Happy Holidays everyone!

Our family "vacation" this year was homebased from our Lynden home. We did a couple day trips including riding the ferry to Friday Harbor (San Juan Island) and riding the Amtrack train to Seattle. We had wonderful weather throughout our time together, so that was a real bonus. Wonderful to see the cousins have such a good time together!

The girls watching the ferry approach Friday Harbor

A friendly seal the girls decided to sit on

Our ferry

Johanna playing with Isaac

Charlee loves the water! Can you tell???

Grandma with Isaac on the pier in Seattle

Hanging over the docks, looking for sealife!

The view from the other side :-)

The boys needed a picture too, since our family is still a bit girl heavy!

Family time

Gramma's funeral was a beautiful and special experience, a wonderful tribute to a wonderful lady. Funerals are one of life's opportunities to see family and friends that you haven't seen for ages and Gramma's was no exception. Every one of Gramma's children(4), grandchildren (12) and great grandchildren (17) were at the funeral! Here are a few pics from that day.

The "Harvey" family

All the Carlson Cousins

Some of the great grandchildren, running when called for a picture!

Sweet cousins, enjoying the river

And turned to give the camera a smile...

Remembering Grandma

We are remembering and missing Grandma - she faithfully finished the race last night. "Jesus Saviour, walk beside me, till the homeland greets my view..."

Cape Disappointment - Memorial Day weekend

We spent an awesome Memorial Day weekend camping at Cape Disappointment State Park. It is at the mouth of the Columbia River, where it meets the Pacific Ocean. The park had tons of hiking and biking trails, 2 lighthouses, Lewis & Clark interpretive center, great beaches - what more could you ask for? We loved it! Can't seem to get the pics in order, but here they are!


Cape Disappointment Lighthouse - the oldest continuously running lighthouse on the west coast - began operating in 1856.

A cove we hiked to and explored

A really BIG tree!

The Astoria Bridge over the Columbia - a whopping 4.2 miles long! Wow!

Northhead Lightouse - we got to go up inside this one!

Beach time

Our home away from home

Views!

Northhead Lighthouse - 111 yrs old

Sunset

Cloud formations

Sisterly love

Driftwood frame

Remembering

We remember, with love...

A New Cousin!

We are excited to welcome Brooklyn into our forever family - we attended her adoption party on May 2nd!

Double Digits!

So, I am only a month late, but here's a few pics from Natalia's 10th birthday!

A visit with the tulips

On Saturday, the girls and I met Rob's parents for a visit to the tulip fields in Skagit County. The tulips had really opened up and we loved seeing the many, many varieties of beautiful tulips. After the tulip fields, we took in the street fair in Mt. Vernon, which was really fun and interesting! All, in all, it was a great day!

Spring Break

It takes forever to upload pictures on Blogger, so I am going to go the cheater route and give you a link to the pictures that I posted on Facebook. The girls and I spent 5 days in New Mexico and Colorado with our friends, the Hewitts, who moved to Durango, CO last August. It was great to see new scenery and have a great visit with good friends. We are all back to work/school tomorrow - back to "real" life! Vacation has been great though!.