Good Bye Washington.....for now

First of all, thank you for visiting our blog and for being a special part of our lives.  I must start in the beginning with my least favorite part; saying goodbye to my loved ones for three months.  This weekend we went to Issaquah for a double birthday celebration, my foster sister Dinah Marie and I have January birthdays and it was the perfect gathering before our departure.  Our world traveling friends Ben and Kristen Davidson stopped in with their one year old son Henry as well.  We spent our last night in Poulsbo with our dear friends Dave and Heather Raley.  Our time spent in Poulsbo has been enriched and blessed by this amazing couple who invited us into their small group and into their lives for the last three years.  The morning of my departure I tried to hold back tears saying goodbye to my friend Alex and then just let them flow saying goodbye to our condo.  Nate and I shared many memories here, including setting off the fire alarm once yearly, the most recent incident occurring right before our departure.  The pizza looked great in the oven, too bad we already packed up the oven mitts.  I set a whole pizza to flames attempting to grab it out of the oven, glad mom bought two more.  She and Eric Bowman just found in amusing as opposed to Nate who thought burning a pizza as an unforgivable sin.  Our move out wouldn’t have been possible without my mother or Eric, Thank you!

So we are off!  A few hours behind schedule but we left on the day we intended to with Max the cat in tow.  Our cousins Amanda and soon to be husband David graciously offered to take in our cat during our trip.  It took a full 24 hours for Max to adjust to his new mobile home and we are getting a little dose of what parenting may be like.  During our first night camping at Cape Disappointment the temps got down to 38 and we took shifts to warm up the car every three hours for the kitty.  Now Max is much more at home in the Portland hotel. 

Hannah love helping my dad in the kitchen!

My dad loves helping mom in the kitchen!

Good looking set of siblings!

Kristen and Ben's son, Henry, is growing so fast!

Boys are making quick work of the dishes.

Our road mascot, Max, freaked out by Nate's driving.

Trial and error with getting Max's litter box out of the truck for every stop.

Weyerhaeuser Mill in Raymond, WA

Nate poaching a "steelhead"

Karate training.

The reason we are driving on the coast.

Morning Nate before coffee.

Deadman's Cove...no pirates

North Head lighthouse

Black sand at Waikiki Beach.....Washington!

 

I really wanted him to do the truffle shuffle...

On top of Astoria Column

164 steps and 3 mins later....

...I'm pooped!

Scenic outlook, Max was not impressed. 

Cape Falcon

Workers at Tillamook!

Um...yeah...we'll get better at these shots.