On July 23rd...

We celebrated our fourth anniversary with a trip to Orcas Island.

Where we had a good time exploring, eating tasty seafood and being reminded of God's covenant promises.


We visited the incredible Antony Howe kinetic sculpture garden. It wasn't a particularly windy day, but there was just enough to appreciate the design and intricacy of most of the pieces. This one was mesmerizing.





We went out to an intertidal mound at low tide to clamber around and look through the tide pools.


There were lots of different colors of sea stars--including a couple of sun stars (the kind with lots of extra legs). We also saw several kinds of crabs, shrimp, juvenile fish and anemones.

We felt lucky enough to find this brilliantly colored sea cucumber as well.

There is just no substitute for taking your socks off and walking around on the rocks and through the water. However, a wrong move at the wrong time, can cost you--as Jonathan found. His slip lost him a toenail and caused an impromptu trip to the Orcas Island medical center.

Eddie was glad to see us--and even more glad to play in the fishy-smelling tote bag.


We also learned that we are going to be parents in the spring--April 1st, if all goes well.


It was a very special day.


*Actually, the pregnancy test came first. We took the injunction to take the test first thing in the morning very seriously. So, when I had to get up at 5:30 (well before we had planned to arise), we figured that this was our best chance. When you are that groggy, even news like this is a bit anticlimactic. Jonathan snapped the picture and I went back to bed to pray and try to sleep and the excitement didn't really hit us until later. Not nearly as romantic a moment as we had envisioned--but finding out that we were expecting our first child on our anniversary will still be a special memory.

Congratulations,

Abby, on the birth of Susanna Elizabeth!

Hope

A preview of a work in progress.

Smiles

"And it's happy to see you!"

Knitting Notebook

I finally decided to separate out the knitting and crochet projects into their own notebook. I needed the graph paper format for charting lace. It was actually quite a bit easier to find a book with graph paper than it was to find a plain one! I intended to recover it eventually but ended up carrying around the unadorned Mead book for quite a while. However, I found the perfect paper at the Paper Muse in downtown Sumner last weekend and made time to put it together with a little help from my fabric and paper stashes.
I got paper for my most current design notebook as well, but left it at my in-laws house over the weekend. Fortunately we'll be going back down there on Saturday!

Folklife '09

We continued our yearly tradition with a lovely, sunny afternoon at the Seattle Center.

This was a Balkan brass band with some really excellent playing. This is also a couple of odd people with some not so excellent dancing. There seems to be only two types of dancing done at Folklife, contra (or square) and this strange free-form body movement which I have no name for but appears to be well understood by sufficient numbers to encounter it anywhere that music is being played. We even saw a woman attempting it, with even less success than usual, to the strains of some delightful Scottish fiddle playing.

We visited the hands on area which was hosted by the Nordic Heritage Museum this year. There were a couple of charming ladies demonstrating traditional Scandinavian knitting techniques. Of course, I couldn't resist pulling out my WIP that I had on hand to share too.

This was also the first day that I wore my new cotton vest. I was so excited that I didn't take the time to block it properly. It looked fine but the gentle blocking that I have since given it did improve the fit. It also left little bits of cottony fluff on my skirt.

And then there is the food. Glorious food. We always try to get different things in order to get the most out of the experience. Jonathan opted for a chicken artichoke crepe and I got some tasty Vietnamese food.
On a side note, the man who took our picture said that I looked like a nice, wholesome, American girl and then proceeded to lecture me on universal healthcare, minimum wage, taxation and gun ownership. How does looking wholesome let me in for that kind of thing?

Midwest Adventuring

We headed back to the Midwest for my sister's college graduation this May.

Sisters!

Congratulations, Camille!

Graduation is always on Mother's Day. Jonathan stepped aside to give his mom a call.

It was also great to see my brother as well. I missed seeing his apartment this year but nice to not have to consider preparing a full meal with all of the other hustle and bustle that was going on. We did make time to go to Sereniteaz and found a scrumptious lemon rooibos that refreshed us during the heat spell that we came home to.

Next stop, St. Louis!

The timing for this trip could have been more opportune in many ways. The week that we were there was finals for all of the friends we hoped to see. However, these lovely friends graciously opened their home and the others made time out of their busy schedules to see us. I saw Charlie and Keren, shared tea and salad with Megan and visited the Missouri Botanical Garden with Nathaniel. In a characteristic fashion, I switched my schedule and went to see one friend on the wrong day and saw a good bit more of St. Louis than I planned on while navigating my way between houses but that is just what being a tourist is for, right?

The Missouri Botanical Garden is definitely on our list of beautiful places to visit again. The irises were blooming while we were there.


Jonathan was absolutely fascinated with these flowers. I stood in the breeze trying to hold a bloom steady enough for him to get a close up shot. In the end, the best one was this one of the entrance drive.

We had wanted to do a bit more sight seeing around the city but spent so much time seeing friends that everything else got passed by. This is as close as we got to the famous arch.

On to Kansas City....

...where we had a good time visiting Jonathan's brother and his family. We celebrated the end of Elijah's first year of preschool, saw the IHOP, had delicious barbecue and had a chance to catch up.

It also included some exercise to work off the barbecue.

The verdict? We need to go back for more visits!