free piece of strawberry cheesecake out of the deal. I imagine you get pretty tired of singing Happy Birthday working at places that sing to people on their birthdays. I bought him a new lawn mower for his birthday since we inherited our current lawn mower with the house, it sometimes takes a half hour to start, and sounds like it's choking when it runs.

Our old mower - notice the pair of vice grips on the handle...

These pictures are from hiking a week ago at Castlewood Canyon. We stopped by the creek to wade in the water with Ashleigh and saw a crawdad. Speaking of crawdads, we went to Aurora Reservoir last Thursday and saw a few kids playing with one and had built his own crawdad castle complete with a pool inside of this big mound of sand and a feather to top off the dome. Do you know how hard it is keeping a toddler from knocking over other people's sandcastles?!? It survived the day, but it was difficult.





As an update on Rob's job search, he found a job and actually got an offer from the first company he interviewed with (praise God!). He found out in June that his company is closing the Colorado office at the end of the year, so we had the option of moving to Michigan or finding something else here. With both of our families here, and our beautiful state, we found it difficult to consider the move and are now glad we don't have to! He starts at the end of September after he travels to China for two weeks with his current company.

Playing at the park!