Pictures Have Arrived!!!

It's taken me a while, but I finally have the pictures from Seattle downloaded from the camera and then uploaded to the blog! We hope you enjoy a small glimpse of our trip!

------------ Day 1 ------------
Flying to Seattle, getting settled.
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-------------- Day 2 --------------
Olympic Peninsula, Crescent Lake, Hoh Rainforest, Forks, La Push
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The drive around the Olympic Peninsula is INCREDIBLY beautiful!
This is the view of coming down along Crescent Lake.

Crescent lake with the mountains right up to the lake. We drove
with the mountains up to the one side and the lake on the other side.
SO beautiful!

Crescent Lake

Rich and Angie at the Hoh Rainforest,
in the Olympic National Park.

Fallen arched tree...

Rich in the rainforest lushness...it's the dry season
and it's still SO green!

Angie framed by some tree branches...

Rich with the HUGE trunk of a fallen tree... 200+ feet tall

It's a beautiful drive in and out of the Hoh Rainforest...
18 miles into the Olympic National Park

We made it to Forks! We love the Twilight books! We took
the one way 145 mile trip from Seattle to Forks!

Treaty line between Forks and Quileute Indian Reservation...

Vampire Baseball anyone?

Baseball game scenes filmed here for Twilight.

Howling wolf driftwood on La Push Beach

Off shore rock formations at La Push Beach.

Surfing at La Push beach in 45 degree rainy yuck... still beautiful!

Quileute Alphabet (posted at the post office in La Push, WA)

------------- Day 3 -------------
Seattle
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Space Needle

Space Needle from below

Downtown Seattle view from Space Needle

Pike Place Market

Masses at the market

------------- Day 4 -------------
Taking a lazy day in Mukilteo at the shore
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Ivar's - the BEST clam chowder I've EVER had!

Surf board driftwood...

Angie getting her toes wet in the water!

-------------- Day 5 --------------
Happy 13th Anniversary - Whidbey Island, Deception Pass, Anacortes
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Wild blackberries... YUM YUM YUM!

Useless Bay on Whidbey Island... why is it useless?

Oh deer... we came across 6-7 deer at this cottage hotel... they totally
were not afraid of us... this was a beautiful view!

Deception Pass Park

Rich on the huge rock by the shore...

Water crashing on the rocks...

Deception Pass bridge

Deception Pass bridge from the middle island just off the bridge.

Views from the bridge.

Anacortes... we just came across this shore stone gazebo in a neighborhood park.

View of the San Juan Islands
where some Orca Whales live.

I think this boat is out of service! Too cool!

------------------- Day 6 ------------------
Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
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"Gastown" in downtown Vancouver, B.C.
We ate inside the trolley car - fun!

View of downtown Vancouver from Stanley Park.

Video of the Vancouver waterway - with jumping fish - funny!

Flower gardens at Stanley Park, Vancouver B.C.


Countryside view of the mountains - Beautiful!

---------------- Day 7 ------------------
Seattle Temple, Snoqualmie Falls, Olympia, Tacoma
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Seattle Washington Temple

Did you know the temple has a bunny...

Snoqualmie Falls Observation stand (a bit on the ...
"are we going to fall off the edge" for me).

Snoqualmie Falls

Love this... for sale in the visitor's center!

Olympia, State Capital Building

Olympia State Capital gardens
(nice use of corn in the garden)

Inside the capital building... it's ALL marble!

Tacoma Downtown

"Is that man really stealing the statues bag..."

Loved this bridge!

It was a fantastic trip!

We've got the Flu!

Trevor and Jordan are down with the Flu. I took Trevor on Tuesday to the doctor and it is the flu. If it's the h1n1 - they're not sure. They're not even testing for it. The flu is EVERYWHERE here! They're pretty much treating everything as if it is the h1n1. Basically we were told to go home, stay home, and watch for further complications (breathing issues, extreme muscle aches, dehydration). Jordan started his fever yesterday evening.

I'm not feeling my best. I don't think I have the flu, but I'm under the weather. We're hoping Rich will avoid this round of illness.

