4CarpenterHouse

So often Kestrel gets compliments on her pretty curly hair... sometimes Laurel gets a stray comment or two.  This morning she woke up with some serious bed head and I had to get it on camera.  I call her hair "Rod Stuart" hair.  You can also see her waking up...all the way to sassy.

We were at the beach this last weekend playing at the playground.  A photographer asked to take our pictures for an article about the beach water quality.  No problem.  The girls loved it.  Scroll to the last picture in the story and she's walking the "balance beam". We were handed the article by the girls' gymnastics teacher and he was very pleased to see his student doing so well. So when you look at the article, don't get alarmed.  Around the point from this beach is the discharge from the city sewer plant and the beach is in very sheltered cove.  Oh and by the way the water is COLD so we won't be taking any swims. http://www.heraldnet.com/article/20101006/NEWS01/710069851

School is going great for the girls - they like the new teachers and are making friends.  They're surviving the germ swapping stage of being in a new place with new people to swap germs with.  We've put them in a tumbling class and they LOVE it. Brag alert: the teacher asked us more than once if they'd been to class before.  Nope, just good old fashioned - GET OUTSIDE and PLAY.  They also had a successful visit to the dentist today. Mark returned from his deer hunting trip in Oregon with some miles in his new boots, but no deer.  Oh well. Weather here has been AMAZING!  We are loving it.  Have some visitors lined up: Mark's sister, then my parents, then Mark's brother.  We still have openings... send your reservation requests ;)

First Coho of the season.  Mark went fishing in rain and was the only brave soul out there.  Got his first one of the season. ~14 lbs and 32"

We had our first visitors!!  The Sheldon family came up for the long weekend.  As part of the fun we went to the Deception Pass State Park for a picnic and planned "get wet" time.   Water temperatures are maybe in the low 50s so if we don't plan to get them dry and warm we could be ourselves into some trouble.  This time went off without a problem. We had great weather all weekend too.  Mark's enjoying the warm (low 70's)  sun. Here's a link about the park.  I especially like the big yellow box disclaimer about Navy jets!  Freedom isn't free. Washington State parks: Deception Pass

Been a while, but here's an update.  My main excuse is I couldn't find a cord to pull pics off the camera.  Mission Accomplished.  We moved into our new place about 3 weeks ago and have been on the move every free morning we get. These are from a recent trip to Fort Ebey State park.  Girls were in a funny mood so getting them on the same smile timing was not happening. Mark has been teaching them to catch about every animal that is smaller than them.  This day was focused on crabs. Getting Laurel to only hold on tight enough to not squish and kill them is the trick. Kestrel chose the steep hill route back to the picnic table... but the view was worth it. Snack and silly face time. A recent sunset pic from our back deck.  We are so excited about this place.  The house is awesome, the view is perfect, the commute is 4.5 minutes, and we're close to town too.  Great living here in the Northwest!

A few more pictures of our new house.  We're excited about how much room we'll have for guests - be sure to let us know when you're coming for a visit. This is the view from the base - the San Juan Islands in the distance. The girls and Mark have been busy in Mendocino- pics from 4th of July in Fort Bragg.