Happy New Year

Happy 2011 to everyone! I have a new blog site in the works and hope to unveil it this month. With the new site you can look for more fun previews and updates. Thank you for your patience.

Updates soon

Hello all :) There will be updates and pictures to come soon. Sorry for the delay but had a busy and amazing trip followed by some downtime. Things are getting back up and running now so keep and eye out.

A quick trip and lots of family!

In July I went down to Fairhope, AL for my Grandmothers suprise 80th birthday party. It was a very quick trip and lots of driving since my husband ended up having to stay and work that weekend. We headed out Thursday night and got in Friday around 10 if I remember correctly. A good friend of the families had given out her guest house for some of us to stay in and that was the first place we headed for a quick nap. The guest house was amazing and right on the bluff overlooking the water. Here are a few pictures of the house and the walk down to the water.

The remnants of docks after the hurricane.

If you look in the background you can see the yellow line in the water...these are the oil booms...

After a short nap we went out and had lunch at a great little health food resturant and then spent the evening over at my Aunt and Uncles house. It was so wonderful to spend time with family and get to see some of my cousins as well. It had been far to long. It was neat to show Ryan some of the places I came when I was a child on the summer trips here. I also found the Coffee Loft, which provided much needed caffeine and wonderful coffee.

Saturday we spent some time on the water and then went and had lunch with my Dad and his girlfriend and this great local seafood place. It was sad to see that signs that soon they would no longer be open all the time due to running out of seafood because of the oil. You don't see it much on the news anymore but there on the gulf it was a common topic of conversation and you could see the loss of business and jobs everywhere as well as the oil booms.

The surprise party was Saturday afternoon and was so wonderful, Grandma had no idea and family had driven in from all over the states. The only people missing were my brother and one other cousin. Ryan had not really ever met this side of my family and he had a blast. He wasn't ready to go home when we had to leave Sunday and followed some of my cousins around almost the whole time. Once he found people that would play video games with him he was hooked :) It was fun to watch him around everyone. Each time my Aunt would ask him a question he would look first to my cousin to see what his answer would be. 

Some of my cousins ( and a very happy Ryan who gets to sit with the big kids)

A look of pure surprise!

My Grandfather and some very yummy cupcakes!

Four generations

The Boom Family (with two missing)

My Dad :)

Playing games with his Great Grandfather.

My Grandparents

And for my son, the spiders that are everywhere there.

Washington trip

It has taken me a long time to get around to a blog about my personal time in WA this spring, but here it is and I did not do well on cutting down the images sooo enjoy the massive post. From the second the ground came into view heading into the Seattle Airport I was in love with the color that was everywhere as well as all the varying architecture. I did not get to spend any time in Seattle proper and will have to make another trip for that, I also did not have time to see a wonderful friend that lives in the city either (another trip excuse as well). I spent most of the trip in Burlington, a bit on Anacortes, and the rest on Shaw Island. Here are some pictures from the trip.

The bridge going from Anacortes Island onto Whidbey.

On the Ferry ride to Shawn Island.

A stop along the way.

The  color of the water is so amazing!

My beautiful friend Julee

The rails up to the boat graveyard, this was such a neat place.

In a old apple orchard

We ran into a dear while hiking out to Cedar Point.

This is for Julee who took my camera and said we needed some of me :). I was thrilled..can't you tell.

My Shootsac and bomber jacket, I am set for anything.

Sea Glass