Anyway - that's where our family is right now! I'm gonna get back to clorox wiping EVERYTHING, and washing TONS of laundry (every blanket that's been sneezed on... )

Catching up...

I had the greatest intentions of keeping the blog updated all the time, but I'm just horrible when life gets busy.

Since June...we took it easy for the six weeks after surgery until I got the OK from the doctor. My healing was "textbook" great - so I was cleared for everything at the six week mark. I'm still adjusting to the hormone wackiness. I have an Estrogen patch that helps to keep me going, however I still have a hot flash here and there (nasty things...).

A week ago Rich and I celebrated our 13th wedding anniversary. It was great! We took a week long vacation to Seattle, WA. We had free flights that needed to be used, and hotel points - so it was a fairly inexpensive trip. We chose Seattle because it was somewhere neither of us have been and somewhere we've always wanted to go. It was an amazing vacation. Our trip in short was something like this...
Wed - Flew to Seattle, picked up rental car, checked into hotel in Mulkiteo about 20 miles north of Seattle, had dinner on Puget Sound coast at "Ivar's" (with the BEST clam chowder I've EVER had).
Thur - Drove to Olympic Peninsula, went to Port Angeles, Forks, La Push (see a theme here? YES we LOVE "Twilight"), visited the Hoh Rainforest, and drove along Crescent Lake (heavenly). It was a great day, long, but great!
Fri - Went to downtown Seattle, went up the Space Needle, ate some great Greek food, walked through Pike Place Market, then later that night - a 10:30pm show at the Can Can to see Aerobotron (4 amazing dancers with their techno/dance show).
Sat - Our down day... chilled at the hotel, swam at the hotel pool and hot tub, visited the shore at Mulkiteo (enjoyed the Puget Sound and picked up cool rocks).
Sun - OUR ANNIVERSARY - Sacrament Meeting, Drove out along Whidbey Island, picked wild blackberries on the road side (probably a quart worth - and ate them all), stopped at Deception Pass, walked along the deception pass bridge and got a bit freaked out by the height and shaking of the bridge, dinner in Anacortes, viewed the San Juan Islands (home to the 3 orca whale pods - no sighting of the whales).
Mon - Drove to Vancouver, ate lunch at the Old Spaghetti Factory in a 1904 trolley car, walked around historic Gastown area of Vancouver, went to Stanley park - big amazing park in the middle of Vancouver, drove the scenic route back.
Tues - Checked out of the hotel, drove by the Seattle temple, stopped by to see Snoqualmie Falls, drove to Olympia and walked around the capital building, drove to Tacoma, walked around the downtown area, took the scenic route back to the airport.
Wed - took the red-eye flight home. Rich slept for about 4 hours of the 5 1/2 hour flight. I didn't sleep... too busy working through hot flashes and being squished in the middle seat. I took my 5 hour nap later that day!

So now we're at the last week of summer vacation. The boys are trying to get in TONS of gaming now before school starts. Boys start school on Sept. 8th.

Also, we're having a blast harvesting our garden. We did a buried treasure hunt on Saturday for potatoes. It was SO much fun!

I'll post some of our pictures (Seattle, gardening, etc) as soon as I get a break that's longer than 15 minutes!

Till then... ciao!

A week later...

I'm doing really well! The first week had it's ups and downs, but now that all of my other body functions are back to working, I'm feeling pretty good. I still have my crampy days, but overall I'm feeling good. I do get tired easily, in which case I take a nap! Did I mention how great it is having my mom here? She's fabulous!

Anyway, the kids are done with school tomorrow for the summer. They've actually been done for the past week and 1/2 - but right now they're just playing around collecting govt money for the school.

I'm Alive!

Well, I survived surgery yesterday. Everything went really well. I'm a bit sore (pain medication is a wonderful thing), but it will take a while to heal. It's great that they can now do this procedure all laparoscopically (3 small incisions in the belly). My hospital stay was less than wonderful because I had a roommate (she was noisy and a bit rude). Oh well - I'm glad to be home... I can finally sleep!

Thanks to all of those who've prayed for me and supported me in other ways! My mom (Oma) is here for 3 WEEKS so she has been and will be a great help! Thanks Mom!