Back from our Family Vacation

We spent a week on a family summer vacation in the Roeboat cruising around the San Juan islands and Vancouver Island. This time there were no major injuries, although we had issues with the boat again... This time it was a pump/electrical thing and we took on some water. Nothing too bad but Martin did rig something to pump out the water before replacing the faulty ones. I guess part of the deal was that the battery drained and we ended up pulling up the anchor by hand due to this problem.

Of course we picked the worst week to do this, weather wise. I was hoping for some sun and packed a ton of tank tops, bathing suits and cute sundresses. We did manage to go swimming at Poets Cove with Gracie followed by some dancing at the pub there.

We also stopped in Nanaimo again and lucked out this time. They had a scheduled showing of the Snowbirds over the harbor, so we took our dingy out and had front row seats to the show. It was awesome, and I even managed to snap a few good photos of the whole thing.
For the last two nights Martin decided that we had enough of roughing it and booked us into the fabulous Majestic Inn & Spa in downtown Anacortes.

We cleaned up and relaxed, Martin & I had massages at the spa, we had some wonderful food and took a walk through downtown, checking out all the little stores and boutiques. I highly recommend the restaurant "Adrift" downtown. We had some salad there the first night, and both Martin's & mine were fabulous. As a matter of fact we were so amazed by this little restaurant that we returned there the very next morning for an equally fantastic breakfast.

I'm Baaaaaaack...

It's been forever, (well since June!) that I've updated this sucker, so here I am. Tons of stuff has happened since we've moved into our (mostly!) completed new house right after July 4th weekend.

Where do I start? I flew out East to visit my BFF Megan in Maryland and attend CKC Valley Forge with her and some other gal pals, Martin went on his boys fishing trip in August, I started working at my favorite scrapbook store of all time Treasury of Memories in Bellingham, I went to Phoenix in September, we just returned from Thanksgiving in Canada at my folks and it's already the middle of October...where did time go?

Here is a photo of Megan and her wonderful Mom Darlene in Millville at the cutest little shopping spot. I found some great everyday items there that I can't live without now.

On the weekend we decided to brave the weather and got some awesome seats to "Sunday In The Country" a concert with many famous country stars of which we caught the following: Phil Vasser, Terri Clark, Sara Evans and Trace Adkins. We had loads of fun, even texted in to have our message displayed on the big screens up on stage. How kewl is that? ;)

Here is a shot of the famous cowgirl Gracie at the NW WA Fair on the 14th of August. Isn't she a cutie?

The day after the fair we got a very short notice invite from our cousin Mark down south in Olympia. So we hopped into the car and made the 4 hour drive to visit with him and the twins. Grace had a blast playing in the pool and didn't want to get out at all...

The next big adventure in our lives was the trip to Creative Escape 2007 in Phoenix. If you remember, last year I was the lucky winner of the FREE admission to this year's event, plus I got to take my new best friend Megan that I coincidentally met at CE 2006. Seems like the big guy upstairs meant well for us and we were destined to meet there. Thank you! We had a wonderful time and were so glad to meet up with old and new friends, learn lot's of fun new techniques (we've already managed to use three of the card folding techniques I learned a the store!), squeeze in some spa & pool time and even some shopping. We found a really great Halloween costume for Gracie in Phoenix of all places, but no photos of that till we get to wear it trick or treating. I also have to shout out a big, no HUGE Thank you to Megan's Mom Darlene. She spent a lot of her vacation time watching Grace so that Megan & I could attend the cool classes and events. We couldn't have done it without her.

When we got back we had already made plans for the weekend after our return home. Martin had arranged for us to borrow a friends boat to take a trip to the islands. This was only the second time for me on a boat and a first for Grace. She is such a natural, she just loves the water and the outdoors. Even though part of the weekend was beautiful and sunny we did ride out some weather and we had a tough time getting Grace to come inside. She was cold and wet but still having a blast. What a girl!

At the end of the month our cousin Mark visited baring gifts. He brought us a piano courtesy of Uncle Joe. At first I wasn't so sure, but seeing Grace have so much fun, it's a no-brainer. She'll be taking lessons sometime soon. Check it out:

So then just this past weekend we took the plunge and drove up to see my folks for CDN Thanksgiving. We has so much fun seeing the kids together, last time the cousins were there Grace was still pretty small and this time they really interacted. Check out Jayson reading to Gracie...

I think that brings us up to date, at least partially. LOL I promise to be better in the future but life just get's so busy sometimes...