Washington / Canada Vacation

Well we've been back from vacation for almost a week now and the clamoring for pictures has reached a fevered pitch. The media trucks are blocking traffic on the street and the drone of helicopters ahead makes it impossible to get a good night's sleep. So here go's....
Wait. How about some funny moments from the trip first?

• Our ferry from Port Angeles, Washington to Victoria, British Columbia was really rolling in the swells of the Strait of Juan de Fuca. The kids were walking around in the ferry and would suddenly get launched toward an immobile pole or chair as the boat rocked from one direction to the other. They got a kick out of not being able to walk in a straight line. Meanwhile, Sarah was struggling to keep her lunch from seeing the light of day.
• Our ferry from Sidney, Britsh Columbia to Anacortes, Washington made a stop in Friday Harbor in the San Juan Islands. The four of us were at the front of the ferry on the outside passenger deck watching the captain manuever into the dock. Immediately upon the captain blowing the horn Colin flew back to cover in the ferry. Colin provided a really good laugh for some 20 people!
• All the natives were complaining of the cold temperatures in June. We were grateful for them!

And without further adieu, our slideshow of pictures. Click on "view all images":

Washington update #2

I thought that I'd update y'all again and let you know how we are doing!

On Saturday, we visited with Greg's Uncle Darrell, Aunt Margaret & his cousins and families. We had a great relaxing time, and enjoyed catching up since we last saw them in Jan. 2004 (I was pregnant with Colin!). The kids enjoyed playing hide & seek with Natasha & Valerie. Then, later, they played in the hallway with Debbie. It was great to see Colin come out of his shell, and he's been warming up quickly to all the strangers to him.

On Sunday, we packed up and headed down to Tacoma. We stopped at Sarah's Uncle Robert & Auntie Chong's house for lunch. We were able to visit with them and Sarah's Auntie Josie & Auntie May as well. The food was plentiful, and the kids were spoiled with gifts and money to buy gifts back in Texas! After this, we headed down to Olympia and visited with Sarah's Grandpa Bill. It was so nice to see him and keep him company for a couple of days. I wish that we could see him more often! The kids enjoyed running around on his land and even got to play with 3 girls that live next door. These 3 girls are very sweet and check on Grandpa daily!

On Monday, we went back to Tacoma to visit with Sarah's Uncle Efren (since he had to work on Sunday). He took us out to lunch and visited longer at his house after. Then, that evening, we went to Sarah's cousin Renee's house. We were able to visit with Renee, Auntie Linda, Uncle Len & Auntie Shirley, Grandma Carlos, Danielle & Isabelle (4 in July), Kelly & Malia (5), Evelyn (3), & Vincent Jr (18 mos). The kids really enjoyed playing with the other children and running around a big house! Unfortunately, we forgot the camera, so we didn't get any picks of the kids together or how much the kids in WA have grown and changed! :-(

We headed north yesterday and are now in Port Angeles, WA. We visited with Sarah's Uncle Bud, Aunt Cynthia, cousins Hannah & Rachel, and Rachel's baby Anna. Anna is almost 5 months old, and so cute! We do have pics and will download when we get home!

Today, we will be heading up to Victoria, British Columbia, CANADA! Sheridan keeps asking when we get to go to Canada, or "Are we in Canada yet?!?!" So today, we finally get to say Today & YES! We'll be up in Canada today (Weds) & tomorrow, and we will ferry back to the U.S. on Friday. We spend Friday evening with Greg's Uncle Darrell & Aunt Margaret before we fly out Saturday morning.

It's been a great trip and we are having a great time! Can't wait to see some of you soon!

Our Washington Trip so far...

We've been here in Washington for 3 days and have yet to see the sun for more than 2 minutes at a time! Talk about not wanting to get out of bed....except for our children! They've been going to bed late (in Washington time) because of visits with family, but they are still getting up as if they were in Texas time! For 2 mornings, they woke up at 5:30-5:45 a.m. Yesterday, I made both of them take a nap because we were experiencing the "joyous" feelings of lack of sleep. So for Sheridan, after 4 years of not having to nap, she slept for 2 hours! Colin also slept for 2 hours, and both children were MUCH HAPPIER :-) Last night, we put an extra covering over the window to hopefully keep the room darker in the morning and keep our little ones in bed longer! They managed to sleep an hour later and woke up at 6:45 instead. I definitely felt better after getting that extra hour of sleep, but I do wish that they would sleep a little longer.

Overall, we are having a great time on our trip. Sheridan and Colin got to meet Sarah's Uncle Ben & Aunt Caron and 3 of their kids, Katelyn, Travis, & Josh. Katelyn took them outside to play after dinner, and they had a blast! Sheridan keeps asking when we get to go see them again!

Today, we are visiting with Greg's cousins and their families. So more family to meet and more reasons to try to make this trip more often! Tomorrow, we are visiting with Sarah's Uncle Robert and Auntie Chong, and later with her Grandpa Bill. The rest of our time next week, we'll be traveling around Puget Sound to visit other family before making our way up to Victoria, Canada. This will be Colin's first trip out of the country! Hopefully, he'll remember it!

We'll try to download pics as soon as we return home on Saturday!

Whale watching!

We went whale (no, not just whale, KILLER whale) watching today off of Anacortes, WA. The boat went 65 miles round trip up to just south of the Canadian border to find the "J" pod, which consists of 25 orcas. It took awhile to get out there, but once the captain found the pod it was amazing! One of the whales they have named Granny and she's 97 years old! Here's some pictures of her:

Copyright sidebar: These pictures were taken today by a professional photographer who was employed by the tour operator. He had an extremely nice camera and mongo lens that we both want!!!

Two other boats joined the fray:

These are just the pictures we had quick access to. We'll post our personal pictures later, including the ones showing the kids freezing their behinds off (temp was in the low 50's with light rain off and on). Bye for now!