San Juan Island

One of the most beautiful places on this planet is, hands down, the San Juan Islands. The islands are located just southwest of where James and I grew up, and one of our main goals for the summer was to make a trip out to one of the islands. So we planned a day trip with James' parents and my little sis to head to the main island, San Juan Island, and hang out on Friday Harbor for the day. It was wonderful! You can park your car at the ferry, and just walk on and then Friday Harbor is right there when you get off the ferry. So fun!

Here is a map of the islands. Some of the smaller islands you can only get to with a private boat, and I used to love going hiking on Sucia Island whenever I had the chance on a friend or family member's boat.

And I snagged this picture from the internets; on clear days you can see the mountains from the island and you couldn't find a better view in the world (in my opinion!)

The Ferry ride out to San Juan Island is really fun - and it was Madeline's first ride!

Here is where we got off at Friday Harbor, with the Ferry in the background.

I just love the rolling, green scenery of the islands once you are out amongst them.

 Family photo on the dock

I love this picture of these three lovelies!

Krista can't get enough of her niece!

Yep, I guess we all like taking pics with little M.

I LOVE strolling docs, looking at the boat names, dreaming about which boat I would like....ahhh, some day!

This lady is apparently the resident seal at the Friday Harbor docks - she is blind in one eye, but that didn't stop her from charming the crowds. 

And of course we did some shopping in all of the cute little stores on the island. I fear we are creating bad habits for little M.

I really thought James should have taken the plunge and bought this hat, but he couldn't justify it as a necessity. :0)

So, we made the trip to the San Juans for the day and I'd love to go back next summer!

It was a Grand Ol' Summer!

Yes indeed, it was a Grand Ol' Summer. There was lots of traveling. There was lots of Madeline meeting new people. There was lots of catching up with friends and family. There was lots of lazy summer evenings with a glass of wine and nothing to worry about. There was some busyness and frenzy here and there, but on the whole we had an incredible summer.

I am sad to see it go. But alas, all good things must come to an end. And I think by the time we finished our last jaunt of the summer, our daughter was ready to have some constancy and stability for awhile. Obviously I am way behind on posting about our summer adventures, so I'll start with a bit here and break it into a few posts.

Today I want to share some photos of Madeline getting to meet some very special people in here life:

Madeline & Jennifer, James' sister:

 Madeline finally meets Grandpa Bob!

Madeline and her aunt Jenny, and her cousin Will:

Madeline and her great aunt Kerri:

Madeline & Sandee!

Madeline and her cousins Hailey & Aleah:

Proud Father, Proud Grandpa

Madeline with her Ama Lois, totally enraptured in her jewelry 

 Four generations here, with my dad's sister, Janet, and my Grandma Jean

And my dad's sister, Sharon:

My cousin Trisha, and Madeline's soon-to-arrive-playmate, Nola

Great aunt Janet

Great aunt Sharon

Great Grandma Jean

Cousin Alena

Great uncle Laurie, Lois' brother

Great Grandma Houghton, Lois' mother

Laurie and Michelle

Four generations

The Houghton Family

Great grandpa Houghton

Madeline meets the Muljat clan (dear family friends!)

Clara:

 All the kiddos!

Frank:

Mia:

It's really hard to live so far away from family, but we were really blessed to get to spend a month with them this summer. Here's to hoping that someday we get to live near the Pacific Northwest again!

Summa Time

I've been fully on summer break now for about 1 week, and it has been WONderful! I really do love my job, but it's fun to just be a stay-at-home mom for a few months this summer and soak up lots of time with my baby girl.

We've been relaxing a bit around here, but we've also been tackling LOTS of projects. Since we'll be home in WA state for a big chunk of the summer, I've been trying to get all sorts of things done around here that I can't usually do when I'm working. James is not quite fully on a break - he's doing an independent study and working hard on a writing sample this summer. But let me tell you - having him work only from 9-5ish every day is awesome! Such a contrast from the 12+ hour days he was putting in for most of the year.

So yes, we are fully in Summa time mode!

Here's a peak at what we've been up to:

Summer softball. James plays for our church's softball team, and Madeline and I have been out to cheer them on a few times. Church of the Rez has a lot of artistic and musical people, not as many athletic folks - but even so, our team is doing pretty well.

Garage sales! Yes, it is that great time of year again where treasures await you all around for mere pennies. I often stop at garage sales as I see signs on Friday and Saturdays, and this season has been no different. At one sale I found all of these cute little outfits, pajamas, and dresses for 50 cents each. Killer deals, right?

And lots of children's books - all 50 cents each as well. Seriously, kids books can get expensive really quickly - especially when you need lots of variety for the bedtime routine so you don't go crazy with the same little rhymes night after night!

Did ya'll read the Beatrix Potter books when you were little? I loved them! The illustrations are so sweet - so glad I scored a set of them at one of the garage sales.

And a book for myself - I love Ina Garten's recipes. If you've never used one of her cookbooks, you should! Today.

And here we have some chairs that I scored. Folding chairs for 50 cents each (noticing a pattern here?), and the two patio chairs for $2.50/each. I am going to spray paint the patio chairs white -we really needed some new patio chairs and it may seem like a lot of work to paint plastic chairs. Why not just buy some white ones? Because they are around $18.00-$20.00/chair new at a place like Target or Ace Hardware. Not. Worth. It.

These trays may be my favorite score of the season thus far. Two breakfast in bed trays at $4.00/each. I LOVE breakfast in bed. I indulge in this pleasure as often as I can on Saturdays and Sundays, even with little Madeline lying down right next to me. I've been trying to find a breakfast-in-bed tray for years now, but whenever I find them in some home decore store they always cost around $30.00-$50.00, a luxery not quite worth the cost. But at this price, who could pass them up? I've already sanded down and painted the wood white, and now I'm just trying to decide what to do with the actual tray. If I can find some cool contact paper I'd love to cover it in a fun print. Or perhaps modpodge on some fabric or paper? I'll have to show a before/after photo when I finish these. In the meanwhile, they will probably get some good use this Father's Day!

Playdates. We had our friend Judah over for a playdate recently, and Madeline loved hanging with this cool little guy. He can even sit up on his own, doesn't need a Bumbo! Someday Madeline...

She did, however, have to learn to share her toys. Already trying to grab things from other kids at such a young age!

 But they eventually got the hang of sharing.

 Sewing projects. I've been working on a whole bunch of sewing projects this summer. Here is one of the really simple ones I've done - dish mat towels. They are just a cute quilted front with a terry cloth backing to put handwashed dishes on to dry, or those pesky plastics that come out of the dishwasher still all wet. They make great little hostess gifts for a friend. I used this tutorial:

And I made some new burp-cloths for Madeline, cuz this girl still makes a mess every time she starts moving around. It must be the bright colors, because she loves these things. The simple pleasures in life!

My house is still knee-deep in projects - baby quilts, placemats, cleaning out files, rearranging furniture to make room for (guess?!?!) another bookcase, reorganizing the laundry room, finishing the breakfast-in-bed trays, etc, etc. I have one week to finish it all up before we leave for WA!

Well, if you are still reading this congratulations. A blog post list of all the mundane things in our daily lives this summer, not too thrilling I realize. But really the everyday things sure do make up a wonderful  life, oui?