Annie and her riding

It will be a year in September, since Annie started taking horseback riding lessons. She still goes

every week. And she still loves it. As do I. I truly look forward to watching her every single lesson.

She is doing amazingly well! She has developed so many skills that I didn't even know mattered

when you rode a horse, has become confident and in charge while riding and will likely be

taking it to the next level come the end of this year. I'll wait to share when everything 

is in place at the end of August, but she is pretty excited and we are thrilled for her.

During her lesson at the beginning of this week, I finally remembered to take the camera

to capture her incredible riding skills. Not only that, but a couple of her cousins were able

to come to one of her lessons and watch and it meant so much to her that they would do that.

And here they are getting Shiloh ready to be saddled. Annie does all of the 

prep work as well as tacking up the horse before she starts her lesson each week.

And here they go, warming up together.

A lot of her lesson this week was learning to pole bend. She had never done it before

and she did it better than I could ever have imagined. I absolutely loved watching her.

And a quick up close photo while she was walking Shiloh on the rails between pole bending

runs. (The horses get pretty excited to compete and you have to calm them down every time

 or two.) I love our Annie girl for a million reasons, but one of them you will see if you look

closely at this photo. Specifically at her necklace. Here is our cowgirl in her boots, riding a

horse like nobody's business, and wearing her Eiffel Tower necklace. She loves everything 

about Paris (her room will let you know that quickly). This girl is awesome in every way.

Love this shot.

And this one. She is going a lot faster than it appears. She controls her horse so well.

And cooling Shiloh down at the end of the lesson.

Done until next week. Time to start counting down the days. Again.

Borrowed pink helmet + borrowed balance bike =

Nate. Driving like a lunatic. And loving every second.
I wish I could say the same for his mother.
More like every ninth second in her case.

Summertime

Here we go again...

 This darling girl took a trip to the orthodontist a couple of days ago. And had braces put on

her teeth. We actually thought Annie might get away with not getting them, and she probably

could have skipped on it, but she did have some spaces that made just a few months worth

of braces a good idea. Just so she didn't have to worry about the spacing getting worse.

Besides, this girl is darling no matter what. And we love her so very much.

Just so grateful

It has taken me way too long to start writing this post because I have tried to plan it out in my head over and over again and it never feels right. It never feels grateful enough. It never feels like I can capture all that they did or how amazing we think they are.

And I finally realized, I was right. I couldn't. So I tried to do that in a thank you note I wrote them and after that was delivered, I realized they would be embarrassed enough that I stole one of the photos that they shared with me to be used in a Christmas gift to Jacob's parents (I couldn't help it, they are so crazy darling). If I went on and on about them and all that they did for us while we were in Seattle, they may disown us (and we like them way too much to chance that). Besides, they aren't those kind of people. They are way too humble for that much attention.

But I knew I had to put something on the blog, because it mattered to me to have it here so that we would always remember their incredible kindness to us and how grateful we are to have them as our friends and our family. So here goes...

Thank you, thank you, thank you Taunya and Jonny! There are no words for how grateful we are for not only being willing to be with our kids for five days while we truly got away for the first time in our marriage, but for acting like it was your pleasure. How you treated our kids and what you were willing to do so that we could enjoy our time is overwhelming to us. We never worried about the kids for a single second and that meant so much to us. We are just so grateful and hope you know we think you are incredible! Sure love you guys.

Seattle ~ The us

If you were just thinking that the one thing you missed during the last several posts

about our adventures in Seattle, is the cuteness of us, do I have a treat for you.

Okay, no one was thinking that, but too late. I've already uploaded the photos.

Jacob and I didn't take many photos of the two of us during our time in Washington.

(I've mentioned more than once I specialize in selfies of the foot variety.) But we did 

take these two. (Well, we took one and some other kind soul took the other.) And they 

make me happy every time I see them. And that is saying something about a photo of me.

Nothing fancy, but I loveth this photo. Because I loveth this man.

And this one I love for more than one reason. (Not the least of which is that my

boat hair is fantastic.) First, as I mentioned, one of my favorite memories of the

trip was our time on the ocean. And this picture captures that time perfectly.

