Eternal Families

Our good friends, the Cooks, have adopted two children in the past few years and we were priviledged to be invited to their sealing to their newest son, Chun Ming. 

Jillian and Chloe have been great friends ever since they first met.  It was so sweet to see Jillian overcome with emotion when she saw Chloe come out of the temple.  Those are the priceless moments in life that you can never get enough of!

The Cook Family.  Aren't they gorgeous?  Ashton and his wife, Allison are on the left.  Ashton is holding his little brother, William, who looks like he could be his son, with Allison's red hair!  So cute!  Then Sidney, Sophia, Chloe, Chun Ming, David, and Doreen.  The Cooks are an amazing family and such a great example of love, service, and following the promptings of the Spirit. I'm so glad we were able to be there to celebrate their newest addition to their eternal family. 

 

Only part of our family, since Nate's away at school and Kylie had a regatta.  I'm grateful for my eternal family, too! I love them very much and am thankful to share wonderful experiences like this with them.

 

20th Anniversary

Brad and I celebrated our 20th wedding anniversary on April 10.  I remember when my parents celebrated their 20th.  I was about 16 and it was hard to image what being with someone for 20 years would be like.  For the most part, it's been wonderful!  Of course we have our moments: communication can be difficult, petty things get blown out of proportion, individual challenges and struggles with children are hard to deal with, but looking back, I can see the growth I've made as a person and the strength our marriage has gained.  We've learned to love and trust each other more through each challenge we face together. And we still like to spend time together, so that's good!

 

As the date drew closer, we tried to figure out what we wanted to do to celebrate.  A trip to Hawaii?  Maybe for our 25th.  Europe?  I wish!  But more likely for our 30th or 40th!  We settled on San Juan Island, which is where we went on our honeymoon. We found a cute little cottage to rent for two nights on Roche Harbor, which is on the opposite side of the Island from where we stayed 20 years ago.  Our trip got off to a good start; we were the very last car to make it on the ferry from Anacortes!

 

There's our white van in the middle.  We were so glad to make it on, since the next ferry wasn't for three more hours!

The ferry ride was relaxing and beautiful.

Once we got to the cottage, which you can barely see on the upper left in the trees, we walked on the beach and enjoyed the sun.  Good thing we did, because for the next two days, it rained.

 

 

We didn't let the rain stop us from exploring the island, though.  First we climbed Young Hill from the English Camp.  Some nice people at the top took our picture.  The view was gorgeous, even in the misty weather.

 

Then we went to Lime Kiln State Park.  Brad set up the camera on a rock to get a shot of us with the lighthouse.  It took several attempts to get it right!  I love this one...so close!

 

Finally got it! He had set the camera pretty far away, so it was a feat to make it over the rocks to stand by me in only 10 seconds! Lime Kiln is supposed to be a great whale watching sight, but we were here a little too early in the season. 

 

We ended up at Roche Harbor Resort, home of the historic Hotel De Haro.  It has been beautifully restored and looks like they've done a lot of work since we were here 20 years ago.

 

I love all the spring flowers!  I've always been glad we got married in April when the daffodils, tulips, hyacinth, lilacs, and cherry trees are blooming.

 

The hotel has a beautiful garden, so peaceful to walk through on a rainy day when no one else was there.

This is one of the old lime kilns.  Roche Harbor used to be one of the biggest suppliers of lime in the US.  Now the kilns are picturesquely set among blooming trees.

 

It was such a great weekend, so relaxing! And good to get away from the day to day routine and have time for just the two of us.

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  Leaving Friday Harbor.  I love how each Island in the San Juans has a their own unique sign at the ferry terminal.  We got down to the ferry early so we would be sure to make it on, which we did with no problem.  We could have arrived minutes before the ferry left and still made it, but it was nice to have time to look in the shops and browse through the farmer's market.

On our way back home we stopped in Mount Vernon to see the tulip fields.  It was still raining, so we didn't get out and walk around because we didn't have any boots!  Tulip fields are muddy!  I hopped out of the car for a minute and took a few pictures.

 

Here's to 20 more great years!

Glass Museum

I didn't intend for Spring Break to have a "glass"  theme, but it kind of turned out that way.  I'd heard great things about the Museum of Glass in Tacoma, so we decided to check it out.  I was impressed with the museum, but I thought the public art outside was more impressive than the exhibits inside, and they were free!  We did enjoy watching the glass blowers, though, so it was worth the money.

This fun fountain is outside the museum's entrance.

 

  It's pretty amazing what can be created from glass!

Some of the pieces of art that we especially liked:

 

Watching the glass blowers:

 

This was pretty amazing!  He blew a glass bubble, then tapped it and it shattered.

 

This cone shaped structure is the outside of the glass blowing auditorium:

Across the street from the museum is the Federal Court House. 

 

If you look closely at the semi-circular window, you can see more amazing glass art.  I wanted to go over and find out if we could go inside, but the kids weren't interested.



 

 

As you start down the walkway, you come upon a huge collection of Chihuly glass sculptures.  This is only one segment; I took a panoramic shot and it took six pictures this same size to capture the whole length of the display.

 

I asked the kids to point out their favorite piece. 

Jillian had two favorites.

 

 

 

Farther down are these giant, blue glass structures.

They kind of look like rock candy. Or plastic sacks full of air.

Continuing on, the ceiling is covered with more Chihuly glass.

  



Very sea creature-esque! 



We enjoyed our visit to the Museum of Glass.  It was worth it to go at least once to see the glass blowers, but I think next time we'll stick to the outside and enjoy the free public art. 

 

 

Glass Beach

Since the weather Saturday and Sunday was so amazing, and Monday was the start of Spring Break, I decided we should go to the beach.  Last year during Spring Break, we discovered "glass beach" and I've been wanting to go back ever since, so it seemed like the perfect time.  We invited some friends and set out for Port Townsend's North Beach Park.  It was supposed to be another beautiful day; the weather didn't really cooperate, but we still had a great time.

Kylie, Ben and I hiked farther than the rest of the group, maybe about 2 miles up the beach, but still didn't feel like we found "the spot." We asked people we saw coming back from even farther than we went and they said they didn't find it either, so I don't know that there really is a specific spot.  We found quite a bit of beach glass, though and enjoyed exploring the beach.