Bird Santuary

{September 24th}

We went to this bird sanctuary place by my sisters house. It was so beautiful!
We walked along a wooden path through all these ponds and grass lands. It was a really cool place.

The kids had a blast running around and exploring!

This cool wood structure was in the middle of it all. It was probably about a mile walk out to it. 

We found lots of fuzzy caterpillars along the way.

 Playing choo choo train.

Kayla and Carsons Wedding!

{September 23rd}

September 23rd was the most perfect day. It was the day my baby sister was sealed to her husband for time and all eternity. It was so amazing to be able to be in the temple with her. The spirit was so strong during the sealing. It was undeniable. I was so happy that I could be there to help her change into her gorgeous, flowing wedding dress and slip into her beautiful purple high heeled shoes. It was just all together the most perfect day. (Next to my own of course. :)

Look at that view!

Introducing Mr. and Mrs. Black!

The family.

The reception was in the back yard of the Black family. Perfectly decorated with lights and lanterns!

 It was gorgeous!

The first dance, the cutting of the cake, and the bouquet toss!

Congrats Kayla and Carson! We looooooooove you both so stinkin' much!

Floatin

{September 5th}

Our annual floating the river day with the Smallwoods!

Always a blast! Especially when Ryan floats down on a kids blow up alligator instead of a tube.

Floating the river is one of my all time favorite things to do! So relaxing. 

Thanksgiving problems

Oh, you're suppose to put the butter on and THEN put the rub on? Oh, okay.

Birthday Weekend

{July 23rd-25th}

We went away for my birthday to spend the weekend up in Oak Harbor. We had so much fun! The weather was awesome and the views were amazing! The weekend started off with a day at the spa for me! Erich spoiled me with a massage, manicure, and pedicure. Score! I was so happy. It was fun spending the morning being pampered. From there we headed up to Oak Harbor to enjoy a relaxing birthday weekend!

Deception Pass. One of the most beautiful places in Washington!

 We spent a good hour and a half here just staring. It was hard to leave!

He bet me he could jump up like this the whole way without stopping. And he did.

I have to say the views here were almost better than the ones in Hawaii. Almost.

That night we had dinner at a nice place right down the street from our hotel...the beach!

My pretty pedicure and manicure!

King of the beach.

24. Wow, I'm almost half way to 50!

Skippin' rocks.

Oak Harbor at sunset.

 Fancy chair at our hotel.

 On the boat in Anacortes ready to go whale watching in the San Juans! Swedish Fish on hand. 

 It was about a 3 hour boat right through the San Juans out to the coast to see the Orcas. It was a little gloomy but the boat ride was soo gorgeous! 

I wish these pictures did it a little more justice. You can kinda see the Olympic mountains in the bottom picture. It was awesome!

We tracked them down! There was a huge pod we came across. Probably a good 10-12 of them. There was one in particular that was humongous!
Its dorsal fin they said was probably about six feet. Six feet?! He was huge! 

This guy was "spy hopping" as they call it. Checking things out for the rest of the pod. We spent about an hour or so with the Orcas then headed inland for our 2 hour ride back.
We had so much fun on our mini vacation. Definitely one of our favorite things we've done!

iPhooooooone

We finally made the switch over to data phones. (I know, we're probably like the last ones). We got the new iPhone's. (I got the white and Erich the black). Wowser, I don't know what took us so long! These, my friends, are the coolest phones ever. I'm pretty much obsessed.

Thank you Steve Jobs. You rock.

We're alive!

Wow, it's been a crazy couple months! We've been so busy painting the house, we haven't really had time for anything else. It's been quite the big task! Erich's brother is a professional painter so he helped us get started with all the prepping and then came in and sprayed the beast down. Well it's been eight weeks of lots of hard work and living in a construction zone, but we are pretty much done now! Just need to get everything cleaned up and get the blinds and doors back up. All the work has been so worth it though. The house looks awesome! And feels so clean and new. The day after we finished painting, we flew out to Utah for my sisters wedding. And then from there we flew to California for 8 days of FUN for our anniversary. Highlights being sitting on the front row of the Dr. Phil audience (yes, I'm a dork I know!), hiking up to the Hollywood sign, roller coasters galore, beaches galore, 8 days away from work with the husband, and sitting on the Friends couch at the WB Studios. Oh, and not dying by the crazy LA drivers! But now we're back to reality and as soon as we get this house cleaned up I have a lot of blogging to catch up on! And lots of fun pictures!

Universal Studios on our 2nd Anniversary.