And second, there was a sweet woman on that same trip who came up to us out of the blue and

offered to take our photo. It was so thoughtful of her. And we got talking for a bit and then she

asked, "So, are you two on your honeymoon then?" Sweet chicken, I have found the person

I will be leaving all of my money to. Bless her kind heart. (I really should have offered to

pay for an eye exam for her though. Apparently she hasn't been in a while.) It might have

made my day. Okay, my week. Okay, month. When we told her that we actually had six

children I honestly thought she was going to faint and go overboard. (Obviously because we

look so youthful, I'm sure it had nothing to do with the fact that six children is a whole lot of

chicklets.) The reason didn't matter. She made my month and took our picture. Happy day!

So there you go. Finally. Seattle in 87 posts. Or six. 

In summary, we absolutely loved it!

(If I didn't make that clear before.)

The end.

Seattle ~ The whales

Even though we still had two days (one relaxing and lovely day that involved church and

reading and doing pretty much nothing for hours, as well as one day of traveling home),
our last big adventure happened Saturday evening. And it was incredible. Beyond incredible.

Because we went on a whale watching tour.

(Now anyone who knows me even slightly, is mighty confused by the sentence you see above.
The ocean freaks me out. A lot. Well, not the actual ocean, just the idea of the amount of water
it takes to make an ocean. And how deep it must be to be categorized as a genuine ocean.
In addition, whales also make my heart race and my head feel dizzy. Again, nothing against
whales, but definitely something against the idea of a mammal that is so large that it needs to
live in the volume of water it takes to make an ocean. See where this is headed? In a large
circle that never ends. Exhausting I know. Sympathy cards can be sent to Jacob at any time.)

(Anyway, for anyone who made it past that last paragraph and is still concerned, I am

apparently just fine with oceans and whales when I am on a medium-sized boat that goes

fast and feels safe and gives me a rush the likes of which I have seldom experienced.)

Now where were we?

Oh yes, whale watching tour. At sunset. Jealous yet?

 But before we get to those gigantic, water dwelling ladies and gentlemen, take a look at this
please.We stopped here shortly after we left the coast because it is as beautiful as all get out.

And because you could all see this incredible eagle's nest from the same stopping point.

And because our captain apparently knew a bird would fly over and I would get this lovely shot.
(That would be ruined by Blogger when I uploaded it and a brown tint was added, but I'm not bitter.)

And now on to the actual whale watching. Well, after we drove for
approximately 45 minutes or so to get far enough out to see some orcas.

Oh there you are fishy, fishy. (No need to pull up your email to write and inform me that whales
are actually not fish. I know. I just thought "fishy, fishy" sounded better than "whaley, whaley.")

And another whale joined the party.

And showed off his powerful tail.

A little more driving to see if we can add more whale sightings to our resume.
(Can you stand the beauty of sun and water? I, for one, cannot.)

Bingo! Isn't it gorgeous?

And just because they knew it would do something to my heart (in a good way),
a few of them brought along a friend. Did I mention it was incredible?

Guess what is one of the few things I love more than a breathtaking sunset?
Yes indeed, a sunset over water. Be still my overwhelmed heart.

And without question, no contest, my favorite whale photo of the evening.

And then I died and went to heaven. Or rode for an hour back to shore with this
view behind me. And the man I adore with every part of heart sitting next to me.

When we got back and headed toward the ferry to take us home, this view greeted us.

I am so blessed it is ridiculous. So very, very blessed.

I'm trying so hard to never forget it.

To be continued...

Seattle ~ The ferry

The next morning, we made our way to the coast of Washington to take the 

ferry to the San Juan Islands. We wanted to explore a little bit, but mostly, 

we had some grand plans for the evening (post coming next). 

I absolutely loved the ferry! I don't know what it was about it, but it was

calming and relaxing and the views were just plain gorgeous. We rode it three

times that day (once to, once between and once back). Two of those times it

was almost completely empty and those were my favorites for sure.

It was a tad on the large side.

Before we left port, we saw dozens and dozens of these birds who had built

their nests near where the ferry docks. They were crazy cool looking.

Oh I loved it. A lot.

To be continued...

Seattle ~ The beach

After our fabulous hike, we headed to a couple of nearby islands
that looked like they would be fun to explore. And they were.

See the view of the bridge (well, both bridges) from the beach? 

Yeah, that is where we were standing earlier in the day. Yikes squared.

I love this shot for some reason. And lucked out even getting it because

I did it without actually looking in my camera. Yee to the haw.

I spy a cool looking bird.

Mr. Handsome. I adore him.

My idea of a selfie. Impressive yes?

And the end of our first day in Washington. Oh man, I loved it so much.

To be continued...