The Pier

April 20 we had a beautiful day so we went down to the Pier.  This oil rig was in our area for about 2 weeks getting repaired and waiting for its departure to Alaska.  It caused a lot of controversy in our area, but it was still cool to see.

 This is the ferry that goes back and forth from Victoria, Canada and Port Angeles.

 It came right next to the Pier, close enough that we could wave at the people on board.

A random sailboat was docked right at the Pier.  That was a really cool sight!  Such a fun day for us!

Visitors!

 April 8-12 Gran and Jen came for a visit.  We were beyond thrilled to have them come!  We were missing family like crazy.  Chant had to work still, so I got to play tour guide.

Our first day we went to Salt Creek.  We've never been there when the tide was so low!  It was pretty cool for us to be able to walk all the way out to this little island.

 The kids climbed up on it so I could take there picture.  It was kind of gross because that rock is covered with little shells.  I was hoping whatever they were that they were already dead!

 This is another place the kids have never been able to walk to before.  Pretty cool.

 Aunt Jen, the artist!

 I forgot my camera, but we did go to the city pier one day and walked around downtown.

 Saturday we took the ferry into Seattle.  Coming in the skyline was beautiful!

We took them to Pike's Place Market, the gum wall, and to see the Troll.  (All of our favorites.)

That night we went to the most fun little diner.  It had a Route 66 theme, and all the booths had city names over them.  It took us a while to figure that out because there were names like London on the plaques.  It was pretty funny because the waitress used to live in Texas and she went off about how much she hated it there and couldn't wait to see it in the rearview mirror.  We debated telling her London is in Texas and so were a few of the other towns, like Sidney.  We decided to leave her in ignorant bliss so she wouldn't hate her job.  She was a hoot!  She told us they didn't serve milkshakes on Saturday because they are too busy.  We totally believed her.  She was laughing so hard she sat right down next to Chant in the booth.  The other funny was Porter.  He kept saying his tooth was really wiggly.  Next thing I knew he had pulled it out.  We asked a bus boy who walked by for more napkins because he was bleeding a lot.  The kid was kind of like okay.  Then we told him Porter had just pulled his tooth out.  We died laughing because that kid's face was so funny.  Total shock!  It was such a fun night!

We were so grateful they made the trip to come see us!  It was perfect timing with it being Spring Break.  And we needed it!  Love you!

Easter 2015

 Easter was pretty calm around here.  We stayed home and watched General Conference on television.  It was a beautiful way to spend Easter, listening to the Prophet and others share testimony of the Savior Jesus Christ.

 The Easter Bunny brought a heap of eggs this year, and with our amazing forrest to hide them in, it the kids a while to find them all.  

 They took turns hiding them for each other several times during the day.

 It was a wonderful day!

Eggs!

 March 28 we went to an Easter Egg hunt for hospital employees.  I love that the kids aren't too big for pictures with the Easter Bunny.

 They got about 5 eggs each, but those treat filled eggs were totally worth it!

Ainsley, Brinnley, Porter

March 25, 2015

 For our combined activity for the month, the Young Women and Young Men met at my house for a Chopped Competition.  They were so into it!  It was very competitive!  At the end we had our judges, Brother Clark and Brother Beattie, decide who won.

Drew, Katherynn, and Nacia

Anna, Riley, and Katherynn

Drew, Gideon, Eva, Juanita, Wes, Henry, Jeni, Brother Clark, and Brother Beattie

It was such a fun night!  I feel so blessed I get to work with these amazing youth!

March 17, 2015

Receiving her award from the Mayor

 This was a pretty special day for Brinnley.  She won 3rd place for her grade out of all the kids in the district for a writing contest.  It was about Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.  It was a wonderful essay and we are so proud of our girl!

All the essay winners

 While we were inside it started to rain.  When we came out, we were met with the beautiful sight of a double rainbow!  And we could see both ends of the rainbow.  Hopefully someone found the pot of gold at the end.

Dad's snazzy outfit for St. Patrick's Day.

St. Patrick's Day 2015

 Again this year we made traps to catch a Leprechan.  Ainsley drew a Leprechan friend and attached him to a box.  She thought it would be easier to catch one if he thought he was going to visit a friend.

 

Brinnley and Porter created the Fila Hotel and even provided a hot bath and snacks for the unsuspected guests.

 "Fila is a Lepercons favirote hotel"

 "The Fila Hotel.  Free pots of gold for everyone."

Our sneaky friend got away, but he left this note.

Dear Children,
Those were some mighty fine treats, they were!  Those hot baths lured me in.  I had just put my foot through the string when my sock got stuck.  Took a piece out of my sock it did.  I dropped my favorite pocket square too.  For yer fine efforts, I'm sharing some of me gold.
Love your Leprechan,
Sean

He dropped his favorite pocket square and left us some of his gold.  The kids were super excited!

Phone Books

 For a few months at the beginning of the year, we spent all our free time throwing phone books.  The kids loved to help!  We developed a pretty good system.  The back of the van was loaded as high as it could go and then off we went.  We parked in the middle of the block.  Porter and I would take half of one side and Brinnley the other half.  Ainsley and Chant did the other side of the street.  Then we would hop in the car, park and do it again.  We saw a lot of beautiful places when we delivered to areas out of town and in another town called Joyce.

Chant and I went out delivering on my birthday, just the two of us.  He trusted me to drive while he threw them out the window.  He's a brave guy!  We laughed so hard as I drove too fast or too slow, stopped too soon or too late.  Good times!  I am so glad we were able to do this.  It was a lot of fun and we made a lot of good memories.