washington, take one

if you do not love my children with every fiber of your being this would be a good time to check your email. i took too many pictures while we were in washington and in the interest of saving time at the end of the year adding pictures to my blurb.com book, i am posting tons of them right here. today's pictures depict our travels to san juan island, via the ferry to friday harbor. en route the captain came over the intercom to inform us that he was powering down the ferry to make way for a small pod of orcas crossing in front of the boat. we all raced to the front hoping to catch a glimpse and we did! we saw three fins surface about thirty yards from the ferry. coop and ains had no clue what they were looking for, so they missed the whole debacle. we ate yummy homemade peanut butter cups and ice cream and cookies and picked up two of the most hideous sweatshirts ever sold in this great country. the kids froze on the ferry and i did the best i could with what the small souvenir shop offered me. when we returned to anacortes we headed to deception pass, a cool little beach on puget sound. the kids threw rocks to their hearts' content, climbed big boulders, and our dear, sweet coop sharted a little in his shorts and had to clean himself (in the buff) in the freezing cold water of the sound. it was a fantastic day. these days have become very typical of our visits to northwest washington. matt's parents have planned some great little getaways for us over the past year. we took a ferry to vancouver island over christmas break. last summer we spent a weekend in ocean shores and a few days at lake chelan. we have really enjoyed crisscrossing nw wa and we have g and e to thank for it.

becks and gpa gary on the deck of the ferry.

coop and ains on the ferry from friday harbor.
me and matt on the ferry to san juan island.
the walls in wa.
ainsley on the beach at deception pass.
coop found tons of sticks to play with on the beach.
mt. baker is in the background. it looks like part of the clouds.
mt. baker peeking out of the clouds. it is directly above the boat in the middle of the picture.
all of us at deception pass. are you kidding me? we don't have backdrops like this in indiana.

ainsley's smile seems a little forced.

on the sound.
this is the coolest picture we have ever taken of coop.
coop found a piece of driftwood and "surfed" on it for one second.

the water was freezing and beckett was constantly racing away from the tide.
beckett loved the water and the rocks. i think he singlehandedly changed the depth of the water along the shore. i'm surprised we didn't have to ice his shoulder at the end of the day.
so that's it for thursday of last week. there will be many more pictures. so maybe just take a break from this place for a week or two. to the family that we saw last week - the time went too fast. we miss you guys so much. the kids had a blast and so did we.